Mavi Phoenix is the Austrian pop star of the moment. But the young musician from Linz wants more.
Von
Philip Dulle
and
Ines Holzmüller
()
The popstar appearance of Mavi Phoenix starts somewhere on the highway between Linz and Vienna. Every few weeks, Dad played all the good songs that the musician still serves as a frame of reference during the suburban travel hours: the Californian desert rockers Queens of the Stone Age, HipHop at the N.E.R.D. and sometimes quite hard guitar sounds. At home with the mother at Linz ran the counterweight pop between David Bowie and Madonna.
It was earlier. Today, you meet Mavi Phoenix where you often meet young people in the early summer. Location of the interview: The Schanigarten of a popular student restaurant in Vienna-Alsergrund, next to the picturesque Votivkirche and a few hundred meters from the main university. In the conference room of the university (political science), Marlene Nader, as the 22-year-old musician calls her real name, has not been there for a good year. "But I'm still registered," she laughs. At least his mother is happy.
Since the end of last year, Mavi Phoenix (its stage name is a reminiscence of the late River Phoenix) lives in the suburbs: between New York, Los Angeles and Cape Town, then Vienna, Linz or Berlin. "If you want to act internationally, you're still flying," she says in her busy schedule. Many people that she meets on the way do not even know that she still has her center of life in Austria. In addition, she will make her first big tour this year: the "Primavera" festivals of Barcelona and Porto, the twin festivals "Rock am Ring" and "Rock im Park" as well as the legendary festival "Roskilde" in Denmark. Mavi Phoenix – Trends (Official)
The music of Mavi Phoenix is an addictive mix of electro pop, R & B and rap. Especially, the mini-album "Young Prophet" (2017) and the three current songs "Yellow", "Bite" and "Trends" show the versatility of the artist. For them, each song is an autonomous universe. At first she only has one melody, the sketch of a beat in the head, the lyrics come out here.
"We can not stop it." Handyman Character at Mavi Phoenix
"All Free Style," she says about her work. In addition, texts would not always make sense. It is much more important to her that the flow is good. "I'm talking about the sensation, the space between the lines."
The most important additional element: the character "do-it-yourself" songs, which looks more like large-scale international production. This is not a contradiction for Mavi Phoenix. "We can not help it," she says of her collaboration with Linz producer Alex The Flipper, who also accompanies him in his live performances. Of course, you could go to an expensive studio to work with a well-known producer, but the time has not come, she says. The charm of Mavi Phoenix lies in the fact that the music has the necessary touch of home-build and home studio.
When she was a teenager, there was hardly anyone in Linz who was particularly interested in pop music or even wanted to do it herself. His own guitar lessons have mostly been canceled. She regrets that today, she said. She prefers to lie on her bed with her MP3 player and listen to music for hours. Then the father gave him a discarded MacBook. "I was ten or eleven when I started building my first loops and beats." She made her first appearance at Linz Posthof – as the only solo artist in a group competition. It was five years ago. She had invited all her clbad to support. "It was like the Kiddy contest," she says of her live fire test
especially for men who do not usually have a little girl who says what she wants, my nature is not going well
A first mini-album ("My Fault") was created alone. For a year, no one was interested in the six songs. Then the FM4 station of the ORF recorded his song "Green Queen" in his program. A listener was listening very attentively: Maurice Ernst, singer and head of the Austrian disco deconstructors, Bilderbuch, called in the middle of his end – of – school preparations to offer him a rap party at the time. a concert. "I was totally stressed," she recalls the unexpected surge in her career. Soon, she went on tour with an image book. Today, she shares not only her home country (Upper Austria) with the group, but also management and philosophy.
Even at school, the dreamer fantasized about her international breakthrough. "The fact that I really want to win a Grammy was of course a source of astonishment in Linz, but it is important that I think big," admits Phoenix. However, her confidence in her has not always met the affection: "Especially for men who are not used to a little girl who says so clearly what she wants, my style often does not do not go well. " On the other hand, in the world of music and international festivals, people are more open minded, even if there are always colleagues who do not trust them in the beginning.
Incidentally, a first album is not planned. Mavi Phoenix gives each song a chance to shine on its own. Currently, he publishes a new play every month – online, without the intermediary of a sound carrier. An album should just hit, "otherwise you will end up with twelve songs that no one has heard." Since the rap movement around Yung Hurn and Crack Ignaz became popular in Austria, there was also a temptation for the superstar to jump on the local hip hop train. German lyrics with trailing beats? I do not think so. "I did not want to be stuck in a niche," she says. "Even if at first it would have been easier to play with the Austrian Schmöh."
Phoenix does not have a second career plan. She does not need it either. "I know I can make music and it works." Today, behind the iron pop star will be a small business – including a business plan and its own label (LLT Records). If it does not work overnight, she can still work as a producer. "Or I'm just building a few beats for other artists."
