INTERVIEW WITH K’SANDRA 1. What inspired your passion for music and who has been there supporting you from the beginning? Since a very young age, I always had the most fun performing in school plays, singing and making costumes and getting dressed up and becoming another character. I expressed very early on my emotions thru singing and songwriting instead of just talking about myself or my problems. I was never a very good talker and swallowed a lot of pain, but through music found a way to process all my emotions. Music has been a passion and healer for me all my life. All I ever wanted to do is become a singer and performer. Music to me is another form of language, just like speaking Spanish, French or any other language. At first, my parents supported me when I was still in school, but as soon as I entered the “working” age they naturally wanted me to get a prestige and serious job, and stopped any support towards my musical education. I pretty much supported myself all alone. 2. How do you feel about people downloading music rather then buying physical copies? I love that there is the instant access to music when you are in your very moment of love, bliss, anger, frustration or any other feeling, and you want to connect with a song immediately. Though personally I also love holding the physical CD of any artist that I admire. Studying the story that the artist is trying to communicate with their artwork and being a musician myself it was always important to me to read the liner notes and see who produced which song, which studio was used for recording, how many songwriters were on each song, and so on. Now this might be for the average music consumer not so important, but I feel our attachment as musicians to our art and the hard work of having completed an album after having put in years of work towards it. The physical CD is the manifestation for us musicians, and the next stepping stone into touring, connecting with our audience, who have the chance to hold your CD at the merch table or to order it and have a physical gift in their hand. Downloading music could just be the thing on the go and I do understand the need of instant access, I guess it’s part of our evolution, but for me it is still easier to think in terms of albums rather than just individual singles.3. How do you feel about the music industry today? There is something wrong with that question… the word industry, I just seriously hate the word industry. I have a classical background in music and studied a lot of what composers such as Beethoven, Mozart and Bach went through. These days it feels like songs are just done to make a buck and kept in a certain pattern so it stays trendy and relevant to the current market to ensure tons of fast income. It’s not about the artist’s creation anymore, it’s about their marketability, unlike when music used to be about what the composer was trying to express and the genuineness of the emotion being conveyed. 4. Where do you see yourself five years from now? I see myself travelling and touring and bringing a wave of joy and great energy through my music to people worldwide who have maybe never seen my show live or heard my songs before. Everyone has the right to have access to great music and learn about the artist’s vision while creating their masterpiece. I also hope to be able to help other talented musicians from all over the world who are developing their crafts and helping to guide them on their musical journey. And I wish to be able to help less fortunate people around the world and to give something back, especially to indigenous people who often got an unfair shake from history. 5. Do you think singer/songwriters are the best interpreters of their own work or do you believe some cover versions can be better then the original? It really depends – some singers/songwriters are great at just writing their material. I have met plenty of musicians whose songwriting and song structure was phenomenal, but I felt that interpreting some of their own work was not their strength at all. I have the opinion that if your songs are great, why not give up your ego and share them with others who can bring them to a completely different level and express their own feelings through your material. Maybe some other artist is a much better performer and sees the vision of the song created, and has a great “acting” talent or stage presence in connecting the written song with the audience. On “Light ‘n’ Dark”, I had a hand in writing each song, but I also had the privilege of working with really talented people (and for each song different people) who could help bring that particular song to full fruition. I am always a big fan of very well-done cover versions since that is what music and songs are about. You might be hearing even hear one or two from me in the future as well! Once a song is born, it has this amazing possibility to live on and be seen from the perspective of any other person and become something new. I do hate bad cover versions though, that are just made to milk it, that have been covered over and over, or ones which sound pretty much exactly like the original. Give me something new if you’re going to make the effort. Three of those that just come to mind are ”Sweet Dreams”, “Spin me Round” and “Tainted Love” – so overdone!6. Who have you always dreamt of working with and why? How would you go about accomplishing this? This is a question I have answered probably twenty times on-air and in interviews, and each time it is always a great and new question for me. The answer is different every time, as it depends in what mood I am in and how my current circumstances or emotions are. Right now, I would love to work with Paul Epworth, not because he’s won Grammys for “Rolling in the Deep” or an Oscar for “Skyfall”, but because I am just so in love with his songwriting, personality, British accent, song structure and him as a human being. I just met Paul at Seth McFarlane’s after-party following the Oscar’s (and he was kind enough to let me pose for a picture with his), so I guess that was the first step without even realizing it. Okay, and one part of my answer remains the same… the other person I would really love to work with is Eminem. There is a movie project being discussed right now, so our