Next up to feature on our Who What Why feature is Isabel
Here they are discussing their BIMM Berlin experience so far…
Who are you listening to at the moment?
Right now I’m listening to Caribou, Lia Ices and Tame Impala, but I’m always returning to the Tropicalia albums from Brazil’s psychedelic period in the ‘60s and African and Ethiopian music like High Life, Super Mazembe and music from Mali and Éthiopiques. Most of the Brazilian records from the Tropicalia period were recorded in a time when the country was ruled by a dictatorship. Some of the contemporary artists I love to come back to are The Knife, James Blake and Little Dragon.
What do you love about Berlin?
The open-minded and beautiful ambience and the fact that people with all kinds of personalities come here from everywhere in the world. I also love the honesty amongst people. The music and art scene is broad and wonderful, and includes both up and coming and established international artists.
What I also like is that the town somehow has both trashy and beautiful places and this makes for an interesting combination. It reveals something secret that’s hidden.
I love the street art and the creativity people use when decorating. The sense of making things out of anything; especially when they use things that are made for a particular reason and they turn them into something else. All this is a big reason to be here.
Why Songwriting?
Because I’ve been working as an artist and songwriter for a long time, but never had the opportunity to study music. The really good music schools in Sweden started to pop up in the ‘90s. Before that, you started a band and rehearsed until it started to sound like music. I learned a lot this way and I’m happy I did go through all this before even owning my own computer. Today I love electronic music and am really happy that I learned to produce and programme music with the help of a computer. The facilities available today are the reason so many people have the option to work on a professional basis.
