Kaleidoscope Interview - issue Spring 2007
Introducing Lahannya...
Lahannya - the voice of industrial club act Soman and resident DJ at London's Slimelight club - is now presenting her own project, which she wryly describes as dark alternative rock flirting with electro. Her forthcoming album 'Shotgun Reality' has shed the eclectic kitchen-sink sound of her debut EP and comparisons with Throwing Muses and Lush have given way to the likes of Lacuna Coil and Garbage.
Lahannya's first release was a compilation track on eclectic US noise label Zenflesh, brought about by a chance meeting in a New Orleans voodoo shop between Lahannya and Zenflesh artist Jim Kaiser. Jim showed label owner Destin Leblanc a 4-track demo of Lahannya's 'Drowning' who was instantly charmed by its eclectic lo-fi quality. Soon after, ‘Drowning' came out on the Amduscias compilation, amidst the aural assault of Noise/Girl and the nightmarish soundscapes of Petit Mal.
Inspired by her first release, the positive feedback and the Zenflesh way of just doing it, Lahannya recorded more material for a debut EP with a new version of 'Drowning' as the title song. Not interested in chasing rainbows she instantly forsook finding a label for creating her own: Kabuki. The 'Drowning' EP did well for an eclectic small budget release, but it needed live performances to take it to the next level. Unfortunately, ever since her move from Brighton to London, Lahannya had difficulties finding the right musicians to work with and so, instead of finding her future band, others began finding her…
Lahannya became increasingly sought after as co-songwriter and guest vocalist. Her first collaboration was 'Another Life' by Greenhaus, who succeeded in shedding their techno associations through the addition of Lahannya's idiosyncratic vocals. After 'Another Life' she began her collaboration with Soman, which she is best known for to date. Together they recorded club hits like 'Tears' and the remix of Combichrist's 'Sex, Drugs and Industrial', and performed live at festivals such as M'Era Luna, WGT and Summer Darkness.
At M'Era Luna 2004 a chance encounter with Lutz Demmler of controversial German goth-fetish band Umbra et Imago provided the trigger for Lahannya's return to her own material. What started as light-hearted backstage partying became friendship and, after realising how well they complemented each other musically, a decision to begin work on the next Lahannya album. The result is the 12-track album 'Shotgun Reality', which will be released in May on Kabuki. On stage Lahannya is joined by Lutz on bass, Belle from Killing Miranda on drums and Bryn Roberts on guitar. Together the glamorous quartet recently headlined the Camden Underworld to premiere the new material live.
With the release of Shotgun Reality imminent and a European tour in planning, Kaleidoscope caught up with the German-born singer and performer with the trademark blue braids to find out more about her past, present and future plans.
K: Alternative rock as Lahannya, industrial club music with Soman, downtempo electronica with Greenhaus… In contrast to other artists you’ve done a lot of genre-hopping – how come?
I am very fussy in terms of which music I like but it’s definitely not confined to one or two genres. With my own project I am already mixing too many influences to shoehorn it into one genre – which makes it harder to promote, but on the other hand much more interesting in my eyes. It draws on my love for powerful tracks by the likes of Snake River Conspiracy, Kidneythieves, Prodigy and Rob Zombie and mixes it with elements from other genres – goth, Celtic folk, trip hop, indie… I couldn’t also have incorporated the stomping beats from the music I love to DJ on Slimelight’s industek floor, so instead my love for noise, hard electro and power electronics gets an outlet through my collaborations.
K: Tell us more about your collaborations – how did they come about and what were the highlights?
A friend of mine told me that Greenhaus were looking for a vocalist. I wrote vocals for a couple of their instrumental tracks, which they liked so much they asked me to contribute to most of the songs on the album. I also performed live with them throughout 2003. Working with Steve’s (ed. Steve Bellamy from Greenhaus) instrumentals wasn’t easy as they didn’t follow the usual structure and weren’t regular - one moment there were 5 bars in a verse, the next only 3 and second time round it was a third shorter! However, it forced me to think more creatively instead of going for the obvious.
