I first came across Safi last autumn, when she opened for Refused in Munich. It was one of those nights where it's immediately clear that something special is happening, and I was hooked straight away.
I wrote to her at the time and said I'd love to photograph her one day. That it's now happening through Musa Dagh, of all things, has a nice logic to it: discovered through her own project, met again in a completely different line-up.
For almost two years now, the Berlin musician has been part of Musa Dagh, the band around guitarist Aren Emirze that did largely without a real bass foundation on its first two albums. On 11 September, "Endurance" comes out - the first album with Safi - and that same night the band plays the Backstage in Munich. The advance singles "Hollow Rooms", "Beggars Banquet" and "Lights Of the Shadows" grabbed me instantly, right where her voice meets Aren's riffs.
"Beggars Banquet" - the video
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The following answers were given in writing, carefully worded. That suits an artist who handles language with great precision, and it makes her images sharper rather than blurrier than a hectic chat between soundcheck and stage. Her answers were originally in German and have been translated.
"Part of the band, not someone in the band"
Her way into the band led through their shared producer, Moses Schneider.
"I had known Musa Dagh since their first record, of course through Moses Schneider, who produced the noise for both of us. I was a fan of the line-up, the energy and the musicality! I had known Aydo for a while as a great colleague, we'd done a few things together. Even so, the suggestion came out of nowhere for me. Aren asked Moses, Moses asked me. That's how we came together."
Safi describes her position in this line-up with an image that sets the tone for everything that follows.
"I always think of Kim Gordon's autobiography, 'Girl in a Band', about her time in Sonic Youth and how she felt, as a woman, singer and bass player, right in the middle of it. The word 'armament' came up in it, in the context of male-dominated rock'n'roll. After almost two years of working with two incredible musicians and Moses, I feel like part of the band and not like someone IN the band. And there are still lots of first moments. I collect every one of them and enjoy each one."
Safi even remembers one of those first moments by a song title: the first song at their first rehearsal together was "One Way or the Other".
Bass as coming home
That Safi picked up the bass in Musa Dagh at all goes back to a suggestion from Moses Schneider in the rehearsal room, not a plan of her own. Still, it wasn't an unfamiliar role.
"When I started playing in bands, I was voice plus bass at first. Later, with my own songs, I switched to electric guitar because I could write better that way and, if need be, perform on my own at first until my band joined later. So Moses' suggestion to play bass was like coming home. Bang on!"
Things get interesting when it comes to how bass and vocals come together. Safi doesn't choose between an independent bass line and an uncompromising vocal line - she layers one on top of the other.
"There was no choosing here. For the live studio recordings I worked out the bass first. That was interesting, because the songs already existed, finished, as guitar and drums when I came in. The question was how to bring in a bass that carries the song and is still very much its own thing. After the recordings, I developed the vocals together with Aren, recorded them in my rehearsal room and worked out backing vocals and other fills. For me, both weights only came together at the end, when practising, with the challenge of pulling off both at the same time. Just practising like crazy :)"
Photo: Steph von Beauvais
Two languages, two bodies
In Musa Dagh, Safi sings in English - and that is much more than a translation.
"Switching from German to English changes the whole tension in the body. Different language, different body. I once told Moses that singing in English feels to me like I've been given wings. In English, word endings are often vowels or just swallowed consonants. That makes the throat, the resonance chamber, bigger. Wonderful!"
That her solo project SAFI deliberately sings in German is not a contradiction but the other side of the same coin.
"I value singing in German just as much. Because it's a challenge, because the language is so hard. Consonants at the ends, sibilants and other noisy invitations for phrasing. As SAFI, I think it's very important to sing in German, because the lyrics are in the foreground there, and what I say is political and socially critical, complicated enough, and therefore needs to be wrapped lyrically with sensitivity. The English lyrics in Musa Dagh - you can understand them or not. Here, voice and language are the fourth instrument."
Here, voice and language are the fourth instrument.
Like her very first concert
On 11 September, the day "Endurance" is released, the band plays the Backstage in Munich. I'll be there with my camera that night - and in a way it's a premiere for Safi too.
"What I'm looking forward to most is also what I have the most respect for: how it feels to experience the songs together with the audience. I'm looking forward to it as if I were going to my first Musa Dagh concert!"
That leaves one last, deliberately light question: the strangest sound source Safi has ever made music from. The answer fits perfectly with a musician who works with prepared instruments and repurposed found objects.
"The jingle my washing machine plays when it's finished."
Photos from the concert on 11 September will follow here after the show.
