Festival – Numéro Berlin https://www.numeroberlin.de Mon, 25 Aug 2025 15:55:40 +0000 en-US hourly 1 IN CONVERSATION WITH LORD SPIKEHEART https://www.numeroberlin.de/2025/08/in-conversation-with-lord-spikeheart/ Mon, 25 Aug 2025 14:59:46 +0000 https://www.numeroberlin.de/?p=63205 “I’m very hungry, ambitious, and aggressive.”

Redefining your understanding of – and connection with music, Lord Spikeheart is once again proving how intertwined sounds are with emotions, cultural appreciation and representation. While his last LP The Adept is still lingering in our minds and echoing in our heads, Lord Spikeheart is ready to provide us with a new experience that delves into his most intimate reflections with his new EP REIGN. Also released under his record label Haekalu Records, we will be able to immerse ourselves in the full experience at the debut presentation and performance at the Berlin Atonal Festival, happening this week in Berlin. Numéro Berlin couldn’t wait to find out more about the inspiration, his cosmos, how he transforms emotions, and what we should expect from the experience. We had the pleasure to talk to Lord Spikeheart aka Martin Kanja and can definitely assure you: this release is one to be excited about.

Franka Magon: Dogs that bark don’t bite. As a musician moving between metal, grindcore, rap, and techno, filling your music with growls and screams, does that make you a secret softie?
Martin Kanja: Yeah haha I would say so. For me music is just a way of expressing, it’s an art form. I’m completely different, I’m just a regular guy, maybe sensitive, sometimes dramatic but a normal person.
Your music is anything but calm; it is filled with chaotic energy. How do you find spiritual cleansing in this sensory overload? For many, that would seem like a contradiction.

That’s how I am inside. These sounds, these frequencies and all this vibration that’s what goes on inside of myself. When I’m asleep and I’m dreaming it’s always like these intense scenes and these spiritual situations.

I get a lot of calmness from my music. Like with meditation, I’m very present and there’s no thinking.

“People use affirmations to empower themselves, to change their mental paradigms and to have this self-esteem. Most of my lyrics are like this, they’re like self-hypnosis, like confessing to yourself all these thoughts and ideas that empower you and increase your potential, your power, and your control in this world.”
Is it ever calm inside of you?

I am always already visualizing situations before, so when they happen, I’m very comfortable in them. This is when my brain goes quiet. When it happens it’s just like I am in control, it’s like lucid dreaming.

Faith plays an important role for you. The church as an institution does not necessarily stand for freedom, but often for restriction. Your music is about reclaiming freedom, how do you endure this ambiguity?

I came from a very religious background, we used to read the Bible back-to-back. I reached a point in my life whereby I had more questions than I could get answers for, and it was better to live life and have these experiences through music, instead of just being told how life should be.

We started doing this kind of music to just do something we love. And no one understood it, everyone was telling us not to do, this is not good for you, you’re getting lost, you’re going into the darkness. But it was important to me. So you’d rather do it because at the end of the day, you only have one life and you will be alone in the last minute. So why not just live for you.

How would you describe your faith today?

I just believe we are one. I believe we should help each other out and be kind to each other because it’s just been getting darker and darker through the ages. I think we should start believing once again in mankind and humans bro.

In Germany we feel a growing radicalization of opinion, and it seems to be a global phenomenon. Much of it is driven by anger. Anger feels omnipresent, it is everywhere: politically, in the media. How do you respond to that anger in your music and to what extent is your music about love?
“You can’t fight flames with more flames and more fire, you know. We need a different element.”

In our music, in the shows it’s all about oneness, equality, coming together and appreciating each other across all these different dynamic backgrounds and all these places where we’ve all come from. Everything that is wrong was indoctrinated to us, it was taught, people came here pure. At the end of the day, we should always come back to being together as one and enjoying the energy and the vibration.

I believe whatever you put out comes back to you and I’ve seen it in my lyrics: I would write some lyrics and then they would happen to me in real life, so I’m very careful with what I put in the music. If you go through the lyrics and if you see the videos and the message behind it, it’s very encouraging and uplifting music, honestly.

Do you feel an anger that for a musician in a western country it’s easier to gain success or to get a financial outcome than it might have been for you?

No, I don’t feel anger at all. I feel more of empowerment and inspiration, like motivated. It puts me at an advantage that I don’t have any advantage. I have a different mindset. I’m very hungry, ambitious, and aggressive.

Your great-grandmother is an inspiring figure to you, and you dedicated your debut album to her. She was the first female field marshal during the Mau Mau rebellion. In another interview you said she and the men by her side kept fighting even after the war was officially over because they simply could not imagine it had ended. Have you ever found yourself in a similar situation, where you just couldn’t stop, because fighting had become second nature?

Yes, I have many times, being an entrepreneur and also a musician at the same time running a label, making music, you know, there’s a lot of challenges. I had lots of people saying “quit, go back home, give up, you know, that’s it, man, it’s never gonna work”.

