I still remember my first encounter with the musician and performer Charlotte Brandi. It was backstage at a congress called “Operation Ton” in Hamburg – she was just yelling at a TikTok representative who was present. Before that, Brandi had left no doubt on the podium how corrosive the currently inevitable self-marketing circus can be for musicians – and that platforms like TikTok not only “serve user interest”, but also direct it and shorten songs catchy 15-second snippets rewarded with reach. I was a little scared of Brandi for a moment, trying to hide behind humor and cultivated politeness how pissed off she was at social media realism. The TikTok rep fled in an unobserved moment. Understandable. After all, Brandi is known to have swords (no talk) – and is willing to use them. The cover of the new record is only the most obvious proof.
But wait a minute! Take a step back, I’m primarily a journalist and not just a fairy tale uncle. So here are the hard facts about this extraordinary artist for all readers who are unfamiliar with Brandi.
Charlotte Brandi was born somewhere in the Ruhr area in the 1980s. At that time, her parents played in bands – some with a left-alternative background. So little Charlotte saw and listened to all the pop struggle from an early age. In 2012 her first record was released with the duo Me And My Drummer, which she entertained with Matze Prollöchs. They moved to Berlin together, separated five years later, and Brandi’s first solo album was released in 2019 – on which she sings in English, as with Me And My Drummer. But only with the switch to German lyrics does a greater focus seem to shift towards their sword indie. By the way, Wikipedia attributes the change to the mother tongue to the self-respectingly great Tristan Brusch to. Sounds a bit like: behind every good idea a woman has is a man who whispered it to her. Well: You can confidently say goodbye to this image with Brandi, because her first German-language solo album does not contain any so-called cis men. Not only in front of, but also behind the microphones. Sound, mix and everything else that contributes to the fact that a record becomes a record – everything is consciously placed in FLINTA* hands.
Personally, I’m a fan of this extremely dangerous artist after the equally injured and offensive piece “Der Ekel” – and I’m happy that I’m at AN DEN NIGHTTRAUM’s album release this Friday (February 10, 2023 – for all those who won’t be able to do this until the distant future read) could do an interview with her. Please give a warm hand for … Charlotte Brandi!
There is no fixed outfit on the record in terms of instrumentation, each piece seems to have its own vision. Was this work as inspired as it seems – or did you have to struggle because there was no musical “normality” that the song design could fall back on?
CHARLOTTE BRANDI: Basically, I haven’t been slacking off since Me And My Drummer ended. It taught me that too much drudgery weighs on a project. I’m actually proud of one thing, and that’s the fact that I have a healthy, free relationship with my ideas and sort of pluck them out of thin air. As a result, I am also at the mercy of the individual songs in a way and have to bow to what they then want from me in their uniqueness. But this is how it works best for me.
After the interview in the print edition of MUSIKEXPRESS with serial number 3/23 that Susi Bumms (including The Screenshots) conducted with you, I asked myself: Is it an advantage now if you have such a pithy headline for a project ( “Record only with FLINTA* people!”) because it arouses interest, or is it also stupid because the music takes a back seat to the hook?
CHARLOTTE BRANDI: It’s always a fine line to make a concept album. In the best case, the concept then functions as a Trojan horse to bring the musical quality to the recipient. I really hope that I’ve managed to do that with this album.
Did you actually know The Screenshots? And what kind of music are you listening to right now?
CHARLOTTE BRANDI: Oh! No! I didn’t know that, I’m hearing it now… not bad! I like it, their topics also concern me and I like it when music sounds fresh. But I personally never really listen to contemporary German-language music, rather slightly hung American indie acts, Wye Oak, Angel Olsen, Kevin Morby, something like that. Discovered a Norwegian band called Valkyrien Allstars a few days ago. As a kid I listened to a lot of folklore and I’m a real nerd about it. I love Georgian traditional music these days because the men sing like pigeons. Irish folk anyway and also Polish acts – my all-time favorite band is called the Warsaw Village Band. Drone folklore with a tendency towards medieval sounds. Not hip, sorry.
