Formula Indie Sessions _ Interview with Iri Antler
Iri Antler is an artist with a vision for all of her songs. Her goal is to paint stories behind her lyrics with a full palette of colours: find hope in the melancholy, laugh at something, that hurts, be gentle, be rude, be sad, be fun and most importantly be honest. Her main music influences are Regina Spektor, Hurts, Placebo, Marina and HIM.
She started out as a street musician in Hamburg after moving there from St. Petersburg (Russia). Most of her released singles were produced by LOE from Orange and Mountains, but recently she’s been producing her music herself (Demons, F Stop) and making her music videos with no budget, her phone and lots of DIY.
What is your earliest memory connected to music?
I loved ABBA and Lambada as a toddler. I jumped in my bed and imagining being on big stage just like them. My mom had many tapes and I thought it would be so cool if one of them played my song. I wrote some lyrics on the white plastic of the tape, put it into the player all excited aaand… biggest disappointment of my early years, nothing happened.
How did your passion for creating music begin?
I wanted to write songs as long as I can remember. Once when I was five, I woke up early and started thinking about how everybody’s going to die, the my whole family will be gone someday and I started singing about it.
To me songs, production, music and creativity in general are a lot about telling the stories words alone can’t describe. I love to do it myself, I love seeing others do it, because it’s one of not many ways to look into other people’s minds, go beyond the surface.
What’s the story behind your current music project? Because my music project is just me, it’s a story of my personal path in music. I played street music for many years before the lockdown, and during the lockdown, when many people in Germany got into baking bread, I got into music production, while studying singing.
How would you describe your sound to someone who has never heard your music before?
It’s eclectic Indie-Pop, sometimes on the darker side, sometimes full of glitter. Deep lyrics, unusual song structures, artistic, with a hint of vintage, 90’s and 2000’s influences.
What is one thing you’ve learned that completely changed the way you make music? Use GarageBand on the iPad. It was fun and easy. I use Logic Pro now, but I still love
the touch instruments from GB and use them sometimes. I also hate sitting in one place for hours, so I still prefer working on a laptop, so I can switch rooms. My current set up is still very portable.
What tools, instruments, or software are essential in your creative process?
Generally, I could still go a long way just with an iPad, audio interface and a microphone. A lot of my creative process is happening in my head all the time and I need my phone for the voice notes and notes. Quite often, I”d for on those ideas over an extended period of time while commuting. But when the idea has developed enough, I’d go to the piano.
Which indie artist or song are you loving right now?
Is Lucio Corsi Indie enough after having represented Italy at ESC? I think, he’ll be my Spotify wrapped number 1 this year. I also really like music by some of the people I studied with like izzi, Jergo, Luna and the Fathers, Sarife, Good Aftermoon, EatMe. I made a playlist on Spotify with the music of people I know. I also like Robin and the Goblins, we haven’t met in person, but the vibe
How have your personal experiences influenced your music and artistic vision? I don’t know if it’s my experiences, but I always have melancholy even in my happier
songs. I used to be a goth girl for a good part for my teenage years. I always felt, like it was difficult to make friends and to fit in with the other kids (I got along just fine with elderly, though), so here’s my vintage/longing for the days forever gone touch and also at some point, I just stopped trying to fit in too much. A song without chorus – why not? A bass line out of a broken fridge sound – hell yeah!
I studied fashion at university for several years, so I also make most of my artworks and music videos + spend quite some time trying to figure out how to dress so that it would go well with the music. Sometimes I write a song because eI have an idea for the music video. I did it with F*cking Stop. I imagined, how construction workers would pack me up into a box and then drop it on the way out.
What emotions or messages do you hope listeners take from your work? How interesting and fascinating the human mind can be. A lot of imagery of my songs
comes from dreams and association. I love when others tell me about what they see, when they sleep, how they feel about everyday things, things, that seem unimportant to share, but they tell a story of all of the experiences that person has ever had, they are so unique. Through this I learn a lot about myself and the world. And each person is a whole world. Take a look inside yourself and also around at the world, you’ll be amazed.
What’s the most important lesson music has taught you so far?
If you want to do anything professionally, get ready to also do the things you find boring. But sometimes, something you’re dreading to do really takes 5 minutes and you shouldn’t have spent weeks foreboding a failure. You need to always challenge yourself in the way you can manage in order to improve.
What is a dream venue or festival you would love to perform at?
I’d like to play at Elbphilarmonie here in Hamburg. And headline some big festival in Europe late enough for the light show to be visible. I always find it a pity, when in summer all of those lights do very little on a sunny day.
If you could collaborate with any artist, past or present, who would it be and why? Florence + the Machine. I love the witchy vibes, I’ve learnt so much from Florence
Welch. Hurts – they’ve been my favourite band for a very long time, they were one of the reasons I started producing and making my own music videos. Their latest album is the album I often “consult” when I get stuck in my writing/production.
Where can our listeners follow and support your music? (Website,Spotify, IG, links) https://www.instagram.com/iriantler/
https://www.youtube.com/@IriAntler
Looking toward the future, what’s your dream for the next chapter of your musical journey?
I’m trying to decide whether to release one album, or split it into 2 EP’s. More often than not, the lack of sun in winter makes me write darker electronic things and once the sun is back, the light comes back into my music too, So far I don’t know if all this fits onto one record.
Also looking forward to playing my music live with my band. I haven’t played much live (street music asideI and I’d love to do it more. Also there are some collabs in the wings and I love writing with others and also for others.
What do you hope listeners will discover about you along the way? That I make awesome music videos just with my phone. Honestly, they aren’t perfect,
but a lot of work and thought goes into them and they elaborate on the story I wanted to tell in a song. I’ve been trying to make one for every song I release, it doesn’t always work, but I’ve improved a lot.
