**Part One**

TOAZTED: First of all, welcome!

SANDRA NASIC: Yes, hello!

TOAZTED: Could you introduce yourself please?

SANDRA NASIC: Yeah, I'm Sandra Nasic and I'm a... singer, songwriter, rock'n'roll, ee whatever... fan!

TOAZTED: Now you call yourself 'singer, songwriter', but three years ago you left the Guano Apes, a famous German rock band, and three years after that you come with you debut album. What took you so long?

SANDRA NASIC: Oh, there's a song called like that, *sings* 'what took you so long...' *laughs* Erm, I don't know. I wanted to have time for that, and the first year after the split of the band I really wanted to be away from all the business things and I really wanted to find my way of writing and find the way back to the connection to my own music, so I really sat there and I really wanted to have time for everything. And of course my record company, they always said 'Sandra, what are you doing in the studio, why do you need so long', but you know, it doesn't matter to me. In our times everything is so fast, and the next thing and next thing... For me really, success wasn't that goal for me. You know? For me it was very important as a musician to grow musically and to find other ways of writing and meeting people and... I really wanted to have the time and I took it.

TOAZTED: So it was also a time of reflection?

SANDRA NASIC: Reflections! *laughs* Yes, maybe also a lot of reflections, and of course building my love again for the music, and trying to lose myself into my world of music. I love to work in the studio, I'm a total studio maniac, and you can ask my boyfriend - he hates it when I work that long, but I really love creating songs and this is somehow a new part, because when you are in a band you always know how to play, everybody has a part, you are a part of a group. And of course this was the moment where I really had the freedom to do whatever I want to do and also the possibility to learn from other producers, how to work... So it was good, it was great...

TOAZTED: How difficult was it to create your own sound? Because you have been ten years in Guano Apes.

SANDRA NASIC: It wasn't difficult, it was totally easy. Because I have lots of music in me, or like one of my producers said to me: 'Sandra, you have so many melodies in yourself, you're like sparkling water'. That's also a reason why I wrote simple songs. In some songs you really have just one chord, or harmonies really just repeating over and over, you have one riff. And I could create all of my melodies on that. I musically had air to breathe on that. So it was not that difficult. It took me a long time, because when I'm in the studio I love to lose myself and of course I also lose time *laughs*.

TOAZTED: It was not hard to create music...

SANDRA NASIC: No.

TOAZTED: ..and to put on the details?

SANDRA NASIC: Yeah I'm a detail maniac, like I said before, I love to lose myself in the world of music, and so of course I was trying to... *laughs* perfectionist?

TOAZTED: Perfectionise... maybe?

SANDRA NASIC: Yeah maybe we're right, who knows it? We know what we mean! And uh... this costs a lot of time, you know, when you're doing this. This is a special way of making music. For the next time I guess I wouldn't take so long, but for this time it was very important for me.

**Part Two**

TOAZTED: It resulted in an album which is very various, there are a lot of different songs on it, still the classic rock like we know you from Guano Apes, but also some electric songs in it. Why did you choose to have such songs on it?

SANDRA NASIC: Because I love all kinds of music and when you have the freedom to do whatever you like... I mean, for me, I really used it. And music is my topic, I don't want to be stuck in a genre or something. Music for me is what touches my heart or my soul, so it can be a synthesizer sound or whatever. It can be a guitar riff, or a bass lick, or drums or just a beat, you know? If I can build a song on that one thing, it's not important which colour I use... I mean for me the instruments are just colours to paint with, and if you want me just to do one kind of music, you say to me 'okay, here's the colour blue. You can paint just blue pictures'. And I didn't want to do that. It's my own little revolution, that I'm doing everything, everything i like.

TOAZTED: Yeah but some people say that using computers beats is not pure.

SANDRA NASIC: What?!

TOAZTED: Not pure, like you're less of a musician.

SANDRA NASIC: Who said this?! This is stupid! *laughs*

TOAZTED: Why is it stupid? Because it's not pure music, it's not guitar, it's using the computer.

SANDRA NASIC: But you put art in a case again. And I wouldn't do that, for me art and music is the same, and if I feel good with a synthesizer sound comes in and plays some notes or a melody you know? It doesn't matter what instrument hits you, if it hits you it hits you. So for me, everything what comes out of you is pure. So I see it in a different way, for me everything what is a part of me is pure.

