Recently we have introduced our review of debut EP/fairytale book „Wanderer” by Possimiste. Today you have a chance to know more precisely Possimiste.
Marcin: Hi Possimiste. You are a VIP in meaning Very Interesting Person. Who you really are and what’s your really name? You are of this world?
Possimiste: Heia and thanks. I am just a girl with a fairytale book. My name is Leeni and the girl in this book is Possimiste. I am from this world and she is from the fantasy world.
Marcin: You come from Estonia, there you grew up. Tell me more about it, about your childhood, growing up and living in Estonia.
Possimiste: Estonia for me is long walks through the forest to reach the seaside by the time of sunset; sitting by the campfire with good people and jumping into the lake after sauna. Estonia is where hundreds of thousands of people hold each other`s arms when singing together and even the strongest men shed a tear or two because it is just so beautiful; And in the winter when you come home with frozen hands there is a cup of hot tea and a heart-shaped gingerbread waiting for you because someone wanted to make you feel happy. My childhood was very happy. I am very lucky that I have had so many good-hearted people around me. I love Estonia, it is a magical country.
Marcin: What happened in your life that you came to Iceland?
Possimiste: One night I had a dream in which something told me to go to Iceland. And I think that when your heart guides you somewhere, there must be a reason and nothing bad can happen to you. When it was my first evening here I walked at the seaside and I felt this was like a story from some book, because behind this step there was no logic. But I have always been thinking that if my life was a book then I would like to live this book as interesting as I can, so you have to do crazy things sometimes.
Marcin: When did you move to Iceland and why Iceland and not anywhere else?
Possimiste: I moved here about 11 months ago. I don`t know why…this place just talked to me, other places kept quiet. I think life wanted me to come here, I need to learn something from this particular place.
Marcin: What did you know about Iceland before you go there?
Possimiste: I had read the Sæmundar Edda(the epic), so I knew the names of the Viking gods and the meanings of half of the runes. I knew about elves and that Icelanders love fireworks and eat strange things. But I did not know the most obvious things that people usually know when they move somewhere…Last summer I was so busy with finishing my EP that I totally forgot to prepare for Iceland. So, when I stepped out of the plane I had not even found a place to live, I did not know anyone here and I think tourists who come here only for a week have way more money than I had back then. But this all made me more excited. I knew that either way we prepare or not life goes still exactly how it has to, so there is no reason to be afraid. If you decide to lock yourself into your house and never go out to be safe, are you actually protected from a meteor falling from the sky?
Marcin: What can you say about Iceland today? How would you describe Iceland (people, nature, environment, etc.)? What is Iceland from your point of view? I’m interested in your opinion on these things.
Possimiste: Wow, Iceland is so big actually, it has got many different faces. Well, I live in Reykjavik, which is a cute little town full of doll houses and christmas lights and big friendly cats. It is so quiet at the daytime, but when the sun sets it becomes the craziest party town ever. The life and people in Reykjavik and in the countryside are different…fancy houses, clothes, cars…many people in RVK care about those things so much. But not in the countryside, I feel more connection with people who grew up outside the capital.The weather is also crazy…at the moment for example there is a storm outside, the wind blows 30 m/s, the winter is coming. Definitely the nature controls your daily life here more than anywhere else. And people here, I see, respect the nature more than anywhere else. When someone notices trash on the ground or something like that, he more likely picks it up and throws it where it belongs to. But for me Iceland is definitely an island with some special power(This is probably the most important thing for me here.) I have always believed in other kind of invisible people living with us and here I could feel it for the first time on my own. One was even living in my room and I had to move out because he/she probably did not like that I was too curious.
Marcin: How does your current life in Iceland look like?
Possimiste: After my cat has commanded me to wake up I feed him, make myself ready and take a little walk at the seaside or in the city with my special one here, buy something good from the bakery. And after that I am ready to focus on my music things that take most of my time. I am looking forward to the winter darkness, because then I can turn on my Christmas lights and a disco ball inside the music room and enjoy this bliss. As the air and water and food are so pure here then I try to stay as healthy as I can. I think it was ages ago when I last ate red meat for exaple…My lifestyle has quite changed compared to what I had in Estonia.Less rushing and more time to focus on myself.Oh, yes, one more thing, I just started studying Icelandic so I go to school also now.
