Join Us on Eurovision: Latvia: Exclusive! Interview with ElektroFolk "Our song 'Sundance' is a invitation to a cosmic dance with the sun and the moon"

ElektroFolk are one of the participants for the national final of 'Supernova' in Latvia tonight in Riga 2015 with the song called 'Sundance'.

ElektroFolk are Iveta Baumane (vocals, violin), Arnolds Kārklis (voice, guitar, mandolin, banjo), Andris Ābelīte (vocals, trumpet), Uģis Vītiņš (saxophone, synthesizer), Guntis Spridzāns (percussion, choreography) and Ainārs Majors (vocals, bass). We had the chance to meet the guys from ElektroFolk yesterday after their rehearsal in Riga and talked about the 'Supernova' final tonight. Read our interview with her below to find out what they had to say...

ElektroFolk (Riga, 21.02.2015, LTV)

Hello guys, first of all gratulations that you are one of the qualified participants for the National Final of ‘Supernova 2015’ with your song ‘Sundance’.

How would you describe your feelings one days before the Latvian final of ‘Supernova 2015’?

Arnolds: I feel exhausted, but in a good way. We have been working so hard in the last three weeks. Now it’s just 24 hours before the grand event.. It’s overwhelming. We hope to get some rest tonight :-)

Ainārs: We have to sleep. Last night we were working till 1 am in the morning with the technicians. Than early today in the morning we were here again for the rehearsal and the light rehearsal. That’s our job, but it takes a lot of energy. It’s time to recharge for tomorrow :-) I have to be careful with my power. The day tomorrow is very important to all of us.

Are you satisfied with todays rehearsal? Or will there be any changes tomorrow?

Uģis: I think it’s almost done.

Iveta: I feel calm.

Arnolds: This was actually an exclusive rehearsal for us. It was for technical purposes. It’s a pivilige that we got some extra time to rehears.

Guntis: I had doubt in one part. Today it was the last fine tuning for tomorrow. We made some changes in the choreographie. Now we are sure that everything is in place.

Arnolds: Confident.. The man is confident. That makes us feel good too. :-)

Ainārs: Tomorrow we have only 2 minutes and 55 seconds. This is a consolidation of 25 people who are working in our team. It’s not just we six on stage. A lot of people are take care of a lot of things in the background. This was a sprint for all of us. But we are professional musicians. This is easier for us as for those people who are ‘newborn’ in music industry.

Can you tell us something about the story behind “Sundance”?

Arnolds: It was originally written with Latvian lyrics that come from the folk tradition. Hunderts of years collecting folklore verses. The particular verses of the music were set to the song. It’s a cosmical dance with mythological characters in the Latvian universe. They are the sons of heaven and the daughters of the sun. They interact in all sorts of bizarre and surrealistic realistic ways. It’s difficult to translate.. But we adapted three verses with the same symbols, characters, ideas and settings. So it’s a invitation to a cosmic dance with the sun and the moon. Perhaps everyone can feel themselves to be the daughter of the sun and the sons of heaven in this ‘Sundance’.

Why it was chosen to sing “Sundance” in English and not in Latvian language?

Arnolds: Well.. we actually worked on the English version well in advance of any submission of the Song Contest. We had already prepared the English lyrics. Looking to the future, that might be necessary that the rules of the ‘Supernova’ contest we discovered after the song had been presented in Latvia. The material to be original and we collected folk lyrics from hundred years ago. That would probably has qualified us from the contest. We already had prepared the English version, so we simply switched over to that what we are representing. Maybe that makes sence in the context of the contest to sing in a more universal language. Although it’s true that the material is very ethnic based Latvian. Many listeners had preferred that we sing it in Latvian. We read some opinions about that on the internet in the comments.

Is ‘Sundance’ especially produced for ‘Supernova’?

Iveta: It was my idea to submit ‘Sundance’ for the competition. We didn’t expect that the rules will be change. I was surprised that the other band members agreed to go to this contest :-) I thought that they will say “oh come on.. Eurovision?! Seriously?”. Well, as you can see – here we are ;-)

What have you expected as you submitted the song for the competition?

