By ThinkInElectronic / Saturday, March 08, 2014 / No comments /
RISK WORTH TAKING WITH SUSANA
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH SUSANA
“The woman who follows the crowd will usually go no further than the crowd. The woman who walks alone is likely to find herself in places no one has ever been before.”
― Albert Einstein
How are you doing? A friend of ours is working on a classics mix and we wanted to know what's you favourite classic of all time?
Im doing great, thank you! My favourite classic of all time? Wow, that's a tough question. But "Sound of Goodbye" by Perpetuous Dreamer (Armin van Buuren) and vocalist Elles de Graaf comes pretty close! It's one of the first trance tracks I became addicted to. I remember listening to it a lot during a backpacking trip through Europe.
What's the first thing that comes to mind when you hear South Africa?
The fact that one of the languages people speak there is Afrikaans, which resembles my own Dutch language a lot!
Can you tell us a bit more about yourself and what attracted you to music, specifically trance and EDM?
Ever since I can remember I somehow knew I could sing and Ive always dreamt of a career as a singer. Especially during my teenage years I got in touch with many different musical genres, I took vocal coaching lessons and sung in different bands. I discovered electronic music relatively late though, around the time that I left high school. But it didn't take long for me to fall in love with it, especially trance and progressive. It was like a whole new musical world opened up to me and I'm still exploring it to this day.
You are a singer, songwriter, DJ, radio show host and a live performer. How did you become so multi talented and which one do you love doing?
I believe talents are given, skills are earned. Musical talent I believe is something a person is born with. Then what you do with your talent comes down to skills, which you can develop. I've been fortunate enough to have been born with a talent for singing and a musical ear. The other facets of my musical career - performing live, writing, making and hosting a radio show and mixing - are a combination of my musicality and the skills that I've developed over the years. I'm proud of my hard work and happy with the artist that I've become because of it, yet at the same time I feel like I still have a lot of growing to do! Thankfully I'm eager to learn and I have a natural curiosity for everything related to music. I have an ambiguous relationship with new challenges though; on the one hand I can become really insecure and frustrated if I struggle with something new at first, on the other hand I don't like to stand still and I love the excitement of getting out of my comfort zone. Cause after all, even though it's scary at first, out side of your comfort zone is where the magic happens! I really believe fortune favours the brave. Which, not coincidentally, is also why I called my 2nd artist album "Brave".
Just recently you took your career a step further and started DJing, why the decision to start DJing, a lot of vocalists are going that route, what do you think motivated them to start DJing? Do you think it's just a trend or is it the next step for vocalists in their careers?
I can't speak for other vocalists but when I look back on the past decade I think it's obvious that vocalists have been establishing themselves more and more as artists in this scene which, for a long time, has been the main territory of - mostly male - DJs and producers. Whereas back in the day a vocalist wasn't viewed as much more than an instrument on a track, we are now taking centre stage, profiling ourselves as artists, with our own fan bases, performing more and more in clubs around the world,not just as a guest but as one of the headliners. So in that sense I think for a lot of vocalists the step to DJ'ing is now a relatively small one to make and indeed, a logical next step in their careers. DJ's bring vocalists to their shows to add that extra special something, so why shouldn't we be able to do the same? Speaking for myself, as an artist I identify myself 100% with the electronic music scene and the music is a part of my daily life. I'd say trance and progressive are my drug of choice! Ive been curious about DJ'ing ever since I entered the scene and started going to clubs and events. I took my first lessons a couple of years ago but didn't take it to the next level at the time, probably cause I was still so focused on building my singing career. Then about 1,5 years ago I became involved with V2V, the radio show hosted in turns by Ana Criado, Betsie Larkin and myself. I realised more than ever how much I enjoy selecting tracks, mixing them together, thinking of the journey of my sets, the build up, and basically sharing good music with the listeners. That's why I recently decided to get back to practising on the decks. I still view myself very much as a beginner though! I know how to sync, beat match and mix but to fully master the gear and feel confident about is gonna take practice and determination.
You have just released your debut compilation album Press Play, what made you take the decision to release a compilation and how did you decide on the tracklist? Did you have any difficulties through the selecting, recording, mixing, mastering process?
