Interview: Miss Kenichi

With a new album released last week,  German singer-songwriter and artist, Katrin Hahner (aka Miss Kenichi), is all about originality and experimentation. Her third album, The Trial is immersed in beauty and grace so Claire Lim decided to catch up with Katrin to find out more about the inspirations behind the art:

 

 

Hello Katrin – please introduce yourself and tell us about your album The Trail:

 

I am Katrin Hahner/Miss Kenichi and this week my new album The Trail is released. I had the absolute pleasure to produce and record this album with Earl Harvin, a wonderful multi instrumentalist, who is currently drummer in British band Tindersticks. We have met a couple of years ago and once we started to play together it was clear that it is something very special. The making of the album took quite a bit of time though, since I wanted to include more instruments, break up the sparse guitar-vocal- pattern that I had followed on my previous two albums, but without losing the space and the fragility. So I took weight off the guitar and opened the songs to bigger arrangements. I invited some amazing contributors/friends to play on The Trail, amongst them are Terry Edwards (Tindersticks, Gallon Drunk), Chris Bruce (Meshell Ndgeocello, My Brightest Diamond) and also Satch Hoyt, who graced the album with a wonderful flute solo. A trail is something that can be followed or be left behind by the passage of something or someone. I had to beat down my path through new territory. It was a great journey and it is still continuing. As a matter of fact, I think this is just the beginning.

 

The album sounds very personal, can you reveal to us what it’s about?

Life is so fragile and fleeting, we are vulnerable and weak. But, at the same time, there is all this true beauty, the visionaries, the culture, the incredible strength of the mind, heart and the body. I marvel at this contrast and try to decipher it. I guess you won’t ever get the light without the shadows, so you need to embrace it all at once.

 

You’re also an artist – does your art inspire your music or the other way round?

The inspirations are the same for both disciplines, I just end up talking about  topics in two different languages, or broadcast them through different channels. And maybe they show slightly different sides of me too. They can co-exist without touching each other, but I secretly hoped that I could combine the two forces this time. I had no idea if it would really work, but I am so glad to say that this time it did. One of the pieces t of my artwork was shown in a gallery in the summer and it works as music and art. Maybe this is what I needed: to unite my different personalities and let them speak through one channel for once.

 

If you had to introduce a stranger to one song on the album, which would it be and why?

I’d probably choose ‘Who Are You’. It’s soft and calm, but at the same time there’s a storm inside…

 

Will you be over in the UK anytime soon?

Yes, I do hope I’ll be in the UK in the early part of the new year. Can’t wait!

 

Take a listen to Miss Kenichi – ‘The Ghost’ here:

 

Mari Lane

Mari Lane

Editor, London. Likes: Kathleen Hanna, 6Music, live music in the sunshine. Dislikes: Sexism, pineapples, the misuse of apostrophes.