MY UGLY CLEMENTINE are now playing Champions League. The new record of Austria’s most successful guitar band is released by BMG, that’s the international label league, SOPHIE LINDINGER, MIRA LU KOVACS and NASTASJA RONCK belong there. After all, 250,000 monthly Spotify listeners can’t be entirely wrong. And then there was the award for Europe’s best indie album of the year. Two or three years ago. Now the new record is coming, it’s called “The Good Life” (release: August 11th, 2023). LINDINGER discussed what is needed for this good life, along with a few other things, in the call with Christoph Benkeser.
What is that actually, a good life?
Sophie Lindinger: Where should I start? The good life is a quest. Many like below the understand great lives, but actually that’s all I mean good life, so not that hottest or greatest Live because it can never be. We can only have a good life if we stop and ask ourselves what is right and what is wrong. So it’s about the starting point and how you can change it, that you can endure life and that it’s okay. Unfortunately, “The Okay Life” doesn’t sound that great, so it’s called “The Good Life”.
What’s wrong with best Life?
Sophie Lindinger: For us, it’s not about the toxic talk of “the best life”, but about the recognition that there are ups and downs and that they are part of it.
So you are less concerned with appearances and more with – sorry for the pathos – being?
Sophie Lindinger: Exactly, it’s the prospect of the good life under the reflection of how it looks right now. That includes the fact that it’s not always good, because if it were always great, it would eventually become boring.
Can you say you have a good life?
Sophie Lindinger: In any case! Even if it’s sometimes stressful, forgetting to breathe, or just wanting to leave because everything is annoying – I can afford the rent, I can be on the road and make music, that’s a good life per se!
Is it a better life to appear larger than life in Times Square?
Sophie Lindinger: It’s a beautiful moment in a career, but life doesn’t change because of it.
My Ugly Clementine (c) Mala Kolumna
That must be a good feeling!
Sophie Lindinger: Yes, sure, it’s… cool.
you say that so cool
Sophie Lindinger: Well, what can I say. It is a honor. We were happy. Still, it doesn’t feel quite real because we’re not there and seeing it, we only know the pictures from the internet. It’s so intangible.
You are with now BMG signed. That’s the big wide world, isn’t it Ink Music and Austria.
Sophie Lindinger: We’ve been working on it for a long time and have digested it all, but of course it’s a big step. We have more options and reach. Now let’s see what we can do with it.
A number 1 on FM4 isn’t enough anymore, it has to be bigger?
Sophie Lindinger: Well, that is not so obvious! FM4 is a big cornerstone of all my projects. Even if you outgrow some things – whatever those things are – I’m happy that you’re valued there.
That 90’s MTV thing is your vibe now. I had flashbacks.
Sophie Lindinger: Well, we don’t do it on purpose, the sound just comes.
I don’t even mean the sound. It’s more about that so-called vibe.
Sophie Lindinger: We’re 90s kids, that’s how it was back then and we play with these looks because we still think it’s cool. It is funny, to acquire these old things. There’s something nostalgic about it, but it makes you happybecause we have the feeling of before.
That means: You search in the past, but that doesn’t make you unhappy?
Sophie Lindinger: Yes, because we do good life Taking it from back then and giving it to the present is fine – with different responsibilities because you’re an adult now, of course.
So everything was better before?
Sophie Lindinger: No, it’s about the feeling. It’s a conscious decision to expose yourself to it and want to take it back. It’s so easy to get lost in society, with everything you do – whether you’re constantly comparing yourself or following prescribed conventions – it takes a conscious decision to say: No, I don’t want that and yes, that’s good for me. The only question is, how do I get the good done, given the given conditions?
That’s emotional work that rarely anyone sees, isn’t it?
Sophie Lindinger: Yes, working on yourself. And how you see yourself in the world: where do I stop, where do others start, what boundaries do I draw? It’s a lot of work, whether it’s in romantic relationships, among friends, or with family. That’s why it’s so important to talk about it, to ask: How are you? And how am I doing with it?
Who is playing the drums with you now?
Sophie Lindinger: One person, Günther Paulitsch, supports us live.
He can remain the sidecar, right?
Sophie Lindinger: Exactly.
Do you want to talk about the thing with Kolleritsch?
