Alicia Edelweiss used to be a street musician for quite a while. Now singer, composer, producer, circus artist, theatrical performer and a lot more – Alicia Edelweiss performs something between freak folk, anti folk and chamber pop and is based in Vienna currently. Her new album “When I’m enlightened, everything will be better” came out on Medienmanufaktur Wien in 2019.
After concerts in Hamburg, München & Gumpersdorf, she’ll play for the first time in Berlin at ausland on Sunday, 1st of March.
FACTS:
1: I never comb or brush my hair.
2: Animals are not here to be our slaves.
3: Using colours and clothes as self-expression is a form of art, and you have the opportunity to do it every day.
QUESTIONS:
1. What is the biggest inspiration for your music?
My experiences in this life and especially the people I meet or who are part of it. Then of course travelling and being in movement, having adventures and being in nature.
2. How and when did you get into making music?
Well, I really got into making music when I started busking when I was 19. Before that I played a bit of guitar and liked to sing, but I never really took it seriously until I went travelling.
3. What are 5 of your favourite albums of all time?
Jeffrey Lewis – The Last Time I Did Acid I Went Insane
Soap&Skin – Lovetune For Vacuum
Daniel Johnston – 1990
Sibylle Baier – Colour Green
CocoRosie – La Maison de Mon Rêve
4. What do you associate with Berlin?
Drugs, Party and second-hand shops! I know it’s such a cliché, I myself are not so much into the first two things anymore… I do love clothes, but these second-hand shops are really overpriced in Austria and Germany.
5. What’s your favourite place in your town?
I’m living in Vienna, my favourite places are the forest – the „Wiener Wald“ – and the river – the Donau – on the other side of Vienna, so wherever I can find nature and peace really.
6. If there was no music in the world, what would you do instead?
I’d be very sad, maybe I’d make movies or comics. But actually most likely I’d do something in the realm of performance – I’d be a circus performer, clown or dancer I think.
7. What was the last record/music you bought?
Aldous Harding’s album „Party“
8. Who would you most like to collaborate with?
Music-wise: Sturle Dagsland from Norway. I just saw him perform at MENT festival in Ljubljana and haven’t been so inspired by any artist in a long time.
And I’ve always dreamed of making a video with Suisse filmmaker and video artist Pipilotti Rist.
9. What was your best gig (as performer or spectator)?
Soap&Skin in Vienna and Sturle Dagsland at MENT festival in Ljubljana, those are two concerts where my mouth was literally open because it was so breath-taking. I honestly wouldn’t remember my own best gig or how I would decide which gig was the best. Every concert is always really different and beautiful in its own way depending on the energy of the people and also the venue and location – that is if it was a „good gig“, meaning – I felt good while performing and people were respectful and part of it.
10. How important is technology to your creative process?
At the moment not so important, as I play mostly acoustic music, but I want that to change in the future. Of course for the recordings it’s fundamental and I enjoy all the possibilites and the flexibility that technology provides during the recording process.
11. Do you have siblings and how do they feel about your career/art?
I have 2 brothers and 1 sister. I think they are okay about it and all in all happy for me! But that is a very personal question, so I won’t go into detail.
Picture: Franzi Kreis for They Shoot Music
