debut album
Power plush with punk and glitter from Chemnitz
Nino Cutino (lr), Anja Jurleit, Svenja Schwalm and Maria Costantino from the indie pop band Power Plush. photo
© Sebastian Kahnert/dpa
Last year as a support act, starting in March with their own tour through Germany: The Chemnitz band Power Plush released their first album “Coping Fantasies”. And thus starts the next career leap.
In Chemnitz there is a band farm where offspring are bred, says Svenja with a smile: “But whoever does it is top secret”. She, Maria, Anja and Nino are no longer among the seedlings of the farm – under the name Power Plush they have been making music together since 2019 and have been on the big stages for a few months now.
Last summer they played at festivals, appeared as supporting acts for Tocotronic, Leoniden, Sportfreunde Stiller and the Antilopen Gang, among others. Her debut album, Coping Fantasies, is scheduled to be released on February 10th. From the end of March the four will be touring through Germany as the main act.
Glittering stars under the eyes
The band was paired up by Nina Kummer, whose band Blond is also a Chemnitz child. The musicians are involved in the Chemnitz cultural scene – Svenja and Nina in the club, Anja at the bar, Maria in the cloakroom. In 2020, Svenja, Maria and Anja decided: we’re going to get serious. In the same year they also took in Nino.
Just like Nina and Lotta from Blond, glittering stones stick under the eyes of Anja and Svenja. In their music you can hear mainly indie, but also punk and the 80s. The band play a wonderful and completely unique version of the power pop genre, according to the band Tocotronic, which was founded in Hamburg in 1993. “As a heavy plush-loving band, the name of the group naturally appealed to us,” said the band that invited Power Plush to their “Never Again War” tour last year.
In terms of content, Power Plush focuses on one topic in particular: mental health. “We want to show that it’s okay to struggle with it and that you’re not alone. That there are places where you can feel safe,” says Anja, who also works as a graphic designer. “We’ve created a safe space with the music,” adds Svenja.
The band agrees that it is above all their generation that wants to draw more attention to the topic. Svenja, Anja, Maria and Nino are in their twenties. Her parents dealt with the subject very differently, says Maria, who at 28 is the eldest of the bunch: “Our parents grew up at a completely different time, when completely different values were important: that you appear strong on the outside, admits no weakness and is as successful as possible.” Today the goals are different. “For example, due to the climate crisis, we don’t know what will be in twenty or thirty years – that gives us a different perspective, including the here and now.”
With the release of their first album, Power Plush is now a step more serious. Together they want to see how far they can push their music. “I always said Dream Big,” says Svenja. And Power Plush take that seriously too: Selling out Wembley Stadium in London – that would be something. On the way there, however, there are smaller dreams: “If it works out to pay the rent at some point – that would be awesome,” says Anja and grins. In general, it is completely unclear where the band will be in five or ten years. However, one thing is clear: they are always happy to come back to Chemnitz. Because there they have support, friends and their home.