Marcin: OK, let’s go back to the music. When did you started writing the songs and making the music?
Possimiste: I started singing when I was about 1 year old, so I had asked my parents to put me in the singing studio. I remember that I always made some songs about angels for myself when I was little but of course I did not know how to write them down. The first time I managed to record and play and sing my own song was when I got my first piano for my 6th Christmas.
Marcin: Do you have any musical education?
Possimiste: I went to this singing studio and I learned singing until I moved here. We also had a nice vocal ensemble, got to travel and perform quite much. It was like a family and our teacher was like a second mum to all of us. I have studied piano for 4 years at music school…and when I was 13 I discovered that wow, I can make music with my computer.I wrote some classical pieces back then..until one day my computer exploded, so I lost them all.
Marcin: What is the music for you?
Possimiste: Music is the language of angels.
Marcin: Do you remember what inspired you that you started making music? Please tell about it.
Possimiste: I think music has always been with me since I can remember, I have not chosen it myself.What I feel is that it has been like my guide in this life. Sometimes I wonder that maybe all of us have guides like that, it is just matter of time when we recognize it. It can anything… art..or the love of baking bread, just anything. Anything that makes you want to live. And I am just happy that I have given music as my partner, such a beautiful thing.
Marcin: What albums made the biggest impression on you as a child and what albums are doing the same thing now?
Possimiste: When I was little I loved Walt Disney sing-along cassettes so much. I got quite many of them and I was so impressed that I think I watched them at least 200 times. For sure they have influenced my music and my world a lot. About 4 years ago I started listening to the sounds of nature, I could spend hours in the forest or at the seaside, just listening. This is what I am now musically addicted to .
Marcin: Are there any albums that caught your attention lately and you could recommend them to us?
Possimiste: I really like David Bowie`s ” The Next Day” – a brilliant album, especially the song „Where Are We Now”, I think this is the best song I have heard this year. Oh, and if you want something for your soul then you should listen to „Adiemus” by Karl Jenkins…this music is a miracle.
Marcin: If you were not a musician what would you do in your life?
Possimiste: I would be a travelling good-hearted witch who writes poems into her diary and collects herbs.
Marcin: Tell me about the creation of your EP “Wanderer” – how did the writing and recording process go?
Possimiste: Two winters ago I was just walking in the old town of Tallinn and the melody and words of the refrain came into my head, this is how it started. Then a little bit later I got an email from Eric Robertson, an american journalist and the owner of Field Guide Records, who asked me if I didn`t want to release a vinyl under his label. The idea of a storybook with a song had been in my mind for quite time and I thought that it would be something nice. So I spent my whole summer recording and producing the EP…I am a perfectionist when it comes to music, so it took a lot of time to create that world of „Wanderer.”But it is a nice feeling to raise a song, it feels like growing a flower.
Marcin: How did the collaboration with Valgeir Sigurðsson, who was mastered „Wanderer”, come about?
Possimiste: I have always admired Valgeir`s work and his own music, I think he is a musician who feels the music thoroughly. So I just wanted „Wanderer” to be in good hands. I told it to Eric and after 3 days it was ready and exactly how I saw it in my mind`s eye, like a magic. I have never had the chance to thank him personally, I am a little bit shy person when it comes to things like that, but I hope one day I can do it:)
Marcin: I would be interested to know, how you see your music?
Possimiste: Sometimes my songs are the stories of my own life in the form of sound, but sometimes they are messages from the future also. I just start hearing one phrase with lyrics and melody and that is the way how my songs usually begin. For example „I am going everywhere and I don`t care if I ever reach there” this is how „Wanderer” came to me. The last part „You fall in love, conquering all, „came also out of nowhere…but when I look around me now then this is exactly how my life has gone since the song got ready. Sometimes people see predictions in dreams, I see them in songs. Sometimes it feels very creepy and I feel that I need to stop.
Marcin: How would you describe your music to person who never heard it? How would you describe the musical sound of „Wanderer”?
Possimiste: To strangers I usually say that my music is fantasy pop/folk. I think Wanderer is like a story in a song, it is a happy-ending story. It sounds like you are walking in the forest with freedom in your soul.
