Music & clubs

Verbatim: Julie Miess of Britta

The bass player of Berlin indie pop outfit Britta on their spontaneous 20th-anniversary tour. Britta hits Festsaal Kreuzberg on Oct 11.

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Photo by Ralf Metzler

The bass player of Berlin indie pop outfit Britta on their spontaneous 20th-anniversary tour.

We always talked about how fun it would be to play together again. Only this year, on Christiane [Rösinger]’s birthday in January, her grandson constantly sang our song “Lichtjahre voraus”, and he knew all the lyrics. It was so cool that we thought, ‘Our fans long for us.’ We just had to do it, it’s been too long. Britta is unrivalled anyway, there’s no female band like us. Christiane is one of the funniest and, at the same time, profound lyricists; ironic and serious. We have plenty of songs that we’re eager to revive and which are still relevant today.

I miss our drummer Britta, though, and I always will. Touring won’t be the same without her. In our 20-year band history her death [in 2004] was, of course, the biggest change. She was so unique. To have drummer Sebastian Vogel around, who had already played with us before, was maybe one of the reasons we could continue at all. It will always be a sad part of our history, but we do cherish the moments with her, reminiscing about our good times on the tour bus, just talking.

As for the band’s future, we’re already discussing how to handle all the festival bookings next year. [Laughs] We’d be delighted to play the circuit. It’ll develop naturally, just like our anniversary tour, which wasn’t planned much in advance.”

20 Jahre Britta, Oct 11, 20:00 | Festsaal Kreuzberg, Alt-Treptow