“The children’s disco played ‘Mambo No.5’ in particular” – Giulia Becker in conversation

My first column of the new year. Welcome back, you mice! And because 2025 probably won’t go down in history as a feel-good year, here’s a wonderful, completely positive topic. Oh, what does “topic” mean anyway? We’re not in the confines of a record company. I’m talking here and today about (and with) Giulia Becker.
My first encounter was through the “Neo Magazine Royale”, where Giulia was an author and she also appeared in front of the camera from time to time. The breakthrough was definitely her song “Verdammte Schei*e”, which is still incredibly good to this day.

And Giulia also sang with them on the show No angels or Lizzo. Later she added her award-winning couples podcast “DRINNIES” with Chris Sommer. However, she has long left “Neo Magazine” behind; today she writes for “The Carolin Kebekus Show” and is an author. I gave away two copies to lovely people for Christmas.

The book is called “If I don’t go on vacation, someone else will” (Rowohlt) and has emancipated itself from this novel imperative that publishers reflexively impose on their young authors. Giulia Becker writes short stories and can make full use of her talent for taking a joke to unexpected heights and depths. The behaviorally disturbing stories start harmlessly and end in unexpected madness. Giulia emphasizes that Ella Carina Werner’s story volumes motivated her to dedicate herself to this format. I nod eagerly, as I gave away various books by Ella Carina Werner a few Christmases earlier. Highly recommended.

In any case, what I love most is that Giulia still adds such casualness to her punch line excess. The obvious understatement makes the setting really shine brightly.

Live in Frankfurt, her reading was rightly sold out completely and long in advance. Nilz Bokelberg moderated in a friendly manner and then supported Giulia with the singing performance, which – of course – couldn’t be missed. The self-made song “Barista for a Night” was set to the music of Albrecht Schrader.

I conducted an interview with Giulia Becker for the upcoming print edition of Musikexpress. Or rather, we talked about ten records that accompanied her in her being. But there was a lot more to this conversation that didn’t find its way into the magazine – and you can now read it exclusively here. Have fun!

“I have an estimated 140,000 playlists” – Giulia Becker in an interview

Giulia, when we talk about you and music, we first have to clarify where and how do you actually keep it? Are there meter-high CD shelves, a chest with cassettes or countless playlists on streaming providers?

GIULIA BECKER: I actually want to listen to music more consciously again and have now started buying vinyl records. [zögert] However, I don’t even own a record player yet. I still have to figure out which model is good and which is not. But I’m looking forward to hearing albums again in their entirety, as people imagined them. So far I’ve been a bit of a playlist mouse. I have an estimated 140,000 playlists – it seems to be my hobby.

So they all cater to different needs?

Yes, it really gets very detailed for me. For example, I maintain several shower playlists: “Shower in the morning”, “Shower in the evening” – and of course showering on the weekend requires a different list than during the week…

And you don’t take playlists that are already offered, but put them together yourself?

Oh yes, definitely!

Considering your age, shouldn’t you have collected CDs at some point? Are they all gone?

That was really bitter. I actually owned a lot of CDs and when I was in the city, I didn’t buy clothes like other people, but always just went to Media Markt, Saturn, or random music stores. When the era of the CD came to an end, it really hurt to send it all in to Momox [ein Reseller für u.a. gebrauchte Tonträger, Anm.]. Now, however, I regret it a bit, because with a CD player you no longer seem completely disconnected. I really wish I had kept everything better!

In these pre-streaming times, people reified their own taste in music with a collection of recordings. I remember that at the turn of the millennium I didn’t have many CDs because I just didn’t have that much money. But then I started working in the editorial department of a music magazine and envied the other pop journalists who had built monuments to their musical distinction in the form of huge CD collections. As an editorial member, I was also sampled, so the CDs were sent to me as samples, and I bought Benno shelves at Ikea for years – because I dragged everything home to create a wall like that. Always hoping that visitors will wander through my room and see what kind of records I have. But it happened all too rarely. And then, as you already suggested, CDs suddenly became hazardous waste and I laboriously dismantled everything.

I still experience this desire to be seen in my own collection with books to this day. The fact that people hoard a lot of things in a pious hope that at some point someone will go through it and nod in admiration at everything they’ve read. But at the end of the day it just doesn’t matter. That’s why I advocate when it comes to books: Don’t keep them, but rather sort them out, give them away, put them back into circulation.

Behind you, however, I see a long row of books.

These are just the books I still want to read.

With the “DRINNIES” podcast you make it clear that you are not the type of person who wants to be around people all the time. But do you find yourself in a situation where you come home at night after going out with friends and want to carry on a little more and play your favorite music for them?

Rarely! However, when I’m with people privately, I’m the one who takes control of the Bluetooth speakers. Because after all – we remember – I have the right playlist for every mood. People like to fall back on that.

Sounds kind of good, I just make a playlist at the end of the year for the previous year – but maybe I should branch out more.

It’s a trend in the US for people to create monthly playlists. This means that at the end of the year you get your own review – and see what new things you have discovered over time.

I always saw you as a singer. When you still worked at Böhmermann, there was also an opportunity for this. How is it today, do you still have opportunities to sing?

I don’t sing anymore – at most in the shower. But I’ve started playing bass now! I’m a bass player now. However, the bass player is currently out of service because I haven’t practiced for a while. My hot phase on the bass came when I was handing in the book. I had to deal with it and just started playing bass out of spite. But recently there was a gap in my practice – and I’m afraid I have to get back to the front again. That’s why I’m trying to suppress it a little, but I still bought a second bass [lacht]. It was important to me that I have two different types of sound when I’m not playing on either one.

What kind of dream is behind it? Bass isn’t an instrument to be used alone, is it? Do you want to play in a band?

I would really like to have a funk band, something like the German Vulfpeck – a female Vulfpeck, that would be it. But I probably need to practice a little more… So far I can only play E, A, D, G – the open strings – very well. For the rest I would need lessons.

Your second book has “Vacation” in the title. This immediately conveys something familiar. Has traveling always been about music for you?

We used to often go to campsites like this with the family in the south of France. There was a children’s disco and the main thing that played was “Mambo No.5”.

Does vacation also function as a biographical place of longing for past trips – or is it more something where you say: Now that I’m grown up, I do everything differently!

I remember it used to be mostly chaotic. I have two siblings plus both parents. The five of us then took very long motorway journeys… in a Golf 1. Of course with all the luggage in the trunk – securing loads was definitely not an issue for our family back then. I recently saw this again in a photo and then used it as a tour poster for my reading tour. I’m sitting on a camping chair in front of the open trunk, which looks like a mess.

How could you fit three children between the ages of two and eight into this vehicle! But ultimately, I remembered that the coolest vacations were always the simplest. Camping or going to a farm was the most fun.

What happened so far? Here is an overview of all the pop column texts.