Sophie Lindinger: No, sorry, that’s a triggering topic.
Well, then let’s talk about the internet, you’re singing about yours obsession. Is that so?
Sophie Lindinger: The song is about the images of others, the constant comparison, and the wrong impression. But it’s also about the question of why you’re doing this and why you then feel strange and want to use Google to diagnose something, because you have to name everything that doesn’t fit. But it is precisely these self-diagnoses through self-help videos that are really bad, you quickly lose yourself in them and the worst thing is when you diagnose other people because you can’t get along with their behavior.
My Ugly Clementine (c) Rea von Vi
This is the current diagnosis. What do you do to keep yourself from getting lost in it?
Sophie Lindinger: I’m also having a hard time because I haven’t found a panacea so far. But I notice that the more I get into it, the less it interests me. It’s always the same stuff, the same jokes, influencer videos and their ads. I’m getting tired of this. Precisely because I’ve already seen it all and I’ve probably believed at one point that I need it all. Then you sit down and think about why it is like that and you realize: It’s just people who post something on the internet. This realization makes me immune to the envy I might feel when I see something that looks great.
But you still want to look great, don’t you?
Sophie Lindinger: I have to use it that way, unfortunately, because: Everything is found over the Internet. The radio station that plays you and the hope that everyone will then be fans of you, that no longer exists. When I hear a song from you and I think it’s awesome, that means: I google you on Instagram – ha, google on Instagram, awesome! – but if I don’t find you there, then you’re forgotten. That’s so. That’s why I have to use it. There is no other way.
Do you know “A Heavenly Family” the series?
Sophie Lindinger: Yes, of couse!
The cover of yours Good Life looks the same.
Sophie Lindinger: But it’s not an allusion to the series, but rather to the image of a perfect family that should have existed – so on pseudo happy family do, but only outwardly, because there is no such thing as inner harmony. That’s why our cover fits the album title so well. We show ourselves like this good lifebut then sing about what things need to be done first, so that it becomes one at all good life can be.
Albumcover “The Good Life”
The series was always about this Christian family picture, the father was even a priest or something. Do you believe in anything besides maybe chemistry?
Sophie Lindinger: It’s a topic that we really never talk about, because it’s clear to everyone that we’re not religious. That’s why I’m just starting from myself: I’m very realistic, you can explain everything with chemistry – I wish it was different.
Why?
Sophie Lindinger: Because sometimes I would wish if there was a greater power guiding – then one can hope or draw strength from it. That’s why I kinda understand the religion besides all the rules and shit the catholic church made. I can still understand the thinking behind it. Life is easier when you believe in something that is overwhelming.
Yes, people say it gives them security.
Sophie Lindinger: Full, so sometimes I wish I was an agnostic to believe in anything. But I can’t, precisely because everything can be explained chemically.
My Ugly Clementine (c) Mala Kolumna
Did you produce the whole record yourself again?
Sophie Lindinger: The production and mixing, yes. Marco [Kleebauer, Anm.] was also heavily involved in making the drums sound the way I wanted them to. I knew that I wanted more heaviness on some songs and more softness on others. So I was more concerned with the extremes than with the first record, because: This is my current life, both my production life and my songwriting. The sound is always an image of it. It becomes my personal timestamp. In three years I’ll probably do it differently, write about different topics and so on.
I read the lyrics and it was like you casually telling me about your life, like you do when you meet for a coffee, for example.
Sophie Lindinger: That’s my approach to music, exactly. I don’t use metaphors, I don’t bother with nice blah blah – I just want to tell about things that concern me, now, at the moment. That’s then a conversation that makes me feel more real because I’m questioning myself. I’m not in the mood for the general cliché shit anymore. I need honesty and vulnerability and the clarity that comes from that.
That’s why so many people use phrases, because you can hide behind them like a facade.
Sophie Lindinger: This is the essence of social media and its self-expression. You keep saying something, but actually you don’t say anything at all. Thanks, I don’t need that anymore.
Thank you for the conversation!
Christopher Benkeser
++++
My Ugly Clementine live
29.09.23 Graz, PPC
10.11.23 Vienna, Arena
++++
Links:
My Ugly Clementine (Homepage)
My Ugly Clementine (Facebook)
My Ugly Clementine (Instagram)