At the bar with: Madanii

Madanii in bar talk about personalized magnets, framing, pedro pascal and alternative family structures

Before going to the Karanfil in Berlin, an EC machine is needed. Keyword: cash Only. But after that there is no stopping lime drinking and speeches about alternative family structures and much more.

I just appreciated it that you knew exactly where we got cash for the shop here – and where we should best sit down. Are you the one who always has an overview in one round?

Actually, I have no sense of orientation. And I can’t remember faces and names either. But I have decided to get better with all of this. Also in talking to the name of one person more often in conversation, because I think it’s great when people do it. If you get to know someone and who directly provide the name on a question, I respect it very much.

I hit that!

Cheers! I haven’t drunk such a herbal lemonade for a long time, but delicious.

What is your go-to-drink in a bar?

I like drinks that don’t taste like anything if possible. Something like vodka soda. In the case of un alcoholical drinks, I am annoying that there is hardly anything that tastes fresh, but not sweet. Do I have to switch to water, even though I don’t want something?!

So good choice with the limo here, I immediately imitated you. Thanks for the tip, dena! How do you actually find it when you use names in songs?

I think that’s charming. The other day, a friend sent me an Arabic song what “Dana” means, but how “dena” is pronounced – I was also pleased. As a child I knew none, which was called like me. There were no stickers, magnets and postcards with my name, which others liked to emerge over the children’s room door. But I wanted to feel thought.

It is also part of your songs that you didn’t feel that you sometimes didn’t think. Is that a kind of new framing?

As a child or adolescent, I had no framing, just the reaction of the people and how I felt with it. I have been socialized in white and German and have had hobbies like everyone else and therefore not perceived myself differently-but I was treated differently. I took that very personally and started to believe that something doesn’t have to be right with me. Precisely because I didn’t have any other framing. Of course that has changed. I can now classify that I cannot do anything, but that what has to do with society and concepts. Since I was in Berlin, it hasn’t been like in Franconia anyway, where I grew up – because it is easy to find in Berlin, community and places,
which are much more inclusive. And with my EP Biilingual, I am also concerned with letting go of the childhood and youth feelings. So it’s a kind of reframing.

Would you say that you are more with you now?

It is changeable, but a little more every day. The music is a mirror of it. If you listen to my songs, the development of personally becomes more clear. I no longer want to look at what I think, what suits me, but do that what I feel.

Then what do you let yourself be influenced?

In the music everything is just in me. From classic, Iranian music that my mom brought me closer to pop songs that I just like to hear. I once read the question about the sounds in my music whether all of this could exist next to each other and I just wanted to answer: “Sure!” Because I am in music form. I was born and grew up in Germany, but I come from an Iranian family, all of this is totally mixed in me.

Do you feel relaxed in a bar?

Definitely in Berlin. But if I go to an economy with my parents in Bavaria, that’s a critical moment. That can cause discomfort because I then feel very observed.

Who would you like to hang out in a bar for longer – dead or alive?

The thing is … There are so many narcissists from artists: inside! There are no musicians in my closer circle of friends: inside. When hanging, I also have to find the person likeable. So, hm, who is considered completely nice? Ah, wait, yes! Pedro Pascal! I am happy to accept an evening with Pedro. I can flirt something right away. (laughs)

Woah, in a bar data … not only easy.

True. I recently sat with a friend: inside in a bar and we got literally such a complete date. We thought all the time whether it is your first meeting or not. That busy us so much that my girlfriend asked the two of them when they go out whether it was their first date. (laughs)

No!

But! And watching people can be really exciting and entertaining. If I don’t try to look at my cell phone so much, then I look at the people around me and think about what their lives could look like.

What is a big deal for you at the moment?

I find it difficult to exist at a time when there is a bit of the mood of the world. So I think a lot about the nature of living together. How can you create more community in these times? How can you listen to and support each other better? It starts to remember the name of someone to alternative family structures in which more people help to raise a child. I think about it, as well as how to make a concert a more common experience. It remains that I stand on stage as an artist and the audience in front of it. Nevertheless, I try to make it clear with my announcements that I want to go through a song with the people.

What do you mean?

I call that group therapy. I do that because I want the audience become part of my performance, but also because I want to be part of the group.

More about Madanii

Dena Zarrin wanted to be a singer as a small child. For this reason, she also studied music in Mannheim and networked with artists. In May, her EP Biilingual appeared, on which the Berliner processed her story as a daughter of Iranian refugees as well as the feeling of tornness and penchant for great dreams. As Madanii, she connects Avant pop with trap and audio visual impulses.

More about “at the bar”

In our “at the bar” series there are artists: Inside with me-hoste Hella Wittenberg in a cozy atmosphere at the counter for a deep talk.