Name: Power Plush
Members: Anja Jurleit (bass, vocals), Svenja Schwalm (guitar, vocals), Maria Constantino (guitar, vocals), Nino Cutino (drums)
Interviewee: Maria Constantino

Nationality: German
Current release: Power Plush's debut album Coping Fantasies is out via Beton Klunker.
Recommendations: NewDad – Drown; Yumi Zouma - Give it Hell

If you enjoyed this interview with Power Plush and would like to stay up to date with the band and their music, visit their official website. They are also on Instagram, Facebook, and twitter.



When did you start writing/producing/playing music and what or who were your early passions and influences? What was it about music and/or sound that drew you to it?

All of us had access to music while growing up, be it through being able to learn instruments, play in bands, sing in choirs or by listening to the CDs of our older siblings or parents. Our families and social surroundings always encouraged our interest in music. Early influences were probably pop, rock and alternative music from the nineties and beyond as well as indie music of the last decades.

Overall music is fun and music always made us feel something. Making music together as Power Plush kind of just happened.

When I listen to music, I see shapes, objects and colours. What happens in your body when you're listening and how does it influence your approach to creativity?

This is quite the interesting question and I (Maria) can only answer it for myself: I think I mostly associate music with colours and movements or rather how these colours move around in connection with the respective music.

Whenever I write a song myself, I tend to have a certain idea concerning the mood of the song which can be somewhat connected to the mentioned visual elements.

How would you describe your development as an artist in terms of interests and chal-lenges, searching for a personal voice, as well as break throughs?

So far it has been an interesting journey growing into Power Plush. At first, we kept our expectations in check and honestly, we did not really know what was going to happen and up to now everything turned out differently than anticipated. All we knew at the beginning was: we want to make music, record it and share it with the world. And that we needed a drummer.

The latter was probably our first real challenge but once Nino joined us in 2020 we could move forward. At that point we did not really know much about the instruments we were playing on stage and basically approached the whole band-thing in the spirit of “learning by doing“. And while doing so, one could say we are constantly in search of our sound and what it means to make music as Power Plush. However, each song can be seen as one step in the overall process. We‘ve learned a lot throughout the last three years and I am pretty sure we‘ll keep on learning.

As for break-throughs: last year, we had the opportunity to play our favourite music festivals in Germany Immer-gut and MS Dockville. That was huge for us because playing those festivals was actually one of the vague goals we set for us when we founded the band in 2019.

Tell me a bit about your sense of identity and how it influences both your preferences as a listener and your creativity as an artist, please.

As human beings we tend to be quite the softies. We want to create a safe space within our band and hope to do so within our music as well.

Apart from that, we try to keep an eye on our own hierarchies and privileges throughout our journey as a band. In creative processes we like to involve all band members as much as they like. In this manner, we hope to create a space in which we minimize pressure when it comes to introducing one’s own ideas. It is important for us that we feel comfortable so that we are able to express ourselves.

As listeners, I think that it is way more fun to listen to music made by people who you think are actually nice.

What, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to music and art?

This might sound a bit corny, but our approach embraces softness consisting of all the emotions inside of us. We want to create a space in which we ourselves as well as our listeners can feel safe. Not holding our emotions back has had a positive impact for us individually.

You could say, we tend to write it out in that way and find some peace of mind through writing music.

How would you describe your views on topics like originality and innovation versus perfection and timelessness in music? Are you interested in a “music of the future” or “continuing a tradition”?

TL;DR: neither and both.

We are not actively searching for innovation, but we also do not mean to continue traditions. It would be nice to be part of something like a “music of the future”. Individually, we are interested in fresh and innovative music while appreciating easy-to-digest or timeless music.

Apart from that, as a musician it is probably impossible to rid yourself of parameters and aims such as originality, innovation as well as perfection and timelessness. When writing music, you always have them in the back of your head. Originality is always intended, but no one can ignore prior listening experiences that at least passively influence whatever music we write as musicians. I think it is also possible to quote other music in an appreciative way.

Innovation is tricky since it is, just like timelessness and perfection, a rather subjective assessment. Sometimes an element in music might not be innovative, but beneficial to the song itself. Innovation in music is obviously important. Otherwise all of our listening experiences might have turned dull some years ago. Perfection can be a productive factor, but it might also have a paralyzing effect – especially when it comes to creativity. Timelessness is an interesting concept that we would also rather categorize as something on the outside. As if someone (anyone tbh) awards you with timelessness.

All of those concepts are quite complex all in all. Maybe they‘d be discussed in a more constructive way while having a drink.

Over the course of your development, what have been your most important instruments and tools - and what are the most promising strategies for working with them?

I guess communication is key. When it comes to public communication we started off on social media, but by now we even got a newsletter and you can contact us in different ways. Inside the band, we also talk a lot about things that need to be done, but also about our experiences as a band and their related impacts on us as human beings.

