公告
- New album _Inland Territory_ available now!
http://www.scarabcart.com/cgi-bin/viennateng/item.cgi?id=172
Check out the new video for Gravity:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8nypWKa_aU&fmt=18
BLOG
-
Slow Q&A 2009: The Kaoru Questionnaire
2009-10-15 7:57PM / 標準BLOG / 會員可以看
Fall is my season, a sunset in slow motion—light ceding time to dark, blazes of color as the air grows edges. The things you love become more precious for their sparseness, for the fact that they won’t last. Fall means the beginning of things for me—there was school for sixteen years there, of course, but since then I’ve also felt a certain digging in, a kind of okay-NOW-here-we-go-ness, an intake of breath.
Anyway, the mix of anticipation and melancholy suits me. Hope it’s been suiting you, wherever you are.
OK, so the Slow Q&A from August is actually the Sloooooooow Q&A. Here’s my reply for Kaoru of Rheinland, over in the forum.
What are the things you can’t live without while being on tour?Having lost, forgotten or not had access to most things at some point, really the only crucial thing is navigation, e.g. map/GPS/iPhone/etc. Beyond that, if I have a bag of Veggie Stix, some Clif Bars, my water bottle, and an iPod loaded with This American Life and All Songs Considered episodes, I’m set. I’m a walking stereotype, I know. I can’t help it.
Speaking of road food, a note to you wonderful people who come to shows bearing fruit pies: thank you! Home-baked goods rock our world, and I know pie crust is fiendishly tricky to make from scratch (vodka helps). However, pies are equally tricky to eat after a gig, at a hotel, with no plates knives or forks. They are also not so easy to finish, and we hate to waste your handiwork. Just so you know. But we do love the pies and everything that goes into them. This goes for you pie-buyers and chocolate-bringers and other generous gift-givers too.
(Here I will mention for no apparent reason that I also love savory packet-foods of all kinds: tamales, samosas, pierogis, empanadas, dumplings, egg rolls, calzones, Hot Pockets. And that Alex will never, ever turn down roast duck. I’ve watched many a tempting entrée get trounced by the almighty waterfowl when he looks over a menu.)
Do you have a special ritual before & after a concert?
There’s usually a group hug right before we walk on. Afterwards it’s usually 1) over-analyzing the audience and whether they enjoyed it, 2) resisting the urge to dwell on screw-ups, and 3) hunting for a Sharpie pen. Actually the pre-show ritual often includes 2) hunting for a Sharpie pen too. And scratch paper. I always forget to make setlists until about five minutes beforehand.
What are the songs you can’t live without?
I’ll make this a separate post sometime. Maybe link to an iTunes playlist you can buy if you so choose.
What was the bravest thing you’ve ever done?
If bravery means doing the right thing, even when it scares you—listening to my parents and grandparents. Not just doing what I think they want, or rejecting it outright, but the slower and much messier process of hearing them out, mulling over what they say, figuring out what I really believe, sharing my thought process with them, and ultimately making my own decisions. I don’t know why it’s so damn terrifying and why I’m taking so long to learn how to do it, but there you go.
What was the best advice you’ve ever got?
Of all the ideas I heard at the Future of Music conference in DC this month, the best was from a cab driver on the last day. “Remember these ten two-letter words,” he said. “ ‘If it is to be, it is up to me.’ ”
Do you believe in love at first sight?
Yes. It hasn’t happened to me. But I know it has to others.
Finally and most important when will you come back to Germany?
We’re working on next spring! Late April-early May. Keep your fingers crossed and your name on the mailing list…
所有BLOG 更多BLOG >
-
intake
2010-03-09 10:45AM
-
compass
2009-09-26 2:39AM (1 個評論)
-
archive of Twitter Q&A, 15 Aug 2009
2009-09-03 2:00PM
-
Slow Q&A 2009: The What Is That? Edition, pt. 2
2009-08-31 3:21PM
-
Slow Q&A 2009: The What Is That? Edition, pt. 1
2009-08-31 8:47AM
统计信息
- Q: Who are your influences? ...Q: Who are your influences?
A: My parents' record collection: Simon & Garfunkel, James Taylor, Mozart and Beethoven, 60s Mandarin pop. That's what I started with and it'll never leave me. Later on, pianist-songwriters: Elton John, Billy Joel, Tori Amos. These days I'm influenced by whoever intimidates me. I hear them, I'm astounded by them, I think daily about quitting music because I'll never be able to do it as well as they do. Then I try to steal from them without imitating. A tricky thing.
Q: How would you characterize your music?
A: Oh man, I don't know. I've taken to saying "chamber folk" or "singer-songwriter" to some people. "Somewhere between folk and pop, with a bit of classical and jazz," if they look confused after that. It's frustrating that I have no succinct phrase to offer; at the same time, I think it also means I'm doing something right.
Q: How long have you been playing piano?
A: Since I was five.
Q: Did you study at a conservatory?
A: No, just one-on-one piano lessons until I was 17. Changed my life, though.
Q: How did you learn to sing?
A: In the shower, and in school choirs. I took some voice lessons here and there, which amounted to paying $40-150 a week to be told that I was doing it all wrong. I don't think we fixed anything. So maybe I haven't learned to sing, actually.
Q: When did you start writing songs?
A: I think I was six when I decided I could cobble my own piano piece together. As for songs that I still play in public, the earliest ones are from high school.
Q: How long does it take for you to write songs?
A: A long time. Sometimes months. Occasionally over a year. I don't revise all that much; it just takes that long for all the pieces to form and assemble.
Q: Who arranges the songs for live performance?
A: It's a collaborative process. My bandmates generally compose their own parts as we work through a song in rehearsal—sometimes they're based on the studio recordings, oftentimes not. Sometimes they have cool ideas for my parts, too.
Q: How old are you?
Q: Is Vienna the name your parents gave you?
Q: How do you write your name in Chinese?
A: Wikipedia knows all. And is reasonably accurate, though I don't know why it has photos of me wearing a knit hat and playing guitar onstage, two things I almost never do.
Q: Is it true that you used to be a software engineer?
A: Yes. I got my bachelor's in Computer Science at Stanford University, and went to work for Cisco Systems for two years. These days I remember exactly enough to crash whatever computer I'm working on.
Q: Is it true that you went to/dropped out of medical school?
A: No. Can't imagine paying off med school loans and funding an album...
Q: What was it like being on Letterman?
A: Surreal. Pretty much like how it'd be for you if you got called to play on the Late Show. I still think I dreamt the whole thing. Except the studio was very, very cold, and my dreams aren't often cold.
Q: Which of your albums is the best one, in your opinion?
A: Like anyone, I'd hope that the most recent is always the strongest. I think I'm getting better as I go...
Q: Does constantly talking about yourself ever make you feel like an egomaniac?
A: Yes, yes it does. Makes me wish I were in a band sometimes.
Q: Are you going to release a live album?
A: We do have a live DVD out now. For sound-only recordings, there's always the Internet Audio Archive.
Q: Do you ever reply to emails?
A: No, and I apologize. It's not a policy or anything; I'm just not good at staying on top of it. I promise that I do read everything, and that I'm grateful. - 職業: 樂手 , 歌手 , 作曲家
- 性別: 女
- 查看: 129,911
BLOG評論