No musical performer to emerge over the last five years has made as profound an impression on me as has the singer Pina. Born and raised in Vienna but living in West Cork, Pina has made a pair of remarkable albums. Her debut Quick Look came out in 2002, and now she has re-surfaced with Guess You Got It . In conjunction with my review of her new album, Pina graciously gave much of her time to respond to a series of questions for an interview with Green Man Review. In considerable and insightful detail, Pina discusses her influences growing up, the decisions which brought her where she is today, and of course her music. She reveals some of the thought processes and ideas that helped spawn her new album, from the intriguingly elaborate cover photo to a few of her lyrical inspirations and the development of her musical style. Also, she discusses her affiliation with RealWorld records, from her big break as a guest singer on the Afro-Celt Sound System song "Go On Through" to her transfer to the label's new subdivision, PRE records.

Scott Gianelli (SG): What was your first exposure to music?

Pina (P): When I was a toddler me and my mom made music with a comb and a sheet of paper. Later on at the kindergarden I used to be picked to sing Christmas carols for our Christmas shows. I remember me as a 3-year-old singing on stage for the first time in a home for old people.

When I turned 9 I discovered the guitar and got one for Christmas. I was lucky and got a fantastic teacher in Robert W. Brojer, son of the famous Robert Brojer, who taught me the skills of classical guitar and brought me regularly on stage and to classical competitions. Robert Brojer probably had the biggest influence on me, since he taught me all his musical tools for interpretation. What a great teacher. He died a couple of years ago.

SG: What music did you listen to growing up, and what do you listen to now? What would you consider your biggest influences?

P: Since my parents were so young when they had me I grew up in a huge family with all my teenage aunts and uncles as well. They were listening quite a bit to the Doors and David Bowie, The Rolling Stones, Jethro Tull.

After a few years my dad got us our own flat and I left all that great music behind me within the walls of my granny's flat. My teacher took us to a classical guitar concert when I was about 11. There I heard Villa-Lobos being played for the first time. That day I fell head over heels in love with classical guitar and Villa-Lobos's work. I do think that the tools of interpreting classical music have influenced my work a lot. Also using my vocals very often like an instrument, might be influenced from my choir year at the Vienna conservatorium where I got introduced to the choirs of Anton Bruckner.

At 14 I consciously discovered my father's old records. I loved "The Wind Cries Mary" (Jimi Hendrix), "2000 Light Years From Home" (the Rolling Stones), "Ziggy Stardust" (David Bowie), and a few more.

Today, like all my adulthood, I very rarely listen to music. I usually have a lot of music in my head though, that's probably why. I am more of a TV person if I want to relax. I also paint quite a lot and create puppets for kids. I also want to stay pure and authentic with my songwriting, so I try and avoid influence. Authenticity is very important to me, giving people a true picture of my inner self.

My boyfriend (Andy Hogg) though, he loves a lot a music of different styles. He also is a fantastic drummer, blues guitarist and scratch DJ. So every now and then he plays a new record in the house and like this I got a chance to hear DJ Shadow's work. "What Does Your Soul Look Like, Part 2 (live)" is my favorite song at the moment. Other songs I like include Nick Cave's "The Mercy Street," Findlay Quay's "Sunday Shining," Eels' "Daisies of the Galaxy," Nirvana's "On a Plain," Jane's Addiction's "Summertime Rolls," Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Give It Away," Everlast's "What It's Like," The Doors' "Lovestreet," Cat Stevens' "Trouble," Canned Heat's "Time Was," and Nica Costa's "Corners of My Mind."

I love listening to the Doors. There is no song on their albums I do not like. They do justice to music being called a form of art. They use expression, technical capability on their instruments, and imagination. And apart from all that I used to be in love with Jim Morrison. I cannot really hear their influence on me as a songwriter, but if there is someone I would like to be influenced by it would have to be them.

SG: You said that the tools of interpreting classical music have influenced you a lot. How so?

P: I worked with written note material a lot. So you start visualizing music, thinking in dynamic terms like crescendo, decrescendo, largo, ritardando, ritenuto. The list is endless. Also the technical differences on the instrument -- where you play on the instrument dictates the quality of tone you get out of it; e.g. the playing in the soundhole gives you a different tone to playing on the bridge. These changes are used as a means for interpretations -- simple but effective.

Robert.W. Brojer, my teacher, was a great singer too. He was a conductor in his spare time and his wife an opera singer. So he used his voice a lot when he taught me how to interpret material on the guitar, singing along, getting louder and quieter, basically bringing life to a written piece of work.

I would say Heitor Villa-Lobos is my favorite (if you get the chance, listen to "Gavotta-Choro" or "Mazurka-Choro", or his eleventh etude out of his 12 etudos for guitar), but also Francisco Tarrega, Alirio Diaz ("Las Seis Cuerdas"), and Antonio Lauro. Sergej Prokofieff's Romeo And Juliet is my favorite orchestral piece.

SG: When and why did you decide to pursue music professionally?

