motel void

MOTEL VOID: You’re from Austria (Vienna, I believe?). How would you describe the current music scene there? Do you feel that you’re part of it?

JULIA: Actually, I am currently living in Berlin and Gabi lives in Vienna. The local scene in Berlin is inspiring, many great street musicians, many bars with live music.

GABRIEL: I recently moved again to Vienna and I plan to dive into its music scene more and more. Beautiful, wild, weird, … it seems to have it all, which is great!

We haven’t played gigs for some time now because we’ve been focusing on studio work and other projects inside and outside the musical world, so I don’t see Black Cherry Marble as a part of Vienna’s music scene. But let’s see what the future holds!

MOTEL VOID: Your favorite local venue?

JULIA: That would be Kikisol in Berlin Wedding, a smoky jamsession bar where anyone can grab the mic.

GABRIEL: Some friends of mine run a cosy local venue, the ‘Kulturcafé Max’ with great concerts and other events. So far my favourite small venue in Vienna!

MOTEL VOID: You’ve just released your new single ‘Haunted Reality’. Will it be part of your new record?

GABRIEL: We started working with the wonderful musician and drummer Julian Berann a while ago and the three of us wanted to create 2 singles together: the first one was ‘Stupid Happiness’, which became a really catchy and happy roadtrip-vibes song. ‘Haunted Reality’ is now the second release which forms the dark counterpart. Putting it on album is at least not planned.

MOTEL VOID: Could you tell us more about the recording and writing process of your songs? And what about the new video? What was the process behind it?

GABRIEL: Some songs come out of a jam, some are separate ideas from one of us that we then continue to dream up together.

Throughout the whole process of creating the last two singles that we wrote and produced with Julian Berann, he was 100% a band member for us. It was very important for us to make all the decisions together, so that each of us could unfold freely and love all the details of the song. Julian has an incredibly good feel for music and the emotions in it. I tend to get lost in the details sometimes and in those situations Julian was this big peaceful bear who said:” It’s already amazing as it is! I love it,” and we could happily move on to the next tasks.

JULIA: Next to music, I work with video and directed and filmed the music video for Haunted Reality. It is set against the backdrop of Berlin, the main character overlooks the city and imagines dreadful things that are happening inside the Berlin apartments: a woman drowns herself in wine, another lives while hanging, a man tortures plants and another person is lost inside a big black lake. The picture of reality is truly haunted, and I am very excited to see it released!

MOTEL VOID: Your biggest inspirations right now?

JULIA: I saw Moritz Fasbender (Friederike Bernhardt) perform live in Berlin last week, incredible mixture of synthesizers and classical elements. I bought the vinyl to listen to together with Gabi when we meet to make music soon.

GABRIEL: There are so many. The magical music of Daniel Norgren and John Frusciante has accompanied me for many, many years and is a huge source of inspiration. In the last few weeks, I’ve been floating in 90s nostalgia, getting a lot of inspiration from bands like Sparklehorse, Grandaddy, R.E.M., …

MOTEL VOID: Your plans for 2024?

JULIA: A lot of friendship cuddles! And being in the groove with Gabi.

GABRIEL: Haha yes! Having a good time. Creating sounds. For example I am thrilled to really study an awesome synth and a new drum machine that I recently bought. Lots of plans, I’m curious to see what will happen next!