1/ So First Off - Tell Us your Name, City and Country and what you currently do for a living?
Vicky Cohn - Music to Curator
Vicky Cohn. That's a hard one, as I see myself as a cosmopolitan that is constantly moving between Berlin / Germany, London / United Kingdom and Tel Aviv / Israel. However, I will be soon back to London and staying there for a while again...
2/ Is This Something You Always Wanted To Do? What Do You Enjoy About It?
Creating playlists is definitely something I already did a lot in my tender years, when tapes were still a thing. Music was always my first and obsessive love, but after I had to deal with a death case in my family, I asked myself, what I would do if I had only one year to live, so it became then very clear to me that I needed to start my new career within the music industry. Coming beforehand from a creative background of film/video making, I looked here too for something that could really fit me and my personality and I found that curating playlists sounded so me and so fun, so I just went for it.
I love the idea of acting a bit like a DJ, of telling a musical story and writing about how music can make one feel. I also try to give it a bigger context, so that more people can relate to all this. Music can be the soundtrack to your life, or an expression of your lifestyle and I want to inspire and share with others. if I can instill interest, imagination or happiness, I did my deed.
3/ Tell Us About Your First Musical Memory - Why Do You Think You Remember It?
There isn't one memory, but I grew up on classical music. My father was a semi professional jazz pianist and he wanted to develop my brain through music; he thought it's good for me. I was often alone as an only child, so me listening to a lot of classical music and later then also to Jazz impacted me for sure a lot, in a positive way as I find. I later then listened and danced to Disco and Pop and after that, I just listened to every musical genre that I came across. The criteria was just that it had to be quality music and catching me emotionally. Music was always my best friend, it never let me down, cheered me up and was always the right backdrop to my emotional states. Music is so soothing, it's therapy, it's full of life and emotions, it's the most beautiful thing on earth.
4/ Who Did You Make Your First Mixtape / Playlist For - What Was The Result - Did They Dig It?
I can't remember, but I know that people seem to dig the playlists that I am doing now :)
5/ What Made You Go Online And Search About Music Curation?
I just happened to search one day in the internet about jobs in the music industry and the Playlist Curator role popped up. I then researched about what a Music Curator does and I thought "this is me", so I started specifically to create playlists to build a portfolio, so that I get hired.
6/ Tell us about the name of your Playlist - where did that come from?
It's called 'Music To Experience Urban Love Affairs' and is inspired by just living life in a big city as a trendy single, doing this nowaday's adventure called "love, sex and relationships". The struggle is real in these modern times and my playlist is a reflection, backdrop and soundtrack to all these situations. The playlist, stories or tracks are observed and analysed with a mix of science, humor and phantasy. I want to get to the bottom of things though and the mission is simply 'Zeitgeist'.
7/ What does a track have to have to make it onto your list, is there something special that you look for?
My playlist is a mix of EDM // Electro - Dream - Indie - Psychedelic Pop // Hip Hop, so first of all I would take a track that fits into one of these genres. Furthermore it needs to have a theme around love, sex and relationships. Apart from that, it's hard to say though what could catch my ear... I really love good quality / sound production, a bit of a hit-type-of-track, but not too generic. I always love the mix between mainstream and underground, like the hits of underground music, or the niche in mainstream. Also something totally new and never heard of in regards to style and genre makes me always happy!
8/ What can an artist do in their track submission to your list to ensure that you'll listen to their track?
Researching first on the Musicto website about me, what type of music I like to play and what the Playlist is all about and if after that, they really think that their track could fit in, I would definitely love to hear from them!
9/ We know - these change all the time - but as of this week - what are your all time top 5 favorite tracks.
- Machinedrum - All I Really Want
- Mike WiLL Made-It, Rihanna - Nothing Is Promised
- Mija & Vindata - Better
- Cassius - I Love U So
- Can't decide between DJ Rashad - Love U Found / MJ Cole - Sincere ;(
10/ And finally - which Music to Curator should we interview next?
AK Rockefeller of Music to Satisfy Your Inner Jellyfish