Interview with OCINN (2/2)

Automatic translation. Improvements are constantly being worked on.

Ocinn was founded in 2007 and released her first album in 2020. We continue our interview with Nico about her extraordinary project and the new album “Nebelgeister”. Missed the first part? No problem, you can read it here .

Orkus: What triggers fog in you?
Nico: I think fog has a very special atmosphere, something beautiful, dark and melancholy, but also romantic. It can seem soft and familiar and reminds me of my home. At the same time, however, it can also appear threatening, cold and eerie, as if you were getting lost or lost in it. It is precisely this interplay that fascinates me and makes the fog so special for me.

O: Do you live in an area with a lot of fog yourself? Rather rural?
N: I grew up in a village next to a small town in southern Germany. There are lots of forests here and November is the beginning of a real foggy season. The fog has been with me since I was a child and therefore also reflects my connection to my home and my roots.

O: “Ich eile ins Nichts” and “Im Reich der Nebelgeister” are characterized by whispering lyrics. Did you get help from guests? Please tell us about it.
N: As well as music, I also write poetry. During the research for the album, I got more involved with poetry again and wrote a lot of texts during this time. This eventually led to the idea of setting pieces with spoken or sung lyrics to music again. I had already set one of my poems to music with John Never on my album “The Forest” and I wanted to take up this approach again for “Nebelgeister”. John Never is a good friend of mine who I’ve worked with before. He is a great musician and is active in bands such as “Dethroned” and “Neocortex”. When he heard the piano music from “Nebelgeister”, he immediately felt inspired to write his own lyrics and asked me if he could write something about it. That’s how the lyrics to “Ich eile ins Nichts” came about, which he also sang himself. For me, it was a special moment in the creative process to experience that my music in turn inspired his lyrics. For my own lyrics “Im Reich der Nebelgeister”, I asked W.K. from the Austrian band In Dornen if he would record them for me. We have already worked together on several projects. For example, I contributed my piano music to his albums “Trauer” and “Vergänglichkeit”. When I had finished the lyrics, I immediately realized that W.K. would be the right voice for it. I still get goose bumps when I hear his voice over the light piano melody. In his interpretation, he captured the mood and feeling of the text perfectly for me.

O: The other pieces are characterized exclusively by the piano, which creates a particularly dark atmosphere. How do you create such an instrumental?
N: It’s very different. Sometimes images arise in my head when I’m composing, sometimes it’s impressions from nature or my surroundings that trigger something in me and initiate the creative process. Before I start composing, I often rehearse existing pieces from my own or other people’s repertoire. Then I start to improvise. These improvisations usually result in the first fragments of a new piece. If a melody, individual notes or chords emerge that particularly touch me and trigger something in me, I pick them up and develop them further. This is how a piece gradually develops. The impressions that I gather during my research, in nature or generally in different phases of my life always flow into my compositions. This makes my pieces very personal and emotional.

O: You also wrote the music for a game, “Fake Attack”. How did that come about and how did you get involved?
N: The game “Fake Attack” is part of the Gesamtkunstwerk “Invasion” by the artist Nezilla. We have already worked together several times. For example, I contributed my piano music to the soundtracks of her artworks “Art Against Abuse” and “Paperbomb”. We often understand each other without many words, which makes our collaboration very special. Maybe that’s why we enjoy working together so much. In this context, she finally asked me if I could also write a piece for the computer game. For this project, I worked intensively with the synthesizer and first composed the melody on an analogue synthesizer before recording it digitally. I was often reminded of the game and 8-bit music from my childhood and youth. Later, our mutual friend Nils Lesser added the beat and completed the song. It was a really exciting and enriching experience for me.

O: Are there special places that inspire you, or do you have to put yourself in a special mood?
N: I like to be inspired by nature. Especially in the forest, by the water or in the mountains. Due to my roots in southern Germany and northern Italy, I have a close relationship with nature and am surrounded by impressive landscapes, which are always a great source of inspiration for me. At the same time, I also allow myself to be carried by my own emotional world. Everything I experience, impressions, encounters or events that take place during or even before a writing phase flow into my music and become an important source of inspiration.

O: Would you describe yourself as melancholic?
N: I would definitely say that I have a melancholic side. Melancholy, as well as the darker side, has always held a special fascination for me. I am drawn to melancholic, romantic and darker moods, whether they are expressed in music, films, pictures or stories. This world has made a deep impression on me since my childhood and continues to do so to this day.

O: And finally, a look to the future: what is planned? Could you imagine performing Ocinn live as well?
N: I’m currently working on a new project in which the bass will play a bigger role, even though the piano will remain an important component. I would like to develop my compositions on the bass more. The project is still in its infancy, but my aim is to work more with artists from different genres in the future. However, I can’t reveal any more at the moment. As far as the piano is concerned, I am of course still busy composing and the next Ocinn album is already in the making. Live performances are not planned at the moment, at least not yet.

Claudia Zinn-Zinnenburg

You can also find out more about Ocinn in our May/June issue