Real Sounds Feature
Andrea von Kampen Interview
By Real Sounds
Nebraska singer-songwriter Andrea von Kampen joins David and SupaJam students Lois, Lily and Tyler to talk about Sister Moon, songwriting, collaboration, climate, protest music and touring the UK.
Real Sounds is proud to present this Andrea von Kampen interview, produced in collaboration with SupaJam Education for the Superjam Podcast.
About Andrea von Kampen
Nebraska-based singer-songwriter Andrea von Kampen blends intimate storytelling, poetic lyrics and warm acoustic arrangements. Her 2024 album Sister Moon explored humanity’s relationship with nature and the Earth, while her recent protest songs channel urgency, hope and solidarity. Her work has drawn more than 60 million Spotify streams and taken her to stages including Newport Folk Festival.
About SupaJam
SupaJam is an inclusive music education programme for young people aged 16–25 with social, emotional or special educational needs, using music industry learning to build skills, confidence and future opportunities.
The conversation was led by David alongside SupaJam students Lois, Lily and Tyler, with questions prepared with Mason.
Andrea von Kampen discusses Nebraska, Sister Moon , making art before you feel ready, lyric writing, music and film collaboration, protest songs and touring the UK.
Full Transcript
Introduction
So everyone, welcome to the Superjam podcast. My name is David, and today we're very lucky to have a guest artist on the podcast: Andrea von Kampen, who has joined us all the way from Nebraska. Andrea, how are you today?
I'm doing great. Thanks so much for having me.
We're absolutely buzzing to have you here. This is magic. I thought I'd give everyone who's listening a bit of an introduction. Andrea is a Nebraska-based singer-songwriter whose music blends intimate storytelling, poetic lyrics, and warm acoustic arrangements. She has had more than 60 million Spotify streams, contributed a track to a feature film—which we're going to talk about—and released music on Fantasy Records. She has even performed at major festivals, including the Newport Folk Festival, and built a global following through all of that. Her 2024 album, Sister Moon , explored humanity's relationship with nature and the Earth, and her latest EP is a protest EP that channels urgency, hope, and solidarity. We've listened to some of the tracks from those releases as well, so hopefully that little introduction is all right with you.
That was wonderful.
Nebraska, Landscape and Place
We'll have a little chat about where we are. We're in the UK, as we said, and you're in Nebraska. Lois, you wanted to find out a little bit about that, didn't you?
What's it like to live there? Is it very different from the UK?
Yes, it is very different. One thing I'll say is that the weather is incredibly extreme. Whenever I travel to the UK, I'm always shocked at how cold and rainy it is. You can go in July and it will be cold and rainy, with people wearing puffer jackets. In Nebraska, the winters are very cold. We're talking about zero degrees, sometimes with wind chills of minus 20, and today it's 97 degrees. This is something I always tell people, and they're always so shocked by it. I live in a very agricultural place. We're sort of the breadbasket of America. Even though my city has 300,000 people, and I'm near Omaha, which has a million people, in between all of our cities there are just fields of corn. Because corn is a tropical plant, when July arrives our weather is similar to the tropics because the corn releases so much humidity. It's sometimes called “corn sweat”. Our summers are similar to a tropical environment, while our winters are brittle, bone-dry and cold, with the wind whipping. Our extremes are very different from the weather in the British Isles. I'd also say that our state is roughly the size of your country, so we're very spread out. Even though I live in an urban area, we have a lot of land and space, and we have to drive everywhere because it's so spread out. Geographically, it's very different, and our history is rooted in very different things too. We don't have 2,000 years of Romans, and history, architecture and culture. Our culture is very different, and it started with the Indigenous people here in Nebraska. “Nebraska” is an Indigenous word that means “flat water”, because our state used to be completely covered by one big lake. We have a very different history too. You really couldn't find two places that are so different. The fact that we both speak the same language is crazy.
Do you find that things connected to your geography and landscape find their way into your music at all?
