UP (Urban Project)
Progressive Pop, Alt/Indie
Germany
Song Review for Solid Heart: https://radioairplayblog.blogspot.com/2020/04/song-review-up-urban-project-solid-heart.html
The project consisted of a group of musicians that were scattered all over Europe. Unfortunately, the continuity of making music together suffered under this situation.
This led to outstanding musicians from the around Aachen/Cologne Germany coming together and founding the current lineup of Urban Project with the spirit of connecting people. Urban Project is consistently working on new music and they are planning to release a new EP in the near future. They are pursuing to express themselves in the most creative way and want to make their music attractive for a widely diversified audience.
Line-up:
Urban Elsässer (guitar)
Yen Anetzberger (vocals)
Markus Proske (bass)
Ben Overmann (drums)
Solid Heart Video:
How are you impacted as a musician during this time?
The most important thing for us is to express ourselves through music and motivate others to be lively, vivid and open minded. Believing that our own music, created with intuition and intention, finds an audience in this difficult times to experience the profoundness of the music.
To be honest; everything changes so fast; We wish musicians appreciate the time spent making music, that they maintain openness, love, curiosity, no matter what happens.
Can you describe your sound in one ramble-on sentence?
Urban Project is Contemporary Sound, Relevant, Beautiful, Fragile and Contradictory.
What's your earliest music-related memory growing up?
I grew up in a small catholic village in Germany, when at the age of 6 I met an apparition: it was an older boy carrying an old radio with thick batteries on his back and it was playing Jimi Hendrix, Electric Lady Land, since that time I was electrified by his sound, moving between heaven and earth, between lightness and heaviness.
Do you write/compose your own songs? Briefly describe your songwriting process.
There is no one way, imitation, inspiration, or intuition. I learned how important the laws of the overtone series, the kinetics, the physical sensation is for songwriting, how important breathing is in all musical processes; also the insight that every small idea has a context where it becomes strong, or that even weak ideas are often prepared for big ones and should therefore be valued.
Does anything in particular inspire you to write? What get's your creative juices flowing?
Always separate the process of generating ideas and their evaluation, for me this is the most important condition for the creative flow, get to know your mindset, cultivate inner calmness, it is the entrance to unconscious intelligence.
What do you like more: Performing live or recording in the studio?
The most beautiful is the moment where the surprise works, where beauty is created in the process, I love the sense of time when playing live, it is a small miracle.
Any embarrassing on stage moments you'd like to share? C’mon, don’t be shy!
Once in a small club I was fully electrified, my fingers got stuck and luckily the strings broke, after that I didn't know the next song anymore :)
What has been a highlight for you in the past year? (Either personally or for your music career.)
To find a band where different characters come together, sometimes it's not easy, but I have learned to appreciate the value of difference.
If you were to cover another band/artist's song/record, which would you pick and why?
Angel of Hendrix, it is the differentiated loving way to touch the sky with simple harmonies.
What are some artists/bands that you're into at the moment? Or any particular song you find yourself listening to over and over?
Sophie Hunger, Nick Cave, Coltrane, and all the interesting new stuff.
What do you enjoy doing outside of music? Does your hobby rejuvenate your creativity?
No real hobbies, I am interested in questions of psychology, philosophy and the everyday phenomenon of wondering.
What's one thing people should know about you? We are a creative chaos.
If you had one message to give to your fans, what would it be?
Believe in yourself, trust and seek your creative source!