SIT THE KID
- Oct 19, 2022
- 6 min read

SIT DATA No. 2

Updated: Oct 21, 2022

NOW is my time to shout out: STOP THE WAR!!!

Hi my friends!

Today, I want to speak about something that is really hard to understand for me. Something that made me create this new song. I want to give you some insights about the story behind and the production process.

THE STORY BEHIND

On Feb24 this year I was on the way to an interview in Hameln, Germany, and in the car, I heard the news about the invasion of Ukraine. This is a moment when you think you must stop whatever you do. But I continued my drive and tried not to think about it too much and be a good interview partner. On my inside it was grumbling…

We have watched many crises in the last few years and always it was unbelievable. But this time was the one time too much for me and I decided I have to do something. I felt that I cannot just watch now. So I found myself cruising around the main station in my hometown Cologne watching the crowds of refugees arrive. But I was too shy to go there and ask how could I help. The idea came up that I could at least help a little family to have a safe space. I decided to ask my husband and kids if we were willing to open our house to somebody. I was surprised that they all said yes, and we prepared a room with beds and an improvised kitchen.

So what now? A friend of mine gave me the contact to a man organizing aid transports to the border of Ukraine and on the way back they gave lifts for refugees to come to Germany. He was looking for places for them to stay. Not much later I got his request for a mother with a 6-year-old daughter and a dog. We got in contact by Whatsapp and I send them pictures of me and my family and our house. It was such a strange situation because how should they know they can trust us? On these days, weird stories roamed around about what could happen.

When they started their escape to the border of Ukraine, where a driver was supposed to wait for them, we all held our breath. Unfortunately, the driver had Corona and couldn't be there, so the journey went on by trains and busses. After 2 days they finally were supposed to take the train to Berlin from where a train to Cologne was organized but because Berlin had too many refugees already they were send to Frankfurt. I got the message to be in Frankfurt at 2 o`clock in the morning. But nobody was there. It took a few hours to find them because their phone also didn't work anymore. Finally, I could take them into my arms somewhere in the nowhere of south Germany where they were brought to register. The man who was helping to organize the escape was on the phone with me all night and I was really amazed at how much energy he put into all this. I think he had already helped more than 100 people until that point to reach Germany safely and have a place to stay here.

"Life loses colour when your home is taken. All I wanted was to protect them."

The first week was intense. I sensed the pain and the fear, especially from the child. She was very wild and ran around the house screaming and creating chaos. I was really amazed at how quickly she communicated with my children and they played together as if they spoke the same language. Kids are so great! They don't have these barriers of having to understand everything. One evening I sat down and I only shivered. It was so unbelievable how someone can shoot innocent people, throw bombs and destroy homes, hospitals, schools, and all.

At this moment, a song just fell out of me. For me when I have strong feelings mostly the only way I can handle it is by writing a song about it.

This is how "Stop the War" was created.

"It is impossible to look at what is happening in so many places of this wonderful world today. And it´s even more impossible to look away...."

Many people asked me how can I do this with all my work and my children and me anyway always complaining that I don't have enough time for everything. But as I believe that we can all make the impossible possible, I just did what was needed. I tried to help the mother with all the official registrations and I was really surprised by how much help we found. For example, one lady from "The Red Cross" stood in front of our house one day because she heard, that we had given space to refugees and she just came and put cash money in their hands. Friends donated money too and help was offered in many ways. This really touched my heart.

Today the child has started the first grade at school and has found new friends. My children have learned to accept different mentalities and integrate our guests as much as they can. Still, it is not a situation to be happy. I feel the sadness of the mother a lot and she misses her husband and family and her life in Ukraine. It is a big task for her to be here and carry all. I really wish that this unbelievable war will end soon and that people get the chance to live in freedom and safety. My dream is that this beautiful land will be built up again and one day I will come to visit my new family there. Cause this is what my guests have become. Part of my family and I will never leave them alone.

THE PRODUCTION

There are different ways for me to write songs. One is that the words and melodies just pop out and I am lucky when I have a device at this moment to record my ideas.

With my wildly voiced concept, I went to my Studio X.1 and made a demo for the song. This I sent to Rotoskop and he turned it into proper production. I got to know Rotoskop a few years back when we looked for remixers for an electronic music project. I really loved his sound and when I started my "Sit the Kid" album production I thought - take a heart and just ask him if he would be interested to co-produce my album. We started exchanging files and it shows now that this has been a really good idea! The power of his interpretation of my songs fits perfectly with my intention.

When I produce just by myself I tend to be always smooth, always soft. But if you know me - I can also be a quite crazy one. I love to get loud too! So this fusion of Rotoskop and Sit the Kid just fits perfectly!

At the beginning of 2022, I got to know Barbara alias Lunattack. We shared ideas about our approach and vision for our music. So when I produced "Stop the War" it was obvious that it would be great to collaborate with her on this song. I send her my demo and she was inspired to work on it. She found an article on telegram that deeply touched her and she had the idea to add it as a quotation in a B- Part of the song. It's about soldiers that are injured and waiting for medical attention which is the minimum of human rights. As an artist, she calls herself a "peaceful warrior" and this is just how I feel. She affirms me to speak out my anger and be brave to stand there and shout out "Stop the War".

This is the telegram post she refers to in the song:

Do you know what you have in common, Barbara, with the tiniest percentage of human beings who have ever, ever, ever graced the face of the earth?

You can still walk barefoot. You can still pick flowers. You can still make a difference.

Life is yummy, The Universe

Thoughts become things... choose the good ones! ®

THE VIDEO

I must admit I am quite proud of my videoediting for this musicvideo! It really shows my taste of visuals and the intensity of pictures to the sound.

Actually I was planing a shooting for another artist together with my collegue and partner in crime for filmproduction Loreto Quijada. She had put together some graphical videos to project on the artist. Well, the videos didnt fit in that case but when I started planning the shooting for my musicvideo I thought lets try to use it for this. And I must say, this is where coincidence does its job. It was perfect. The really interesting structure gives this video its special taste. Loreto took the pictures of me and I asked Rotoskop and Lunattack to film themselves and send me their footage. With all the material I started composing the edit. And it just went with a real flow. Sometimes it just all comes to its place, like a puzzle the pieces come together and fit in the end as if it had been planned.

"Let the moment take over to let miracles happen."

So now, enough of talking... I invite you to watch the musicvideo and I am happy if you like to comment or share this!

If you like, please subscribe to my Youtube Channel! I really need your support in bringing up this project which is so great to happen. Lets stay in touch!