Sandra Nasic, Guano Apes

by Alex Teitz

The German band, Guano Apes is a worldwide success. Led by the hard-hitting vocals of Sandra Nasic this band has toured with P.O.D. and with Sevendust. Their RCA release, Proud Like A God has already gone platinum. Their second release, just released in Europe has gone Gold and continues to climb the charts. FEMMUSIC caught up with Sandra Nasic days before their return to Europe.

FEMMUSIC: Describe your songwriting technique.

SN: We are writing all together. So during the rehearsals anybody or somebody just comes up with an idea and the others join in. Yeah we are all writing all together and afterwards I’m writing the lyrics over that.

FEMMUSIC: How long does it take to come up with a song?

SN: It depends on the song. Sometimes we write the songs in five minutes, and sometimes we need to struggle with each other and….I don’t know. It depends on the song. Sometimes you can spend a month or longer on a song.

FEMMUSIC: Your band is associated with a snowboarder following because of your song, “Lord of Boards.” How do you feel about that?

SN: I feel good because I mean, we wrote the song for a sample in Austria. For a snowboard contest, and they just asked us if we wanted to write something for them and then we decided to make a song, and then suddenly it was very successful in Germany. I mean I like it. I used to board by myself when I went home. We got big mountains there in Austria and Germany. If I have time, I do this. I practice something. After recording this song I had a sponsorship with Bergen and it’s cool because I can get the boards for free. I like it.

FEMMUSIC. You’ve been touring, Proud Like A God, extensively. What is your biggest challenge when touring? Are there things you miss about not being home?

SN: What I need always is mascara. This is the only thing I have to have during the tour. I think everybody’s taken some good books with them. We all need the playstation. I think that’s it. I don’t used to take special things with me. I don’t have to. I mean I don’t even have some pictures or something like that.

No, I don’t think so. Just the hardcore things.

FEMMUSIC: What can you tell me about the second CD? The follow up to Proud Like A God.

SN: It’s cool. How can I describe it? Maybe more adult than the first one because the whole experiences we made through the touring and everything…You can hear it. In the studio we worked definitely faster than before. The experience we had helped us a lot. I think it’s more compact right now. This one.

But I mean musically we haven’t changed so much. We try out everything so it can be pulp, or hardcore pulp or something else. We were just very experimental, and we love to do that.

Took us a long time in the studio.

FEMMUSIC: How long?

SN: I think something about…We just broke up in-between because we had to do some concerts. I think it was over two months. Yeah maybe two months, or three to record everything.

FEMMUSIC: Do you see any difference between touring in America versus touring in Europe?

SN:  Yeah definitely. The Americans like it. They just want to freak out. The Europeans are more…The Germans especially are very quiet. It’s like we always say like the music police is standing in front of us because they are just standing there. If you are a German band then they look twice at you, and want to see what you can do, really.

This is a problem in Germany I think. I mean the European crowd is okay on the concerts. When they like they are freaking out but the Americans I think, if they liked it, they come afterwards, after the show they come to you. Want to shake your hands and just talk about it. I think this is cool. Very great. And if they don’t like it, they go. I mean I like the crowd. They’re very open. As a musician you can you can work better with that kind of people.

FEMMUSIC: What has been your best experience on this (Creed, Sevendust) tour?

SN: Whew! Every concert of course. I can’t describe it..ummm. Miami was totally cool because of the beautiful weather you have here. Also I think Orlando that was cool. I can hardly describe…I mean every concert is different and sometimes we have a very cool experience that night and you can meet a lot of cool people and talk to interesting people and that’s what makes a good gig. As far as I can say, the concerts we’ve had, from the beginning here were very cool.

FEMMUSIC: As a woman in the music industry, have you ever been discriminated against?

SN: Discrimination?

FEMMUSIC: Have you been treated differently?

SN: Sometimes. Sometimes. But I think that if you’re a female vocalist than in the rap business they are very nice. Sometimes too nice because a woman in rock scene. The men sometimes maybe have problems with that. But in my band that’s no problem because everybody’s a musician first of all. It has nothing to do with sex or something.

As we can say in Germany, “I got a big skin, a thick skin.” So for me I don’t have problems with that. It’s sometimes very funny when I see the people when they are very, very nice. They touch you like you are a diamond or something. I’m not a tall person.

It’s funny. I like to see that when the people have problems maybe. I’ve never had really problems. (pause) That’s not the right word for that. That’s cool. I like it.

FEMMUSIC: What are your plans for the future?

SN: Ah, it’s an easy one! Yeah hopefully tour a lot. I’m looking forward to touring the United States because I think it’s hard for a band like us. Our base is in Europe. We just released a second album right now in Europe. As my manager told me before, it went gold in Germany. This is very cool. We need to party tonight. Really, really cool. We are leaving America. We need to make some European festivals and we make a tour of Germany. We wanted to come back to the US in June but I think this is not a good idea because it’s just two weeks or something like that. Two weeks. That is nothing when you want to tour in the US. So we are making more European gigs then. I think in Europe we have lots to do. Lot of work. I wish we could come back to the US and make a very long tour because I like being on the road.

I don’t have homesick or something like that. I don’t have that.