Meet with: Trallala

This article in Bulgarian

In the meantime you can also listen to Trallala’s music here

…or read more about them and their future concerts here

In the biggest European cities there are hundreds, no, thousands of underground bands, which dream to become super pop stars. Maybe 10% of them deserve attention and less than 1% ever manage it to the big stage. The band I want to present you is definitely from the first category and is on its way to the second. And the chances are really big. They are Antonia, Anton, Zorro and Leon and call themselves TRALLALA. They live in Munich, Germany, all together in a house, that trembles under the sounds of SwingPop, Indie-Electro, Experimental and Beatbox day and night.

I had the great opportunity to meet them somewhere in the virtual space between Munich and Berlin and talk with them about music, art and life. They have just finished their first video and  and both of those will be premiered in the end of December, so this is actually Trallala’s first interview before their big success comes.  Enjoy it!

Teaser

Hello guys, let’s start from the beginning. Who/what is Trallala?

Hi! First of all, thank you for having us here! It is a real pleasure for us to give this interview! We are Anton, Antonia, Leon and Zorro. The name TRALLALA came to us as something that is free of definition. We think it refers good to the music we create and lets the listener experience the sound without any expectations.

How did you meet and how did you start making music together?

Originally, the Band was founded by Anton and Antonia, who are brother and sister, actually. This happened in 2005, somewhere in the magical lands of Bavaria. At the beginning the sound was influenced by Reggae and Hip-Hop, which gave birth to a lot of cheerful and twisted tracks. Martin and Vincent – ex-guitar players in the band – have contributed a lot for these! Their presence gave a very delicate and elegant pop-rock direction to our style, which Leon, a self-taught drummer from the nearby city, really liked, showed his skills and joined the band. His understanding for music was and is still bringing the production and creativity to another levels. In the meanwhile, after winning the Bulgarian Beatbox Championships in 2008 with the nickname Rammon, Zorro joined us and contributed to the experimental mood here! Now we all live together and experience the theory of the collective unconsciousness in real life!

How would you describe your music? I would say that it is a mixture of different genres like Electro-Pop, Swing and so on. But most important – it is always full of energy and the atmosphere on your concerts is just great!

It is interesting that you are asking this. We actually create different genres. This is not exactly coincidence, because we always like to experiment with different instruments and voices. It turns music into something surprising for us but also for the listeners we want to reach. We think that defining a genre can be done with observing the way the music is created. This is a very beautiful process for us. When starting a song, we never plan it – we just start. It’s always like the beginning of an experiment. So in it’s deepest roots, our music is experimental with a very strong indie-electronic push.

As far as I know, you all live in a beautiful house in Munich with an improvised record studio in the basement. So the workflow should be really interesting, isn’t it? How exactly do you write and record your songs?

We always enjoy making music and being creative spontaneously – this is how most of the songs happen. It’s worthy to mention that the work process is now on another plateau, since we work together with our label. We are trying, literally, every single day to improve what we have created the night before.

We think the good thing about our creative process is that we do everything by ourselves – from the beat, lyrics and recording to the mixing and producing. It is very important for us that we are always together in this workflow and exchange ideas about the possible  development of every single song.

Very soon you will premier your first EP? Tell me more about it? What should we expect from it?

The EP consists of four songs. So it is going to be a very authentic picture and reflection of how our workflow and ideas, combined together, sound now. This is really a new universe for us. Earlier, we were renting an old basement and doing late night sessions wasn’t so comfortable. The fact that now we have a place for art and creativity under our living rooms and we can use it anytime is very inspiring and we are much more productive. There is a lot of history behind the creation of every single song. A very special case was “Down to refeel”, which has been in production for more than a month now. There were very intensive moments for everyone of us and it was surprising how each take and recording for the track has reflected our situation. “Bored Lord” is, for example, the first track that has a leading beatbox sample in it, which happened as Zorro was preparing himself for the German Beatbox Battles.

You said that you already have a contract with a label…

We already have the contracts in our hands! In a few weeks we are going to sign for  Allan Frohmader and Julia Knill are the leaders of the label and the cool thing is that we are not building our relationship only with the business-tag, but we are very good friends, too. We have also the pleasure to work with Alexander and Tatjana Fettich, who are both professional photographers, founders of “FettichFilmFotografie” and very good friends of ours. Doing photo-shootings and videos with them is the definition of creativity!

The music industry is a big business for those who get into it. Do you imagine doing it for money or everything is for the highest goal – the music?

Getting into the musical business is always a cool thing, when you are with good and skilled people into it. Our social circles consist of such and we are happy that we are getting into the business state of mind without any stress. Having so much support from so many friends is something that pushes us forward with certainty!           

And what about the music video?

The video for the “The Freeze” was actually an accidental coincidence. We have just started making pictures, playing around with different objects and accessories in the room. While Leon was studying photography and design, he found out that shooting in black & white is a beautiful world and we think that the video represents really good this fascination. It was interesting how the camera was getting so hot, while making the pictures, that we had to put it in the refrigerator to cool. We are really happy that we are able to present a visual representation of our imagination for “The Freeze”.

By now you have had a lot of gigs in clubs in Munich. What about concerts in other cities? Why not also in Bulgaria?

Oh, we would like to! Our goals expand outside Munich and outside Germany, too. We are positive about doing this in the future, because we notice the influence of the live performances in the clubs here – everybody is dancing! So when doing concerts in other cities and countries, it will be for the audience, for their enjoyment! We think that playing in Bulgaria will be awesome!

This first EP is just the beginning of your career, I am sure. But do you already have plans or dreams for the future?

Yes, our dreams are to be able to develop our style further, to keep exploring new musical genres and sounds, to meet more and more people and to continue doing the art we love on a professional level, delivering it’s interpretation to our listeners and friends!

We would like to thank you for interviewing us! We wish you and everybody to be always inspired and to keep doing the things you love! Cheers, TRALLALA!