But I always told myself I’ve come so far. It’s too late now, we are in too deep. At some point, you just realize that you’ve worked so hard, and you’ve sacrificed so much. I came to respecting that and celebrating the wins along the way.

What advice do you have for other young artists, whose life is also filled with lots of fights and anger?
Remember why you started doing it, remember that your potential is huge, no one has any idea what your potential can achieve and whatever it is you’re going through it’s temporary, everything in life is temporary, life itself is temporary. It will pass no matter how dark it looks. Just keep pushing, just keep doing it for the right reasons. Be authentic. Be original.
What can people expect from your new EP and your performance at the Atonal Festival in Berlin?

My new EP and my new performances are an extension of my first album’s themes of the Mau Mau and how they went through the tough, tough colonial times when they were fighting against the oppressors.

We are exploring narratives of abuse, control, displacement, betrayal, loss of land, loss of freedom, and loss of culture. Colonization brought so much loss.

We are also trying to address themes of reclamation, hope, resistance, and renewal. Renewal is a powerful response to the inequalities that happened, all the oppression and systemic violence that had occurred.

We are doing an audio-visual show with NMR CC that’s going to be to be merged with the music, which is going to create a whole universal world that people can travel into, experiencing this message we have and understanding it as a warning.

Its a cautionary tale of what can happen if we don’t stand for our things and our culture, how we can get eroded and how we should always protect and achieve total control of what we have lost, so the future generations can also enjoy it.

That’s beautiful, thank you for talking to Numéro, we are excited for your new EP and performance.
]]> 8 ARTISTS TO SEE AT LOLLAPALOOZA BERLIN THIS WEEKEND https://www.numeroberlin.de/2025/07/8-artists-to-see-at-lollapalooza-berlin-this-weekend/ Fri, 11 Jul 2025 09:44:46 +0000 https://www.numeroberlin.de/?p=61159 As the summer sun casts its glow over Berlin’s Olympiapark, the city braces once again for Lollapalooza – an annual pilgrimage for the musically devout.

More than a festival, Lollapalooza is a cultural crossroads where genre boundaries dissolve, and global artistry takes centre stage. This year’s lineup boasts a vibrant spectrum of voices redefining the sound of now, from avant-garde indie pop to K-pop royalty, genre-blending troubadours to soul-baring singer-songwriters. Here are our eight must-see performances this year:

SATURDAY

The Last Dinner Party
Known for lush arrangements and poetic lyrics, this theatrical London quintet blends baroque pop with glam and art rock influences, with a live show that blurs the line between concert and performance art. Expect a whimsical, dramatic production that pulls you into their richly imagined musical world, and if you haven’t heard their debut album Prelude to Ecstasy, consider this your invitation.

Artemas
Darkwave alt-pop sensation Artemas is a rising star from Oxfordshire, England, and his 2024 viral hit I Like the Way You Kiss Me rightfully earned him chart success across Europe. Inspired by artists like Kurt Cobain, his visceral live shows are known for their intensity and vulnerability.

IVE
Since debuting in 2021, South Korean girl group IVE have dominated charts with hits like Love Dive, blending sleek visuals, empowering themes, and addictive pop hooks. The six-member act’s confident stage presence and crossover success in Japan and the West have cemented their global appeal. Expect polished choreography and high-octane energy from K-pop’s latest powerhouse.

Magdalena Bay
DIY to their core, LA duo Magdalena Bay crafts futuristic synth-pop full of early-2000s nostalgia. Their albums Mercurial World and Imaginal Disk combine catchy pop with experimental flair, and their live shows feature immersive visuals and inventive soundscapes. Prepare for a digital dreamworld of shimmering beats and genre-defying creativity.

SUNDAY

Raye

Back in 2023, South London’s Raye broke free from her former label to independently release My 21st Century Blues, a powerful album exploring addiction, trauma, and resilience. Effortlessly fusing R&B, jazz, and gospel, expect a deeply emotional and musically rich performance that showcases the six-time BRIT Award winner’s incredible journey from church stages to global acclaim.

Queens Against Boarders

Celebrating diversity and hope, Queens Against Borders is a performance party that has been building solidarity with and for trans and queer refugees and migrants in Berlin and Germany since 2015. Featuring acts by artists from SWANA (SouthWest Asia & North Africa), Singapore, Brazil, Iran, and other countries, they’ll be sharing their art and personal stories over on the Fashion Stage.

Royel Otis
Australian duo Royel Otis blends jangly guitars, introspective lyrics, and laid-back charm into irresistible indie pop. Despite recent controversy briefly threatening to halt their momentum, bank on a memorable and energetic live show radiating in sincerity and grit, no doubt culminating with the brilliant Oysters In My Pocket.

Wasia Project
Sibling duo William Gao and Olivia Hardy blend jazz, indie pop, and classical influences as Wasia Project. Expect an immersive, soulful experience, and intricate compositions and like Isotope and How Can I Pretend?performed with a full band including sax and strings.

 

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