Fresh Water – for your soul

MaryLu is a great, spontaneous and fun loving small group of musicians based in Zurich. Sometimes a bit chaotic, but always charming and highly motivated, we are proud that we have already achieved a lot together.

Tino is our expert; he brings in a huge amount of experience to our band. In fact, he could build the entire band by his own, since he plays each instrument himself. Jointly with Manuela, he composes our songs and makes all of us to grow beyond ourselves and deliver their best. With a lot of ambition and also a bit of strictness, he strongly contributes to our further development and bettering.  

Manuela is our Vocal coach and the creative twister of MaryLu. With a lot of power, fun and heart, she comes up with great ideas and motivates all of to grow beyond ourselves. She helps us to build the foundation with regular coaching, breathing techniques and singing lessons us and subsequent «socializing» fosters our group spirit and our Tuesday evenings are just amazing!

We have conducted an interview with Tino and Manuela and asked them some questions regarding the formation of the newest CD «Fresh Water». We want to find out more about their motivation and ambition with it.

Tino, which are your personal goals, can you share with us your motivators, what gives you pleasure?
My personal goal is, to contribute to the band success with my experience and knowhow in order to become better and better. It is something special, to jointly make music and experience, our fast and powerful improvement within very short time. I am in particular fascinated by the flexibility we all contribute, even in changing formations, we precisely deliver our songs. It is great to make this experience together and likewise have fun and joy at the same time.

Manuela, how about you?
My unconscious goal was, to generate some new spirit within the national church. New music, renewed and open thoughts! From my point of view, we were quite successful. Further, we aimed to inspire other communities and give concerts abroad, not only within our home community Maria Lourdes. Io and behold, the excitement aroused.  
I am extremely proud of our small group and it gives me huge pleasure to make music with all MaryLu-members and grow together – humanly and musically.

Tino, what do you appreciate about MaryLu and can you share your motivation to produce a new CD?
For me, MaryLu is all about the people. We have an amazing energy and I think that one can feel that we truly enjoy making music together. Considering that we are all amateur and completely bound with job and family, we deliver an outstanding performance. Especially looking at our group size, every member counts and has a direct impact. For each of our concerts we see this reflection given by the audience. This is great and I truly value this feedback and our wonderful group dynamic!
In the last year we were thinking about a new project and thought about creating an own CD in the English language, as a succession to the dialect CD «Du bisch da». Further, we were aiming to develop into the genres direction Folk, which means no E Guitar, piano, keyboard and programmed sounds. For this new CD project, we have done live recording and only used acoustic instruments, which makes this CD even more special.

Manuela, which was your motivation?
At MaryLu, our friendship is the most important thing. All of us have a very different background, we joined MaryLu in different ways, and meanwhile a close friendship has developed. The fact that we make music together is even better!
Tino and I are a creative team, we harmonize and complement each other very well. Our main motivation is to implement our own ideas! Thoughts that are personally close to my heart can be carried into the world through music. And because life does not stand still, we are always open to new ideas!

Wow, that sounds impressive and it was certainly a huge effort. Manuela, can you briefly explain to us what the new CD is about? Does it build on the content of the previous CDs? The new CD is called “Fresh Water” – referring to fresh, cool water. We always need fresh water, which washes out the cloudy thoughts and gives us a clear view and vision for the real liberation. It is about faith, freedom and joy. We would like to underline and emphasize this with the cheerful folk style.
The new music has a different style than our earlier productions, so you can’t say that they build upon each other. It is more a process to find the personal style. At the beginning, we just wanted to make music and started with cover songs. Then we had the idea to write a children’s mass in Swiss German so that children could understand the complicated mass in a musical way and sing along to our songs. The mass was more a personal project of Mark and me. A spontaneous continuation of this idea was the Christmas musical. The new CD, is a conscious step into a new direction, which Tino and I have chosen. We have grown up so to speak.

How is that for you Tino?
For me the new CD expresses a life story. If you hear it in one piece from beginning to end, then you understand what I mean. Each of us has made his personal contribution in this CD. We have divided the songs amongst ourselves and so you can clearly see that the songs build up upon each other.
Moreover, with this new CD we have opened ourselves to a much wider audience. We have become much more open and broader in our orientation. The songs are written in the English language and thematically comprise the the topic faith and life extensively.

Tino, how does such a new project arise and how do you proceed when you compose a new song?
You start with an idea, this idea doesn’t give you peace of mind and has to be implemented.
At first, this idea is shared with the other people in the band and when the enthusiasm overflows, then everything just starts.
There are some tasks and it’s a long way until the original idea is worked out. Lyrics and music must be written and composed. Then so-called “demo songs” will be recorded, so that suitable singers can be found for the respective songs. Now the tonality and tempo are adjusted and recorded in the studio. At the same time, the harmonies have to be rehearsed and need to be recorded. You can hardly believe it, but there is a lot of work behind until such a CD is finished.
When I compose a new song, all I need is my guitar and a few lines of lyrics. I start with a rhythm and try to sing, this develops a melody in a short time, which I try out with different chords. Only when I have the feeling that this melody moves me am I satisfied with my first draft. Only after playing it a few times and if it sounds good, I record it directly as a “demo song”.

Manuela, how is it with you? Surely you also start with an idea first?
Absolutely! In the beginning is the idea, then the lyrics and finally the melody. When I write a new song, I first summarize all my thoughts on a topic and arrange them on a piece of paper. The result is verses, choruses and bridges. The search for suitable rhymes does follow later.

You and Tino are a great team, how do you proceed together?
Tino and I, we have a very clear and distinct division of roles.
I concentrate on the lyrics and he arranges the music. We find the melody together by a jamming session. It is tested, composed and discussed until we are both satisfied. It sounds easy and sometimes it works very fast, but sometimes it can also take longer until we have decided on a final version. Still it is really great, because we just harmonize well together and stimulate each other.
The following practice with the vocals is then again my task and Tino focuses on the implementation with the band.

Tino, do you have favorite songs on the new CD?
Yes for sure – ALL.
Maybe it sounds funny, but all of us are in the songs. With our voice, our feelings, our respective interpretation and every song has its own “message”.

And for you Manuela, what are your favorite songs on the new CD?
Actually all, because all lyrics contain stations and experiences from my life, but also dreams for humankind and the great desire to experience this unapproachable God. The songs should encourage you to stand up and to continue with this courage, knowing that you are never alone. If I still had to pick a few raisins, these would be: “Rain over me”, “Come down” and “Get Up”! They are all songs based on a very personal story.

Now we are curious what other ideas you have in the pipeline. Can we look forward to another CD?
I can’t say that yet – just so much: A nice Christmas present may come up – Ho ho ho

Thank you very much to both of you!

Last question, when and where can we get to know and buy the new CD “Fresh Water”?On 07.07.2019 at 19:00 we will baptize our new CD and present it at Maria Lourdes in Zurich Seebach. Come and listen to the new songs! We would be very happy to meet you there!
And of course you can take the new CD home with you … !