Hey, super nice to have the chance to chat with you. What have you been up to over the past year in this big old mess?
Lots! This past year, I graduated @ Iceland University of the Arts in the NAIP program, New Audiences and Innovative Practices, and received my master’s degree in music on June 24th, 2022. There I developed my new artistic practice, Poetry w/ Electronics.
On February 26th, MonkeyRat performed a pre-release concert at the Winter Copenhagen Jazz Festival in Denmark.
In March, I performed 2 Poetry w/ Electronics concerts with Arnold Ludvig, bassist/composer of MonkeyRat, at the Faroese Music Week event on March 10th,
in the Faroe Islands and @ Mengi in Iceland on March 17th.
While I worked on my thesis, Trauma, Poetry, Fuck The Jante Law – Creativity as a Means of Survival, I released a single and MonkeyRat’s EP “Isolation” on April 15th.
On May 27th, I returned to the Faroe Islands and performed @ Blábar Jazz & Blues with my new artistic practice, Poetry w/ Electronics.
Exhausted from a super busy year, my husband, Arnold Ludvig, award-winning bassist, and I finally went on a long overdue vacation to Canada and visited my family and friends, including musicians and producers regarding possible collaborations for future projects.
When we returned to the Faroe Islands, on August 10th, I performed a Poetry w/ Electronics concert @ Summartónar Festival.
I’m very interested in how you started your adventure with music and did you know from the beginning that this is what you wanted to do?
Well, I never thought I would ever be in a band as a songwriter and vocalist, I was just as surprised as everyone else.
From when I was a little girl, all I did and all I ever wanted to do was dance to music, that was my dream.
Unfortunately, being raised in a strict Italian Roman Catholic household, that dream was destroyed.
I was always surrounded by musicians and had many musician friends who always told me that I should manage musicians, even though I had no experience in the music business, they admired my organizational skills in the fashion business.
Then on one fateful night, I met the one and only Faroese man in Montreal, Arnold Ludvig, a bass virtuoso that blew everyone away.
At that time, he was so shy though, that no one ever heard him speak except for me.
Nine months later, we got married in the Faroe Islands and when we returned to Montreal, I decided to open A&A Productions, my own booking agency.
I ran it for 8 years helping artists’ dreams come true.
In 2004, when we first moved to the Faroe Islands, I had a culture shock, I couldn’t understand why people were putting me down, themselves, others, and each other. That’s when I first heard of the term, Janteloven, Jante Law in English, and discovered that there were actually 10 laws, “Don’t think that you’re good at anything,
Don’t think that anybody cares about u, etc…
After 2 years, I was so sad, and depressed, and started feeling suicidal, at that time, it was legal to beat up homosexuals, the religious believed that they were all going to hell anyways. When I told my mother about the Jante Law and how I was feeling, concerned for my well-being, her reaction was, “What? Don’t get sad, get mad – Fuck this Jante Law!” Inspired, I wrote, Fuck The Jante Law followed by a tsunami of words and in 2005, I wrote over 50 poems. I felt like I was going to go insane if I didn’t express myself, I felt something stuck in my throat and realized it was not enough to just put words on paper, I had to vocalize them, but I wasn’t a singer. When I showed my poems to singers asking if they would like to sing some of my songs, they all agreed that I should sing them, because they were very personal. I had something to say and felt the need to blast my message, Fuck The Jante Law. During my first rehearsal, when asked where’s the one by my kind, sweet, and patient husband, “I replied, “One? What one? ” He chuckled and till this day, it cracks me up, I had so much to learn, and learn I did. It’s amazing what one can do when you’re stuck between a rock and a hard place – creativity became a means of survival.
We love your release, ‘Isolation’. Can you give us some insight into it?
Thank u!
In 2020, during the height of the pandemic, I started my studies in music @ Iceland University of the Arts. Away from my husband, family, and friends, I was feeling so lonely and one evening I felt so sad because I couldn’t reach my husband. Trying to shake off my feelings of isolation, I went to the park, and upon my walk back home to my room, words started overflowing my mind, exciting by the scope of the inspiration, I ran to my flat and started jotting down all the words that kept on flooding my imagination. To this day, I’m so happy that my husband was unreachable.
What are you doing to ensure you continue to grow and develop as an artist?
Going back to school certainly helped me grow and develop new skills as an artist.
What should we expect from your next releases in terms of style and sound? How different are they going to be compared to your previous works?
I’m not sure, one never knows with MonkeyRat, a multi-genre band with lots of funky numbers, it all depends on inspiration.
Where are you based? Can you tell us how the music scene there has inspired your sound at all?
I am based in the Faroe Islands with my Faroese composer, bassist, husband, also, my award-winning guitarist Alain Apaloo from Togo, Africa featured singer on
“U Gotta Love Being U” along with my dynamic Danish drummer are both based in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Hmm, I would say my 1st co-written song, U Gotta Love Being U ft. Alain Apaloo, with 2 Faroese songwriters and composers in the pop, and singer-songwriter genre during the 1st co-writing session organized by KODA in the Faroe Islands inspired the sound of the song. The use of an arpeggiator by Arnold Ludvig who arranged the song probably was also inspired by the music scene in the Faroes. On the other hand, MonkeyRat has inspired young musicians and bands with our funky numbers.
If you could perform at any venue in the world, where would it be, and why?
It would be @ the Vancouver International Jazz Festival in B.C. Canada, because my daughter and some of my dear Montreal friends now live there.
Can we expect a new EP or an album from you in the near future?
Yes, I’m planning to apply for grants for the production of my debut album regarding my new artistic practice, Poetry w/ Electronics.
I would also like to release a new song I wrote for Alain Apaloo with him as composer and singer about racism and the plight of being a black man in America, the poem is called “Officer”. He’s very busy though, so I just have to be patient.
Finally, have you got anything to share regarding upcoming gigs, and what have you got planned for the rest of 2022?
Yes, there’s a new Electronic event in the Faroe Islands called Ravlitt of which I will be one of the participating artists, at the end of October, the exact date to be confirmed.
On November 18th, I will perform a Poetry w/ Electronics concert organized by Rithøvundafelagið, an author association event for writers of poetry, books, and short stories.
I received a grant to make videos for my new single and Isolation EP and look forward to hopefully having them finished by the end of 2022.
