You know you have a good song when you can’t say what it is.
***
Konzert und Interview am 19. Februar 2016 im Privatclub
Text, Interview und Fotos: Corinna Sauer
Es ist toll, musikbegeisterte Freund_innen zu haben. Man wird an Musik herangeführt, die man unter Umständen übersehen, beziehungsweise überhört hätte und teilt mit jemandem eine neue Entdeckung oder eine alte Leidenschaft. So geschehen nun, als mir die Kanz.lerin von der jungen dänischen Musikerin Ida Gard erzählte, die sie bereits im letztes Jahr erstmals live erlebt hatte (lest hier ihren Konzertbericht). Ich war gespannt auf diese Künstlerin, von der ich hörte, dass sie nicht nur gute und kluge Musik mache, sondern auch eine besondere Bühnenpräsenz habe und herzerwärmend sympathisch sei.
***
Mitschwingendes
***
Generell schlägt mein Herz für Singer/Songwriterinnen, die sich nicht so leicht einordnen lassen, die Ecken und Kanten haben und das Stereotyp des netten Mädchens mit der Gitarre durchbrechen. Bei Ida Gards Studioaufnahmen sind die Kanten für mein Empfinden nicht so prägnant, aber man spürt, dass da noch etwas mitschwingt, dass die Rundungen, das „Nette“, mehr oder weniger subtil verzeichnet. Aufgrund des Berichtes der Kanz.lerin und meiner Hoffnung, man könnte sogar sagen Erwartung, dass diese „Verzeichnungen“ live auf der Bühne noch eindeutiger zu Tage treten würden, freute ich mich auf das Release-Konzert zur Feier von Ida Gards am 19. Februar 2016 erschienenen Albums „Womb“, das wir gemeinsam im Privatclub besuchten.
***
Aus dem Verborgenen heraus
***
Ich wurde nicht enttäuscht und meine Erwartungen übertroffen. Frau Gard versprüht auf der Bühne einen solchen Zauber, dass einem ganz warm ums Herz wird. Ihre Songs scheinen sich auf besondere Weise zu öffnen, wenn sie auf der Bühne vorgetragen werden. Als treten andere Ebenen deutlich zu Tage, die zuvor hier und da im Verborgenen hervorblitzten. Schlagzeugerin Anne Kristine Winkler schafft gekonnt den Rahmen für Ida und ihre Les Paul, die ihrerseits der Musik die Kontrolle zu übergeben scheint und unzensiert und authentisch ihre eigenen Gefühle mit ihr transportiert. In den Momenten zwischen ihren Liedern ist sie in fortwährender Kommunikation mit dem Publikum, erzählt Geschichten und Anekdoten. Ihre Schüchternheit ist ebenso unverhohlen, wie ihre Freude. Die Freude an der Musik, darüber sie und mit ihr zu spielen und an den Menschen, die gekommen sind, um all das mit ihr zu teilen.
***
Ich habe Ida nach ihrem Konzert zu einem Interview getroffen. Lest hier, was sie mir von sich erzählt hat.
Ida, first of all, thanks for an amazing concert. I have to say, that I like your recorded music, but it felt like the songs became alive in a whole different way when you were performing them. It was quite intense.
Wow, thank you. That’s really nice to hear.
So, your new album „Womb“ is inspired by a book („Populärmusik aus Vittula“ von Mikael Niemi). Can you tell me a bit more about your special connection with that book and also about how title of the album is connected to it?
Well, it was actually a relationship that grew – the one between me and the book. When I first read it I was on vacation and I just needed something to relax. I loved the book and was moved by it, but I didn’t think that I would make an entire album based on it. Then, a few months later I was trying to write songs where I wasn’t myself. The working title was „I is another“. So I started writing these songs, where I was one of the characters from the book. At some point I was like: „Ah damn, I should have picked another book.“ There was just this small part of me that wanted it to be a feminist piece of literature or something that had more of a statement. But then I thought that this book was the one that came and did this, so it had to be that one. And actually as I’ve been working with it, it’s grown a whole lot. It seems like the story of two kids growing up together in a world where the grown ups are not taking responsibility and the kids are describing it in this childish way is a theme that I’ve been falling for all over. On and on again. So actually I think it’s the perfect book, that came and said: Make me an album. So sometimes things just happen and they are smarter than you are.
