Nadja Stoller

Biography

I am a sponge.
I soak up everything.
Impressions and inspiration from everyday life, from art and literature, from people and their stories; all of this accumulates somewhere in the mysterious reservoirs of my psyche. These reservoirs swell up and over and the contents flow in small streams into the river that is the music.
Music is my most personal and direct form of expression. It is a natural outlet which transforms all feelings, thoughts and dreams. The essence of experiences, ideas and discoveries becomes songs. I have always considered myself a vessel, a kind of conduit. An artist who is not the creator, but rather a sentient organ that processes and forms what has been absorbed and collected. It is an acutely intuitive process. Impressions and inspiration fall into my lap, so to speak, wherever they might come from, and I see it as my calling to use the most important ones and transform them into music. It is at this point that the work begins.
My second solo album “Earthbound” originated out of a silence, out of a kind of standstill that at times was hard to bear.
The inspiration which normally appears organically no longer revealed itself to me. A long process of sorting, rejecting, doubts and, sometimes even despair, set in. The title “Earthbound” came about from this evolution. The double meaning of the word stirred something in me. On the one hand, “Earthbound” could mean coming to Earth from somewhere else, to arrive in the world. In this state of suspense it is up to me if I want to land or if I would rather observe from far above. On the other hand, “Earthbound” could mean captive, rooted, the feel of the ground under your feet. These two poles will attract me my entire life, driving my search for lightness and my yearning to fly whilst also striving for a place to rest, security and roots. The ten songs on my new album are the essence of my intensive quest between these two poles.

Nadja Stoller, March 2015