Noga Erez spielt nicht nach Regeln – schon gar nicht nach Genre-Grenzen. Zwischen wuchtigen Beats, bissigem Humor und schonungsloser Offenheit erzählt sie, warum Instinkt ihr einziger Kompass ist und wie ein Festival-Vibrator zum kuriosesten Souvenir ihrer Karriere wurde. Wir haben sie auf dem Sziget Festival zum Interview getroffen.
Frontstage Magazine: For everyone reading this interview, can you introduce yourself in a few words?
Noga Erez: I am Noga Erez. A musician, a human being, and a new mom.
Frontstage Magazine: If your music had a secret ingredient, what would it be?
Noga Erez: Love.
Frontstage Magazine: Do your songs come to you like dreams, ghosts or puzzles?
Noga Erez: Puzzles, wow. Puzzles. Intricate, awful puzzles.
Frontstage-Magazine: Your sound blends genres so beautifully. Do you think in terms of genre at all when you’re creating or does it all come together more instinctively?
Noga Erez: Just instinct. No genre. I don’t know what genre is. Seriously, I’ve stopped that conversation 20 years ago.
Frontstage Magazine: I think you can hear it in your songs.
Noga Erez: Yeah. Maybe I’m just so stupid that I’m not even able to hold on to one direction haha. One Direction. Sorry. Lame joke. [Laughter]
Frontstage Magazine: Is there a track in your unreleased vault that you’re dying to play live but haven’t found the right moment for yet?
Noga Erez: Yeah, I have like 20 songs. I have like almost two albums worth of songs. I gave birth six months ago and when I was towards the end of my pregnancy I was so creative because I was so fucked in my brain. I was so pregnant-stupid that I just didn’t give a fuck and I just created songs and they came out really amazing. And that makes me such a happier human to have all these songs. One of them would be a song called „Animal“ and the concept is asking for somebody to remind you that you are an animal because it’s too complex. The world is too complex. Do something to help me, to remind me that I’m a dog or a cat or a cow. I just need to eat and poop and sleep and fuck.
Frontstage Magazine: When you’re working on an album or EP, how do you know a track is finished? What tells you „Ok, this is done now“?
Noga Erez: It’s a very, very solid feeling of „This is great. This is exciting. I love this. I want everyone to know this.“
Frontstage Magazine: You often use really bold, punchy, sonic textures. Is there a particular sound or production technique you have been successful with recently?
Noga Erez: Just stealing from other artists.
Frontstage Magazine: What’s something about performing at a festival like SZIGET that pushes you differently than playing your headline shows?
Noga Erez: It’s a competition. Seriously. I just want to be better than all the other artists here.
Frontstage Magazine: What kind of environment brings out your best performance?
Noga Erez: A supportive and loving environment. And it brings out my best performance, not just shows but my performance generally. I work well under a loving energy.
Frontstage Magazine: What is something small that keeps you grounded during the chaos of tour and festivals?
Noga Erez: Newest thing would be my daughter. She’s something small that keeps me grounded. Before that, I think it would be very weirdly doing my makeup in here before shows and doing my warm-up. Just doing something very routine that I have to do.
Frontstage Magazine: What’s the craziest thing on your rider?
Noga Erez: I don’t have anything crazy. It’s all very normal. But one time I went to a festival in California. I don’t remember which one it was. They specifically said I can ask for whatever I want. And they meant that I can ask for drugs. But I don’t do drugs while I’m on tour. So I asked for an extra large vibrator and they got me one. And I can’t do anything with it because it’s huge. But I have it as a souvenir. It’s really fucking cool.
Frontstage Magazine: Without giving too much away, what can we expect from your upcoming releases?
Noga Erez: I’m not trying to write hits. I’m not doing that at all. So it’s more free, more complex, sometimes just associative, like just very very free.
Frontstage Magazine: Would you say it’s more “you“?
Noga Erez: It’s me now, yeah.
Frontstage Magazine: Do you have any last words?
Noga Erez: Before I die?
Frontstage Magazine: To end this interview.
Noga Erez: Yeah, I want to say thank you to my German fans. Germany is where I started. And it is one of the best places to start a career as an alternative artist. I hope that you guys know that you live in a very cool place when it comes to that. Because developing artists are struggling all over the world. They don’t really get support from the labels that they’re signed to. They don’t really get support from the audience because people are looking for something fast. And Germany is not like that. It’s one of those rare places. And I love that you can thrive there and still be weird.
Fotocredits: Telja Riechel
