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Kerli has just released her debut album called "Love Is Dead", but the 21 year old's musical career is anything but dead. Kerli comes to the US from a tiny forest in Estonia. Growing up feeling an outcast in the formerly Soviet controlled country, Kerli fought depression, yet never lost sight of her dream.

Although "Love Is Dead" is a fine track, with an incredible Alice In Wonderland like video, there are several stronger tracks such as the auto-biographical Creepshow, the Evanescence like Bulletproof and club style "Strange Boy"... always a good sign when the deeper cuts are better than the single!

Musicpix had the oppurtunity to sit down with Kerli to discuss her past, her present, and her future. She carries a sense of maturity, courage and confidence in purpose that is rare at any age.

Kerli on success: I wasn’t ready for it. I wasn’t ready for it as a person. I know who I am and I know what I am here for. I am not here to pamper myself. I am not here to chase admiration and fame although I don’t mind it and that way I can get my message to a larger amount of people. I had to realize that this is not about me. My purpose is to heal people with my music". You can read the interview here.

Musicpix: One of the things that impresses me most is your desire to help people with your music. I believe you've said "why do I want to bring people down with my music, when I can bring the Up?"

Kerli: Understanding that I have the power to bring people up, it took me a lot of time because I used to be really depressed myself.  It was part of growing up and understanding your responsibility as an artists.  There are going to be people out there who are listening to what you have to say.

Musicpix: There are a lot of artists out there who delve into the negatives in life.

Kerli: Which is okay…I think to each his own and there is art out there that is purely sad and dark.  There are people out there that gravitate to that and there’s nothing wrong with that.  For me, I can go to sleep with a light heart knowing that I have done my part to make the world a better place.

Musicpix: You mentioned depression.  There are millions who suffer from depression.  What happened in your life that made you snap out of it and come to the realization that life is good.

Kerli: I don’t think that you can snap out of it…I think that being happy is hard work at first.  You really have to work on yourself and you have to want to be a better person and come out of a dark place.  It just naturally happened.  I don’t know what kind of advice to give people who are depressed.  I had people around me who tried to advise me but I just had to go through it on my own time.  I don’t think that there is really anything wrong with depression because it expands your heart.  It makes you understand other people’s pain.  I’m not sad like that anymore.  But I understand now and I have compassion now.  Sometimes things like that are blessings in disguise and a lesson to learn.

Musicpix: Talk about like in Estonia…

Kerli: Life in Estonia, I never fit in.  I grew up in a small town of 5,000 people in the forests and the mindset was very stagnant and hopeless.  It was all about complaining.  I saw people complain, complain and not do anything about their lives to make it better. I made a decision at a very early age that I’, not going to live like that.  I am going to be everything that I want to become.  The nature is beautiful and we have a lot of history there.  I love my family there but it just wasn’t my place.  After coming to America, I feel like I have the freedom to be who I want to be.

Musicpix: When did you actually arrive in America?

Kerli: I came here for the first time when I was 18 and that was three years ago.  I moved here 1 ½ years ago.

Musicpix: Estonia to most Americans is a really mysterious place….what was the music scene like there.  Obviously, you’ve hit a nerve with the US scene so where did that come from?

Kerli: I wasn’t really into listening to music when I was little because my parents didn’t listen to any music.  My parents are not interested in art.  So I just had to always absorb my inspiration from the Universe rather than an actually artist.  Still, I think I write my best when I am left alone with my thoughts.  I never look for inspiration in other people or other artists.  I’ve always said that a painter doesn’t need to see a painting to paint another picture.  All he needs to do is sit down with a canvass and paint how he feels.  The songs on this album are the sounds of how I feel.

Musicpix: I know that you weren’t influences necessarily by any artist...

Kerli: I think that I am really torn by not being influenced by any artist on one end but also being influenced by everyone because I am hyper hyper sensitive.  So, everything influences me so every artist that I have ever heard has influences me. 

Musicpix: If you look at historic females in music.... are there any artists that you admire?

Kerli: A lot of artists…I love Janis Joplin, Joni Mitchell, Bjork…not only artists but people who believe in the impossible and follow their heart.  People who say exactly what’s in their heart and are who exactly what they want to be…

Musicpix: In Estonia, the two major languages are Estonian and Russian right?

Kerli: I speak Estonian.

Musicpix: When you learn a second language, one of the steps to becoming fully fluent in that language is to think in that language.

Kerli: I think in English.

Musicpix: For a songwriter, I find that particularly fascinating becuase it’s not only speaking in a native tongue but articulating several different ways and in musical phrasing.  Did that happen over time?

