Dahlia Schweitzer is all in one: an artist, writer, performer and musician. The native-born New Yorker, now living in Berlin, takes a "creative director" approach to her work to live up to her own demands. With shows from New York to Rome, and London to Berlin, Dahlia regularly hosts exclusive events at which her photography is exhibited, her music performed, her writings read, and her illustrious guests are seen.
In all her various mediums, her subjects have consciously run from high and refined to down and dirty. She likes to explore themes around sexuality and identity, fantasy and gender. Dahlia is a person who also rocked the boat with her novel "Lovergirl". By allowing insight into the work of female strippers, dominatrix, adult viodeostars and call girls, she galvanizes the reader into becoming a voyeur.
With the prophetic New York City electropunk band Galvanized, the all-rounder Dahlia, once a call girl in New York, gained her first experiences on stage. She used to be a vocalist, bass singer and the mentor of the band: an electrocabaret. Due to her transfixing and disturbing presence on stage, as well as to her skew, hypnotic and sexy performance, It´s clear that Dahlia leverages the band as well.
Her trademark and formula for success is an elaborate symbiosis of costumes, choreography, intricate lyrics and heavy-duty dance beats. As well as her work as a musician, she established Rockerchick.com with which she developed a forum for female musicians of all kinds on the Web.
|  | photos by j. carrey |
AVIVA-Berlin: Where do you buy and find your clothes?
Dahlia Schweitzer: Actually it is always an interesting project, because you want to have things totally different and special in some way. So, I find them in many different places. I have a couple of different friends that are fashion designers. And sometimes they make things for me and sometimes I borrow things, generally you can´t wear the same outfit to many times. Maybe they lend me something, and I wear it in Austria, Italy and Germany, and I give it back to them. So that´s one source. And you also have to be creative, and trying to keep your eyes open, and putting things together in ways that are interesting. In some way, it is an "all-over-the-place-combination".
AVIVA-Berlin: Please describe your music in your own words.
Dahlia Schweitzer: I think the easiest label that I would put would be "electro-cabaret", because for me, what I´m trying to do, is a sort of take the performative energy and theatrical style of Weimer, Germany and Detract, and put it into a contact that is new, and contemporary, and electronic. Trying to create energy between them, too.
AVIVA-Berlin: What is the intention of your new album 12"?
Dahlia Schweitzer: I have a12" which is a record, and I have the demo which has the 13 songs. And my intention with this is to try to communicate my body of work, and the messages that I´m trying to communicate through my songs, presented in a way that puts them all together. And I think sometimes, the music gets a bit lost in all the other stuff that I do.
AVIVA-Berlin: What is the message behind your music?
Dahlia Schweitzer: The message behind each song is a little bit different. What I am trying to communicate, if you get really general, is this idea that women can be sexual and powerful, and smart at the same time. And I think there is this reaction: "Madonna did this ten years ago", who really cares? But It´s almost like the more I do it, the more determined I am to keep on doing it, the more I keep fighting this resistance.
AVIVA-Berlin: So, is it political?
Dahlia Schweitzer: Yes, people say: "Why do you wear these sexy outfits on stage? It distracts from your music!" My whole point is: "Why is it that, if I am sexy, that I am not taken seriously as a musician? Why can´t those two can´t come together?". I am on this mission to show: "You can be sexual and powerful!". The sexual doesn´t mean submissive! I know that sex sells, but It´s like, when you compare Brittney and Beyonce with Madonna´s "Express yourself" video, It´s like we haven´t made any progress at all! It doesn´t matter how far society and feminism have evolved. The idea of a woman being sexual, because she wants to, and being sexual and strong, doesn´t t exist! If you want to be taken seriously, you put on a suit and you go to the boardroom. And if you want to be a pop star, you are half naked and you are jumping around! And to me, what I am really trying to do is to show this image of this woman who is sexy, but sexy in its powerful way.
And what is especially interesting to me, is the way that gay men and gay women respond to it, because gay men love it, because they love this whole idea that women are strong and glamorous. And I think gay women love it, because gay women don´t really have anything like this, and if gay women look at their female icons, you either have a Beyonce or Brittney, you have the sort of "guitar-playing-baggi-pants-Melissa-Everidge-type", and there is no one that is doing what I´m doing. And they see it, and they are like, "Oh, this is so great!" The whole point of my book is to talk about the whole conflict of being a bad girl trapped in a good girl´s body, one of my ganders is to push this idea of sexuality, because I too have a problem with it. I´m also shy, and nervous and modest, and feel like, "Is it bad to be too sexually aggressive?". I have the same issues that everybody else does, but I hate that. I hate the fact that I have been programmed to think, if you´re smart you can´t be sexy, and if you´re sexy you´re not smart. What my photographs show is that you can be intelligent, and still have gender.
AVIVA-Berlin: With shows from London to Berlin, New York to Rome, you are constantly serving up what´s now, what´s new, what´s next in the worlds of music, editorial, photography, and nightlife as an artist, performer, and personality. How would you describe your role - do you think, you´re a role model? What do you think about lesbians and dress codes?
