Plattenladenwoche: Many artists from Germany have great success abroad. Also more and more albums succeeding in the charts (media control) are produced in Germany. What do you think is special about Germany as a creative location?

MiMi: There were a lot of German forerunners in music – for example Can, Faust, Kraftwerk, The Scorpions and Rammstein. As someone looking from the outside, the best German artists have been those that have allowed themselves to have their own unique identity and sound German.

PLW: Which German artist will be the next “big thing” / breaking act?

MiMi: My favorite new bands in Germany at the moment are Showroom and Kowsky. They’ve got a unique sound and a really clear identity.

PLW: What kind of meaning do record stores have concerning music culture in general and your own music in particular in your opinion?

MiMi: I think the most important people are the ones who tirelessly and fearlessly take it upon themselves to discover and advocate new music. Without these people my favorite bands in history would have been left playing covers at their local pub. These are the type of people opening their own record stores. The more platforms we have for people to express real opinions and discuss music the better. I love it when you find record stores showcasing and offering something a bit different rather than the same song that you already heard on the radio way too much. For me, music is a communication, a way of trying to put across an emotion that can be understood by someone you never even met. These little shops create a place where this can happen much more effectively than anywhere else.

PLW: How important are specialist shops for you as an artist as well as a consumer and a music fan?

MiMi: Music has more respect in this environment. It’s not a throw-away quick-fix – it’s a real place dedicated to music that feels much more special. For me, as I do everything myself from Song writing to artwork, I am so happy when people get the full piece of work. A record store can be like an art gallery – people actually going in and checking stuff out.

PLW: What are your current personal CD tips?

MiMi: At the moment the modern bands I am listening to are ‚Witchcraft‘ -sounds a little early Black Sabbath in places and full of beautiful melodies, ‚ The Be Good Tanyas‘ with their ‚thrown-together‘ style blue grass that sounds so fresh in a world of auto-tuning and quantized drum beats and I’m very much looking forward to the debut record of ‚Showroom‘, a fresh, new band from Berlin making their own brand of intelligent pop. And, of course, I want everyone to check out my album, ‚Road to Last Night‘, with a bunch of honest, real songs and artwork written and drawn in my bedroom.

I support the plattenladenwoche because….

I was thrilled and excited by my local record store as a young kid and want people in the future to be able to have that experience. If we have no diversity, no soul and no identity coming through in our record stores then we can expect music to be the same. Keep music special, human and personal.