Marcin: What is the lyrical direction on this album? What’s the story that you put on the album?
Possimiste: This is just a little story about being kids and growing up. I think our world is a very beautiful place and we all are so lucky to be here. Little kids understand that better. Look, how curious and surprised they are about everything. But for some reason when people grow up they forget it and start looking for happiness through different things like money, success and so on…though usually even if we reach those goals we don`t find happiness from the „finish”, there will only be new goals . I think happiness is not a destination but a lifestyle, the journey itself. It is everywhere around us and we just have to let it in, live our life as bright as we can.
Marcin: The cover artwork is very distinctive – who did that and how does it connect with the music and lyrics? Tell more about the cover artwork because it is an amazing and beautiful art.
Possimiste: Thank you very much, it makes me glad that you like it! My best friend whose artist name is Unholy Flying Rabbit took the picture and I did the photo editing part( I draw the same picture as the photo with watercolours and then put the photo and the painting together as two layers.)So the album artwork is our little collaboration. I will tell her also that you liked it, she is now in Japan, studying art. The cover picture should symbolise the moment of growing up.
Marcin: Another weirdness is a video for the song „Wanderer”. Whose idea was it and who made it? I’d like to hear about how was look like the making of this video. In what place it was shot music video?
Possimiste: When I hear songs then I always see moving images in my mind`s eye. Music is very visual for me so I kind of tried to bring the movie from my fantasy into the real world. It is mostly shot by Rabbit(who also plays the other girl there) in her summer house in Laulasmaa, 40 minutes from Tallinn. A nice place with waterfalls and forests. We always have so much fun when we shoot videos…and we did this time too, especially with the face paint. One funny moment was when her mum came home and her heart had almost stopped when she saw me : „You look like you are going to die tomorrow!”. The hardest part was to spend 2 hours in ice cold water but sauna and cookies after that were soooo good.
Marcin: Do you somehow feel influenced by the nature or environment when composing? Most bands from Iceland has a completely unique sound. Do you agree?
Possimiste: I agree, there are many bands who have this special sound and I think this is nice that a country has almost its own music genre. There are a lot of bands here who just laugh when people mention the connection between nature and their music. They say that that actually they don`t take inspiration from nature at all. I know that I am for example very sensitive about weather, I take everything inside me…and as weather here is so crazy I have become more crazy too in this way. I think nature has influenced me and my own nature influences the music, so there is deffinitely a connection.
Marcin: Let’s talk about inspirations. What other sort of art you enjoy exept music, no matter what kind – movies, pictures, books or whatever?
Possimiste: Oh, I like art. I like how flowers grow, how people walk, how people live their lives, dance, music, theater, nice places, funny movies, sad movies, horror movies, good food, how my cat does mew, how the wind blows…I think when someone puts his heart into something that he creates it becomes art and I find it terribly inspiring. I feel it is terribly inspiring when someone makes good pancakes…
Marcin: What are you doing now? What are your musical plans for the future?
Possimiste: I am working on my first full-length album now most of the time.The tracks are already written and now I am doing the arrangements. I just finished one song for Oskar Schuster`s upcoming album too. And in the beginning of winter there is going to be a new single and video of my own, so plenty of things to do.
Marcin: What can we expect sonically from your next album? How it differs from „Wanderer”?
Possimiste: Dreams. Fairytales. Symphonic orchestra. a cappella. Bells.Electornica.Northern lights. Theatre. Very sad songs.Very happy songs. Lots of emotions. A bit of Estonia. A bit of Iceland. A bit of Wonderland. As the songs have been written during the past 4 years there will be a lot of different music. It will be a like a journey for a listener. Well, Wanderer is so happy song…musically. The album will be much more melancholic and intimate.
Marcin: When the new album will be released?
Possimiste: I `ll do my best, in 2015!
Marcin: What is the most important effect music has for you? Which feeling would you like to give you listeners?
Possimiste: Music gives me peace. It is like my way to escape into the fantasy world…when I am sad and there is sad music, I feel harmony. I would like people to come into the fantasy world too and make them forget everything else.
Marcin: What would you like to say yet?
Possimiste: Live your life a fairytale!:) Aitäh!
