Lotte Kestner

The13th AÑO: 5 | NÚMERO 45

UNA R E VISTA IMA GINARIA

LOTTE KESTNER THE SNOW QUEEN FROM SEATTLE

[ Interview with Lotte Kestner by Pablo Müllner. Photographs: Anthon Smith y Stanton Stephens ]

THE SNOW QUEEN FROM SEATTLE

Somewhere in between the early morning, coffee-table cosiness of Norah Jones ditties and the white nights banshee-like wailing of Beth Gibbons unnerving blues we could place some girl called Lotte Kestner and her latest –fifth–fantastic record “Off White” (2017). I may regret throwing these “parallels” with her later on, even apologizing in this very interview…Seattle-based Lotte Kestner deserves much better and further investigation. She was born Anna-Lynne Williams, in fact. She sang, played guitar and composed most of the songs of indie band Trespassing William, formed in late ’90 and labelled as “dream pop” or “shoe-gazing” kind of group. Then she went solo by her mysteriously charming pseudonym, in the meantime collaborating with Chemical Brothers in one of their more accomplished trance tunes. Last but not least, she has edited four poetry books, one being called “In the night I go sailing”. Pretty much the one evidence we needed to proof she is a mermaid herself. Take two: if you want to imagine what does “Off White” sounds like imagine that evocative tune “I´m calling you” (from the Bagdad Café movie) or and take it away from the deserted blues and placed it over a huge Nordic frozen forest. Somewhere over the rainbow is another song you could imagine turning creepy and frosty on her mouth and sparse guitar notes. I think that is pretty fairer to her.

Hello, Lotte Kestner, nice to meet you! Sorry about all the name-dropping of my presentation. As Tori Amos once sharply said “girls musicians get to be compared a lot, but not men…” True, still, a really practical way of translating a voice, a musical sensibility for a musical analphabetic like me, I promise I give men the same treatment. Still so, I tried to describe the dreamy feeling of listening to your voice what mesmerized me at once was THAT voice of yours that sounds otherworldly and familiar at the same time. It is like a dejavú…

Did you get that comment before?

I don't think anyone has said my voice is like déjà vu before! I do love Beth Gibbons, so I'll take that. As for female artists being compared to one another often, (and what Tori was saying) I think part of the complaint is that women tend to only be compared to other women, based on voices. While the female voice is a somewhat different instrument from the male voice, there are so many other components to an artist’s or an album’s sound. It sometimes feels like we are compared only to women who have similar voices while other male songwriters might be much more similar in terms of lyrics, mood, guitar playing, etc.. and that it would be refreshing to have those elements enter the discussion as often as vocal similarities do. But of course the voice is an

obvious place to start. :) Then there is this persona of the girl singer songwriter, ever since Joni Mitchell, I guess which went on a real revolution I think ever since the ´90s: Tori herself, Natalie Merchant, Sarah McLachlan, well thousands of talented woman… I think it happened at the same time men starting playing too safe both musically and lyrically, except some few good men. Ever since women are the ones who dare, the innovators, the ones bringing disturbing, political themes to their music. Do you like playing in that ground?

I don't necessarily find a place for those subjects in my music.. though I have strong social and political opinions. I tend to keep them restricted to conversations. My own interest in making music is more about my interior landscape, longing, beauty, pain.. I can see how other writers have succeeded in merging melody and politics, but that is not something that appeals to me to do. In fact, for me, I wouldn't consider it playing it safe to keep to your own personal experience.. like drawing a self portrait. It seems the bravest thing of all (to me).

Tell me something about the genesis of “Off White” because is so baffling at times. As any good piece of art, actually. Sonically is beau-

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tifully sparse. With the minimalist orchestration, or even with just a piano, or a guitar and with your voice itself you seems to be holding to every cord, every note, every breath as needing to treasure a piece of silence before going to the next sound. It is almost zen! But lyrically you may be talking about very uneasy feelings. How did it come together?

That's a great description! There is a bit of a discrepancy between the words and the way they are sung.. And everything is fairly measured and gentle, in part due to some injuries that I was dealing with (both of my arms) and just my own taste for taking breaths and leaving space in music.. and trying to keep it intimate and real. And then when a few new ingredients enter, like the strings that Andrew Joslyn played, it feels kind of unexpected and special. I know my music comes across sounding like there are just a couple of tracks on each song, but there are actually usua-

lly dozens. I spent a few years fiddling with the mixes of the songs to get all of those little tracks blended and panned just the way that I wanted them to create something that feels like one whole. And there is some darkness on the record, for sure, but most of it is in the words, as you suggested. The album starts with a song about dying alone, another song is about the end of the world.. :) But as usual there are many songs about falling in love as well.

You are not new to music even though “Off White� sounds so fresh, so unaffected. Actually, you´ve around for some 20 years! Back when you started with Trespassers William, there was a real nice story behind the name of the band, involving Winnie-the-Poo. So I am intrigued to ask if there is one story behind Lotte Kestner. It should be one, because Anna-Lynne is such a pretty name!

5 Thank you! I never felt like it was the right time to use my own name, since I already had other projects I hadn't used it for.. Like how could I all of a sudden have a project that was “the real Anna-Lynne” so I decided to use a pseudonym. At first Lotte Kestner was just a page on MySpace where I released some solo songs while Trespassers William was working on our fourth studio album, but the feedback was good and I found that I worked much quicker on my own, and it felt more acceptable to get really personal when it was just my own song. Lotte Kestner is a name I borrowed from a real German woman (Charlotte Kestner Buff), she was Goethe’s muse. He also had a character in his most famed novel named Lotte S. Did you enjoy being the frontwoman of a band? When did you start to think about going solo? And how do you enjoy it now?