Besides that we tried to play live as soon and as much as possible to gather more experience on stage.

Take us through a day in your life, from a possible morning routine through to your work, please.

This answer is fictional since every day as a musician is different and our band consists of four pe-ople. Here we go:

We wake up at around 8-9 am, grab some coffee or tea and listen to the news on the radio while kind of waking up. After some time has passed and after taking a shower, it‘s time to grab some breakfast at home and get some work done. The band would then meet up at our rehearsal space at around 1 pm, chat a little and start our rehearsal somewhen between 1:30 pm and 2 pm. Rehearsal normally takes about two to five hours.

Sometimes we eat together afterwards or during rehearsal. After that we normally go our own ways. Some people go back home, others meet friends. As it goes.

Could you describe your creative process on the basis of a piece, live performance or al-bum that's particularly dear to you, please?

Let‘s have a look at our newly released song “Emergency // Freeze”:

We start off with a basis. This basis can differ greatly from song to song. In this case our basis consisted of an idea for lead guitar as well as bass and also included some vocal melodies with some ideas for lyrics. When we break it down, we even had some basic arrangement structures.

When we got together with our producer Mario Šimič after Christmas break at the beginning of 2022, we figured out the arrangement at first: Whether the song itself in its structure works as a whole. Afterwards we evaluated individual ideas concerning our instruments and how these ideas interlock with what was already present. While doing so, we finished the lyrics and over time piece by piece we got the song to a point where we were happy with it.

Listening can be both a solitary and a communal activity. Likewise, creating music can be private or collaborative. Can you talk about your preferences in this regard and how these constellations influence creative results?

For us, it is integral to our way of writing songs to collaborate throughout the process of creating music. We cherish each other's contributions and every song we wrote so far would not be the same without said contributions.

The first basis of a song is however mostly written and created by one person. It is really nice to bring your ideas to your bandmembers when you do not know how to move forward when writing songs.

How do your work and your creativity relate to the world and what is the role of music in society?

Music has many roles and functions in society. It can manifest existing societal structures, it can be a form of political protest, a way of sharing knowledge, it can help people, but it can also hurt them … the possibilities are in fact endless.

As for us, we cope through making music in terms of our life experiences, but also in terms of how we as individuals relate to the world.

Art can be a way of dealing with the big topics in life: Life, loss, death, love, pain, and many more. In which way and on which occasions has music – both your own or that of others - contributed to your understanding of these questions?

Our own music as well as that of others has accompanied us for several years now and carried us through hardship as well as through times of happiness. I think it is kind of beautiful to find your own struggles, emotions and thoughts in the work of others. Especially when it comes to those darker days it can give you some sense of ease to know you‘re not alone with whatever you’re going through and that others can in fact relate.

Moreover, art that deals with these big topics of life bears the chance to offer insight into different perspectives. So, especially when it is difficult to understand certrain things, music or art can support us all in finding something like answers and explanations.

Furthermore, art itself can inherently carry meaning for people even though it is not explicitely spelled out or not even intended by the artist(s). Everyone can find and build their own interpretation and put the piece of art in their own context.

How do you see the connection between music and science and what can these two fields reveal about each other?

Now that I think about it, music and science have similarities once you break it down to the basics: You work continously on chosen topics sometimes throughout decades of your life and sometimes you publish something. From now and then, those two fields overlap or benefit from one another.

Be that as it may, a different set of rules is applied in each respective field. Which is probably important when we ask ourselves if these fields can reveal anything about each other. The analytic nature of science might help to understand music through a different lense.

Musicology is the most obvious common thread. In music analysis can be absent which bears the chance of acting outside the rules of science.

Creativity can reach many different corners of our lives. Do you feel as though writing or performing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mun-dane' tasks?

Every act of creativity has its own purpose and I think making a great cup of coffee is a good example. It includes several steps and I can imagine it being a creative act. Sometimes creative acts just include more steps which make them more complex or more elaborate.

It might not be something negative to acknowledge the differences between acts of creativity since this does not mean that they carry more or less expression or meaning. If a person made a cup of coffee and they say that they are expressing themselves through the way the coffee turned out and came into being its their way of finding creative expression and that‘s ok. We are in no position to assess other possibilities of creative expression. For us, music is one possibility of expression.

In our lives we also tend to try out different things in order to express ourselves, however we did not explicitely choose music because we could not express ourselves through more other acts.

Music is vibration in the air, captured by our ear drums. From your perspective as a creator and listener, do you have an explanation how it able to transmit such diverse and po-tentially deep messages?

Our brain probably responds to these signals in complex ways we cannot grasp.

Besides that, I would argue that through inherently telling stories music can transmit these contents. This does not mean that music needs to include text, or language in general, since these stories can be and definitely have been told in an instrumental manner.

In a way, music also leaves some openings for the listeners in which they can include their own life experiences.