Category Archives: Interviews

Articles, Interviews, Vanilla Ninja

Vanilla Ninja for Postimees

Posted on by Zuzanna
12
Feb

Is there anyone who still recalls who won the preliminary round of Eesti Laul in 2003 and earned the honour to represent Estonia at the Eurovision Song Contest in Latvia? Everyone rather remembers the disappointment they felt when it became clear that „Club Kung-Fu” would not travel to Latvia and the band Ruffus were supposed to pack their suitcases instead.
But the real winners of 2003 were the girls band Vanilla Ninja, because for a long time nobody talked about anything else but the four true rock girls, who later released really great rock-songs, and who does not remember „Cool Vibes” or „Blue Tattoo”?

Possibly the most successful girls band in Estonia disappeared from the picture 10 years ago but now they are back, stronger than ever before. How did it happen, what feeling is accompanying them now that they are making music again and what is their goal – [this is what I talked about] with four ninja girls, Piret Järvis-Milder, Lenna Kuurmaa, Katrin Siska and Triinu Kivilaan, shortly after the release of their new album.

As a band you disappeared for over 10 years, did solo projects and devoted yourselves to your personal lives. Why now was just the right time to come back?

Piret: For a very long time we were planning to come back together and make music again. I think that for the first time we sat down to this idea over ten years ago, a year or a few after we had disappeared from sight.
But earlier there simply was no right moment, as all the things did not go completely to plan, other thing came in the way. That was until February of 2019, when we had a chance to meet face-to-face with out former and present producent, David Brandes, and it felt like that was the right time. And this time we managed, which seems a bit unbelievable – we could start over.
Lenna: It was not planned, that now is time for a break and now to make the band again. It was more that now it was also truly possible for the first time. We needed time to reach this point and feel that we want to do it and we need to do it.

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Interviews, Piret Järvis-Milder, Vanilla Ninja

Piret about Vanilla Ninja’s newest album

Posted on by Zuzanna
11
Nov

Vanilla Ninja member Piret Järvis-Milder was a recent guest at Raadio 2’s morning show „Hommik!”, where she spoke about the band’s reunion and their new album „Encore”.
The band Vanilla Ninja released the album „Encore” after the 15-years-long break.

Piret Järvis-Milder said that the album „Encore” reached 13th place in Germany’s top album sales chart in the first week after the release and it came as a surprise for her, as the band had not had the chance to advertise the new album yet. The album reached Austrian and Swiss charts as well.

The singer stated that even though the band had many admirers within the German-speaking cultural circle, they had not had to sing in German yet. I would not be surprised if a song in German was to come soon. – mentioned Järvis-Milder and said that although their repertoire was mostly in English, the songs released at the beginning of the band’s career were [written] in Estonian.

Most of the fans have reacted well. – said Järvis-Milder. The former listeners found their way back to us.

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Albums, Interviews, Vanilla Ninja

12 songs, 12 questions, 4 ninjas

Posted on by Zuzanna
11
Oct

12 songs, 12 questions and 4 ninjas | About tears, dangerous nights and faith: regrets do not push forward.

12 different tracks from Vanilla Ninja’s new album „Encore” inspired us to ask questions related to the song titles in order to find out what makes Lenna Kuurmaa, Piret Järvis-Milder, Katrin Siska and Triinu Kivilaan’s eyes water, when they last felt wonderful and when was the last time they regretted anything. Put their new record on and read, as it turns out that, for example, one of them became a school chef for a week…

1. Gotta Get It Right

When was the last time you felt „it has to succeed” and did it succeed [after all]?

Piret: This thought sums up the ninjas’ comeback very well. In fact, throughout this whole time, we had been planning our comeback, it always seemed like maybe it was too much to take on and too complicated to restart the whole machinery. Taking into account that, for example, everyone has families, their own jobs and activities and that we live very far from each other. But the fact is that our album „Encore” is now officially out and it came as a big surprise to us that we were actually able to do it!

Triinu: There are a lot of these things every day that bring you this feeling, even just at work… This is why it is hard to point each of them out individually. But, of course, the biggest successes came to me at work. And in music. Vanilla Ninja’s comeback is also a great success that I could not have even expected.

Lenna: Last week, when I took it upon myself to help at the local school as a cook, as the school chef fell ill. I had to feed 85 people. Yes, it was a success!

Katrin: When I started training our little naughty puppy boy and he has become a young reasonable puppy over time.

