It’s Cold in Berlin’s fourth album. Released by the truly independent label New Heavy Sounds. It was produced by Wayne Adams at Bear Bites Horse studios.
Who composes? How does it work in the band?
We write as a group.
Yeah, we all contribute to the song writing process - the songs often grow in the practice room.
All songs are jammed out and tightened up over the course of weeks and months.
I feel very lucky to have found people to make music with.
Who writes the texts? What are they talking about? How does inspiration come?
I write the lyrics to our songs. I often have the lyrics in mind first- either full songs or a particular theme. I take inspiration from lots of different sources. Write from write write write write write I I-----------I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I music.
Why the name COLD IN BERLIN?
Myself and Maya went to Berlin in October 2007. We were thinking about moving there. It was fucking freezing!
It felt right at the time we chose it. People can bring to it what they want.
What are your personal musical tastes and your influences?
My taste in music is eclectic; I love any song that connects with me emotionally and any songs with strong lyrics. My main influencers are not really musical but feminist writers like Andrea Dworkin and Roxanne Gay- women that make you think and feel differently.
What is your best live memory? And why?
Our 2nd album launch And Yet (2012) was memorable. I remember a full room and all our friends.
I am not sure I have a ‘best memory’. I always enjoy playing live, I really like the performance element of our music- I am often off stage with the audience, enjoying the noise of the band with them.
In studio, what was the atmosphere for your new album?
It was 9 days in a dark and dirty space. We knew we had some good songs and we knew Producer Wayne Adams was a good fit for us. We just hoped to capture for the first time a new level of heaviness and the detail of our compositions.
It’s always intense. You rock up at a studio and ask a stranger to commit to your band and creative vision and invest in it as much as you are – which is obviously unreasonable if not impossible. But we achieved what we wanted – our best produced, best sounding album.
How does it work for the design of the CD and why this title?
The artist Joseph Goddard reached out to us and said he had been inspired by our music and wanted to offer us some of his work. His City if Nithstang series, which we used for Rituals of Surrender, maps a shattered landscape of Brutalist architecture that mirrored the psycho-geography of our creative journey.
Your first videos for RITUALS OF SURRENDER are The Power and Dark Days. How was the shoot and why these songs ?
Director John Clay had filmed the band at live shows a few times over the years. He put together a team and found a great location in London where we could film all day and night.
We talked about the song’s lyrical meaning and worked up a loose shooting script.
We decided to film The Power and Dark Days in two shoots in the same month. The process was exhausting, very long days. But the team was amazing and we powered through and got some great footage.
We chose these songs because they are obviously strong songs but also quite different. The Power is very heavy with a Sabbath-esq ending. Dark Days has a more gothic post punk vibe. I love the violin in the last chorus. There’s subtle violin takes on 5 album tracks.
What are your other projects?
In 2018 I was asked to guest on a side project with Transmaniacon. Punk icon Lydia Lunch had provided spoken word elements to narrate the album and I was asked to sing on the other tracks. The result was an incredibly original album based on an unreleased sci-fi graphic novel by Ian Miller. It was a cool project and a privilege to be asked; the result was The Strange World of Suzie Pellet. https://cargorecordsdirect.co.uk/products/transmaniacon-feat-lydia-lunch-and-maya-berlin-the-strange-world-of-suzie-pellet