And about the title „Womb“- I was actually quite unsure about what to call the album. Because I didn’t feel like any of the song titles told the whole story. So we were actually considering to call it „Whatever it takes to get to China“. But I thought that this is the one song that sticks out on the album and it just didn’t feel right. Then I saw the photos that were made for the album and I was like: Ok, it has to be „Womb“. It also speaks to that part of me that is always a bit naughty or a bit too much, so I like that about it. And it’s that feminine power, that is very physical. I mean, you can create a human being. That’s crazy. So I just thought, it was very powerful.
In the beginning of your career, when you were only 22 years old, you turned down a deal that was offered to you by a major record label and started your own independent label („Oh my Gard“). Now some years later, after establishing this career on your own, what are your retrospective thoughts about that step back then?
The thing is that at this point I have a team of people that I know and I know that they are with me. And back then it was a contract without any promises and no people in it. It was basically just a piece of paper. So I think, even if I had signed it back then it wouldn’t have made a difference. And I think that if you want to do music, which is such an insecure way of living – for me the only way to have some kind of certainty is to know that the people who are in it are really in it. So even if an album gets shitty reviews, we still have a tour. I feel like those people are here, because they believe in it in the long run. And I think that’s worth more than money that a bigger label could give me. And I also think that the problem with the way that bigger labels work is that they are going for the hits. And I’m just not a hit girl.
So, what is your point of view on fame? Do you think there could be ever too much of it?
Yes, I think there can probably be too much of it. I mean, I haven’t tried it. I never want to worry about people acting weird around me. I just want to enjoy playing shows in which I am close to people and to talk to them afterwards. I think the fear about things growing too much is that there will be a distance. The stages get bigger, you don’t have time to meet and talk to people. I think a problem with fame is a risk of feeling lonely.
Please tell me a bit about your songwriting process. For example, do you know, which story you want to tell and then you find the right shape for it?
It’s pretty different. Like for this album I already had the story and I knew what to tell, but I didn’t know what would be in between the lines. What I actually loved about this writing process was that I couldn’t think too much because I just had to solve the assignment. It felt like taking on someone’s voice and saying something. Usually I sense that there is something in a song and I don’t know exactly what it is and I don’t want to know either. So I think, you know you have a good song when you can’t say what it is.
Maybe it’s a bit like what you said about the book. That it kinda found you and you just wrote it down. You have to give up some control and let it speak through you.
Yes. It wants to be discovered. It’s quite amazing, that kind of process.
What are your plans for the next couple of months?
Now we have this tour and – I’m not gonna tell you, but I actually have a lot of plans for the next upcoming albums.
Albums with an s in the end?
The thing is that I actually had written like thirty songs before this book came and got in the way, so I have a lot of songs that I need to do something with. And I already know, what I’m going to do with them. I will also write some more. I have a lot of plans. But for now we are just gonna see what will happen with this one. On the one hand I have enough time to not do anything right now but on the other hand it’s good to know that I’m not in a situation in which I have to wonder what to do next. So I think it’s actually nice to know that there are songs waiting and that this is not the end.
Thank you, Ida.
Thank you.
_____
Ein Hörbeispiel bekommt Ihr hier:
Alben
2013 – Knees, Feet & The Parts We Don’t Speak Of
2014 – Doors
2016 – Womb
Tourdaten Ida Gard 2017
Do, 07.12.17 WEIDEN Max-Reger-Halle
Fr, 08.12.17 LEIPZIG Moritzbastei
Sa, 09.12.17 MAGDEBURG Ravelin
So, 10.12.17 OSNABRÜCK Rosenhof
Di, 12.12.17 WOLFSBURG Hallenbad
