An angel beyond loneliness
Juliane Heinemann’s first
album was titled Aren’t you glad to be
here (2009) and when I listen to her music I must admit I’m really glad to
have discovered her, here, there and everywhere. She arrived to Barcelona from
Berlin, where she was born. There she studied classic guitar and educated her
voice at the Jazz Institute Berlin. In 2006 she moved to Barcelona and she
started in the music scene working in different projects. In 2009 her first
solo album was published discovering a very talented songwriter, guitarist and
singer whose songs were deeply intimate and fragile. Now she presents her True gods (2012), a second album in
which she plays with new sounds, more fresh and powerful, a dance with all her
angels, all the gifts she enjoys from life, a walk along passion with love and
pain, joy and sadness, as her more beloved fellows. Welcome to the talent of a
true goddess of honesty and sensitivity.
What are your True gods?
'True Gods' is a song I
wrote after the recordings were already done, that's why it doesn't appear on
the album. The song was inspired by a
sudden tragic death of a colleague who was way too young to die and everybody
was very shocked and sad about it. I
guess for me 'True Gods' means everything that makes you appreciate your life,
that makes you live it to the fullest. I
guess the conciousness of being mortal is a True God.
You open your new album
with the verse “all my angels, come to
me!”. Looking for the meaning of life?
I wrote 'All my Angels'
in a very heartbroken moment, when I felt really desperate and lost. It was a
cry out for angels and friends to help me get over it. Although I've never believed in angels at
that point any help was welcome.
Why are your eyes crazy?
Because in summer the city
gets very hot and I drink too much coffee. 'Crazy Eyes' was written with the
idea of complement the album with an easy danceable pop tune and introduce sort
of a happy character which I guess was surprising for some people who knew me
more as the introverted and melancholic kind.
But it's not like that, I really love dancing and at the moment I'm
really into writing danceable songs taking it as a new challenge for me.
“I run around like a lion in its cage in a zoo”. How will you
escape?
I guess leaving the city and quit drinking coffee.
Where will you escape?
To nature and inner
peace?
What do you think about
loneliness?
I used to struggle a lot
with the feeling of loneliness. ('To the
lonely' is one of my early songs..) When I was 20 I travelled to India with my
then-boyfriend and we met a spiritual man who later offered us to read in our
hands. In my hand he read the fate of
loneliness. Although having lots of caring people around me I would always feel
very lonely. Luckily I don't believe much
in the idea of fate! I came to think that in a lot of cases the feeling of loneliness
rather comes from self-centeredness, little empathy or little caring for other
beings. Also from the fear of to
connect and trust.
True
gods is a more powerful album than the previous Aren’t you glad to be here?, with a more intimate sound. How have
you lived this process between the two albums?
'Aren't you glad to be
here' was recorded in one live session (voc, guit, piano, bass and drums) for a
known Barcelona Jazz Label. I'd written
those songs with the idea of it to be an acoustic dreamy vocal jazz/folk album,
kind of like the early Norah Jones. But then it seemed to me that it did have a
rather dark and melancholic character and needed to be supported by more
production, strings and horns and more vocals.
So the idea for the album changed during its own recording process. For 'True Gods' I picked up some very early
songs of mine which hadn't been appropriate for the first album. And wrote some
new songs , imagining someone driving a car and nodding his head to slow
hypnotic grooves. We recorded drums (Oriol Roca) and bass (Marko Lohikari)
during 3 days in summer 2009, and afterwards Jordi Matas (production /recording)
and me recorded all the other instruments. Since we both were very busy with
other jobs it was not easy to find free days for recording.. it took us almost
2 years to finish the album! I don't feel that I musically or personally
changed so much between one album and the other, or maybe I just don't
remember... they were just two different ideas. Since 'Aren't you glad to be
here?' is quiet slow and intimate it was natural for me to look for something
more groovy and more expressive in the second album.
Don’t you think love
should make us stronger?
Well, I do think that a
relationship should create the warm feeling of being taken care of and being a
good team towards life, but each one has to be strong on his own for this to
work out.
In Let me dance you sing once and again “ask me if I wanna marry you”. Do you need permission to dance?
'Let me Dance' is a
pleasant surrender to growing up and longing for estability. It's a desire for
settling down, getting cosy and married and having a modest little happy life.
I give you a naked ship,
what would you do with it?
What is a naked ship? ;-) Well, I would probably try to sell it as fast as I can, I'm really broke.
What is a naked ship? ;-) Well, I would probably try to sell it as fast as I can, I'm really broke.
An interview by Juan Carlos Romero
Juliane Heinemann website www.julianeheinemann.com
Photo courtesy of Juliane Heinemann
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