P: I wrote my first song when I was 10 and took my friend Renate to the Austrian Broadcasting System ORF to make an entry for a new talent show. I was singing and playing the guitar and she was my backing singer. It was a song about poverty in the world and war. The producer really liked it, but he said to us we were a bit too young and sent us home.

I could not shake it off again. After the A-Levels I also started studying classical guitar with Heinz Wallisch at the Vienna Conservatoium. Also at this time I studied medicine, which I really liked as a subject. I felt quite torn between those two worlds of music and medicine and very unhappy about the fact I could not really focus on my songs.

I was living then with my daughter Luise's father (Helmut Kollars), who had just gotten signed for his first children's book, and I saw him really enjoying what he was doing. He encouraged me to focus on music and follow my dream.

SG: What made you decide to leave Austria and emigrate to Ireland?

P: For me there were two main reasons:

1. It was a childhood dream. Ideally I would have wanted to go and live in Scotland, but it was too expensive for us as we were making our money with Helmut's drawings and me teaching guitar and singing shows in Austria.

2. I also needed to get signed, and felt that Ireland would be more vibrant when it came to that.

SG: Why did you think Ireland would be a more "vibrant" place to get signed?

P: At the time all doors were closed for the sort of music I wanted to do in Austria.

Koch Music offered me a contract and set up everything for recording what was going to be my first album. They got me a well-known producer and cool musicians from the US. But the deal that was faxed through 3 days prior to my first studio day was pretty questionable. So I did not sign it and was really down about it for a while.

After this experience I felt I had arrived at the end of my journey with Austrian and German record companies and wanted to go somewhere else with my music, where A&Rs could see beyond a German version of Alanis Morissette or Sheryl Crow and acknowledge my own talents and ideas.

As Peter Gabriel and Realworld don't bend and twist their songmakers for the sake of having a quick hit, I am very happy to have made the changes (moving) that were necessary.

SG: What is it like to have Peter Gabriel as a boss? What kind of advice has he given you?

P: Peter is a very gentle and kind person. He has actually never corrected me, but really appreciates my work.

SG: How did you wind up singing on an Afro-Celt Sound System recording?

P: We had the same management. They needed a voice on the third album ( Further In Time ) and fell in love with my voice when they heard it.

SG: Some of your vocal harmonies on the Quick Look album reminded me more of Bulgarian and Finnish women's singing than anything rock or pop. Do you listen to a lot of world music, and if not, what inspired your singing style?

P: I very rarely listen to world music, but I do like Eastern choirs, which I also do not listen to very often at all. Also Anton Bruckner. I love using the voice like an instrument.

SG: What is it about using your voice like an instrument that appeals to you?

P: So far we haven't been in the position to deal with astronomical amounts of production money so we could afford whatever came into our heads. So, we have learned to deal with the simple things we have and use them to create art. One of those things is my voice, which was used in the past a lot to replace electric guitars for solos. I think we have managed to make a virtue of necessity.

Not always being able to get what you want with the means of money can be a very good thing, because you have to use your imagination a lot more and invent new things. I actually quite like that. There is always a challenge there.

SG: How hard is it for you to write lyrics in English?

P: When Sony Austria approached me right after I sent them my first demo suggesting I should sing my songs in German instead of English, I sure tried and felt after 3 songs that I better leave that to people who can really sing in the Viennese dialect, as this naturally should have been the accent for me to sing in. I also found German a very hard sounding language and not charming enough for my melodies.

I really like writing in English. Because it is not my mother tongue, it is like a safety shield around me when I express emotions. An insult in English would not hit as hard as an insult in my own Viennese dialect or German in general, as the mother tongue seems to have a straight connection to the heart.

Using the tool of the English language helps me to express emotions that I would be too shy to express in German. And like this it broadens my creative horizon.

SG: Has the lyric writing been easier for Guess You Got It than it was for Quick Look ?

P: I wrote the songs to Guess You Got It in a short space of time and like with everything you practice, it gets easier once you are into it.

But in general I had just as much material to write about as on Quick Look . Quick Look is more about good-byes (death and divorce) and childbirth. Guess You Got It is very much about a face-lift after a heavy time, a grateful attitude for what I have with my new partner who loves and respects me, about our little troubles, missing Luise and the senselessness of resentment after the break-up. But I don't think it's a question of the lyrics coming to me easier.

SG: What else was different between the writing and recording processes for Quick Look and for the new album?

P: For Quick Look I had about 1 1/2 days for each song for the whole arrangement, including the actual recording of everything and rough mix. Before that I had only used a 4 track, so it was great to have Ben Findlay there to look after recording everything properly. The songs had all been written on guitar, and for most songs I was not really thinking of drums when I wrote them.

When I started Guess You Got It I had different instruments in my studio, since Andy had moved in with me after the 1st record: Andy's drums, his decks, a piano, guitar pedals and amps. I decided I wanted to concentrate and focus on the actual energy in the music, dictated by the range and tempo rather than the abilities of the voice like on Quick Look . I also enjoyed very much using the piano way more than on Quick Look, so most songs were written on the piano. Realworld also gave me the chance to produce the record myself, without the time, pressure, and expenses when you use a normal studio. Luise was there the whole time. So the record was made in a very happy and relaxed environment. Andy contributed a lot of his creative feel. It was a wonderful and satisfying experience.