I met Soman at his Slimelight gig in November 2003. He told me about this new track he’d written for which he wanted female vocals and English lyrics and since I had wanted to work on club music for a while, we decided to give it go. A couple of months later ‘Tears’ was finished and although we both loved the end result, the opinion of Soman’s fanbase was split: some thought pretty vocals had no place on a Soman tune, others loved it and many more first discovered Soman through this one track. This reaction was very noticeable live at our first gigs together and so it was amazing to hear hundreds of people singing along to ‘Tears’ at M’Era Luna last year! That was probably one of the highlights of my musical career!
I also recorded a track with Wintry, which was released on Bruno Kramm’s Danse Macabre label, and a couple of tracks for the Umbra et Imago electro side project Dracul with whom I performed in the Agra Halle during last year’s WGT, which gave me the amazing opportunity of performing in front of 5,000 people.
K: Are more collaborations in the planning?
Yes, a few more are. There’ll be on one or two collaborations on the next Soman release and I’m also working with two other artists at the moment. However, my main focus is my own project with the album release imminent and UK and European live dates in the planning. But hopefully I find enough time to do both!
K: Talking about the new album – what are your favourites on it?
This is always a tricky one… it keeps changing. Initially it was Beautiful Girl because it’s almost a perfect pop song without the cheese and Charades because of the powerful baseline, then Bleed for Me - the rock song with the naughty lyrics - and Lutz’ very tribal remix of Narcotic. At the moment it’s Doors, as we’ve completely reworked it and it’s become quite heavy, and Silent Victim, which I love performing live – it really kicks! But who knows what it’ll be next week!
K: You’re releasing the album on your own label – tell us more about that decision…
Initially, I really wanted to get signed by a label that had a track record of successful releases, but right now most labels are very cautious in who they sign and it works against us that we don’t neatly fall into any single genre. When I did not find a label that could offer me more support than I could provide myself, I decided to resurrect my own label, Kabuki. I’ve learnt a lot from releasing my first EP, from releases I’ve managed for others and I’ve also got the experience and support of my producer, Lutz, who has been running a successful recording studio in Germany for many years and whose band Umbra et Imago also releases through their own label. It also means that I retain more control over all aspects of the release from design and packaging to promotion and distribution decisions. I’m actually quite excited about it, especially as I’ve got a great bunch of people covering my back who believe in the project and are helping out in various ways.
K: With Umbra et Imago’s Lutz on bass and Belle from Killing Miranda on drums you have quite a line-up for a newcomer - how did this come about?
Actually, that was not planned at all but turned out to be the best thing that could have happened! I spent months in the middle of last year trying to put together the right line-up, but six weeks before our first gig it just became obvious that it wasn’t going to work out as I’d hoped. It wasn’t the right vibe, it didn’t feel natural and with only Bryn left on guitar I had to either cancel the gig or magically conjure up the musicians I’d been having trouble to find for years! I must be a natural because I found a dream line-up within two weeks: Lutz immediately offered to play bass and Belle said that he’d been disappointed I hadn’t asked him in the first place! The new line-up simply feels right, we all clicked instantly and Belle on drums was exactly what the music needed live! Lutz’ doing backing vocals – instead of a second female voice - changed the sound quite a bit, but I like it. I was sceptical when a friend said to me that things happen for a reason, but now I’m a believer…
K: What about your live plans?
We had our UK live debut last November and our first European gigs this April. We’ll be playing live much more frequently from now on, as the album is done and we finally have the time to have some fun with it live! Our next confirmed UK gig is as support for Emilie Autumn at the Underworld London on 20 July, but more are in planning. If you want to find out when and where we’re playing next have a look on our Web site…
More information about Lahannya can be found at www.lahannya.com and www.myspace.com/lahannya.
