A captivating voice, a fiery piano, a gentle acoustic guitar wandering into an expressionist cabaret, melodies, melodies and more melodies, words, emotion and magic: welcome to the unique world of Lonely Drifter Karen.

Lonely Drifter Karen revolves around Tanja Frinta. Having been bewitched by the musicals she went to see as a child in the theatres and cinemas of her native Vienna, Tanja started writing her own songs after listening to a lot of folk, German cabaret music and punk rock.

She was playing and singing in an all-girl indie pop band when, aged twenty, she packed her suitcase and left for Sweden, before ultimately moving on to Barcelona. It's there she met the other two people who became part of the band: Mallorca-born pianist Marc Meliá Sobrevias (who is responsible for many of the album's lovely arrangements) and Italian drummer Giorgio Menossi.

Tanja sings, plays the guitar, writes these wonderful melodies and these lyrics full of evocative imagery and incisive twists-and-turns: feet become yo-yos, a mad inventor falls in love with a circus clown, girls turn into elephants, angels sigh while ladies resist ice-cream, a woman and a man get choked and, yes, the grass does sometimes sing…

“Riding a bicycle is one of my favorite moments to sing a song: walking is good too, and so is washing dishes. I like northern and southern countries. I grew up right in the middle – in Austria – where life tends to be too comfortable sometimes. More extreme climates produce crazier populations and fighting spirit: besides, I love orange trees in the winter and a never-setting sun in the summer.”

“I started Lonely Drifter Karen on my own, after leaving my home and my former band in Vienna and moving to Gothenburg, Sweden. It was a step into independence, magical wings I never thought I had until I gave them a try. After being single for 3 years I fell in love again, with pianist Marc Melià Sobrevias and drummer Giorgio Menossi. Barcelona was the scene of our romance, the album “Grass is Singing” the result. Marc's a fanatic inventor and makes sure that the songs are glowing to their fullest potential. Giorgio Menossi is playing “Keep cool, boy” on his drums and usually has a big smile on his face.”

Tanja Frinta