Category Archives: Interviews

Interviews, Kerli Kivilaan, Lenna Kuurmaa, Piret Järvis-Milder, Vanilla Ninja

R2 Hommik

Posted on by Zuzanna
11
Sep

On September 2nd, the stage in Tallinn’s Telliskivi quarter got overtaken by group Vanilla Ninja and rapper Nublu. According to the members of the band, also fans from foreign countries were coming to the concert.

Vanilla Ninja members, Lenna Kuurmaa and Piret Järvis-Milder, mentioned during the interview for the R2 morning show that 13 of their best songs were to be performed during the concert. Only singles, only hits and those songs, which I think everyone loves Vanilla Ninja the most for. – stated Kuurmaa.

During the concert, Järvis-Milder got the chance to play the guitar once again. She said she was nervous because she had to memorize all the chords and was not sure if she would manage to play all the songs. But fortunately, people have muscle memory and quite a lot was [still left] somewhere there in the subconsciousness. The process was not as difficult as I feared.– she said.

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Interviews, Lenna Kuurmaa, Vanilla Ninja

Lenna Kuurmaa: coming back to the city does not seem logical at the moment

Posted on by Zuzanna
05
Jun

Lenna Kuurmaa, who had been living in Setomaa for quite some time now, was recently a guest on the Estonian TV show „Hommik Anuga” and stated that it did not seem logical for her at the moment to move back to the city.

Kuurmaa, who was raised in Mustamäe but now lives more than 250 km from Tallinn, admitted that now she feels out of place whenever she is in the city.

I try to enjoy this environment and see the positives, but in fact, I feel that my centre and my place, where I am at peace and happy, is in the countryside. I do not feel that way in the city anymore.

Kuurmaa described her experiences in a handbook directed to those who, just like her, would like to move from the city to the countryside

I wish to spread the idea that the countryside is enjoyable and encourage those people. There are more and more people who say that it is so nice and fun but how to leave everything behind and go through with this change.

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Interviews, Lenna Kuurmaa

Ilmaveere sündmus- ja majutuskeskus

Posted on by Zuzanna
09
May

The married couple that moved to Setomaa, musician Lenna Kuurmaa and actor Lauri Mäesepp, are transforming the former Obinitsa school-church into the Ilmaveere event- and accommodation centre.
The undertaking is coming to life with the help of the EAS and KredEx joint tourism development fund. One of the recipients of 200.000€ cash injection is a private company JaneDoe Music with its project „Construction of the Ilmaveere Event and Accommodation Centre and related services”.
When speaking about the creation of the name, Kuurmaa mentioned that it carried numerous values: Obinitsa is, in a way, at the edge of the world, and that is the clearest meaning of the name. People come to enjoy nature, beauty and environment to the edge of the world – to Ilmaveere [est. end of the world]. – said Kuurmaa.
We also came to Setomaa: Lenna first, then me. – adds Mäesepp. – We came to the other side of Estonia – to ilmaveere. The distance, the isolation and all the values that are here – that name sums them all up very well. It is not necessary to be somewhere in the centre, sometimes the most valuable things are those most frontier, the farthest.
They are building the center in the former Obinitsa school-church that has been empty for years. This is a completely abandoned, delapidated building, which we now have an opportunity to breathe new life into. – says the musician. The building used to be owned by the church, now, however, it belongs to the founders of the centre.

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Interviews, Kerli Kivilaan, Vanilla Ninja

Kerli’s interview for Raadio2

Posted on by Zuzanna
19
Apr

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.

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Interviews, Singles, Vanilla Ninja, Videos

“Encore” story

Posted on by Zuzanna
25
Mar

The newest Vanilla Ninja music video to the song “Encore” was released already 3 weeks ago. To sum up this extraordinary piece of art’s place in the band’s history, we asked the top visual creators of Estonian young generation and the directors of the video, Eskobros, to tell the story behind their latest work and the cooperation with the legendary Estonian music group. Also, you can see exclusive photos from making of the video here.

“Encore” is without a doubt our most epic video (so far). 

I remember one October night Raul rushed into the room extremely excited saying something like: “Romet, you won’t imagine what just landed in our mailbox.” It was an offer from Piret to create a music video for the legendary female band “Vanilla Ninja”. We were sold instantly.

I have to admit, we have never been the biggest listeners, however we have been super fans of the Vanilla Ninja ice cream since childhood. If someone had told us then that one day we would be directing a video for these women, we would never have believed it. This iconic aura guided the whole process and we fully cherished every single moment. It still took a while to realize that we were actually working with such icons.

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Interviews, Kerli Kivilaan, Vanilla Ninja

Kerli Kivilaan about joining Vanilla Ninja

Posted on by Zuzanna
19
Mar

Vanilla Ninja announced on March 4th that joining them as the new ninja was singer Kerli Kivilaan. Kerli says that as a child she was a Vanilla Ninja fan herself – after all, Triinu Kivilaan, band’s former member, is her older sister. I was a big fan, of course. I remember that when Triinu joined the ninjas, it was a huge sensation in our hometown of Viljandi. At that moment she was our window to the big world of entertainment – we could only listen with amazement to how awesome her life was. – Kerli tells Õhtuleht.

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