TOAZTED: And during these three years you were by yourself. Didn't you regret that you left Guano Apes at some point?

SANDRA NASIC: Never. Every step I do is... well, I'm just following my belief in my heart, so there's never any regret, you know? If I had stayed longer in this band, then there would be a point when I'd say, is this pure? I just don't want to do it because of the money. I said to myself, okay I gotta quit now because I don't want to lose the magic of my music or the connection to the music so I really have to go. Because it felt wrong somehow, and I wanted to feel it again, and I searched for it, and I found it for myself again. So there will never be any regret for me, I'm very proud of what we did and how we did it. There was this chemistry we had, but it's... it's another book, you know? It's a good book! *laughs* It's one of my favourite books, but I closed it now. Maybe when we are old... very old... we're gonna do a re-uinion! *laughs* Grandmother Sandra...

TOAZTED: Well, you see the Rolling Stones doing it also at this age...

SANDRA NASIC: Yeah well this is unbelievable...

**Part Three**

TOAZTED: But is there a person, like a producer or something, who was really vital to the creation of that album? Because this is the first solo album for you, and because you worked with a lot of well-known producers... is there someone vital for this album?

SANDRA NASIC: Vital, um... Do you mean responsible?

TOAZTED: Well, without whom you couldn't do it.

SANDRA NASIC: No. When I made my demo tapes and showed them to different producers, and met all the different people, first of all I had to have sort of a connection to the other person, and he or she had to have the same thing, and if you have the same musical connection somehow – you can do music. So this is the most important thing for me – if I’m working with somebody else, there has to be this connection, otherwise I’m not gonna work with this person. So I wrote the music ‘out of my stomach’, and when I wrote together with the producers, it was always like a jamming situation. He was playing the guitar, I was playing the piano or the keyboard, I was singing, and afterwards I was writing my lyrics, singing and recording by myself. I think I can work with everybody, or I have no problems to work with anybody.

TOAZTED: And how did you do it with a band, because you recorded it with a lot of different artists, so did you have your own band or…?

SANDRA NASIC: No, I was writing by myself. I sit in the studio, I have my guitar – a very old, very cheap guitar *laughs*. I also bought a very expensive guitar but it sounded shit.

TOAZTED: Really?

SANDRA NASIC: Yeah. I bought a Fender Jaguar, I think made in Japan or something. I played one made in the US and it sounded so good, but when I bought another one it sounded so shit, and was so expensive, like 2500 bucks or something.

TOAZTED: Nooo…

SANDRA NASIC: *nods* Really.

TOAZTED: And it sounded shit?

SANDRA NASIC: And it sounded shit. It was just screaming. It was a very screaming guitar.

TOAZTED: *laughs* Do you have the receipt?

SANDRA NASIC: *thinking*

TOAZTED: Then you could turn it in!

SANDRA NASIC: Ee..ee.. I don’t know. Hmm…

TOAZTED: Put it on eBay.

SANDRA NASIC: I will give it away somehow. I choose my cheap guitar for writing songs, so…

TOAZTED: But there’s not a regular group of people who you work with, while recording the album…

SANDRA NASIC: No…

TOAZTED: …or to go on tour with?

SANDRA NASIC: A tour? Well, this is another pair of shoes. When I’m gonna do a tour, there are a lot of friends or musicians I know and I’m rehearsing at the moment with some people in Berlin, and there are a lot of musicians. I’m playing my music with a lot of different musicians, so I guess I want to keep it very open.

TOAZTED: And also on the tour, wouldn’t you travel with the same group?

SANDRA NASIC: Yeah, it depends. There will be some changes and I will have my group, but it will always be open. I don’t wanna have this one band, I wanna keep it open for everybody.

TOAZTED: Okay, and what are your touring plans, because I looked at your website and I only saw one date!

SANDRA NASIC: *laughs* Yeah, they were so fast with the webpage… ‘why did you put that on, there is no date!’

TOAZTED: It’s called Ein…

SANDRA NASIC: Eins Live? Oh yeah, this is the big radio station in Germany, and there’s an award.

TOAZTED: You won it before.

SANDRA NASIC: I won it before when I made a song with Apocalyptica years ago, and they gave me an award for that, it’s really cool! And yeah, they liked the music so I’m nominated for this year and maybe I’ll win a second crown, I don’t know. My mother’s collecting! *laughs*

TOAZTED: But your tour plans aren’t known yet?