Dahlia Schweitzer: To be a role model is my dream! Every artist is driven by the desire to communicate. I have this thing, these fears, these needs, these desires, and I am compelled to get them out, because I want to connect to other people. To have someone look at me as a role model, to tell me that I have somehow inspiration - that´s the whole point of what I do. If I can inspire someone to feel more courage, or power, or strength, than I´ve succeeded. For me, to be a role model for anyone that is the ultimate. The ultimate. And for the dress codes - that´s the whole thing! And that´s why It´s funny, because in New York I had a really hard time with the lesbian scene, because the lesbian idea of style in New York is to wear a button-down-shirt and a tie. OK, now you´re dressed up. And if you are wearing make up, short skirts and high heels, than you are clearly not gay, because that doesn´t really fit into the dress code. That´s why I was really surprised by the lesbians in London and Berlin, because they really love it. They like my performance, they like the way that I dress. They like the sexuality behind it. But I think that is an interesting difference between Americans and Europeans.
AVIVA-Berlin: Are you working against the separation of the lesbian scene?
Dahlia Schweitzer: Yes, I think it might be. I am always surprised at the lesbians in London and Berlin, because they get so excided, and I´m always like: "Oh!", because in New York I felt always a tremendous resistance because I didn´t fit into the little box.
AVIVA-Berlin: "What do you like?"
Dahlia Schweitzer: My book is about the society that doesn´t except. We are so moralistic, our attitudes towards sex are so antiquated and old fashioned. I think I am a very complitative person as well. The whole idea of being sexually confident, sexually curious is very, very shocking to people, and what was so amazing to me about my book was that so many people were amazed by the fact, not only that I did this willingly, I consciously chose to do it. And not only that I consciously chose to do it, I speak about it in a very positive manner. I don´t say: "Every girl should go and do this", but I did say: "For me as a woman, it was a very interesting learning experience, and I don´t regret having done it all". And I feel that I learned a lot about myself and about other people from having done it. And for some people It´s just like: "Oh my God!" I had this interview with the BBC about the book, and what they were most astonished by was that a girl like me not only did this, but spoke about it positively, and I think for me it was interesting on many different levels. I think, for any woman It´s incredibly healthy to see herself as sex object, especially women that have been pushed into love. Always when you have to be smart, or you have to be booked , or if someone wants you to be a lawyer, or a doctor - all these things where you have to be pushed into thinking with your own brain, you push your sexual side away. And then put it into this context where you´re judged because of your sexuality. It is actually a really interesting experience for any women. It is interesting to look at yourself as a sexual object. It is empowering to realize that you do have this kind of power, you do have this side of your personality. And I think it is a shame that so many girls are pushed away from that, and are discouraged from exploring that side of who they are. You know, we think of men as the sexual aggressor, and of women as the sexual pleasers: The whole idea of women as being someone that is strong and confident, that has sexual needs, desires and fantasies - It´s just like :"Oh my God!". I think that´s a real shame.You know, women are so conditioned to be passive pleasers. That whole idea of sexual empowerment is like - still in 2005, we have so far to go.
AVIVA-Berlin: Dahlia, were you brought up in a traditional Jewish way? Was there ever a conflict with your mother?
Dahlia Schweitzer: I grew up Jewish, not hard core traditional, but we celebrated all the major holidays, I had a Bat-Mitzvah, and I went to a Jewish school for a couple of years. I grew up back and forth between Israel and America. So, I definitely feel a cultural connection to Judaism, if not so much a religious one. But I think with my mother, her issues and reactions to my work would be the same, regardless what religion it was. I don´t think there is so much based in being a Jew as being a mother. And yes, we have some conflicts! For the most part, she has been supportive. She is an artistic director, and she is into theatre work, so I think she understands the needs and the lifestyle of an artist, more than someone who might have a standard 9 to 5 job. But she doesn´t really like my photographs. She did read my book, but she didn´t really say much to me about it. I think it was a kind of topic non grata. We didn´t really discuss it. I mean I didn´t tell her about it until after the book came out. I told her that it was like a research project, because I was interviewing people, what was true. But I didn´t mention that I was actually participating in it until after the book came out. She has seen me perform several times, and I know she doesn´t understand. She thinks that the performing doesn´t really use my brain: "Wouldn´t it be better, if I had a job, working for a PR-Agency, Marketing Consultancy?, she asked. She doesn´t really understand. She thinks that I am cheapening myself by the whole performing thing, and she doesn´t understand the intellectual aspects - she sees me jumping on stage with a microphone. For me it is much more conceptual, and fixed in everything that I try to communicate. I would feel very sad, if I had to stop performing. I really enjoy the writing, I enjoy the photography, I enjoy organising the parties, I enjoy these different things, but to me, the music and the performance is this very direct way of connecting with people, and that is important to me.
To be continued
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