I visited the Homeless in Berlin

For my NPR December story http://www.nprberlin.de/post/metal-band-raises-money-berlins-homeless, I spent a few hours riding the Kältebus from the Berlin Stadmission around Berlin. They work to get homeless and helpless people off the streets during cold winter nights so that they do not freeze to death. I met Torsten who usually lives in Tiergarten but had landed in a drunken stupor half way across town at a hospital, Jose from Spain who was curled up in a blanket on the street by a ritzy hotel and who looked petrified and stunned when we woke him up. He does not speak English, only Spanish. We think he is lost and hoping to be found by the people he came with to Berlin. Both were driven to a shelter. Then I met Tomas who had found a new roof to camp under strewn with his belongings such as a finished glüwein bottle, cigarette stubs galore and empty food wrappings. He complains that the police jeeps throwing him out of the warm Berliner Sparkasse across the street. Tomas says he is feeling slightly sad tonight and wants to end it all. Yet he does not want to come to the shelter because he fears the people there will steal from him. After 45 minutes of chatting and warm tea, the team reluctantly leaves him.Then we pick up a man with amnesia who has been brought to the shelter because he does not know where he lives. Luckily the shelter knows; he lives in a demensWG. He is driven home. We get a call from a man who is sleeping in a little corridor next to a Dixie klo (toilette). He does not want to come to the shelter but he accepts a cup of coffee while lighting the remnants of a cigarette with blackened hands. Then we go to meet Viola, a lovely woman who has built herself a home with her three dogs at a U bahn station. She is contantly under threats from the police who wish to take her "home" and dogs away. I hope that Viola won't mind that I share a picture of her. Her home may not be much but it is built with pride. She even has a Christmas tree. I tell her I don't have a Christmas tree, and I actually have an apartment. She looks at me like I'm crazy and says "Why not?" And I ask myself- she's right why not? Why am I not celebrating, I who have so much? For Christmas Viola wishes a German turkey dish. Maybe I can get her one if she's still living there in 3 weeks.There were many calls this night. The people I had the honor of meeting have warped realities and hard lives. But they all had heart. I returned home 3 am with a double dose of gratitude for my luxurious life and the people who love me. No one should live like this, animal or man. Please remember that the homeless are people who so long for someone to break their isolation and reach out. A cup of tea, a smile of acceptance, a chat is golden to them. I gave one man a bottle of water and he could not believe it because it was a new and unopened bottle. Little acts of kindness are right outside your door needing to happen. If you want to help, right now they could really use donated sleeping bags and shoes...Berliner Stadmission. Sleep well and stay warm.

Reply  

2012 Music News/First Blog for the New App

With the advent of the Anouschka app, I will be staying directly in touch with fans real-time via this blog...how fun, eh? Looking back at 2011, I can say I am thrilled my EP "So Why?" climbed the reverbnation charts (voted in by peers NOT the commercial music monopolies and their payola buddies) to # 1 not just in Berlin, but all of Germany in the American category. I am not sure the music is Americana, but anything singer songwriter in Europe with a hint of Nashville twang probably makes the grade.

I had a great interview at Soundmachine Radio in North Carolina with DJ Bear. I was sitting at 11 pm German time in my pajama on skype. The audio quality's a bit off (skype ain't always a girl's best friend) but I will be posting it since DJ Bear was kind enough to send me a copy of this one-hour feature... DJ Bear has invited me back for a Radio release party via skype when the new album comes out...ah...hmmm...the new album...what's up with that?

Yes, so there is a new album under way. It is my first ever solo album. By solo, I mean just me on guitar or piano and vocals. No band. It is recorded with a great friend and colleague who has a studio called Studio X in Berlin. (If you need a cool place to record check it out.) The reason I went solo was that I think people do not always hear the lyrics in my songs in today's over-saturated music market and I wanted to undress musically to showcase the songwriting. It will be very interesting to see how you all and new fans and radio listeners react....

I want to mention some other great things that happened in 2011- just to catch up on news. I had a great tour in Sweden and a feature interview with DJ Eddy at Botkyrka Radio in Sweden. The interview is in Swedish and available at www.youtube/anouschka.

We chatted about the release of my single "Dying to Be Free" based on the true story of a lioness murdered by a trophy hunter in South Africa in front of her three dependent cubs. The song is a collaboration with the author and wildlife preservationist G. Patterson. I feel very strongly that we must continue to engage in action to protect our habitat and our fellow species. The earth and it's inhabitants are treasures, not commodities. I was a bit exhauted and sick for half a year, and disappointed that I could not rally more interest, but I was inspired the other day to pick up arms again. After all, by not doing anything, you remain part of the problem.