Due to the lyrically very recognizable preliminary piece “Der Ekel” I thought, ah, Brandi’s poetry, I can decipher it well. In view of the album I have to revise that though. Much remains mysterious and probably does not want to be resolved 1:1. Still the question, what does the pair of opposites “eye or tooth?” mean in “My Dogs”?
CHARLOTTE BRANDI: It’s a biblical metaphor, I believe. The song is about a love story that has just ended and about the discrepancy between the axes of a new beginning, a fresh, white sheet of paper, so to speak, which is something positive and then also about the inner guardian who starts barking when the imagination suddenly sees the ex again too transfigured. It’s a fragile process, you have to pull yourself together to really get away from someone, but you don’t want to be too hard on the common history, and that harbors the danger of a relapse.
On the podium in Hamburg, you were not only enthusiastic about how you have to constantly keep your music/person high in social media. Your new album AN DEN NIGHTTRAUM is now out. What can we pay particular attention to in the “promo phase” (so-called in rap) with you?
CHARLOTTE BRANDI: Nice question – I wish there was more awareness of the increasingly difficult circumstances among us musicians. My quality is clearly in the musical language, not so much in influencerism and I’m just speaking for the majority of my fellow colleagues. It’s still most effective when people come to my shows and you create together what the digital world just can’t create, namely a shared live experience with all the mistakes, potential disappointments, but also with magical moments, that only people in the same room can experience. And you’re welcome to buy my album if you like it – streaming isn’t lucrative for music, as convenient as it may be.
TO THE NIGHTMARE by Charlotte Brandi
Charlotte Brandi – TO THE NIGHTMARE (release February 10th / Listenrecords / Broken Silence)
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Nerds in dialect: The screenshots
I have just mentioned that Susi Bumms conducted a (much more detailed) interview with Charlotte Brandi for the Musikexpress print edition. Let an older person guide you to a so-called “newspaper shop” and buy one of these with your analogue coin collection – printed on paper. You’ll be amazed at how we lived (and especially read) before the internet. In any case, the band of that Susi Bumms is called The Screenshots – and hasn’t published anything for some time.
The disappointment that came with it ends here and now. A new song will be released this Friday. And where Brandi switched to German with her current record, The Screenshots are already a step further. It is her first piece op Kölsch: “Love doesn’t know where it’s going”. Sounds weird? Clear. But this is not a “gag song”, but “a sincere ballad that tells of love, loneliness and a little bit of Cologne”. At least that’s what the band says themselves.
It’s sometimes difficult for me to get involved with the swaying double bottom of the three highly interesting crackpots. Can you really indulge in the emphatically unironical moments, or does someone come at the end and call out “April, April!” while you’re embarrassingly crying yourself? Because the song is great. I don’t think the band themselves are 100% sure where their fun ends. It goes without saying that this is also what makes the project so appealing.
Since February 10th you can hear and see the piece everywhere:
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people doing well? What’s wrong with you! – Kapa Tult
Here is another recommendation for all friends of German-speaking super hits. Do you already know Kapa Tult? Last year the debut EP was released with the extremely understandable title “Did you mean Katapult?”, now time has passed and something new will be released again, or as we popjournos would say with our deformed language: “This troupe has fresh tunes in the pipeline”. But that’s tomorrow’s pollen. Here is the fantastic prelude piece “People (who are doing well)”:
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“Are those nightgowns you guys wear on the red carpet?” – Wet Leg
Actually, I could be proud that Wet Leg was featured in the spread I was in charge of (prelude) of the printed Musikexpress last year. However, I was more fortunate that the ME social media editor had offered me this “topic” (dehumanized music industry slang). Only afterwards did I realize what a relevant record (self-titled) was caught there. The eager Musikexpress readers in the Grammy jury then obviously discovered our magazine. And so you could be happy with this really extraordinary band about their big win at the award show this week. I picked out an interview for that (see below) because it really sums up the band beyond their music… I mean. how humble and overwhelmed can you come across? Hear more Wet Leg. It should move the world forward in the same way that listening to the song “Layla” always makes it a little worse. So with Wet Leg a lot of the musical asshole energies can be balanced. The need for this is very great.
What happened until now? Here is an overview of all pop column texts.
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