We met PeR for a chit-chat about energy, their
stage performance and why they’re more than ready for Eurovision
You told us that the producers joked about your
high energy during the rehearsals. Where does your energy on stage come from?
R: Adrenalin…
E: Cookies!
R: Yeah, but most of it probably comes from adrenalin. You have different kinds
of emotions before you come to the stage. Stress, adrenalin, worries, happiness,
everything. And you just have to combine them all into this huge ball inside of
you, and not let the ball roll inside of you, and just transfer the ball to the
crowd. So these are emotions that gives you energy.
That sounds good. We think you look really good
and have lots of energy already, so it will be interesting to see how much more
you will add to the semi final.
R: We will be smiling
and we’ll be fresh!
E: Yeah, it will be interesting to see how much more we can give. But we
probably will have a few surprises for you. Maybe do something completely new
and unseen on a Eurovision stage!
That sounds exciting! We’re looking forward to
see what you have up your sleeves. Who’s with you on stage?
R: It’s us, Ralfs
and Edmunds, plus Lauris Valters, the backing singer and Mr. Jagger, our
regular guitarist. He’s always with us when we play live.
Who staged your show?
E: We have a Swedish choreographer, Adrienne Åbjörn, who helped us polish our
show. She’s been working with us in Latvia and also here in Sweden.
Many fans love your stage outfits!
R: Yeah, so we
heard. People are asking questions about it all the time! We don’t usually walk
around in glitter clothes, but the outfits suit the song and the stage show.
How did you start PeR?
R: We started out 5
years ago in 2007 as a band. I’m the only original band member. Edmunds joined
the band in 2009, and now it’s just the two of us. We wanted to show Latvia what
beatboxing is. It wasn’t popular and in the beginning, many laughed at it and
joked around and called it “farting through the mouth”, but today it’s a common
thing in Latvia. We are happy that we managed to make beatboxing popular in
Latvia, and we were the first band to do so according to Wikipedia, haha!
How’s your career been in Latvia?
R: We have had a lot of radio hits and have been in every possible music
contest in Latvia, performing on the biggest possible stages and played on all
music festivals, too. We’re thankful for what we achieved, but now we are ready
to go international. We would love to be able to spread our music to other
countries.
You released your debut album this year?
R: Yes, but it’s more
of a compilation of all the singles we have released over the last five years.
It’s a mix of both Latvian and English lyrics.
E: You might say it’s our greatest hits!
We heard you had hits on Chartbase in Denmark?
R: Yes, two of our
songs suddenly came on the Chartbase in Denmark in the summer of 2011. One of
them reached number two, and the other number 14. It was a big surprise to us!
That’s great, congratulations! What do
you hope to achieve from Eurovision Song Contest?
R: We hope to get the chance to go on tour in Europe a bit after
Eurovision. This is one of the many great things you could get out of
Eurovision. This contest has so many great potentials and we’re really big fans
of that. And now, more than ever, we are ready! After all, we came first and
last in our national final this year – who else achieved that? Haha… No
seriously, we think Eurovision is an important source for exporting Latvian
music, and we’d love to be able to do so.
E: Yeah! We hope to get to the final on Thursday!
R: It’s a long time ago Latvia qualified. It would be amazing to take Latvia to
the Eurovision play-off finals and fight for the ABBA cup!
Thank you so much for this interview. We wish
you the best of luck!
Don’t miss PeR tonight @ 21.00 in semi-final 2!
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