Saturday, February 28, 2015

Laing: We love the stage to create our own shows

Time for an inteview with one of my favorites acts from the German final. Here are the answers of Nicola from LAING:
Name: Nicola Rost
Height: 1,80 m
Favorite color: i like them all
Favourite food: can't decide
What do you do in the group: write, compose, produce, sing & perform
Where are you right now? in my kitchen
3 things that makes you happy: my friends, my studio, coffee
What’s your strangest talent? making up songs
What is the strangest thing you have in your room? a huge pile of stage costumes
What are you really good at?  Feeling
What are you really bad at?  being on time
Childhood idol: Michael Jackson
Childhood memory: when i was young, i used to dance a lot. i did ballroom dancing and couldn't stop doing it at home. standing in front of the open fridge, i remember holding on to the door like it was a dancing partner and dancing with it while working out which yogurt to chose. 
Tell me something no one knows about you: i'm lazy
What would you do if you were invisible? walk around naked
Craziest thing you've ever done: the craziest things are the things you don't remember!
Favorite movie: don't have a favorite movie
Favorite TV series: Black Mirror
Tell me a super power you wish you had: flying
What is your guilty pleasure? cake
Name a song that never fails to make you happy: "Happy" by Pharell Williams does a good job
Can you teach me some interesting words in german?
Sehnsucht- means something like desire, longing, yearning. the beautiful thing about it is that it consists of "sehnen" ( =to long for) and "Sucht" (= addiction), which expresses perfectly what it means to long for somebody. It's an addiction: it's powerful and you want it but at the same time you can't stop, even if you want to. Its the same with the word " Eifersucht" ( = jealousy"), which also carries this notion of addiction.
Hello! Welcome to the Eurovision world! How are you?
Very good, thank you! 

How would you describe the group?
We are a Berlin- based group of 3 singers and one dancer, plus a live- drummer on stage who also triggers our minimalistic, electronic Beats. We've been performing together for a while now and we love the stage to create our own shows. Our music is best described as pop, mixing up different elements from disco, Jazz, R&B, HipHop or Electronic music with german lyrics. The lyrics play an important role for our songs, for everything, the music, the singing, the dancing follows the story they tell.  

How did you meet each other?
Marisa ( the dancer) and I know each other from school days; Johanna and Larissa were friends of friends and we met through music.  

Tell me about the name of the group:
The name doesn't have a meaning, it's just supposed to sound good!  

You are one of the participants of Unser Song für Österreich, how did it all begin?
We've been doing a similar contest in Germany in 2012, called "Bundesvision Song Contest". We've since then been asked if we'd consider trying the Eurovision Song Contest.. So we finally decided to try how far we could get and applied for "Unser Song for Österreich" because we liked the idea of showing our Songs and Performances to a broader public. We love big stages!
"Zeig deine Muskeln" & "Wechselt die Beleuchtung" are the titles of your songs. Whats the story behind those songs?
It's two of our favorite songs of our new album. The first, "Zeig deine Muskeln" ( which means "Show your muscles") is a song with a wink about gyms and why people go there. Everybody knows the game: people working out tend to check who's checking on them. Flirting is one of the main sports at the gym even though everybody tries to look busy with real sport. Our song takes the perspective of a girl watching a guy doing his gym- routine. She follows every single of his steps and imagines he's doing it all for her. So she sees him ride a bike for her, lift more weight for her, strike a pose for her, etc.. She demands him to try harder and harder. All the work he does shows in his muscles and she's crazy about them. "Carry me home with your Musculus Maximus" she begs..  

The second song, "Wechselt die Beleuchtung" is much darker and more serious. The songs name means "The light changes" and deals with the strange phenomenon that different lighting does change the way we see and feel things. The first lines are "You know, what's funny? I see you in a different light every day. You know what's funny? Sometimes i'm in love with you and sometimes… the light changes.." The whole song is about these sometimes sudden changes, that are warm and welcoming at one moment and cold and disconcerting at the next.

Describe the songs with 4 words:
Zeig deine Muskeln: gym, flirt, Falco, disco
Wechselt die Beleuchtung: light, darkness, bass, drama

You all are really good performers, what can we expect to see on stage for the final?
Well, we've been preparing and rehearsing our show for several weeks now and won't spoil the surprise by letting you know any detail!! But we're pretty sure it's going to be good.. 
What do you like about Eurovision?
I like the idea of all these countries showing each other, which music they like. It's such a rare occasion to learn about different styles in music, language, expression, fashion, and so on..  

What do you dislike about Eurovision?
I wish it wasn't a competition.. although it would lack excitement then, maybe? But it's just a shame that there's only one winner standing next to a bunch disappointed colleagues that try their best to smile..

Give me the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear the word:
Girl power: The Spice Girls
Nightmare: rare
Watermelon: Summer
Fangirling: funny
Stage: light
Darkness: stars
Germany: home
Dreams: come true
Photo: Felix Groteloh Photowork
What are your plans for 2015?
I'm fully absorbed by all the preparations for " Unser Song für Österreich". Haven't been making much plans for the time after the show, because we don't know if we maybe get to travel to Vienna? Besides that, we'll be playing more shows with our "Wechselt die Beleuchtung"- Album and be on stage on festivals in summer! 

Is there anything you want to say to close the interview?
Thanks for your attention! 

Thanks to Nicola for the interview! GO LAING!


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