The Lemonbabies are back with a new "Best of" album. Can fans of the Berlin cult band hope for a comeback with this?
In the nineties, the lemon babies ("Porno.") Were a real phenomenon. In 2001, however, when the band broke up, the four women became silent. Now they have decided to make all their publications available on streaming platforms. In addition, Diane Weigmann (47), Julia Fensky, Barbara Mayer and Katharina Matthies released a new "Best of" album on Friday (February 19th). In an interview with the news agency spot on news, they reveal whether there will be a comeback of the lemon babies and to what extent the image of women in the music industry has changed over the years.
You started your career as a teenager. What was it like to be in the spotlight so early?
Diane Weigmann: You just didn't think about it, you did it. Of course you enjoyed it, of course you were in situations from time to time in which you felt that maybe you should have been better prepared. But there is nothing to regret. Even if it still rattled here and there at the beginning and sounded crooked or crooked here and there, we were definitely there with good songs and so much fresh air. In the end, that's what brings people to the concerts. Not the perfection, but the extraordinary and the lightness.
Barbara Mayer: I was 18 years old when I joined the band. Before that I had played in a few school bands. But that was my whole qualification. I was lucky that the other lemon babies saw potential in me. My entire travel experience was limited to holidays with my parents and school trips. And then suddenly I was part of a professional band right away. I had to grow up very quickly and take responsibility for myself. It wasn't always easy and luckily the others were patient with me. It took me a long time to get rid of the feeling of sneaking into an adult party and being exposed at any moment. But to experience such great things at such a young age was fantastic!
Did you want to be role models for other young girls back then?
Katharina "Katy" Matthies: At that age you don't think like that. We did what we wanted. And we didn't think in terms of gender at all. It always came from outside.
Weigmann: But it is amazing that today you are actually confronted more often with the fact that we were role models, albeit unconsciously. I often hear from women who are perhaps five to ten years younger than us that they thought us so much as young girls that they started playing an instrument themselves.
Matthies: Really? That's nice, I'm very happy.
Mayer: Above all, I wanted to be myself. And that was difficult enough back then. To find the courage to do something that was not intended for me as a girl or woman. I just did it anyway because the urge was so great. But I've always felt strange. And then I got the chance to become part of the Lemonbabies and finally felt like I had arrived. Finally there was no longer this alienation. We were all women. It was not something that separated you, it connected you. So the first role models I had were the other babies. If we really inspired other women to make music, that would of course be a plus.
They were very special as a girls band in the 1990s. How do you think the music industry has changed for women since then?
Matthies: I think it's a shame that there are currently so few all-women bands compared to the 1990s. I got the impression that there were more back then. For me personally, it was the most natural thing in the world to play in a band with other women. I just recently said that there is no serious reason for me to make music with men.
Weigmann: But overall I think, even if you have the feeling that there are fewer pure female bands on the road, there are definitely more women or girls to be seen in the music. And that's really great when it becomes a matter of course that men and women make music together and it's nothing special anymore when a woman or a young girl is on stage, not just as a singer.
Mayer: I think that through the 2000s and 2010s, when female solo artists like Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, Adele or Rihanna dominated the charts, a different kind of respect is shown for a woman making music. One is no longer under the general suspicion of being the product of a manufacturer. And of course it helped that the social consensus was different. Many of the things that used to hold women down, ridiculed or reduced to their looks are no longer possible today.
The self-confidence of young women is also completely different. They would not put up with the everyday sexism of the 1990s, which was really bad both in the record companies and in the media at the time. In conclusion, I would say women are less intimidated and more encouraged to try their hand at and be themselves. And this also creates a broader spectrum of images of women in music. Of course, there is still a lot of room for improvement. Like everywhere else, we are still a long way from equality and pay!
The concerts were your figurehead back then. Which experiences do you like to think back on?
Weigmann: The great festivals, the many people we got to know, great conversations before or after concerts with other musicians, befriended bands or the people in the audience. The many cities we were allowed to see, the many places we traveled to, some of them across Europe. That was really phenomenal!
Matthies: For me it's the whole package. Traveling in the band bus, the community and of course the privilege of being on stage and even being able to make a living from it.
Mayer: I can't add anything more to that. It was just a lot of fun.
For your album "Porno." You were seen naked on the cover. Would you do it again today?
Weigmann: The artwork was not only a statement, but also an almost defiant response to the confrontation of the media back then, which, of course, especially in the Yellow Press, repeatedly reduced us to being women. But we used it as a stylistic device and artistic level: We made ourselves "naked" in our songs and lyrics and wanted to express ourselves in this artwork.
Matthies: I can't answer that question across the board. If you mean whether I judge the decision from then now differently, then no. I love the cover and the album and everything that goes with it. We managed to develop an artistic and aesthetic artwork. I am very proud of that.
Mayer: It's just so funny that we did that back then. The level of sexism we were confronted with over and over again was bearable only with this kind of humor. My only regret is that we didn't deal with it more aggressively in all of these awful interviews. We were too good and adjusted to the outside world and wanted to please everyone. A lesson from back then for me is definitely to offend people more often.
Are you still friends today? Could you envision a comeback?
Weigmann: We are all very established in our current professions. Even if the new album and the work brought us very close to our old band structures, everyone has their real job and their real life. I don't even know where you can find the time to plan a comeback? But who knows – life sometimes makes funny rounds.
Matthies: As Diane says. Our private contact is close, we also support each other wherever possible in our current projects.
Mayer: We spent so much time together at a formative age. You're more family than friends. And I think it's really, really nice that we've stayed in each other's lives over all these years and all the different developments we've all taken.
Which current pop bands do you like these days?
Weigmann: I really enjoy listening to singer-songwriters, also in German, or bands and artists such as Kyona, Klan, Florian Künstler or Clueso and many more. I also love modern indie folk.
Matthies: Hard question. I've found that I especially like musicians who have a certain retro sound. For example, I really enjoy listening to Michael Kiwanuka or Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats. As far as what's going on in pop music, I think I'm totally left behind. I have no idea what's hot there. Except for Clueso, I don't know any of the artists Diane named.
Mayer: I mainly listen to female artists. So much is happening right now. Phoebe Bridgers, Tessa Violet, Dodie, Caroline Polachek, but also Taylor Swift and Selena Gomez. Apart from the music, they also develop an interesting visual language.