interview with BONSAI KITTEN
What´s the name of your band?/Where are all band members from?/Who does what in the band?
Tiger Lilly Marleen: I am the founder and singer of the band BONSAI KITTEN. We are from Berlin, Germany.
Alexx DeLarge is the drummer in the band, Highko Strom is playing guitar and Fränky, who ist he new one, plays bass guitar from now on.
How was the band formed?/What was the ambitions of the band when you started? Tiger Lilly Marleen: The ambition to start making music in general was actually just to find a way to say and shout out all of my lyrics I wrote since I was younger. It made me almost explode inside, so I needed an outlet to cope with my feelings. I didn´t even know, I could sing, back then, but I started looking for musicians to form a band. It took me quite some time to find the best „gang“ to go on this journey with. The real date, when Bonsai Kitten „came to live“ was in 2010, when we, as this gang, started writing songs for our first fullength album „Done With hHell“. It was released in 2011 and this is when the story of Bonsai Kitten really begins.
Could you explain your music to someone that haven't heard you? Tiger Lilly Marleen: Bonsai Kitten have never obeyed to any rules or adopted to any scene and sound. We mix elements of all different musicstyles that we personally like. There are influences of punkrock, rock´n roll, ~billy and popmusic that we merge in our songwriting. We used to call this mixture „Killbilly“. Now, with ditching the Upright bass, we emerge into something differen again. We are evolving and growing as musicians and people. We will see, what will happen next.
What bands have influenced your sound? Tiger Lilly Marleen:Each one of us has a different background and was influenced by a different style of music. I come from punk, pop and hardcore music, Alexx comes from Rockabilly and Psychobilly and Highko is the punkrocker. So Bands like The Ramones, The Krewmen, Sin Alley, DAD, AC/DC and Madonna influence us in our songwriting.
Who writes your songs? Who writes the music who writes lyrics? Tiger Lilly Marleen: Highko and I pretty much write all the songs together. I write all the lyrics and have tons of melodies in my head. Highko also has a million ideas for licks on his guitar. Together we prepare raw structures of the songs and finally brush up the arrangements and dynamics of the songs with Alexx. Everyone of us brings in their ideas and we try everything out. Each song has to be played live, before we record it, too!
Also, lyrically, what do you like to write about? Tiger Lilly Marleen: In the first albums, I was dealing a lot with life in general, with love and loss. I wrote about my condition and feelings. I had to do it. There was an urge to release a lot of pressure and anger, hate and desperation that I carried inside of me. It was a form of liberation for me. I mean „Done With Hell“ and „Welcome To My Word – It´s Chaos“ really speak for themselves, I think. And now I have almost overcome the chaos and I am pretty much done with hell, so I can look around me and see what is going on in this world. And I have my opinions about it. And I am expressing my opinions, loudy and radically!
Do you write your own material or mainly covers?/Have you made any albums?/If yes what are they? Tiger Lilly Marleen:We started off with covering songs, that we played in our own version. We even released four of these songs, together with two of our own songs on a limited edition of EPs. This self-titeled debut EP was released for the Japanese market only in 2007 and is already sold out. After that we released 3 albums, with mainly our own material. In 2011 we released „Done With Hell. In 2012 we released „Welcome To My World“ and we just released our new album „Occupy Yourself“ in 2014. Now, we are already working on new material for 2015.
Are there any central themes running throughout the new album “Occupy Yourself!”? Tiger Lilly Marleen:Yes! Occupy Yourself! is an album about liberation and a call for a revolution in your own head. Change starts in your heart, but a revolution starts in your head. In my opinion, people have to do everything a lot more conciously. We all have to think and care more about what is going on in this world and take more action. It concerns us all. But it starts within every one of us first. If we are not willing to change ourselves, the world will not change. And it lays within every thing we do. The song „Take It Easy But Take It“ for example, describes just that. It addresses people, who would really like to take a risk and do what they really want to do, but they don´t dare to. That way, they will always be unhappy, because they never tried. We say: Take more risks! Take more chances!
Do you have any clips on YouTube? Tiger Lilly Marleen: Yes, we got three official videos and some fan and live videos on youtube. Feel free to check out our channel and subscribe to it, because we will release new videos in the near future: www.youtube.com/bonsaikittenband
Where have you played from then till now? Tiger Lilly Marleen: We have played many shows through out Europe. We have been touring Germany exessively, have also played festivals and club shows in the UK, the Netherlands, Italy, Swiss, Czech Republic and toured Romania. Next, we will play in Finland and tour Europe even more. We have opened up for bands like The BossHoss, The Bones, Dick Dale, Mad Sin, Bela B. and will go on tour with The Adicts and Extrabreit this year yet.
Describe your show, visually and musically:/Tell us about upcoming gigs and why we should be at them? Tiger Lilly Marleen: We just love to play live. This is our thing, playing live. That way we are conveying a feeling, that is contagious. We love what we do and the audiences feel that and will love it too. J There is full body action, many glam accessiories and a lot of anticsn stage paired up with great music. We celebrate our concerts and they become shows, together with the audience, they become events! Feel free to check our homepage for new shows and don´t miss one!
What are your sources of inspiration?/What's the first step when making a new song? Tiger Lilly Marleen: Where ever I go, I carry a book to write down lyrics and I am always recording melodies that pop up in my head into my phone. The source of inspiration can be anything. Situations on the streets, advertisements, people, things, pictures and all kinds of music. At home I look through all the lyrics and melodies and start to structure them into topics and moods. That are the first steps of writing songs for me.
Besides your own music, what genres and bands do you listen to? Tiger Lilly Marleen: I love Fiona Apple, Madonna and Sia as much as I love L7, The Cramps and Nina Hagen. I also love electronic music, trip hop, like Portishead and dirty beats from Aphex Twin and Skrillex.
What drives a band that isn't all that famous and renowned to try to make a living on their music and to keep playing?/What would be your dreams for the band? Tiger Lilly Marleen:I don´t know, what drives other bands, but for me, as a musician, I can only say, that there is an urgent drive inside of me, that is hard to describe. It is a deep desperation, a fire, a need, to put yourself out there. To create, to say what you feel, trough the music and also the joy of making music itself. To explore and explode in an artistic way. It is a way of life. My dream is to reach as many people as possible with my music, who can relate to it. I hope to move them and trigger emotions and needs so they will take actiono change themselves and the world for the better.
What are the biggest obstacles for a band? Tiger Lilly Marleen:The biggest obstacles for a band is life. But it is also the biggest opportunity. Other than that, the biggest obstacle are haters and enviers, people who only judge and try to drag you down, without showing some respect for your work and effort. You have to grow a thick skin to cope with that or just don´t care.The other great obstacle in my opinion is, that music in itself has lost its value. Everybody wants everything for free and doesn´t even see the creative and hard work behind each song. That´s why, it is getting harder for bands to survive.
Whats your Pre-show ritual? Tiger Lilly Marleen: Before each show, we gather behind the stage and put our arms around each other shoulders in a circle and intensify a scream, untill we shout at the top of our lungs. That fires us up for the show, kind of like a battle call.
Do you have anything to add? Tiger Lilly Marleen: Go out to shows, support the bands and come see us live. We are touring a lot and will also make it to sweden one day! Other than that: Occupy Yourself!
Do you have any webpages?