paths might just cross. Eminem seems to have a similar past of never having met and not knowing who his father is, so I guess we have something to talk about that could result in some good song lyrics.7. As you are starting out your career in the music industry what steps do you plan on taking to reach your goal? I am super clumsy when it comes to planning. I plan and plan, and then it anyway takes on a road all its own. All I can say is that I am trying to see opportunity in everything, and if it means falling down and getting up a million times till it’s the right thing, then that’s how things are meant to fall into place, I guess. Just like right now, it’s like all the stars are finally aligning, and when all is in alignment no matter what you do, it just floats great. I’m attached to what Eminem says… “Opportunity comes once in a lifetime.” And they did come for me, but I was either not ready or too blind to see them at the time. One plan I do have for sure is that I work hard. I work about fourteen hours a day on what I believe in, though it does not feel like work most of the time; it’s a passion and a calling to shape your future. 8. Have you found that as you are starting out your career in the music industry there are aspects that have taken you completely by surprise. If so, what are they? Call me naive, a believer, or just plain stupid, but one aspect that has taken me totally by surprise is that I had no idea that you can buy your way into the music industry. If I had two million Euros for radio promotion and a marketing campaign, I could probably be as big as a Lady Gaga or Taylor Swift. I guess that makes me sad, though… I always had this romantic notion that all it took was talent and a lucky break, but when I got to Los Angeles no one seemed interested in the music, only in how much budget I had to work with. I came from a very poor family, unlike both these ladies, so had no financial support and have worked my bones off to get where I am today. Beethoven’s music is still with us today, yet he died penniless and alone in the streets. 9. What is the greatest thing about working in the music industry? And what would you change if you had the opportunity? I don’t see it as work, as work implies doing something that I don’t love doing. I hate work. Music and shaping my future is rather a passion then work. One thing I would change for sure is I should have gone and partied with Eminem back then in Hamburg at this private concert I went to years ago, and I should have had a CD ready when I ran into Madonna’s A&R rep. Thankfully, the Universe took pity on me, and opportunity seems to have come more than once. 10. If you could have asked anyone for advice when you were starting out, who would you have liked to ask? What would you have liked to ask? What would be your answer now? Two people: Michael Jackson, if he were still with us, and Clive Davis. I would have asked Mr. Davis what makes the artists that he puts his hands on so different from everyone else, and so special with such a staying-power. I’m going to a talk he’s giving next week, so maybe I’ll get my chance! If someone asked me the same question, my answer would be that all artists have worked really hard to get to where they are, and had something very, very unique – and they took on the risk of being different than anything that is “trendy”. I would have liked to ask Michael questions that would take way too long to explain here.11.From your experience in the entertainment industry, what advice could you offer people looking to get where you are today? The advice I could offer to any person is to have a real commitment to themselves and their work, and to be prepared to work on it no less than fourteen hours a day if they really plan to make music their career. 12. What courses/classes would you recommend someone take if they want to be a professional in the music industry? I would recommend learning the technology and the business sides, not just the creative part, recording classes so you understand the entire process, and I would recommend tons of hours working with a vocal coach. I have learned so much about my voice and even myself from various vocal coaches that I have started coaching other musicians in my free time. It is amazing to watch the transformation in someone else. In any business, the most successful people are the ones who took the time to really hone their craft. 13. How many years were you fighting to get to where you are today and what was that time in your life like?-I wrote a song about that called “Come up Fighting”, and think it was a fight of at least ten years, if not more. That’s why I smile when I hear words like “overnight success” in the media. I know it took Jim Carrey something like eleven years to become an “overnight success”. People give up or lose attention way too easily, and success definitely takes some perseverance. You can’t quit at the first “no” or sign of trouble. 14. From your experience so far, what have you found to be most challenging? And how are you dealing with it? The most challenging part is getting your best friends to come to see you perform because you feel they know you the most as a person or their friend, so it still makes me insecure, even today, sharing my art with someone I know so closely. In some ways it is easier to bare your soul in front of a crowd of strangers than it is with one or two people you know really well. How do I deal with it? Well, imagining them in their underwear certainly doesn’t help, contrary to popular belief! I actually force myself to perform smaller, more intimate gigs every once in a while to get over the fear of having people too close in my life. 15. Please share with us your proudest moment in your career so far? My proudest moment was when I got accepted into the Recording Academy. Being a voting member for the Grammys makes me so proud, and it is also a huge responsibility, one that I take very seriously. And when I attended my very first Grammy Awards and walked that red carpet, it felt like a lifetime of dreams were finally coming true. It was something so special for me, that I still wonder if it really happened or if I imagined it.
Posted on: Sun, 07 Jul 2013 02:16:19 +0000
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