10.12.2021 - Bern
Steiner & Madlaina I Win Win Tour - Special Guest
Steiner & Madlaina
"Wish me luck"
It starts with a "good mood song with a slightly bitter aftertaste". So the artists themselves say it very aptly about the opener of their second album and at the same time name a specialty of the house Steiner & Madlaina - because exactly this flavor they can prepare perfectly. "I'm fine" is served to white wine spritzer at 40 degrees in the shade, a choir whispers, a relaxed grooving rock song stretches out leisurely, and the two Swiss women smear your bad conscience irresistibly on your bread at the latest in the chorus like not quite fresh strawberry jam: "Like Leonce and Lena, boredom is good for us / We are totally aware, what man is doing all around / Too lazy for any debates / I stay in the shade at forty degrees." One of their strengths already comes into play here: Nora Steiner and Madlaina Pollina are far too clever to stage themselves as do-gooders with waving index fingers, but dismantle themselves with well-tasted self-irony until they really realize in a last hug: "If we all felt like it, we could still save the world." Ouch.
But first things first: Anyone who has seen Nora Steiner and Madlaina Pollina live in recent years - for example on their long tours, at the Southside / Hurricane Festival or at lollapalooza - should have already succumbed to their live qualities, their charisma, their voices and last but not least their songs. And that may have happened to some by now, because the two have taken the old myth of "hochspielen" seriously and demolished over 150 concerts in recent years, 110 of them last year alone. Nora and Madlaina have known each other since school days in their home town of Zurich - and that's exactly what you feel at every performance. In addition, since their teenage days they have been on stages, wooden boxes, festival meadows, in backyards, in "kebab shops in front of five moaning guests" as Nora laughingly remembers or for a few years now also again and again in the studio. Their debut album "Cheers" came in 2018 and mixed mostly German songs with a handful of English and the wonderful "Herz vorus id Wand" on Schwyzerdütsch mixed. The label of her trust even then: Glitterhouse Records. On their second album "Wünsch mir Glück" Steiner & Madlaina have now found their language in sound, attitude and word. And it is immediately noticeable: All songs are written on German. "It wasn't necessarily planned," says Madlaina, "it came out more like that. We wanted the texts to be given more weight and I think our demands on us have also grown a bit. The songs on German were the best in the end." Nora adds: "Of course it had an influence that we toured a lot in Germany, often with bands that only sing on German."
Nevertheless, a good decision, because the eleven German songs impressively prove that the two had a damn good run lyrically. You have to know that Steiner & Madlaina each write their songs alone. But, according to Nora: "This time we discussed a lot about the texts and the topics during the writing process." And, according to Madlaina: "Nora is also the only one who can tell me that you have to get to this line again." A knowing laugh on the other side. "It's the other way around," says Nora. In terms of sound and power, a little has also changed: Even though Steiner & Madlaina work creatively as a duo, they are proud of "their guys", or their live band, which was also at their side in the studio. Leonardo Guadarrama (drums), Nico Sörensen (bass) and Max Kämmerling (electric guitar) played the songs live in the studio under the direction of Nora and Madlaina. This was captured very dynamically by producer Alex Sprave, who was already at the start of "Cheers". Indie folk and the often merging vocals of the two still form the basis, but the bluesy "... and that's me" or the angry first single "If I were a boy (I don't want to smile)" expand their timbre very conclusively. In addition, there is the bitterly evil song "Heile Welt", which - according to Madlaina - was created "out of the deepest resignation about the world that man has made". There is the pointed observation of the sufferings of Generation Y, "As beautiful as today", there is the evil "Ciao Bella", which is sung from the position of a supposedly feminist Chauvies, and there is the "I Want Some Sugar In My Bowl" of the "Generation Indie" - "Think what you want" - a song that is lascivious, intelligent, feminist and self-determined about good sex, who sometimes has nothing to do with love and who can also lead from the flower bed directly into the abysses that both want to explore. And there is the impossible love story "Wish me happiness", about a love that becomes so painful that only the hope remains that one will soon stop loving.
As album titles, the words "Wish me happiness" then make a colorful bouquet of flowers of further levels of meaning. One could read them as a motivating appeal of the artists themselves, who need a little luck in this business in addition to a good album. Or one could understand the title with a view to the political pieces as a defiant "wish me happiness" of a young generation that looks at the old Motzköppe, who drive our environment with fat SUVs against the wall.
