INGRID (ENGLISH VERSION)

BANDS AND AMBITIONS

I can tell that this journey gave me a lot of experience. Going back home, I was feeling that my inner self was fulfilled. Any feeling of emptiness I might previously have had was eventually gone within those two weeks. At the meantime, back in school, I kept on being involved with those educational programmes and the clubs, like I used to. The fact that I went to Ireland not only didn't distract me from school, but when I came home I was looking forward to going back to school. On the other hand, often at home, whenever I was daydreaming on my own , I would think of Ireland.

And of course I had already started to create my future. I would study Geology, as I had said. This is something that I hadn't indeed kept as a secret and I was actually a very good student, concerning subjects related to it. Well, I was anyway a good student, because I liked school. I loved school subjects, especially Geography, not only because we could learn geology stuff too, but also because I was constantly dreaming of journeys around the world. So, my Geography teacher offered me that chance. He suggested that I'm sent off to Australia the following year for three whole months as a volunteer for an environmental educational programme. He informed me that everything would be paid and I would stay at my own place in Sydney. Of course you have to know that in High School many classmates of mine were going abroad for six months or a year (usually in the States, in Germany or in London). However they were exchange students and they were hosted by families. In my occasion, I didn't take part in such a programme, as I would stay there only for three months and I would also live by myself. I believe that there was no better gift than that for me. I had always had a great interest for Australia, not only because of its wildlife, but also because I considered it to have beautiful landscapes. What is more I had relatives who were living there and they were sending us pictures every year.

Except for my education at school, I was also involved with music a lot. I had started writing my own songs at home. They weren't anything important in the beginning, but soon the whole thing grew in a very significant point. And the weird thing is that in the beginning I was fascinated on the idea that we could release a second album with my sister. Because, when I started composing, these songs sounded much like those ones that we wrote for our album. However they were inspired a lot from my journey to Ireland, as their sound was too folk, too acoustic....it was a sound that I used to call campfire music, exactly because it brought to one's mind a bunch of young people camping in the woods and while being gathered around the fire singing all together in an uncoordinated way, accompanied by three acoustic guitars. I had even written one song referring to a specific event in Ireland. Vivian had a friend, Bryan, whom I'd met in the village. One night we were heavily drunk and we had walked out of the pub at 3 o'clock in the morning singing out-of-tune, although people might have been sleeping at that time. We were really lucky that we didn't get arrested. Anyway, I decided to write a song about that event, which described on its chorus exactly what we did with Bryan.

Thus, the songs that I started writing were those campfire songs. Soon, though, I realised that the rest of the songs would follow a completely different style. The sound that I had in my mind was similar to those Norwegian doom metal bands, that I used to listen to with my friends. Uaithnia had nothing to do with that* (*And I don't even think that Johanna would like us to play heavy music). And as I didn't want to throw my songs away, nor change them, I was bogged down and I didn't know what to do. That's why, in the beginning, I asked Dina to help me.

We went for a coffee that afternoon and everything she told me was so encouraging.

"The problem with you is that you suffer this low self-confidence", she said "and I don't mean anything condescending. I'm telling you this, so you can realise it and change it".

"And what should I do, then?", I asked confused.

"Do you want to play your music with someone? Go and do it. Anyway Lulu and I can help you".