Name: RAHEL
Nationality: Austrian
Occupation: Singer, songwriter
Current release: RAHEL's nicht mal nihilist EP is out now via Ink.
Recommendations: Ich scheiß auf deutsche Texte by Frank Spilker. The painting miniano by Jesaja Trummer.

If you enjoyed this RAHEL interview and would like to keep up to date with her music, visit her on Instagram, and Facebook.



When I listen to music, I see shapes, objects and colours. What happens in your body when you're listening? Do you listen with your eyes open or closed?

For me it‘s the same. It‘s all a bit dizzy and not very specific.

Music or art can open up spaces in my mind, invite me into my childhood dreams ect.

Entering new worlds and escapism through music have always exerted a very strong pull on me. What do you think you are drawn to most when it comes to listening to and creating music?

Exactly the same! It‘s not always possible to capture this kind of magic, sometimes music can also simply be fun.

But when imagination allows me to, I really like to write pieces that allow listeners to travel far.

What were your very first steps in music like and how would you rate the gains made through experience?

My first steps happened when I was a child and started to imagine what it would be like to be on stage.

The experience of performing is brutal and beautiful at the same time. I am gaining a lot of experiences, some of them nice, some of them hard.

According to scientific studies, we make our deepest and most incisive musical experiences between the ages of 13-16. What did music mean to you at that age and what’s changed since then?

Being a shy and nerdy teenager, discovering indie music was really intense.

I would let my mind wander and I had a huge interest in exploring creativity or even art and music itself in many different ways.

How would you describe your own relationship with your instrument, tools or equipment?

I recently learned that my voice and pitch is changing a lot. Playing many concerts really has helped me. It‘s such a beautiful and unique experience, to notice change.

I‘d say, the relationship hasn‘t always been easy, but I‘m getting there!

Where does the impulse to create something come from for you? What role do often-quoted sources of inspiration like dreams, other forms of art, personal relationships, politics etc play?

I don‘t know where the impuls comes from. I think creating is a very human thing. Many people are creating stuff and some are more likely to share it with the world than others. Sometimes the things that aren’t shared with many are the most beautiful.

Sometimes simple and obvious things inspire me, like stuff on the internet, lines written on buildings. The death of a person. A poem. Anything.

Are you acting out parts of your personality in your music which you couldn't or wouldn't in your daily life? If so, which are these? What, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to music?

Definitely. People have always been telling me: You are acting so different on stage, like a completely different human. The thing is: We are many. Every one of us.

Growing up means adapting yourself to society. Which is not always bad, but sometimes can be.

Music and or being on stage can be a tool. Maybe it lets you act more bold than in your day to day live. I feel Iike I am allowed to show how broken I am, how angry, how passionate. Sometimes it can be hard to come down afterwards.

If music is a language, what can we communicate with it? How do you deal with misunderstandings?

It‘s possible to communicate almost anything.

I do not care so much about misunderstandings. Everyone can understand what they want. For everyone a line or a sound can be something completely different. And that‘s a good thing.

Making music, in the beginning, is often playful and about discovery. How do you retain a sense of playfulness and how do you still draw surprises from tools, approaches and musical forms you may be very familiar with?  

Playfulness is beautiful but I also like professionalism. The key is to have both.

It helps to sing the song, that you have sung 300 times, like it‘s the first time. But I like the feeling of knowing that I have practised something a lot. This way I never get bored.

Sound, song, and rhythm are all around us, from animal noises to the waves of the ocean. What, if any, are some of the most moving experiences you've had with these non-human-made sounds? In how far would you describe them as “musical”?

Everything can be musical. Random sounds really help me to heal. I like what the wind can do, for example.

I am touched by animal voices. I wish I would be able to listen to them more often, to listen to them more than listening to human voices.

There seems to be an increasing trend to capture music in algorithms, and data. But already at the time of Plato, arithmetic, geometry, and music were considered closely connected. How do you see that connection yourself? What aspects of music do you feel can be captured through numbers, and which can not?

I’m not so much into numbers, I really prefer letters. What I find interesting is witchy stuff like numerology.

How does the way you make music reflect the way you live your life? Can we learn lessons about life by understanding music on a deeper level?

Sometimes, I‘m lying in my music. But most of the times, my songs reflect my heart.

Of course we can learn through music. For example, to listen more closely.

We can surround us with sound every second of the day. The great pianist Glenn Gould even considered this the ultimate delight. How do you see that yourself and what importance does silence hold?

I wish, I would listen to the quiet more often. But I guess I am scared of it, at times.

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 'mundane' tasks?

I love that metaphor. Making music is something very natural, people have been doing it  for a long time.

And it can also be very mundane. I like it, when people don’t think of their own music like something extremely holy.

If you could make a wish for the future – what are developments in music you would like to see and hear?

I would like the whole system to change. I wish everyone could make it, if they don’t want anything bad for the world, the planet, the animals, the humans.

I wish people would loose their interest in mega stars and start to enjoy the underrated, the weird, the sad musicians more.