My inspiration came when I interviewed Mfa-Kera for my monthly NPR Berlin piece. Mfa- Kera (from Madagascar and Senegal) and her group Black Heritage wish to release an alternate band version of the song with me. I think this could be amazing!

So the message will be kept alive as the African lion dies, one by one... as so many other beautiful creatures. I believe that when I returned from the Bush in South Africa 2 years ago and started work on this song, Patterson had estimated the wild lions to be at 2500. Last year, I receieved word this estimate had dwindled to 2000.

I know that many organisations prefer to focus on single-species campaigns, so I want to be clear that while I wrote a song about lions, my message is for all animals preyed upon by man's senseless greed and brutality. The Dark Lioness (as she was called) is an icon for all defenseless animals that we torture, abuse and dominate from a misguided sense of entitlement. Everything in our ecosystem upon which we rely is interlinked. By disrupting breeding populations, habitats, and food chains we pave the way for irreperable damages that future generations will bear the brunt of. How very selfish and self-destructive. My personal aim is to help instill a different mind-set...to persuade an approach of long-term thinking as opposed to instant gratification, and a reverence and closeness to Mother Earth. Her pulse is within us all if only we would listen.

Have a lovely day! Anouschka

Reply  

Freestyl'n...

So as some of you know, I am a big fan of jam sessions. For me a jam session where is not where I go to polish off my ego and try to impress. I go to be part of some musical sensation and challenge my boundaries so that I ultimately grow artistically. Sometimes I fall flat on my face. Sometimes I excel. For me the fear of the unknown at a session is a rush.

When I lived in Sweden, it was blues jams that caught my attention and got me turned on to the blues, and I have to say, once they get a hold of you, it is impossible to understand music without paying tribute to the blues. (This would be why you have so many blues influences on my last album "My Kind of Heartbreak".)

Now for the new flavor....

The other day I went to a freestyle rap session. Look, even I had to go a couple of times before I could get up on that stage and try to let words flow...I was sure nothing would come out. But I got a rap going and it worked out fine. I was surprised at how the rap took over and I was just lost in it. It take some guts to get up on a stage with a ton of street hipsters in their 20s from Neukoeln...they have so much edge, talent, and devotion to their craft...

I usually write songs on the spot with some gypsy guys there who like to run Stevie Wonder chords and improvise melodies and lyrics on top. Those harmonies are fine for me, I can improvise words to anything like a blues or pop style. They sing in German and occasionally some Gypsy language, and I improvise in English. Some truly beautiful songs have come out of that. Unfortunately, it is like Picasso's painting in the sand...the sea washes it away and you never remember what you did. So those songs are never heard again.

At this particular session with the rappers anyway, this short Spanish-looking kid hops up on stage and starts freestyling. I "ohh" and "ahh" and do God- knows-what in English as backup. After the song, he looks at me demands in German... "Now in Spanish." "But..." I stutter, "I don't speak Spanish." but the kids already rapping away and people are taking pics, and I am racking my brain for Spanish words...."Come va".... "Ole, ole".....

I feel uncomfortable but he's rapping away with conviction. I have no idea what he is saying.

So after the applause has settled down , I lean over and whisper to him... "I don't speak Spanish!!!"

He looks at me and shrugs his shoulders, "Neither do I." "What???? But you were just rapping in Spanish!" "That wasn't Spanish." "It sure sounded like Spanish- what was it?" "I just made it up. See?" "You made it up?" "Yeah, I can't speak no Spanish. How am I supposed to speak Spanish? Spanish means we do it like it SOUNDS Spanish, ok?"

And he proceeds to churn out strings of make believe Spanish.

I am convinced. Stunned. So Spanish is all about imitating the language here. So creative!

Next he tells me I am doing fine but I have to sing in German now. I tell him I need some help. He tells me good words are..."Ich will dich", "das gefuhl|"...and some other phrases.

So off I go doing my first German backups ever...singing silly things like "the world is beautiful" in German, and "you are beautiful", and "I want you"..... but hey, if you have to learn a new language, what could be more fun????

I have no idea how I did, but I definitely stretched my musical boundaries that evening and took a couple leaps of a cliff.

So, hmmm, I started with rock influences, dipped into blues and got my rock pop songs for this upcoming EP "So Why?" and NOW......stay tuned for the little rap section on my upcoming song "Lust"...a song about cougar prowling for a younger lover...what I would do if I had the guts but I don't, so I leave that up to my alter ego Laydee Berlin......check her out! Coming soon to your friendly internet store....

Reply