Articles
Interview with Pris Hernandez
Priscilla Hernandez is a visionary songwriter and creator of Gothic-Ethereal fantasy art from Spain. Her solo album, Ancient Shadows, is an award-nominated masterpiece of musical craftsmanship and artistic originality. Priscilla interviewed Queenie for her popular forum site for musicians and music fans, NuevasMusicas.org.
I know Queenie Sataro since 2002 when I joined mp3.com as an independent artist myself. Since then we've become really good friends and I can tell she's not only a talented musician but also someone who is fighting hard for her music and she's also helped others writing articles about being an independent musician. An ethereal voice also nourished by the love of fantasy and delight! Her music will make you soar and fly, her long-awaited release "Dream of flight" is slowly taking shape, and from Nuevas Musicas we want to send strength and encouragement and also make her work more known among NM readers.
Priscilla Hernandez: Why the name "Queenie"?
Queenie: "Queenie" is a character from a novel by Michael Korda. In the novel, Queenie is a poor girl born to an Indian mother and a white father, therefore she is stigmatized as a "half-caste" and runs away to Britain to escape her past, where she pretends she is white, but her sadness is always the Indian part she has lost. I am half-Japanese and half-German, but many people have assumed I am some sort of exotic white person, but really I can never be a part of either race.
Priscilla Hernandez: Tell us about the concept of your music.
Queenie: My music comes from my dreams, from fantasies I have invented for myself. I think the best label for it is like your music, or "gothic ethereal". Perhaps also "pop opera" because it has some similarities to Classical arias. When I write and produce music, I want most to re-create the dreamlike feeling of escape or flight. I often dream of trees, perhaps because the house where I grew up was surrounded by giant oaks. The oaks have always
haunted my imagination (I can understand why Druids worshipped them) and therefore one of the primary themes of my songwriting is my obsession with forests and the spirits of trees.
Priscilla Hernandez: Your next cd will be "Dream of Flight". I know you've been developing it for a long time. Any possible dates for its release. What shall we find in it?
Queenie: Dream of Flight represents a jump to new technology for me--it will be my first real foray into the realm of software instruments. I've got about two songs done but I can't give a date because the project is so massive. I'll be happy to share the demo tracks with NM members though. There will be some old songs re-orchestrated but also new ones like Narcissus, which is the old Greek tale about a boy who was so vain that he died staring at his own reflection in a pool. Of course, there will be a new recording of my old song "Dream of Flight" as well.
Priscilla Hernandez: Your favourite artists? Your sources of inspiration?
Queenie: I went to music university and this strangely prevents my enjoyment of music in many ways! But here's a few inspirations: Dido's Lament from Purcell's opera Dido and Aeneas, Sting's album "Nothing Like the Sun", Happy Rhode's spectacular four-octave voice, Emilie Autumn's scathing modern via the 19th-century wit, and Gabriel Yared's soundtracks.
Priscilla Hernandez: I really like the live mood of "Untouched". In a world of overproduction and overtreated vocals is very charming to see a simple instrument and voice with just the natural talent into it... Tell us about the concert, and the experience of recording it.
Queenie: "Untouched" was very fun to make--a trend has begun where a lot of artists are recording live settings like Untouched. I think this is just so that fans can hear what it is like to be in the same room with the artist. Since I play piano and guitar, it was a simple arrangement to play and sing for a few people and record it. My friends Don and Rich at Brookdale Music were the recordists.
Priscilla Hernandez: What do you think of the internet's impact upon the music industry?
Queenie: A few years ago I made some predictions about the decline of CD sales and traditional "major" labels because of indie music production on the internet, and almost everything I predicted seems to be coming true. Even though the traditional major labels still predominate, indie is beginning to overtake the market. The artist is no longer a distant icon waving from a high concert stage: nowadays, the artist is someone you chat with via email when you get a minute! But by far the oddest thing that the internet has brought is niche culture, where entire movements can arise from one peculiar artist or style. I guess in a way it's like how the movie Labyrinth spawned its own cult, and even now has loyal devotees and websites that surround its myth. So it will be interesting to see what "cultures" develop as a result of today's internet indie musicians and filmmakers. Dream of flight!