I’ve been making up tunes for as long as I can remember… I can even still remember some from my primary school days quite clearly. But back then, writing stories was much more important to me. It wasn’t until many years later that I started making music properly.
At 13, I was desperate to have my own band and be the drummer… as far as melodies went, I thought I had no talent… which is rather odd. The whole thing then fell through because of the drums – I wasn’t allowed to play them at home… they are a bit loud, after all. At 14, I held a friend’s guitar in my hands for the first time, was completely blown away and enthusiastically tried to master the fingerwork to play G… for my 15th birthday, I was given my very first guitar to practise on.
Two chords later, I formed the band Vögeln im Atomkraftwerk with two friends – a band that soon became quite notorious among our circle of friends. We fooled about a lot and poked fun at all sorts of musical genres. We were even filkers… without even realising it! We often played Hero Quest together… haha… one of us as Barbanna, the barbarian, the other as the mage Sunshine… and me as the villain… and that turned into a song.
At some point, unfortunately, we started taking ourselves too seriously – and that just didn’t work with the music we were making… Then… in ’96… I met another songwriter at a birthday party – because neither of us wanted to dance – and so we got talking and realised we both wrote songs… preferably sad ones and ones about feelings.
From then on, we started meeting up and founded the band Femme Fatale together. For a while, we even had a drummer with us. We often performed in small circles or at events at her music school… but then, when we seriously wanted to look for a record label, everything changed… we simply had too different goals. So – after over three years – we went our separate ways.
At that time, Thesilée and I already knew each other… we used to have little songwriting sessions now and then with her boyfriend. We knew that we both wrote songs… but it wasn’t until Filkcon 2000 that we came up with the idea of doing a project together. Today we have a name (Lord Landless) and many songs that we’ve arranged together and, in some cases, written together.
And if Silva is not busy making music?
I’m one of those people who’s constantly being struck by flashes of inspiration – as Terry Pratchett so aptly puts it. I could basically spend the whole day immersed in the fine arts – because as well as music, I write stories; at the moment, I’m working on C. Lown’s very first happy ending. Behind this lies a chaotic circus love story featuring, amongst others, a perpetually bewildered writer, a talking car, antagonists with wire halos and cardboard wings, as well as a bona fide dark ruler and her evil end. As if that weren’t enough, I also paint – or rather, I mainly illustrate the Shadowheart Chronicles by La Maga – which I can highly recommend – and which can also be found in the vastness of the internet.
As you’ve probably hardly noticed so far, I’m a passionate reader, especially of fantasy. I’ve even started collecting books – out of sheer desperation, after my local library, to my utter horror, got rid of the Xanth series… because there are books I want to read over and over again. This includes Elfquest… which I came across long before I’d even heard of role-playing or filk.
But I don’t just have an eye for other worlds – I also appreciate the beauty of our own – even if we sometimes run the risk of forgetting it amidst the stresses of daily life and the greyness of the cities. I love natural landscapes, especially forests, coastal regions, the sea… and the animals that live there. So I volunteer as an environmental educator and do my bit to help people realise that it’s not a good idea to tamper with the natural balance with too much enthusiasm.
Also… music isn’t just of interest to me when I get to sing myself. The music I listen to ranges from international folk through indie to gothic and dark wave, if I’m to tentatively use categories. I have a particular soft spot for minor-key tunes and heart-wrenchingly sad songs. Strangely enough, they make me happy… whereas squeaky-cheerful tunes spoil my mood. My ears must have got something wrong there… But it’s not really that extreme. Sometimes I like funny songs too, but the cheerfulness should be genuine and not just forced – the humour in them should be stylish.
Silva’s Instruments
Voice (1980)
Yes, I was born with it. But I didn’t always sing like this – not at all. I’ve got the proof on cassettes from my V.i.A. days. It’s a temperamental instrument and has been prone to hoarseness before gigs for a while now. Hopefully it’ll grow out of it.
The electric guitar (1995)
That’s also its name. Pretty unimaginative, isn’t it?
But that doesn’t mean I don’t like it!
It’s rather unassuming in appearance, white with strange blue scratches whose origin I’ve never been able to fathom… Fender-shaped, but a ‘Celebrity’, made in the Far East. Its sound is so very different from that of its acoustic namesakes, and I like that too… given that my musical songwriting roots actually lie in punk… and the harder genres in general.
I got it from my then-boyfriend’s drummer… he then gave me an amp to go with it… really sweet… but he was a bassist himself and couldn’t do much with a guitar amp.
I like to experiment… and when I’m rich one day, I’ll buy an effects pedal to go with it…
Federschwinge (2002)
The giant 12-string guitar.
I look downright tiny next to it. (Though malicious tongues claim I’d look that way anyway.)
It has a beautiful, silvery sound and I’m currently practising singing louder than it does. And then I have to learn to pluck it with a pick again, *sigh*.
Mairi (1998)
My second instrument. A beautiful Spanish concert guitar.
Curiously, someone called ‘Esteban’ built it.
She’s a well-travelled soul; she accompanies me almost everywhere. I took her with me to America and the Maldives … and soon we’ll be off to New Zealand … haha.
As for her Scottish name, that came from Judith (she’s the one behind ‘Lament of a Mother’ – she wrote the original German lyrics…). Her bagpipes are called ‘Donald’. So I just asked her what she’d call my guitar…
Mona (1995)
(Yes, I give them names…)
My first guitar… a little, cute thing. Just a travelling guitar, really.
Before I got it, it sat in an attic for years … and unfortunately that didn’t do it any favours. It sounds a bit hoarse.
Sadly, it’s now back … rarely played … in my guitar corner. But I’m very attached to it.
The Shaman’s Drum (2001)
It has a name … which I’ve forgotten again, though. Those of you from the South have an advantage here… it’s called a drum in Malealam (spelled correctly?). I must ask Zimi again…
This drum is very peculiar. The only song it’s suitable for is the Plague Song.
But together with African drums, it drums along nicely… and I can put myself into a wonderful trance with it…
Why do people actually need other drugs when there’s music …?
The toys (throughout the ages…)
Bell wreaths, little bells, rattles, other bell-like things, biscuit tins, claves … anything you can make noise with, but only with genteel restraint if you don’t want to make enemies …