1// Nina Levett is an invented persona. Her nails are fake, her hair is not real. She does not exist.
2// It took her many years, one personal trainer and a few beauty docs to become as beautiful as she is now.
3// At school she was an achiever.
4// She does not believe in life after death and therefore often works long hours.
5// Nina Levett believes in following the flow. She works when ideas come to her. Much of what she does is spontaneous and unplanned. Watch the video of Amy Tan talking about creativity here.
6// She is fascinated by pop culture (Madonna,…).
7// Some of her inspiration comes from the city of Vienna and in particular the Wiener Werkstätte.
8// Her favourite film is by Abel Ferrara: “Bad Lieutenant”
9// Nina Levett eats no sugar and drinks no alcohol. She works out regularly.
10// Some of her spiritual inspiration comes from Ajahn Brahm, Theravada Buddhism and Sigmund Freud.
What would it be like to marry two women on your wedding day?
How big will the wedding be? Will everyone be impressed with the brides, the flowers, the make-up, the cake, the flowers?
The MAK Design Nite in 2010 was curated by Sam Jacob with the help of design curator Thomas Geisler.
The idea was to make the wedding spouse into a walking flower bouquet. This showed the woman as an object.
In Nina Levett’s concept for the wedding film and the MAK Design Nite 2010 she played with the idea that fears arise in the moment of saying YES. Will the husband/wife be loyal all their life? Will the couple be happy? These fears were metaphorically shown by depicting the husband with two wives. The confusion of seeing two women in wedding dresses evoke the uncertainty and fear that the couple and their friends and family feel on the wedding day.
Katarina Niznanska has been involved in the projects of Nina Levett since 2003. She has become very close in these last years and was very important for Nina Levett’s work. Katarina Niznanska is very gifted with flowers and was also responsible for the flowers at the wedding ceremony as well as the flowers for the Design Criminals exhibition curated by Sam Jacob.
This wedding video was partly produced for the real wedding of Nina Levett but modified to be shown at the Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna. The exhibition which it was for was curated by Sam Jacob. The wedding video leaves doubt as to whether it is the marriage of the artist Nina Levett (dressed in black underwear and veil) or of her sister (dressed in the white wedding dress).
Please like Nina Levett on Facebook by clicking on the “like” button here.
Mustafa was introduced to me by Michal Jellinek who is my wedding photographer and has also worked with me on many projects since then. I met Mustafa because he was assistant photographer to Michal at my wedding. Mustafa and I have been in touch via Facebook in the last year and I had the idea to ask him a few questions and to publish them on my website. I have added some of the informal photos of the wedding above for you to see the days we first met.
1. What inspired you guys to play music?
Tomas: Music has alway been my way of escape from reality. Being an 11 year old boy I didn´t know what I want from life, didn’t know who I am, when suddenly I saw a video of Guns N´Roses on MTV.
From that moment on I realised this is what defines me, that is what I would love to do too.
Mustafa: Everybody on the earth has an individual relationship with music so do i, when i was 16 my best friend inspired me to buy a bassguitar and till that day the best way to
express my emotion is through the musical instrument. And my inspirations comes from mood, music, life experiences.
Krizo: My girlfriend, my life. A deep inspiration for me is also the life of my most favourite musician Freddie Mercury.
2. How has music changed your life?
Tomas: Music is the most intimate language for me. Music is in my mind 24 hours a day. It’s almost like illness. There is always some music switched on in my mind subconsciously. I don’t feel the need
to consume drugs or alcohol when I´m down because I can heal my soul with this precious medicine. It may sound funny but I think music is like herbs.
Mustafa: My life has changed totally, all days I was at the practise room with my band, or playing gigs, I’m living the life of a musician.
Krizo: Music shapes every aspect of my life so is difficult to say what exactly it changed.
3. What bands do you listen to and how have they shaped your music?
Tomas: Alice In Chains, Jane’s Addiction, Suicidal Tendencies, Led Zeppelin, INXS, The Who, Rage Against The Machine, KORN, James Brown, Jimmy Hendrix, Black Sabbath, Nine Inch Nails, KYUSS, Monster Magnet, Public Image Ltd, Faith No More, Soundgarden, Audioslave, DOWN, Pantera, Cypress Hill, Tricky, Faithless, Massive Attack, Prodigy, Skinny Puppy, Young Gods and many more.
Everyone in the band comes from different music background so we often argue during the songwriting process, but at the end we always find the best compromise that sounds like nothing I have heard before.
Mustafa: These days Selah Sue, Florence and the Machine, Leon Jean Marie, Kings of Leon, Too Fighters and many others. I think subconsciously I put all that stuff in to my musical ideas.
Krizo: I like any kind of music. I literally listen to everythig starting with opera ending with folk music but my favourite is rock.
4. What advice do you guys have for others that want to pursue music as their career?
Tomas: Listen to yourself and analyse it soberly. Ask people what they think about your songs and try to find the best compromise between your craziness and peoples’s abilty to dig it.
Mustafa: Work hard and everytime you need to be ready to kill your babies (songs) the strongest ideas will survive, focus on the detail, and don’t lose your attention on what’s most important for you. You also need to make compromises, the school of music is everywhere around you, you need to sacrifice your everything for your love (music).
Krizo: It is very important to know the right people in music business.
5. Where did you guys get the idea for the name of your band?
Tomas: Mustafa invented it. He probably wanted us to sound very exotic yet trustworthy
Mustafa: It was idea of guitarist Michael from my ex-band, he create it at a private party. It was just good sounding name, remaining us of some Italian style.
Krizo: It was Mustafa’s idea.
6. What do you guys want your fans to know about you that they might not know already?
Tomas: – Our video and music production had nearly zero budget. We are greatly thankful to our friends who helped us in this way.
Mustafa: I want to say that the most important thing we want to keep in our band is friendship, love, understanding, detachment, we know that we all want the same, everything is about communication, compromieses, and understanding.
Krizo: I would like to tell them we love them.
7. What are you thinking when you are on stage?
Tomas: How the hell lyrics go in the second verse? or Damn, can we really be louder than Metallica tonight?
Mustafa: I’m proud, I’m excited, I’m enjoing the show and I’m checking people’s reactions.
Krizo: When I’m on stage, I’m always excited because it’s the best thing to make others feel happy.
8. What does your family think of your music?
Tomas: My mom prefers the mellow songs generally. Dad likes all of our songs but always makes a funny expression of his face as he tries to recall what famous band in history the song reminds him.
Mustafa: My parents love our music, my brother too, and my girlfirend with my brother are the biggest reviewers and I’m so thankful for that, it moves us forward.
Krizo: My family supports me.
9. What is your favourite food on tour?
Tomas: Mainly pizza, burgers, nachos, pancakes, fish, risotto and pasta.
Mustafa: I’m always trying to choose the smaller harm, but it’s pretty hard because of the fast foods and gas station diets.
Krizo: Rum.
10. Which song is your favorite that you guys created together as a band?
Tomas: Mainly songs from our upcoming album. As from the previous it would be You´re My Mate and For Sure.
Mustafa: I think its is a new song called Evermore. It will be on our new album.
Krizo: Vykam.
Bruno Benetton Free Band
Tomáš Palonder – lead vocal
Krížko – piano, back vocal
Mustafa – guitar, back vocal
Juraj Varga – bass, back vocal
Marek Hradský – the magic guitar
Michal Danielis – keyboards, pc
Michal Uličný – drums
