Last month, Kerli Kivilaan, the new member of Vanilla Ninja, was a guest on Estonian Raadio 2. The information about her joining Vanilla Ninja was announced only at the beginning of March, when the band’s music video to „Encore ‘22” was released. Kerli told Raadio 2 in an interview that she had been a big Vanilla Ninja fan as a teenager and because of that many of the songs from the band’s repertoire belonged to her favourites. However, if she had to choose one, she would have gone with „When The Indians Cry”, which was the first single where her sister’s voice appeared since she had joined the band in the summer of 2004. It was a nice, heartbreaking ballad, where they rode horses on a sandy beach in the video. – stated Kerli.
According to the new Ninja, her sister, Triinu Kivilaan, received the news very positively and was glad to be able to pass the torch to her. The proposal to join the band was made to Kerli by Piret Järvis-Milder. I was quite surprised at first. I knew they had some changes coming. Piret called me and asked what would I think about this idea. It did not take me very long to answer. I considered what were the positives, as there seemed not to be any negatives. – smiled Kerli. According to her, the band’s plans for the future are great, but she cannot talk about anything yet. However, the new music is coming soon. And also, the music that is coming is of the kind that I deal with myself – a little tougher.
Vanilla Ninja members have previously talked about their desire to play a concert in Estonia this summer and according to Kerli, the plan is still in force, although nothing definite can be said yet. Kivilaan said that she had also attended a Vanilla Ninja concert herself – in 2005 in Saku Suurhall, where 8000 fans had gathered. I remember feeling so proud. I was backstage and there, for the first time, I saw the other girls [Lenna, Piret and Katrin] too. I was Triinu’s little sister there, probably in Triinu’s old jacket. – she laughed.
The girl said that the filming of the music video for „Encore ‘22” was very cool. In the beginning, the plan was for us to fight with real swords. We had a combat instructor, he was quite tough with us because we were so clumsy. When we realized we were that clumsy, we also realized we could not fight with real, ultra-sharp swords.
But why did her sister Triinu and Katrin Siska leave Vanilla Ninja? Kerli explained: My sister left simply because of the lack of time. As she lives and works in Switzerland, her day job takes up so much time that she has no time for herself. Katrin had some personal reasons, she also felt it was time to do other things in life.
According to Kerli, the Ninjas still have active fans living in Germany. When the news of her becoming the new member of the band surfaced, there were a lot of comments, fortunately, they were very positive. The group has devoted old listeners and also new fans. Regarding the new material, Kivilaan hinted that more rock music will be created once again.
Source: Muusikaplaneet