SG: What is PRE Records, and how did you become involved with it?

P: As Jo Arthur's stuff and my stuff got always put into the world section in music stores, Peter Gabriel came up with the idea to create PRE Records. I think it is a great idea as most people, especially shop assistants, associate Realworld with world music only. In that sense I think it was a fantastic idea to create a new label on Realworld for artists like me. I particularly like the new logo.

SG: How did you come up with the title "Guess You Got It"?

P: It originally developed from a line in "Bucket of Love" where I sing "I guess, you got hooked too boy." Making then the drawings for the album cover, this title made a lot of sense to me.

SG: What is the concept behind the cover photo? It looks like you are walking down the stairs into some strange party.

P: When I was thinking what could we put on the cover I wanted something that had some sort of deeper meaning. Andy suggested the party. People here are all representing the themes on the record. There is a couple that kisses, a couple that slap each other, a woman who cries, a woman stabbed in the back, a woman that dives hard into consumption and a waiter who brings us the CDs on a plate. I think rock music has become a throwaway product and can be a bit short-lived. The candle on the cake is for the birthday of my record and indeed this is a very strange party I am not quite part of.

When I drew that beforehand I had Hyronimus Bosch, the medieval painter, in mind.

SG: "I Was Walking" has some very interesting imagery, with you laying hands on your memories and burying them in the ground. Where did the idea for this song come from?

P: The aftermath of the divorce was unexpectedly painful and made a nervous bundle of energy of me for a while. After staying in the same situation without improvement, I realized that I was going in circles and that I had to leave the past behind me in order to make a step forward in my personal growth. I also discovered The Book of Living and Dying by the Buddhist Monk Sogyol Rimpoche, which helped me to move on. The song itself is a cry for freedom from your own demons and a recipe of how to get there. Musically the backing vocals here are very important, those are my 1930's backing singers.

SG: What do you mean by that?

P: When I wrote the song, the backing vocals were a very important feature already in the song, and I imagined two ladies from the 30's singing them into their old microphones. Sure, I ended up doing their part.

There usually is a strong connection between visual imagination, lyrics, and interpretation within me and once I have got this connection going it is truly magical, uplifting and sometimes mysterious, holding me captured for a few days or weeks.

SG: What does it mean to be just like a butterfly on the inside?

P: I had a wonderful experience when meditating which brought tears to my eyes and filled me with a lot of happiness. I was filled with an awful lot of love and I felt as if God had touched my face. I imagined this golden yellow light that fell over my body und sucked me all in. At that time I wrote the song I was quite unhappy with myself, which was reflected in the relationships I had with people and made me even more unhappy as I felt guilty. After that magic experience I somehow wished that everyone could experience that feeling once. It did change me and my attitude toward people.

SG: In the instrumental break on "Dark Blue and Gold," it sounds as though the "solo" is performed using your voice fed through an amplifier. How did you come up with that idea?

P: We started performing the song before it got put down on tape, and at the time we did not have an an extra guitar player who could do solos. So I started singing this solo and it developed into a real cry repesenting the emotional upset between two ex-lovers who have not learned yet to communicate as parents and who have not learned yet to deal with their shifted roles.

SG: With most of your songs tending to be dark, was it easy or hard to write a song as upbeat as "Bucket of Love"?

P: It was not hard at all. It came out of true emotions. Having lived a dead relationship before, I felt blessed to be given the chance to live the exact opposite and, knock on wood, since then we have been living this nearly every day.

SG: How old is Luise now? How did she react when you first played "Luise Luise" for her? How musical is she?

P: She has just turned 8 and is a wonderful child. She is a true Gemini, very happy and very friendly with people, she loves school and she is starting to show some true West Cork in her accent. We have a very close relationship. I wrote it for her when I was over at Realworld to record some material. She really likes the song, but I think she is more impressed about the fact that her name is mentioned on the record. Only recently a DJ mentioned her name on air and she heard it. She was all excited. She is very talented and very expressive. She loves dancing and drawing most of all. She usually sings when she is riding her bike or when she thinks we cannot hear her.

I remember her at the age of 4 sitting down at this huge Boesendorfer at Realworld singing and playing us a song. She made up lyrics and gave us a wild performance on the keys. She likes learning in a playful way, so I have started to teach her the way you position yourself in classical guitar and do movements with the right hand. She is very open for that and eager. I do not try to force her into any direction as my parents never did this to me either.

SG: Who are the musicians performing with you in the acoustic performances on your site? Is this the band you are touring with?

P: Yes, this my band. Andy is my boyfriend, he plays the cahon and drums. Duncan plays the bass, he comes from England and replaced Noel Redding (Jimi Hendrix) in his band. Our guitar player was replaced by Alan Murray who comes from Scotland; he is not on the video. And our keyboard player Pete Williams is not on the video as it was an acoustic session.

SG: When are you planning to release the CD in the U.S.? Will you be touring at that time as well?

P: Realworld will look after this and is currently looking for the right label for the record. So I think the record won't be out in the U.S. for quite some time. We will see.