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An Interview with Nina Cording of Yendri
Posted: Sunday, August 31, 2008
By: Steven Goins
DJ

Releasing music under the name of Yendri for over 10 years, Hamburg, Germany's Nina Cording has earned her title as the dark princess of unconventional sounds. Preferring to describe her sound simply as "dark electronic music," her albums have run the gamut from ethereal to EBM to aggressive industrial to moody synthpop, always incorporating Cording's own otherworldly vocals and a production aesthetic that draws on classic electronics. Releasing her first several albums, including a dark ambient project called Lillith, on various subsidiary labels of the Trisol Music Group, Yendri eventually drew the attention of :Wumpscut: mastermind Rudy Ratzinger, who regularly cited her as one of his favorite artists and eventually signed her to his own label, Mental Ulcer Forges, to release Playdoll, a collection of favorite songs plus unreleased tracks and rarities, in 2006, followed by a new studio album, Malfunction, a year later. Yendri's newest album, Dreams of an Undead Girl, came out earlier this year. In an interview with ReGen, Cording describes some of the concepts behind the album, as well as providing some intriguing insight into the various phases of her creative process.

How did you start off in the music industry?

Cording: It was when I first met the guys from Trisol Records. I took six tracks from Inhaliere Meine Seele und Stirb with me, and we all thought it would be a good idea to release this CD.

Who or what got you interested in doing music?

Cording: Who? There are many different influences, like The Beatles for their melodies and harmonies, Mike Oldfield for his way of producing the music and creating landscapes and a very unique sound, Underworld for their sounds, ideas and beats, NIN for showing me the dark side of it all, Talk Talk and Lycia for all the melancholy, Level 42 for really 'proper' pop music and interesting bass lines.

What? Music from the '80s - because of the creative use of all the new instruments and effects back then - house, and electronic music.

Your music has been described as everything from industrial to electronica. How would you describe your music?

Cording:Simply as dark electronic music. Since I work almost exclusively with virtual instruments, which are electronic after all, it's always electronic in some way, and it's always dark in some way: melancholic, sad or just gloomy or even aggressive.

What's going through your mind when you're in the process of writing a song? Cording: Hard to explain. I think I'm going through different phases over and over again. For the sound and melodic phase, I collect all the sounds that I'd like to have in the song and all the melodies and harmonies - not all at once, but from one to three every time I get into this phase. This is about playing, experimenting, finding the right melodies and harmonies. Usually this phase is the first to begin and may reappear sometimes until the middle of the whole process, when I concentrate more on the overall structure.

The technical phase: I think of all the frequencies which are occupied by the instruments, the vocals or the drums and how they affect each other, maybe routing in between them, finding the right levels, the right amount of effects, the right type of sound, and tweaking everything.

The rhythmic phase: then I try to find out how to make the whole rhythmic structure sound the way I want to. It's also much about layering and tweaking all the drums, effects and timing.

The dramaturgic phase: this is about how the whole song is structured. This phase usually comes later, but may already come very early when there is something planned right from the beginning

The lyrics and singing phase: sometimes, there are some lyrics already, but in most cases I write the lyrics while making the music. This phase comes in the middle or at the end. This is also where most of the substance is coming together. The most important parts of the sound are already there, creating an emotional base, an environment or a landscape which reflect most of my feelings then, so the lyrics I write will fit in there emotionally. Sometimes it's also the other way around, that lyrics exist in the beginning and that the sounds I choose are following them.

The emotional phase: here I try to put more emphasis on the emotions that lie inside the sound. This is actually not really a separate phase; it's always there, even in the 'technical phase,' when I tweak an instrument to make it sound 'sadder' or 'bleak' or 'cold' or whatever, but sometimes I just concentrate on this part and ask myself if what I'm feeling really comes out of the song. The way to do this is actually to just follow your instincts, and it will work out.

Except for the emotional phase, which is always present, I cycle through those phases over and over again. Some phases blend into each other, but there always seems to be those phases. I never think of phases or something like that - I just do it - but watching myself afterwards, those phases are a good way to explain it all. After the mix is done, there is the mastering phase. This is a quite technical task where the only thing I care about is that the whole thing sounds well at the end and is especially about listening, tweaking and watching all those analyzers. I also find it funny when there are too many different persons involved in one song, like one is writing the lyrics, another one is singing them, and another one is producing the music, some other person is creating the artwork, and so on and so on. You can't really say whose song it really is and how intimate it can be.

You've done a number of remixes and cover of other artist. How do you go about working on those?

Cording: In most cases, I concentrate on the lyrics and that what is 'inside' the song. My concept is, like I think it should be, to create another point of view of what the artist created. Of course, it is my point of view, and this is always a bit different from the original, but I try to keep and to emphasize what the artist wanted to express. It's like reading a story and then telling it with your own words afterwards. Actually, remixing can be an emotionally challenging job.

Your newest album is called Dreams of an Undead Girl. Why that title?

Cording: There was a concept for that album about an undead girl and what she has to go through, asking herself whether she's alive or dead, being chased and examined by scientists. After all, about 80 percent of the songs are created after this concept. There are maybe two songs which are not so strictly tied to that concept, but fit in nevertheless. I had the idea for this title just after the first track I wrote for this album, which was 'Until Eternity,' followed by 'Am I Dead Now,' 'The Scientists,' and so on. The track order is not chronological, although they all tell different parts of the whole story.

The songs on the new album have more of a sorrowful ethereal tone than past albums. Do you believe your albums have steadily gotten a darker tone to them?

Cording: Actually, not really; I think Malfunction has much more melancholy in it, but that's because there are also more slower songs on it. Playdoll was rather a 'best of' unreleased material from 1997-2005, Fluch und Segen could almost considered to be rather an electro/house album with sad vocals. If you'd count Lillith's Survive the Cold Eternity as a Yendri album, I think that would still be one of the most sorrowful works I've done until now, which was in 2000-2001. I sometimes think of continuing that project as well, but it's hard to draw a line between Yendri and Lillith right now, so I think there would be rather new Yendri works which goes into the direction of Lillith than the other way around.

You seem to always be working on something. What are you working on currently? And what can we expect in the future?

Cording: Currently I am working on new tracks. The working title is Inner Warfares, and it will be a more personal album than the last one and quite rhythmic. Well, if this one gets released. The CD market is completely breaking down, there is almost no money to make, so it will be a hard decision for my label. Because when me and my label can't make any money with it, there is no reason to actually put it on CD. Nevertheless, I'm working on new tracks, as always, and maybe I'll never stop doing it, whatever happens to the market.