A conversation with GRETA

Greta Schenck was born in the 90’s in northern Germany, but one could easily be convinced that she was born decades before that. Her glamorous pop songs are dripping with nostalgia, and Greta’s sonic universe brings a plentitude of synthesizers, heavy electronic drums and sophisticated musical compositions. The lyrics are rooted in her own thoughts and they revolve around things that are both close to home but also unexplainable and abstract. Greta’s music is about relationships, life, death, human existence and change.

As in the case of Brimheim and Rebecca Lou some days ago, at the beginning of June Greta happened to be in Berlin and I had the opportunity to spend some minutes with her at the office of Better Things, the PR Agency that organised together with the label W.A.S. Entertainment, a showcase with the three artists based in Copenhagen signed to the Danish label. This is the conversation we had back then.

You are in Berlin to present your music released by the Danish label WAS Entertainment. However, despite living in Denmark you are German. How does it feel to come to Berlin to promote your music?

Greta: “I feel like home. It's kind of fun to come here as part of a Danish event, but then also have the German side and the possibility to speak in German. Here I feel very much at home because I've been In Berlin so much and have family here. So it really feels like coming home.”

And what made you emigrate to Copenhagen instead of, for example, coming here to Berlin?

Greta: “It's a good question. I had a friend that studied music in Denmark and told me about the Danish music scene and that there's not that much competition and genres are more fluid in a way. That sounded like a big family where everyone knows everyone because of course, Denmark is a small country but that sounded so cool to me that I decided to go and check it out. And I also grew up very close to the border, so it was also a natural move to just cross the border. I just tried it out and never came home.” 

And in your opinion, what is the key to success? What happens in Copenhagen that might not happen in Berlin, what can we learn from their system?

Greta: “That's a very hard question. I think it has to do with a lot of things and it's a huge topic. I don't know where to start but I could have something to do in the first place with the Danish school system which focuses more on forming the individual and its creativity. In Denmark it's all about cheering each other up and supporting each other instead of being jealous or looking for each other's faults.”

Both your debut album ‘Ardent Springs’ and your second album ‘Forever We’ll Be Dancing’ sound a lot like the 80s, even though you were born a decade after. Where does this sound come from?

Greta: “I think for me it's a lot about inspiration and playing around. I look back and take what I like with me into the future, and in combination with the future of the time I'm living in it hopefully becomes something new that's inspired by something old. I think creating something new comes from taking something that already exists and then mixing it up with some personal stuff and the time you live in.”

Do you think there are feelings or emotions that we somehow relate more to a particular genre or decade?

Greta: “Yeah! I think for me the 80s are very euphoric, playful and colorful. There's no fear of being kitsch or for being too much. That's what I really like because I feel that maybe in our time there could be more of a fear of being too much or to say something wrong. And that's what I like from the 80s and what I want to take with me in my process.” 

The sound that we identify with the 80s is usually connected with certain feelings like nostalgia. By moving to Copenhagen you left your hometown behind. Even the title of your latest album (Forever Will Be) hides some nostalgia or the idea of longing. Doesn't it happen to you that when you emigrate, there comes a time when when you are in one place, you miss the other and vice versa? Does this feeling have something to do with your music and perhaps with the fact that you now also sing in German?

Greta: “Definitely because when I moved away I had the need to distance myself from my home country and my language and to start from scratch in a new place. But then after some time I had both places in my heart so I feel like I reconnected with my language and that's when I started to use it again in my music. When I play live I always feel very grounded when the German parts come. I feel free when I'm very nervous and It helps me to calm down on stage. And I really agree with the longing. Whenever I'm in Denmark, I long for Germany, especially Berlin, because I feel so much at home here. But whenever I'm in Berlin, I long for Denmark. So this longing is like the part of me that's in everything and the reason why it's always in the music too.”

How do people in Denmark react when they suddenly hear you singing in German?

Greta: “They like it! I always see the audience react when I start singing in German, like wondering if that’s German. Most Danish people learn German in school so they usually know some of the words but I feel how they feel my energy. They feel my freedom and they feel that I get grounded and that I get some kind of power. I can feel how they feel the same way and how they get hyped with it. It's very interesting. And of course, I also play a lot around with some German cliches and what they associate with Berlin”. 

How much has Covid and the consequences that we all know and have suffered, influenced the creation of your album?

Greta: “Very much. Huge, actually. I think the album would have sounded so different without the influence of Covid. And I also think it would have taken me longer to make the album. I used music as my escape place, my safe place, my therapy place. I made the album in two months, I mean of course, it took a long time to finish it but the writing was very fast. The album is influenced by being locked in and longing for freedom, longing for going out to Berlin clubbing and all that. And it's very much about me and my partner and what he went through so I think it would have sounded so different without Covid.”

You are in Berlin today because of the so-called CPH x BLN showcase that you’re playing at together with Rebecca Lou and Brimheim at Privatclub. A great up-and-coming artist based in Copenhagen, signed to the Danish label W.A.S. Entertainment. And precisely W.A.S. seems to be very human and committed to authenticity. How has it been working with them and which role are they playing in your career?

Greta: “Very important. Very liberating. Because I feel like the label is following and supporting me and what I want to do. They are following my vision and not dictating a vision for me.”

To put an end to this conversation, festnoise is about music but especially about music festivals so in this regard I always like to ask what your experience with festivals is, or have been, as an artist and as a festival goer.

Greta: “I was supposed to play at Roskilde festival in 2020 and then it got canceled. So I want to play there, it’s in my pocket list. For Danish musicians it's an absolute dream to play at Roskilde. And what I love the most about festivals is randomly running around and seeing a band you did not know before. Finding new stuff is what I love the most. And it's so crazy because every time I've been at a festival in Germany or Denmark, the acts that I was looking forward to seeing were not the coolest thing rather than the ones I had never heard of before. I really like the vibe of the music festival so much!”

Learn more about GRETA by visiting her official website, following her on Instagram or listening to her music on Spotify.

Cover photograph by Catherine Brix