Vanilla Ninja to conquer South America!

Vanilla Ninja is on their way to conquer South America!

Vanilla Ninja is as powerful as never before. 1.5 years of troubles around their name in court are over and found their happy end. Piret, Katrin and Lenna now know themselves how to organize band stuff and in February they are going to conquer a new market. Katrin and Piret talk about the trio's crazy year.

Who or what surprised you the most in the public life in 2007?

Piret: The gossip news have crossed the line – they are trying to surprise all the time. A la – Amy Winehouse and Britney – it's a total overproduction. But who will get smarter thanks to those stories anyway? OK, you are reading again that someone has trashed her hotel room while being high – so what? I'm sorry that it's now a tradition how to promote their music.

Katrin: Just one day a journalist from Kroonika called me and said they had seen me walking around with a bag of onion near the Marketplace. I said, I do buy onions from there and use them in cooking many diffrent cuisines. Then the journalist asked: „Are you an onion fanatic?“ No, I'm not an onion – fanatic. It's the same as I would be a paprica or cucumber fanatic – I use them in foodmaking too. And that's how those news are born. But when answering a question no celebrity can surprise me no more.

You seem to be very proper and good behaving. Do you sometimes make star-like fooleries too?

Piret: Oh, we have made stupid things too. Once in Germany we decided to „low down our tensions“ and turned one dressing room upside down. We threw food on the walls, wrote on mirrors, so all the room was covered with leftovers of our food war. So we basically trashed the whole room. After that we got admonished too and we felt guilty. Because normally we don't act like that. Luckily we didn't have to pay a penalty this time.

Katrin: I have managed to stay away from those filthy fooleries, but it was quite great to throw those fruits there. Lenna once threw a lamp out of the hotel room window, I think it was in Germany. Could have get quite a scandalous story out of it, if media would have known that. We have partied along with world famous stars too, but I'm not gonna tell names here.

On 30th of November the auction over VN's trademark ended. How did you feel?

Katrin: I beg you not to mention that Russian man name, who put it to „sale“. Let's not talk about it at all, it isn't connected to us at all.

Year 2007 ended succesfuly to the band. Your former record company EMI won the trial in Germany. So how was the year for VN?

Piret: It was like a rollercoaster ride – very fast, with curves, exiting, dangerous, stressful, and finally we were satisfied. The win in Germany was really a very good piece of information.
Katrin: The year was really succesful, but it was full with tribulations thanks to people who stood on our way and tried to slow us down. Right now it's all finally okay again and holidays are awaiting!

There are talks, that for VN there are a new winds blowing in February...

Katrin: Yes, warm Chile winds are blowing for us. If everything goes as planned, we are participating in a big song contest.

Piret: Right now the interest for us is big contest in Latin America and the first step in promoting will be done in February, when we participate in a festival called Vina Del Mar (www.broken.cl and www.festivaldevina.cl) One Chilean record company found us thanks to one Polish fan and now the record company worker is a fan himself – he made a meticulous analyze of our songs and is waiting for us, he even thinks we could win. Record company Broken Records wants to release our CD.

Katrin: Chile is a country where we haven't been before, we really want to go. We may do a little promo-tour through Latin America. To many world famous stars Latin America has been the start for their big careers. We hope to stay there longer than 10 days.

Piret: Right now we are the managers of the band, because things are going quite slow at the moment and we are able to control them ourselves. We certainly don't need a manager in Estonia. But we do need him abroad. We ain't gonna release a new album anytime soon, and we ain't gonna perform in clubs every night – routine bandwork is out of question, we are not gonna do it. We are just resting and accepting biggest and most interesting projects. We were like squirrels stuck on a wheel for years and now we need a little different life. Most important is to deny the stories talking about us breaking up.

Many bands, duos, trios, who seemed almost impossible to separate in some points, have started to quarrel and now don't communicate with band members at all. What could cause that, if it would happen to you?

Piret: We have no plans of breaking up, then why to bother ourselves with thoughts „what if...“. Life makes its own corrections, if necessary.

Katrin: Hehehe..it's totally normal, when u have done something for years and years with a total commitment then in time it's necessary to take a longer vacation. After being in the rut of the musicbusiness for 6 years, we have that plan too. We want to load the batteries and get new exciting ideas, let our mind flow.

How have you handed out the tasks in your band?