Even though Press Play is not affiliated with V2V, V2V did inspire me to take that next step cause I enjoy putting those episodes together a lot. I thought it would be nice to basically do the same but pour it into a mix compilation concept. Fans look to their favourite DJ's and producers to share good music with them and I figured vocalists can do the same and maybe even offer a slightly different perspective. I was a bit nervous about it initially but so far the response to Press Play has been very good. The whole process of putting together Press Play has been a lot of fun. Thankfully I didn't encounter any real difficulties. Though, for the track selection, which I started in january, I was faced with the fact that at the start of the year not much new tracks were being released. And of course in december there were a lot of end of year countdown's and top of 2013 lists so I felt like a lot of recent good tracks had already been played so much it wouldn't be very interesting to put them on Press Play. Thankfully the label, Amsterdam Trance Records, could help me out with some upcoming releases to select from and I added some tracks that were relatively more unknown, like Penumbra by Bilal el Aly and Linnea Schossow, the Somna remix of Higher by Rafael Frost and Jennifer Rene and one of my favourite remixes, the Andy Duguid remix of Like Satellites by Manufactured Superstars. Obviously I also selected a few of my own tracks, not only my new single with Hazem Beltagui but also a Susana classic; the dark and emotional Nic Chagall remix of Frozen, my collab with Josh Gabriel. I really enjoyed every step of the process, including going back and forth about the logo and artwork. I'm already looking forward to making volume 2!
Inspiration is all around us, where do you draw inspiration from when writing?
Most of the time I let the music speak to me. It can be as simple as an image popping up in my head. Most of the time I don't think of what Im going to write about up front, the theme usually reveals itself to me while writing. I also take a lot of inspiration from the emotions and images other songs evoke in me. A lot of my writings relate to emotions I've gone through myself though.
To many females out there you are a role model, how does this make you feel and what messages to you have to all the females wanting a career in the music industry?
If what I'm doing inspires other woman out there to aim for their dreams then I think that's a great and humbling side effect. At the same time I wouldn't want being a role model to mean that me or my career are regarded as perfect. Instead I'd like aspiring vocalists/artists to realise that Ive had to overcome certain struggles to reach where I am right now, and that I still struggle sometimes. I think to be able to show that you can be successful despite all odds, by continuing to work hard and getting back up after you fall yet remaining your vulnerability and authenticity at the same time, that to me would be an inspiring role model.
As humans we are never completely satisfied with anything we do, when are you completely satisfied with your work and how do you know that it's perfect?
Tough one! I don't even think I aim for perfect. Perfection in art is kind of boring. And when is something perfect anyway? It's in the eye of the beholder.. But when something feels or sounds good to me, that is, if I feel Im 100% behind what I've done, that's when I can say: that's a wrap!
With so much good music around, how do you select what to play in your sets? If we were DJs we would be so stuck when it came to that..
For V2V, as its a vocal only show, the pickings are much slimmer cause I only play vocal tracks. For Press Play I had more freedom cause its not limited to vocals. Just as with some of the guest mixes I've done. I always try to combine the latest and greatest tracks with relatively more unknown tracks, otherwise it's going to be too predictable. If I listen to a set or go to a club I like to be surprised every now and then as well. Most importantly for me is to create an interesting and tasty set with a good build up which takes you through different emotions.
Is it hard to perform live and DJ at the same time? Or does it make the live performance a bit easier and more personal for the crowd?
This is something I have yet to discover! Currently I'm just doing vocal only sets for my performances. To combine it with a DJ set is definitely something I have in mind to incorporate further down the road but at this point that's still a work in progress. I do think it would add an extra dimension to my performances, not only for the crowd but for myself as well. It's definitely something I'd love to explore in the (near) future.
We believe every artist has a message they are trying to portray to the world through their works. What message are you trying to send out through your music?
When it comes to the music itself I'm mainly here to capture emotion in melodies and voice and share it in such a way that it touches other people. I believe music has a strong emotional energy that can help us uncover certain underlying emotions and even bring us closer to ourselves and help us to connect to others. This realisation was actually what inspired me for the lyrics of Closer, my track with Omnia & The Blizzard. If there's anything I'd love people to take from my music that would be it. At the same time I also feel very attached to the cause of paving the way for vocalists to be viewed as artists instead of just voices for hire.
I can imagine! I can spend an hour in front of my closet deciding what to wear. Thankfully for my gigs I have a few different outfits that I'm using in turns. Most of them, even though I don't like shopping, I found in shops in Holland. One of my dresses that I've worn a lot was a gift from a designer friend. Her brand is called Juffrouw Jansen. Actually I want to get myself a new outfit for my upcoming gigs! Not sure yet where I'm going to be looking to score one. I don't really have a special item that I take to all my gigs, besides my own in ear monitor, microphone and TC Helicon, which is an effects panel that lets me play around with adding some reverb and delay to my live vocals. I can recommend the TC to every performing singer!
I really hope to visit South Africa soon! It would be my first time, can you imagine? I hope you've enjoyed reading this interview. Thanks for supporting me, without your support I wouldn't be able to live my dream career. And thanks to Think IN Electronic for having me!
Connevt with Susana
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment
Let us know what you think