Kerli: It’s always been really natural for me…the lyrics on the album are really simple.  A, because I don’t speak English all that well.  But I believe that the biggest feelings in the world are the simplest ones.  I don’t believe in the intelligence and the mind to outsmart.  I believe in speaking from the heart.  Just like that.  Meat & Potatoes.  I don’t need a French name for that.

Musicpix: You said in the past, that you want to be a Pop Diva but it’s evolved into NOW…to just make music.  What made you change your mind from the Pop Star Diva life to realizing that the truest form of art is art for art sake?

Kerli: A friend of mine just said the coolest thing to me.  ‘To find out who you are, you have to find out who you are NOT.”  It was many years trying to find out who I was not.  When and where things just didn’t feel right.  This is a first album and I wrote these songs in a conscious state.  I would never compromise my art.  My second album is going to be so different.  I still love hooks and pop music but I am going to write it all by myself.  The first album was about finding my sound.  The second album is going to be the real me.  Not that the first album isn’t but it was finding me.

Musicpix: So know that you’ve found yourself…you go from an industrial, to metal to pop type sound.  Which sound are you the most comfortable?

Kerli: I’ve always just wanted to mix sounds and there’s going to be more of that on the second album as well…more cohesive.  The really dark fairy tale to the fantastical. 

Musicpix: It’s very Alice in Wonderland…how much influence did you have in the storyboarding?

Kerli: When I first got signed, I had a book of Kerli so it’s all me.  I’ve always known exactly what I wanted to look like.  It’s taken me a little bit of time to get that across.  It’s taken me a lot of time and tears to stay true to what I want to be.  To deliver something magical and not so realistic.  I had to fight for it.  When people say that I was a ‘product’ it hurts my feeling because I had to fight for what I am doing.

Musicpix: Spirituality appears to be in you and an important factor in your life.  I assume that one’s on the things that helped with your depression.  How has it helped you in your ascent as your career takes off?

Kerli: That’s why success never came to me before.  I wasn’t ready for it.  I wasn’t ready for it as a person.  I know who I am and I know what I am here for.  I am not here to pamper myself.  I am not here to chase admiration and fame although don’t mind it and that way I can get my message to a larger amount of people.  I had to realize that this is not about me.  My purpose is to heal people with my music.  That’s why my second album is going to be more….it’s not going to be called Love is Dead I know one thing.

Musicpix: It’s going to be called “Love is Alive”…although Gary Wright did that…an old song…laughing.

Kerli: In the past year, I distinctly knew what I had to do.  Spirituality is the most important aspect of my life…more than music because I wouldn’t be in touch with myself and with my purpose; my music would be totally meaningless.  I don’t want to write fun music that people can party to and get wasted.  That’s not why I’m here.  There’s nothing wrong with that, that’s just not what I do.

Musicpix: For artist who writes from the heart like you do, one of the things that has to be difficult is reading negative views.  How do you handle those negatives?

Kerli: I don’t.  I don’t go there…I don’t read reviews.  I surround myself with really light beings so when I am not working, I am not Kerli.  I don’t dress like this.  I am constantly creating but it’s much more peaceful.  I try to keep it really separate.

Musicpix: Surrounding yourself with trusting people is a good thing and speaking of your career... have there been people who have helped keep your head on straight considering you are losing your anonymity?

Kerli: I came to terms with that.... losing your anonymity   I am a real hermit actually.  My life purpose is to speak to as many people as possible so I have to sacrifice myself.  It’s not about me.

Musicpix: You mentioned purpose to speak to the world.  Who spoke to you?

Kerli: I didn’t have anybody speaking to me when I was 15 years old and didn’t belong.  I wish I did…

Musicpix: I think that you have a strong sense of maturity.

Kerli: Similar.  See?  You can see that in me because I see that in you.  So we connect on that level.  It’s so horrifying in the world when people don’t connect.  I’m going to cry…there’s something about you.  It’s crazy.

Musicpix: You music is very visual.  Not only from a sense of person can l feeling but I envision that stage setting.  At your point in your career, you’re opening for people but when it gets to a larger venue, I see it.

Kerli: Oh God, I can’t wait.  I want people to come to my show and not feel in this world.  It needs to smell right, it needs to be blessed.  That’s right.

Musicpix: Talk about your records plans.  Are there any tour plans set?

Kerli: We just received a list of bands that I’m going to look out but we haven’t decided yet.

Kerli - Walking On Air

Kerli - Love Is Dead

By Steve Mitchell