Iveta: We hoped for the best :-)

Arnolds: The whole way how the whole ‘Supernova’ contest was announced was rather confusing. Many people – artists and songwriters – didn’t understand because the company of the television had decided not to take part in Eurovision this year. People thought that Conchita had scared the television company and the bosses. We have thought also, that we haven’t done very well in Eurovision in the last years, maybe they hatching their beds and say “Well.. if there’s no good song this year, we not losing anything by not participating this year.” Nobody knew exactly what the ‘Supernova’ was about. We tried to find it out. We spoke with the producers and we read the regulations at home. Than we discussed what we will do and if our song could fit or not. Because of that we had not much doubt that we were not accepted in the show and our song do well. But for the final?! Who knows.. ;-)

Ainārs: There were a lot of questions about this ‘Supernova’. If it’s Eurovision or just a local contest. I have to say that for me it doesn’t matter if it’s Eurovision or a local contest. It’s a possibility to communicate and to show the good things you are working on in your life. You have a big audience in competitions like this. For us it was no questions to do it or not. It is a good thing for us.

Arnolds: When we first met with the producers they had an attitude – “Eurovision? What do you mean with Eurovision?! You are welcome to submit your song to any other countries if you want to go directly to Eurovision…” That was confusing.. Than we decided to do ‘Supernova’. The new format is a huge success and everyone’s happy.

What do you think about the final line-up for tomorrow?

Guntis: Well.. we will win :-) Everything else doesn’t matter.

Ainārs: We will do our maximum and I don’t know what will happen. We are good prepared and that is important to us.

Guntis: We are not comparing us to anyone else. We are doing our own thing. We have a song.. we wanna win.. and we go – that’s what’s important for us at the moment. We just do our thing. The audience has to decide. I never was thinking about the other contestants.

Arnolds: It’s more like a sharing. Latvia is a small country and the music community is very tight. We wind up together in the dressing room. We all know each other. I personally can say that I like the songs of MNTHA and Aminata very much. I’m very impressed about those girls. Both have wrote the song and they sing the song alone. That blows me away. That’s fantastic.

Ainārs: All participants now are finalists, so we all are already winner. :-)

Arnolds: Everyone is competing against the previous version of themselves.

Uģis: Friends of mine asking me “Is it not hard for you for you and your band to play the same song?! Not only one time.. two times.. you play it three times..”. In one way it’s pretty hard, in another way it’s pretty intresting to grow up.

Ainārs: We can play our song also in unplugged and that sounds very different. It’s very nice.

Do you remember your first connection to the Eurovision Song Contest?

Arnolds: I had one that I did not realized that it was Eurovision . In 1973, as I was an ten years old boy, I discovered the Top 40 radio charts in the UK and there was a Top 10 song, a complete unnormally in American pop music. It was complete sung in Spanish and it was called “Eres tu” from Mocedades. Many decades later, when I moved to Latvia and pulled into the Eurovision as a viewer I learned that this was a Eurovision song and came second in the competition. It didn’t won in 1973, but it was such a fantastic song there was no way anyone could keep it down. When it crossed the ocean to America it went to the Top 10 and I still have it edged in my brain. The song is so beautiful. For me as a musician that song remembers me for a very long time ago. That’s special.

As Eurovision came to Riga, I was hired to help the artist. I also went to Azerbaijan in 2012 with Anmary. I produced the song and wrote the lyrics. But otherwise I don’t pay that much attention to the contest.

Andris: 2007 I was in Helsinki as member of the band Bonaparti.lv and the song “Questa Notte”. It was a very great time for me. It was a beautiful experience for me. It was a perfect organization.

Guntis: I took the choreography for Dons last year in the Latvian selection ‘Dziesma’.

Iveta: I took part some years ago three times in the national selection as solo artist. I came two time to the Semi-Final and once I was in the Final. I also was backing vocalist for Samanta Tina.

What are your plans besides ‘Supernova’?

Ainārs: This year we are focusing to promote ElektroFolk in our country. Next year we are hope to cross some boarders. Next year we would like to make a unique multi medial concept where a lot of things come together.

Do you have a message for the readers of ‘Join Us on Eurovision’?