Brunch
Agop J. Hacikyan: 'I don’t feel I am translating my culture into English'
The playful Armenian-Canadian author talks his latest novel - hailed as a 'love letter to Istanbul' - straddling continents and his opinions on Turkey in the EU
brunch, literature, identity, languages, london, canada, culture
Krystof Hadek: 'foreign characters played by English-speaking actors? Disappointing'
In the last month the 27-year-old Czech actor has picked up accolades at the Berlin film festival (one of the ten 'shooting stars' in Europe) and a Czech Lion for 'best actor'. We talk fame, acting genes and language in European cinema
brunch, cinema, berlinale, film, kryštof hádek, czech republic, film festival
Gaëtan Tarantino: ‘graffiti artists are normal people, not hooligans’
He escaped prison and fines, sleeps and breathes graffiti and his NGO holds Brussels’ annual graffiti event: how the 32-year-old from Marseille, who once worked in air-conditioning, cheers up gloomy Belgian neighbourhoods with art that emerges from concrete
brunch, brussels, culture, graffiti, street art, belgium, art
Grand Archives: ‘In five years time we’ll probably be bartenders again’
Mat, Jeff, Curtis and Thomas are four friends from Seattle, four musicians from a small city. They’re not easily recognisable - you won’t have seen their faces in magazines or billboards. They don’t seem like typical indie rock stars; ‘nor do we don’t want to,’ says frontman Mat Brooke. We catch the group on their European tour leg in the Spanish capital
brunch, grand archives, culture, music, spain, leonid kuchma
Annett Louisan: 'I don’t need to go the fake platinum blonde bombshell route anymore'
The breathy German chanson singer hasn’t only changed hair colour over the years - she seems to have done a bit of growing up as well. We catch the 31-year-old entertaining the Franco-German relations ambassador and performing live in Paris for the first time
Devouring Sigrid Verbert, a Belgian food blogger in Italy
It's not just scrumptious cuisine and pretty photos in a book. Its pages won't just dunk you into Italy, Belgium or Germany, but inside Europe good and proper. Just as gastronomic traditions mix and merge, 'il Cavoletto di Bruxelles' constructs tastier realities
L.U.C: 'Poland is not just vodka and pretty girl exports'
Rather than rapping on his new album, producer Lukasz Rostkowski, 29, mixes in historical soundtracks, including the voice of ex-Polish president Lech Walesa. The jazz, trip hop and electro musician explains how a sometimes pessimist view of his country's past has inspired him in his musical projects, for which he has just picked up a 2009 'Passport award' from the journalists at Polityka
brunch, warsaw, identity, reunification, poland, music, history
DJ Boris Viande: the Breton who mixes gypsy funk
'Boris Viande,' the 26 year-old muses. 'That’s my pseudonym, how I am best known.' A trumpet player, like the writer Boris Vian, Romain has now been mixing for four years. The young Frenchman claims that before unearthing his passion for eastern music, he was part of the punk movement
‘If I had to choose between sex and performing live with The Whitest Boy Alive...’
One day it was just computers. The next day, god brought instruments. Over the past decade, the Berlin-based band’s polyphonic electronic sound has translated into pure deprogrammed happiness for live dance fans across Europe. We hear the boys from Bergen, Berlin and Toruń out
brunch, bands, best of cafebabel.com, norway, dance, berlin, poland
Dominika Nowak: 'I want to stay unusual, even if I've had to become more commercial'
The designer untames convention with her 'Nunc' shoes, insisting that her furry fabric fantasies are made to be adapted to daily life. We discuss Paris-Krakow, fashion uglies and what it's like to go it alone as a one-woman brand at 27
brunch, business, university, women, paris, animals, expatriates
Olga Rodríguez: 'Journalists tend to be very individualistic'
On a famed terrace close to Madrid’s Palacio Real (Royal Palace) at nightfall, the 34-year-old Spanish award-winning journalist talks about two of her passions, the Middle East and journalism
brunch, middle east, war, palestine occupied territory, iraq war, european media, iraq
Andrew Bird: 'even hip-hop is folk music'
From his Chicago-based home - a farm in Illinois - the 36-year-old thinks up the songs featuring violins, guitars, voices and whistling, which have made him one of the best exponents of the folk renaissance. His latest album Noble Beast was a US hit and has been garnering praise in Europe, where he is touring until 24 November
Electronic music duo Fuck Buttons: is this music?
From Worcester via Bristol to the world, schoolfriends Andrew Hung and Benjamin John Power are fiddling with some old machines across a table in order to make some music. The universal sound goes by ‘drone, pop, noise’
brunch, noise, paris, pop music, fuck buttons, culture, concert
David Lescot: 'Europe is nothing more than a piggy bank for artists'
The fearless French playwright, musician and director, 38, attacks the concept of Europe in his latest show 'L’Européenne', a wacky commentary on a continent that is still seeking to find itself
brunch, paris, languages, europe, culture, european union, david lescot
Le Corps Mince de Francoise: 'fuck off saying we’re trendy. We sing about what we are'
The trio hail from Helsinki, record in Berlin and are managed in the UK. We meet in Paris to dissect their pan-European wanderings and find out why exactly they diss boys and Finland so much in their screamy surface pop-experimental sound
brunch, women, finland, industry, feminism, best of cafebabel.com, berlin
Emilie Simon: 'I don't explore, I play'
From Montpellier via Paris to New York, where the singer is now based and back with an electro-pop album, released on 21 September. At 31, the dynamic and erudite French singer is trying her hand at the Big Machine, another album composed entirely in English
brunch, culture, music, electronic music, new york, emilie simon, france
Dear Reader via Johannesburg and Berlin: 'We’re all just geeks really'
Cherilyn MacNeil, 24, the charismatic singer and pianist of South African indie trio Dear Reader, speaks to us from the fringes of the Berlin Festival about her home country’s mix of danger and new beginnings, faith and spirituality, broken hearts and summer in Berlin
brunch, love, religion, berlinale, concert, music, multiculturalism
Fredo Viola: 'Downloading is an attitude that kills the music'
The London-born New Yorker, 39, owes his blossoming musical career to the internet, a small digital camera and the music file-sharing site EM411.com. We chat to the man with Sicilian roots upon the release of his first album, The Turn, which unites pop, electro and songs of devotion
brunch, united states, cinema, downloads, federico fellini, music, fredo viola
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