Von Wegen Lisbeth in 2013 indieBerlin Interview – from the archives

by | Exclusives

These days anyone who’s even vaguely into the indie pop world knows who Von Wegen Lisbeth is. With their single Wenn Du Tanzt hitting 8 million views and their other singles also racking up plays in the millions, they’re most definitely doing the 21st Century equivalent of being plastered on teenage walls across the country.

Jump back to 2013 and they were still a well-kept secret, a young indie band not yet finished school and already making waves among the south-west of Berlin, from whence they come. indieBerlin discovered them playing in Kreuzberg’s Junction Bar (see very shaky video) in early 2013 and immediately we knew we wanted to book them for our fledgling concert series, indie Goes Burbs, that we were putting on back then down on the south-west edge of the city.

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Which is why, in the lead-up to their concert, we sat down and had something of an abstract chat with Matze and the rest of Von Wegen Lisbeth. And now that we’ve just relaunched our site with indieRepublik as our figurehead, I thought it was high time that we reposted said interview. I warn you though: translating it from German didn’t make it any less abstract. In fact…here it is anyway:

The six members of the indie pop band Von Wegen Lisbeth spread a lot of good mood with their music, their appearance and their celebrated concerts! With “accidental combination of words on pieces of paper” they created quite … well, yes, we say individual lyrics. The grooves are absolutely danceable and are carried by Casio keyboards, steel drums and rainbow night tester and of course drums, bass and guitar.

It was Champions League final and nobody was there.

We asked the guys a few questions… To get in the mood for the indieberlin@NeueKammerspiele concert on May 24th (2013) at Neue Kammerspiele 🙂

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Von Wegen Lisbeth live in indieBerlin Concert @ Kammerspiele Kleinmachnow. Photo Credit Mia Morris

indieBerlin: Why do you call yourself “Von Wegen Lisbeth”?  

We just like unwieldiness. In the end, two names were up for debate, one more unwieldy than the other, and we couldn’t decide. So we put this extremely heavy responsibility on the shoulders of that old tomcat. The food in the feeding bowl with the “Because of Lisbeth” sign must have been extremely tasty, since the alternative was left untouched.

indieBerlin: Will you tell us your worst concert experience? 

Von Wegen Lisbeth:

It was Champions League final and nobody was there.

indieBerlin: You have a quite abstract humour and sense for abstract lyrics. How do you write your songs? 

The word abstract comes from the Latin abstractus for “deducted”. We used to get pulled off with a nice regularity. Matze tries to deal with this formative element of our early youth in his lyrics.

indieBerlin: Where do you come from and what keeps you in Berlin? 

Von Wegen Lisbeth: Berlin and Berlin.

indieBerlin: Is there a special Berlin audience? 

Playing in front of our parents is always nice.

indieBerlin:We have also heard that there is a special connection to Kleinmachnow, where you will play a concert on 24.05. Is that true?

Von Wegen Lisbeth: That’s correct. Kuskes (synth, guitar, glockenspiel, rattle, dance) first great love came from Kleinmachnow. This will be a very emotional moment for him…to return to the place where it all began after more than 10 years…

ib: Are there any musical role models / idols / icons for you? 

Von Wegen Lisbeth: No.

indieBerlin: Who would you like to share the stage with? 

Von Wegen Lisbeth: Honest answer: Lena Meyer-Landrut!

indieBerlin: Thanks a lot!

Interview: Mia Morris

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