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Interviews, Piret Järvis-Milder

Piret for Raadio 2

Posted on by Zuzanna
15
Sep

Piret Järvis-Milder, a member of Vanilla Ninja, said in an interview for Raadio 2 that being a part of a band with a baby at the side is a completely different experience. There is a lot more revolting and planning than before. – said Piret, who became a mother on August 14th last year.

When we went to Germany in May to film the videos for our new songs, we always had to finish shooting by 21:00 at the latest. – said the musician. Lenna and I kept on showing the clock to everyone there – we cannot go overtime because we have to be home by 21:30 and put our children to sleep. It is no longer a case that video shoots last until night and you go to hang out somewhere in a bar afterwards, you have to party with other colleagues. It is much calmer in that sense now.

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Interviews, Piret Järvis-Milder, Vanilla Ninja

Hirmocast

Posted on by Zuzanna
09
Sep

Before the release of Vanilla Ninja’s new album „Encore”, Piret Järvis-Milder remembers the times when the band was formed. Piret, Katrin, Triin [Randloo] and her friend Mari met Sven Lõhmus at the nightclub Café Amigo. There was no casting, there were just the four of us at Amigo. – Piret clarifies the rumours that spread around as if there were a lot of participants and volunteers and a whole casting.

A year had passed since the band’s formation, but things had not moved forward and two girls – Triin and Mari – left. Then came the information from the TopTen record label that they wanted to do something with Maarja Kivi, who was already well-known [at the time], and then Maarja came to the meeting at the office together with Lenna. On the other side of the table, there were Katrin and I. We looked at each other, talked and thought: okay, let’s try. There was no „Vanilla Ninja” name yet, only an idea to start a band. – Piret recalls the beginnings of Vanilla Ninja at „Hirmocast” after almost 20 years, with the women now gaining a new momentum to act and create music.

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Interviews, TV, Vanilla Ninja, Video

Ringvaade

Posted on by Zuzanna
22
Jul

On July 15th, Vanilla Ninja visited ETV’s show “Ringvaade” to talk about their reunion and promote the newest, already second comeback single, “No Regrets”. Lenna, Piret and Katrin joined the host in the studio, while Triinu connected with them via a video call from Switzerland.
The girls’ showed a sneak-peek of the new music video for “No Regrets” and gave an interesting interview.
Among the points made during the conversation were:
– When asked whether they had come back to stay, Katrin answered that they were planning to stick around for at least 5 years (or hopefully even more, according to Piret)
– It turns out that Piret was the one that took it upon herself to invite Triinu back into Vanilla Ninja for the reunion. The first arrangements were made during a phone call.
– The girls had been considering the comeback for a long time and finally, in 2019, they decided the time was right. Had they not made up their minds then, the plan would have remained only a loose idea.
– How is the current Vanilla Ninja different from the band from 13 years ago? In Katrin’s opinion, the biggest difference is their music – there are some great, more peaceful tracks in their current repertoire that stand in contrast to the energetic rock songs she was originally expecting.

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Interviews, Piret Järvis-Milder, Vanilla Ninja

Piret for Eesti Päevaleht

Posted on by Zuzanna
21
Jul

2 weeks ago, Estonian newspaper Eesti Päevaleht published a long interview with Piret Järvis-Milder. The conversation touched many interesting subjects, including Vanilla Ninja’s comeback.

Who came up with the idea that Vanilla Ninja should reunite again?
It may have been the end of 2018, when our former producer, David Brandes, called Lenna and asked whether we might have been interested in making a new album. Then, in January 2019, together with Lenna we flew to Germany, discussed the matter, sang in the first demos and decided to go on with it!

Did you also consider the option of Maarja’s return to the band?
Not really, because Maarja lives in America now and it would have been too difficult to form the band over such a long distance.

How much power has gone into Vanilla Ninja’s comeback?
The pace is now slower for a while, but there are some busy times behind us. We have been preparing and recording the new material since 2019, and now, there are 14 new songs ready. They are going to be released on our comeback album “Encore” on October 8th. This year we have already met twice for video shoots – once in Estonia and once in Berlin. At the end of June our first single in 13 years, “Gotta Get It Right”, was finally released. A lot of work has been done, and now we have reached the phase where we have to let the world know we are back. Since I have a child under the age of one at home, I have been doing a lot of preparations late in the evening and at night, when the baby is asleep and I have the first few hours in a day to be on my own. So some lyrics were born at night, and sometimes I had to practice playing an instrument at night and so on.

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