Interview met Strify, afgenomen door een goede vriendin van mij ^^
Can you please describe your music for all the people that haven’t heard of your band and music yet?
Creating a new style of music would definitely be exaggerated but we never wanted to fit in a specific musical category. We are five characters and each has a different personality. We tried to find our own style by combing each musical taste of us 5. So there are a lot of influences from pop and rock music – I wouldn’t describe us as a pop band, but neither as a rock band. You might be remembered of some bands while listening to our music but you never can say that we sound exactly like them. Our music is a mixture of pop/rock that is built on an electronic element which might remind you of the new wave area.
How did you come up with the name of the band?
Long before we chose CINEMA BIZARRE we had the word paradox in our mind. Sometimes we meet people who say we are strange. And usually they mean it in a negative way. So we decided to take a world like paradox or bizarre to let the people know, that being different doesn’t make you a bad kid. But there already was a band called paradox. So we had the idea of using bizarre. But that was too less. We played around with some word creations and finally we found that CINEMA BIZARRE sounded quite interesting. I was always a big cinema fan and I love movies (like almost everyone does ^^). Afterwords Luminor also told us that there is a film genre called bizarre cinema in the 70s, which showed movies that were far away from mainstream. So we had the perfect name for us.
Last year you released your debut album. How did the recording process go?
It was something very new to us – like a lot of things happening during the last year. We were only used to little rehearsal rooms or cellars. And the sound never was that nice (neither the light…). The very beginning of the recording process was the making of the songs. I was always writing lyrics and Luminor did too. We were used to jam around and we never wrote complete songs. It was very hard to meet very often because we lived in different cities. But with a record company in our back we had financial support. We decided to start a new chapter and to work with songwriters. We met a lot of them and there were some people we had a big connection with. We showed them some of our lyrics and talked a lot about music and how we wanted our sound to sound like. Because we still were going to school we weren’t involved in each writing process but always in choosing the songs. I learnt a lot from these creative and talented people and this was definitely the right decision. The recording process took us half a year or something like that. During this time we also moved to Berlin so things started to work out easier. We still traveled around a lot because some songs were recorded in Kopenhagen and Stockholm.
How much impact did the release of your album have on your personal lives? How do you deal with everyone knowing you now?
Almost everything changed. We moved from our little cities to the Capital of Germany and things go different here. We needed to learn to be more independent and to deal with the people from the record company We moved away from family and friends and have a whole new environment. So it was a big step for us. We already learnt a lot and we are stil growing.
Who are you trying to reach with your music? What you want to say through it?
I want to reach everyone. For me there is not such a thing as a target group. I want to reach the people who dare to dream and also those who forgot how to dream. I want the people not to forget what makes life really worth. At least I want to tell them what I think about that. You never should forget to believe in yourself and to go your own way. I think there is not only ONE truth and ways. Everyone can find his own truth. You know… in my heart I’m still a child and I never want to grow up.
A lot of people think that Cinema Bizarre is cast and you’re all made to who you are now. What can you say about that? How does it make you feel?
Our band history is pretty extraordinary. And people tend to say that extraordinary things are unbelievable. But that’s how it happened. What else can I say?
People just don’t know how much work and effort we put in this band. It’s a fact that we aren’t on stage since 10 years – we are young and ambitious.
The last couple of weeks you did your first tour. Did it go as expected? You got any fun stories you want to share?
Hm.. I expected the unexpected. We had a very chaotic start and arrived 4 hours late in Vienna for our first gig. So there was no time for any sound check. Anyways, people didn’t believe that this was our first full live gig ever. Life in the nightliner was a very cool thing. To be honest I was very nervous because I didn’t know what would happen. We were 14 people. But we had the best crew I could imagine and it was hard to go to bed early because we were laughing the whole night. In the morning we woke up and already did arrive at the venue. We spent the whole day in the venue and at night we saw the streets out of the window of the nightliner. Something very stupid happened in Bochum. I was making jokes the whole day that I would be going to say the wrong city… and it happened. In Bochum I went on stage and screamed “Good night Nuremberg!”. The tour was over so soon…
What song from Final Attraction is your favorite and why?
Depends on my mood… Right now I like DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILY and AFTER THE RAIN a lot. To be honest I was surprised with I DON’T BELIEVE because on the record it was never one of my faves but I love to sing it live
Who or what influenced your style and music?
Our music is influenced by a lot of different bands and styles, for example Depeche Mode. My voice is influenced a lot by R’n’B music. When I was little I loved to sing along to Toni Braxton or Mariah Carey. Might be hard to believe because we make different music but that was my very beginning of my passion of singing. Later on I discovered rock music and electronic music.
What does Cinema Bizarre mean to you?
We are love ^
Index 
zo jun 01, 2008 6:25 pm
^^