SANDRA NASIC: There are no dates now for me, I didn’t do it because I’m still in a rehearsal process, I’m working with the guys, with the band, so I can’t really say, there’s gonna be a date. But I guess it’s gonna be next year, beginning of the next year.

TOAZTED: And first Germany, or Europe at the same time?

SANDRA NASIC: I guess it’s gonna be a mixture. Maybe a little tour in Germany and maybe also… I don’t know, I think it’s gonna be a mixture.

TOAZTED: Some festivals would be great for you I think.

SANDRA NASIC: Yeah…

**Part Four**

TOAZTED: Because you said ‘it easy for me to write music and to make it’ other songs that didn’t it make to the album but maybe to the next album?

SANDRA NASIC: Yeah, all I had tones of files… *laugh*. Yes… For example, mostly every song has like fifteen versions. I had a song called… Well, ‘Name of My Baby’ for example, it’s the first single. I wrote fifteen different verses for that song. So I really have a lot of ideas and lot of material. I can immediately go back to the studio and work again on it, so…

TOAZTED: Wasn’t it hard then, to pick the right songs for the album?

SANDRA NASIC: No. I knew which songs I really wanna to have now. I mean that…

TOAZTED: These were the ones that were standing out?

SANDRA NASIC: Mmmm, no, because the other songs weren’t ready, the most part are ready, but they’re not finished yet. And of course there were some songs which are great, but I couldn’t put them on that album. So I knew, ‘okay, this should be, maybe for the next one’.

TOAZTED: So the next album will be in…?

SANDRA NASIC: Tomorrow! No, I don’t know. But not in three years. *laugh*

TOAZTED: Well, that’s the good thing about being by yourself and writing your own things. Because I don’t know, did you write in Guano Apes?

SANDRA NASIC: Yeah of course!

TOAZTED: Together with the other guys?

SANDRA NASIC: Yes, we were, like the music thing, just the instruments. We were like rehearsing together in the rehearsal room and everybody was following each other, when I did melodies there were following at me, when they did melodies are was following at them. It was really out of the moment, we made music out of the moment. There was nobody who came in with a finished song. We really wrote music together.

TOAZTED: It’s like jamming?

SANDRA NASIC: Like jamming. And afterwards I always recorded the vocals and everything, the lines by myself at, I don’t know, 4’oclock in the morning.

TOAZTED: Are you still in touch with them now?

SANDRA NASIC: No, not that… Not that deep touch. *laugh*

TOAZTED: Why not?

SANDRA NASIC: Why?!

TOAZTED: Maybe… If you are together with each other for such a long time I can imagine it’s hard to let’s go.

SANDRA NASIC: You know… It’s like, maybe in a marriage. I don’t know if you had ever been married to somebody?

TOAZTED: No.

SANDRA NASIC: Good. Otherwise you wouldn’t ask me something like that. *laugh* We went away from each other not that good, so I mean they didn’t understand my position and I couldn’t really… I don’t know. Explain to them how or why and that now it’s important and I don’t feel it anymore that way, I have to grow somehow and I really felt unhappy and I wasn’t … Yeah, the guys didn’t give me a good feeling, you know? So of course when you… have that moment or you split off and the other guys wanted to move on and move on and you say ‘you know, I can’t do it that way’. I need to grow for myself and I’m stuck somehow here. And they don’t understand that. Of course it’s not that easy to stay in touch like friends, you know? But of course I love the music we did and it’s really special chemistry we had. And I guess there were a lot of people who really knew what we did or we gave from ourselves. It was pure and raw. So I’m proud of that. Yeah of course it’s a part of us.

TOAZTED: And are you happy now?

SANDRA NASIC: Yes.

TOAZTED: You’re happy now. Well, your solo career will be going for another 10 years maybe and then the reunion?

SANDRA NASIC: I don’t know. You never know, what will be in ten years. I mean do you know what you gonna do at ten years? *laughs*

TOAZTED: No… Not really.

SANDRA NASIC: I know what I’m gonna do tomorrow so I’m happy. And I’m always very spontaneous when… like I write music, you know? It must come out of your heart and I just follow it. So we’ll see what will come. I’m happy with my music I have again and I feel again.

TOAZTED: First things first, now you’re gonna to make this album a success and I wish you good luck with it.

SANDRA NASIC: Yes, thank you.