Piret: Everyone does something. Katrin deals more with the economic part and book-keeping. She is studying law now too. She is the most economicly-thinking person in our band.

Katrin: Piret communicates with the press more, she is the best in that. Lenna deals with the repertory and puts together the programme. But really, we all do something. We are not someone’s slaves and we don’t decide things when even one person is not ok with it. For that matter, we are like a superfamily.

Do you ever get any gossip in between yourselves?

Katrin: We are outspoken with each other. We say everything out, if something is bothering us and noone takes it to heart. This is the most right thing.

Which concert was the most memorable this year?

Piret: The most awesome concerts were certainly in Iraq and Kuwait. You may think that is very dangerous there and something can happen, but to be honest, the scariest concert we had this year was in Kohtla-Järve, where some of the audience lost control and they needed to be controlled with pepper spray, which carried over on our stage with the wind. We had to cancel the show for about 15 minutes.

Katrin: One of the most fierce ones for me was the summer MTV party in Latvia in front of an enormous audience and one other concert in front of a bit smaller audience in Tartu city hall and GoLive in Tallinn. I like those powerful shows, where the audience is not afraid to go insane and get it on.

What was the most shocking or surprising thing about performing in Iraq?

Piret: It was a state of war there. We couldn’t even leave the military base, because it was really dangerous. Everything in there was surprising. It was noticeable, how many people really have been roped in to the war, and if you’d start to think in a human level, that is really tough. None of the locals and the soldiers that are sent there feel normal in that kind of situation. What for are they doing it? Again some naphta subject. Some time ago they were promised that Americans will come and bring democracy, but now even the sewage isn’t working in Baghdad and the place is a total mess. We explored that Americans don’t even have the idea to go there in the near future. All of it is so suspicious.

What were the biggest changes in your personal life in 2007?

Piret: The thing I am most happy for is the eye surgery. It has changed my life more comfortable and easy. Other big event was going to work for the MTV. I am so happy with my decision, I feel that I’m in the right place.

Katrin: Some really enjoyable adventures have come into my life and lots of important decisions: I discovered yoga for my body and soul, changed my major in the university, became more active in sports and one really special person came into my life, with whom I have made some very interesting trips. (By the time this magazine comes out, Katrin is already in India. A couple of days later Lenna flew there too. They celebrated the New Year’s Eve there and had a rest – Ed.).

What are the New Year’s resolutions?

Piret: I don’t like making borderlines for myself, because I know, that if someone (even myself) forces something on me, i want to do it vice versa. I’d rather go to the new year with my own old principles and try to live my life not disturbing or hurting anyone.

Katrin: I don’t give resolutions, I act!

What are the kinks of the girls?

Lenna and Katrin about Piret:
Our handy front-speaker Piret sometimes likes to twirl in front of the mirror, whereupon we have to wait in queue for her before the concert. In her case, who she is usually quite specific-minded, has a kink of being afraid of taking strict attitude and when needed, setting herself in an war-position. She is usually trying to avoid intrigues and solve the situation by giving up herself. She never brings forth drastic points of view, because she is just too diplomatic. It comes out especially good while giving interviews. But sometimes you just have to impose combatively on your own volition.

Piret and Lenna about Katrin:
Even when we are in a crazy or lame situation and everything is wrong, Kati makes it funny. She is always able to find something good about a bad thing. Her another kink is big, powerful and angry cars. Manly interest about cars she has gotten from his father, who lives in the „world of motors“. And something else – Katrin writes absolutely everything down and she has her own lists. If something’s wrong she always says: „Wait, I’ll watch my list“. If that list disappears, it’s chaos.

Katrin and Piret about Lenna:
Lenna is a girl with an amazing singing voice, in case of, sometimes her variational mind gets confounding. Sometimes when she is dealing with her own stuff really quickly, she forgets to say something very important on. It is noticeable afterwards. Every now and then she is late, sometimes just sleeps in. She is like a little nublu, who fires up because of every little subject and reacts very emotionally about everything. One time she cut her finger, started to bleed and fainted. We heard Lenna screaming, went downstairs to the kitchen and saw Lenna, a peach in one hand and a knife in other, screaming like crazy. We gave her sugar-water and sent her outside to get some fresh air. When we went to watch her outside, the poor thing had fainted.

Quelle: Love-Ninjas