After a packed out show at The Borderline in London, MTTM caught up with Valeska Steiner of duo BOY to find out more about their forthcoming album and their experiences in the UK so far.
MTTM: How did you meet, and begin making music?
VS: Sonja and I met at a music workshop in Hamburg in 2005. I was still living in Zurich at that time, but two and a half years later, I decided to move to Hamburg. That’s when we decided to really form our own band. We started writing the first songs for BOY at the end of 2008.
MTTM: Why the name BOY?
VS: It took us ages to find a band name! In the beginning, we were trying to find a name that describes us well and has a lot to do with us. But since we didn’t find anything we liked, we decided to just take the opposite of what we are in the end. We like the word BOY, how it looks and what it sounds like. And it seems to stay in peoples heads because people probably wouldn’t expect two women behind it.
MTTM: What’s the inspiration behind your songs, is it mainly personal experience?
VS: All the lyrics are autobiographical. I get inspired by the mood of Sonjas instrumental tracks that she composes at her place, and then I try to find lyrics and a melody that fits. And then it goes back and forth until those fragments of ideas turn into real songs.
MTTM: Your album has been out in Germany for a while, for those of us in the UK, what can we expect when it’s released here?
VS: We hope that we will be able to play a lot around here! We will be opening for Katie Melua on her European tour in autumn and there are going to be some dates in the UK!
MTTM: You recently headlined your first UK show at the Borderline to a packed out room, how was that experience?
VS: We were so happy and surprised to see how many people came to the show! We had only played in London one time before that, so we didn’t expect such a big audience, let alone people singing along to some of the songs! It was really nice and we’re looking forward to coming back.
MTTM: From what you’ve seen, how does the UK music scene compare to other places?
VS: The UK has always had such a great music scene and so many interesting and innovative artists. So it’s a great adventure for us to release our album here and see what happens.
MTTM: Do you have a favourite song on the album, and if so, which one?
VS: My personal favourite would probably be Drive Darling. It tells a story that is very important to me and I’m glad we were able to make a song out of it.
MTTM:10 years from now, where do you hope to be?
VS: 10 years is such a long time, I think at the moment 5 years are the maximum amount of time I can think ahead! I hope that in 5 years, we will have released our second album and and will have been taken to beautiful places by our music. And hopefully we will be working on album number 3!
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