I never considered going solo for the first 10 years or so.. I enjoyed collaborating and all of the band rehearsals, besides that I hardly played guitar when I first started out. On our first album, Anchor, I didn’t write most of the chord progressions and was hardly involved in the mixing of the songs. But by the time we started working on Different Stars I was writing the songs on my own at home and Matt and I were both there in the studio for three days straight for mixing. Then on Having, I became familiar with ProTools and was tracking and editing my own vocals and one thing led to another.. After that album I set up a little home studio to work on both Trespassers and Lotte Kestner recordings, keeping the more folky or personal stuff for the solo project. I still love recording and writing on my own, but I don't really enjoy performing on stage by myself. I don't think I've ever played a solo gig without someone else sitting in on guitar or keys or singing with me.

Back in the days of Trespassers William I guess you toured a lot… I point out a UK tour with Damien Rice, a bill with Morrissey, those must have been exciting peaks! And how is it to play solo now? Did you put a live band to-

gether? Did you tour the album yet?

Trespassers did have one year near the beginning that was pretty busy, mostly festivals and the Damien Rice tour.. We only had one full-blown tour years later where we headlined, just Matt and I, shortly before the band broke up. I think we did 13 countries. That was a pretty great highlight, meeting people who really knew the songs and had come to see us specifically. We hadn't ever really had that before. Opening for big artists that you love is exciting but in general the audiences don’t often listen much to the opener. As for Lotte Kestner, I do have a rotating band for shows but I have been taking my time, to make sure that my health is on track before I do any real touring. For now I’m mostly just playing in Seattle. I do think that my music works best when listened to alone, preferably with headphones, but I hope that I will be well enough to be able to share the music live more as well.

I checked out your bandcamp and found a whole new album of B-Sides to Off White…

What was the reason to call those b-sides and not Off White Vol. II or even another different album?

Most of those were songs that I recorded around the same time but were never considered for the proper album or got bumped for songs that fit better. There were also some break-up songs that I didn't want to put on Off White, just things that I didn't want to relive over and over, but felt safe releasing as b-sides. I also have another dozen songs from the bunch that I just never got quite right and I still haven't released as I hope to keep chipping away at and release on a proper album.

Going back to the “zen” subject, I am always intrigued about songwriters that convey so much peacefulness, insight in their music…

Are you that person yourself or is it quite different? Could be “nerve wrecking” the process of writing a soothing and ethereal song, for instance?

Songwriting is always very intense and exciting,

even if the song is very slow or sweet, at least for me. In general I forget to eat or probably even breathe properly when I'm writing. The words tend to come in bursts, so you can’t stop paying attention, like you're trying to catch something and get it down. But I do enjoy listening back to works in progress, and my own music has calmed me on many occasions. As for my actual life, I think it's a pretty similar combination of anxiety and total calm :) I have to mention the collaboration with Chemical Brothers, not only because they are so cool, but really the song you put together is amazing, Hold Tight London… Then I get to hear your cover of Beyonce´s Halo, and it makes a lot of sense really, so cool… You are almost “teasing” with the mainstream pop world! Does it mean that you are not interested in having a real pop crossover or just that you are playing hard to get?

Ha, thanks. I'm certainly not avoiding pop music on purpose, but I feel like my songwriting and my voice keep veering farther and farther away from that. The place where I can control and play with my voice the best is a very gentle place, not really suited for big venues or theatrics. But I do love taking pop songs and translating them into my style.

When I tracked the Chemical Brothers song, I believe I asked them to mute all of the drums for my take so that I could be in my comfort zone.

I want to ask a lot about your poetry (I write some poetry myself), but to keep it short: Is it your poetry and your music part of the same body of work? Do you think poetry is even there somewhere in the sounds and the silences of your music?

That's a nice thought… I do feel like spaces in the songs are like words themselves. Or like silent sighs. There is a big difference for me between my poems and songs though, except for the few poems that I've turned into songs. But that usually takes quite a lot of editing to make them

fit. For me, the songs are mostly about melody, and the way the words sound and rhyme together. Whereas in my poems, there is no melody and I don't tend to rhyme unless I really want to draw attention to a certain couple of sentences.

But one thing they have in common, that I think I picked up from e.e. cummings, is that often a song or a poem will be built around one or two key lines that anchor the whole piece and everything else is kind of like the backdrop or the pillow it’s on. Like you're just waiting to say this one line that pulls everything together.

Speaking of cover, I actually would love to hear “I´m calling you” of Bagdad Café in your voice, with that icy, kind of celtic way of yours.

I hope you like that one! Or Somewhere over the rainbow.. But aside from my own wishes, which songs would you fancy covering in a blink of an eye?

I don't know the first song you mentioned, I'll have to look for it. I have covered so many songs now, some for tributes, some requested by fans, some because I was just drawn to sing them. So I'm trying not to cover as many songs these days so I don't drown out the ones that I've actually written. Which always mean more to me, of course.

But I am grateful for the attention that a few of my covers have brought. If I had the time, I'd probably want to cover (almost) every song Radiohead has ever written.

This last question is open to anything worth mentioning before saying “Goodbye”. May it be future music project, live dates, or anything you want to say.

Most recently I had the honor of singing the harmonies on the new Damien Jurado album that comes out in May. Folks should check that out!

Thank you so much, Lotte Kestner! It´s been a pleasure!

Thanks, xo

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