Her voice is deep, her words carefully find their way to the other person. The 23-year-old songwriter has something to say. Because she wants to tell us something. About the world, about people, about feelings and emotions. A sensitive artist who knows exactly what she is doing.
“For me it was always important that the music had space, was calm and sustainable.”
Anyone who listens to her latest album “The Pool” quickly realises that this is a young woman who makes herself heard quietly and intensely. She doesn’t push herself forward, even though her voice is so distinctive, but wants to direct the focus to the stories she tells.
The naturalness of her sung stories gives the impression that she can free herself from all thoughts about whether her music fits into the increasingly hectic and agitated world. “I still think about it again and again,” says Edna Million, “and it would be a lie if I said that I don’t care about any of it.” She wants to get ahead, maybe make a living from music. It has to be authentic.
For the Viennese woman, who is half Swedish, the greatest inspiration when writing is places. She has seen many of them in recent years. “I have moved a lot, studied in Berlin, did an Erasmus course in Sweden, and now I am back in Vienna.” The inspiration comes from being a stranger in a city that you first have to get to know.
The melancholy of her songs, which never sound pessimistic, suits her nature. She likes melancholic moods. She always knew that music could be her life. But it only became concrete five years ago when she discovered Patti Smith and started playing the guitar. “The Pool” makes it audible what awakening experiences can trigger. She took her name from the song “Jockey Full of Bourbon” by Tom Waits. One line in the song says “Edna Million in a drop dead suit” – “that really appealed to me.”
This summer she is traveling a lot and hopes to be able to play concerts outside of German-speaking countries. Her songs are of boundless quality. “It’s like a camera that is directed outwards, but reveals a lot about my inner life in the stories.”
