Verena a.k.a Schneck Tourniquet is frontwoman for Portland-based punk band The Bloodtypes. She also has her own solo project The Darkest Moons. I found out about her via fellow lady musician Shanti Wintergate. Verena is originally from Germany and has a classical piano background. Despite being a musician from an early age The Bloodtypes is her first attempt at starting a band… and might I add with wonderful results! The songstress chats about her beginnings as a musician, her experience of the Portland music scene, style, packing for tour and more.

Tell me a little bit about yourself.
I perform in a band called The Bloodtypes and also have a solo project entitled The Darkest Moons. In both I sing and play the keys. I spent most of my weekdays teaching English as a second language. I am an avid rider, mostly dressage, some trail riding. I am crazy about cats and dogs and live together with a magnificently beautiful cat called Needles. He shows up in my songs. I love yoga and have been known to practice even on horseback. I reside in Portland, OR, possible the USA’s most European city. I can walk to the grocery store and go out to shows every night. People are smiley and friendly. It rains a lot.

How did you first come to playing music?
I have to thank my parents for that – they sent me to music school early on – and I really loved it. I was perhaps five years old when I started learning to play the keyboard. Weirdly, I also took composition classes from age 10-12, but never really wrote music until my early 20s. I’m pretty well versed in classical piano and harmonics.

The first band I joined for about a second was a metal band that wanted me as the pretty girl voice… I was about 17. We never played a show and I sang on only one song. I couldn’t hear myself or anything in the practice space, it was hilarious. The song was about a Viking’s fight for his motherland. Yeah, right.

At about 24 or 25 I joined a band called “Leben ist Tand” (life is meaningless). We played gothic-industrial style music. I loved the music, but the bandleader was overbearing – he hated my vocals and never let me write songs. I quit the band after our first show.

The Bloodtypes are my first attempt at starting a band and writing punk rock songs. It’s going amazingly well considering.

You’re originally from Germany, what was it like growing up there?
Born to middle-class parents who value stability, I led a sheltered life – which somehow resulted in my rebelling against it all as I grew up – smoking, drugs, boys, music, the whole deal. I adored Marilyn Manson (I cringe as I write this now) and all things morbid.

Metal and Goth have deeply influenced me. As a German, Goth, metal and industrial are ubiquitous and they’re definitely sticking with me. When I go out to a Goth night here, it’s not the same. Some of the songs I write definitely seek out the feel that the music I grew up with had.

As far as mindset goes, the fundamental thing about being German is that for you there are no certain values. As a German, you’re ingrained with a sense of shame. It’s because we have this WW II history. Nothing is safe, nothing is sacred, everything is to be questioned. The notion of patriotism is ridiculous to me – and dangerous. Any kind of fanaticism is deeply disturbing to me. I reserve the right to discuss and question anything – much more so than my American friends.

What influenced your decision to move to the US?
It’s actually quite the story. So, I was a pretty big fan of this fantastic band called the Epoxies. On their 2007 Europe tour I met their Keyboardist after a show in Düsseldorf, Germany. It was love at first conversation – he is that charming. We had one date and then he flew back to the US, leaving my heart aflame. After six months of phone conversations and pining, I finally visited him in Portland, OR and fell in love once again – not with the man, I already was head over heels for him, but with the city. Portland is fantastic and I’ve never felt freer or more able to achieve things creatively. A year after my first visit, he asked me to marry him and move to the US. I’d finished my studies and was ready for a change. I moved in 2009 and have never looked back.

What was the first band tee you ever owned?

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Tags: Amanda Palmer, Debbie Harry, Dresden Dolls, Epoxies, Goth, Leben ist Tand, nick cave, Portland music scene, Roxy Epoxy, Schneck Tourniquet, The Bloodtypes, The Darkest Moons, Tom Waits