I think so. It's almost more that people tell me, “Oh my gosh, this record reminded me so much of the Midwest, or of driving through the fields.” I don't necessarily write based on that, but I think it's inevitable that it seeps in.
Starting Out and Making Art Now
That's so interesting. Very cool. Later on we're going to talk about your tour and some things you're looking forward to, so we'll bring it back to location then. But I thought it would be fun to dive into the music. Everyone's got some questions, and I've got one to open with, if that's all right. I noticed that Another Day came out in 2015, and from what I found, it looked like that was your first release. Happy eleventh birthday to that record, and congratulations on everything since then. It's absolutely amazing. How does it feel reflecting back on that time, when you were starting out? As a bonus question, what advice would you give to one of our students who is in that position now and just starting out?
It's very strange to think about the things I was writing 11 years ago. I never listen to them, and I never think about them. They were very much a reflection of my life at that time. I'm older now, I've grown up, and I experience different things. The advice I'd give is: don't wait until you feel that something is perfect or until you feel ready. You have no idea how things are going to resonate with people. Something you write when you're very young might be exactly what someone else needs at that time. When I was in college and writing those songs, I had a songwriting lesson with somebody who was a hero of mine. He was travelling through Lincoln, and I said, “I'll sell your merchandise if you give me a 30-minute songwriting lesson.” I played him Desdemona and a couple of other songs. He said, “Your voice is great, and what you're doing is great, but here's what I would do: don't write another song for 10 years. Just live your life. Wait until you're 30 to start writing songs.” Deep down, I knew that was horrible advice. Why wouldn't young women want to hear what young women have to say? We don't all want to hear only what 45-year-old white men have to say. I'd tell anyone: just make art now. Do what you can to put art out now, and don't worry too much about the audience that's going to hear it. Trust that people will be moved by it if they're the right kind of people for your music. Music is never really finished, and it's never perfect. I still go back and hear things and think, “Oh man, I should have done something different on that verse.” But it's never really finished. Just write what you think is meaningful, release it, and don't worry too much about the rest.
Sister Moon: Climate, the Moon and Visual Identity
That's amazing advice. I loved how you said that something written by a young person could connect with another young person. When you think about it, something a young person writes can also change an older person's perspective or remind them of when they were young. It crosses generations. Your initial advice wasn't the best, but your point is to tap into your life experience at any moment in time and combine that with your imagination. Thanks so much for answering that question. One of the songs we listened to first was Sister Moon . Lily liked the name of it, and you mentioned that your mum likes moon phases. Lily, do you want to ask about that?
My mum loves anything based on moon phases or anything connected to the moon. How did you think of the name Sister Moon ? And my DJ name is DJ Luna. I do DJing at college, and I was trying to think of a good name, so I thought DJ Luna would fit.
I love that. I'm also very inspired by the moon and by circular shapes. I think there's such an elegance to them. The catalyst for my record Sister Moon came when I was at the Newport Folk Festival. I remember talking to a local woman who told me it was hotter than ever—the driest and hottest summer she'd ever experienced. I travel through North America a lot, and I can see the changes that climate change has brought over the last 10 years, including how many lakes are drying up. I thought, “I really want to write a record that talks about climate change, but I want to do it in an artistic way that doesn't feel too literal.” At the same time, I was reading something about St. Francis of Assisi—“Brother Sun, Sister Moon”—and I thought, “Sister Moon. That's so beautiful.” I started thinking about the moon and how its tides affect our weather systems. I was trying to find elegant ways to discuss the climate issue, and that's how the idea came together.
That's really cool. Lois, you wanted to ask about the name as well, didn't you?
What came first: the album name or the song name, Sister Moon ?
I write all the songs and put them in order. Then we go through everything with a fine-tooth comb, and we usually have six or seven possible album titles. I definitely wrote the song first. It was then on the shortlist of potential album names. We slowly whittled them down and decided that Sister Moon was the strongest title for the record.
Do you often have the single name first, and then later go through the songs and choose from other possible album names?
Definitely. Right now I'm working on my next record, and I have two possible titles that I'm going back and forth between.
That's amazing. Lily, you wanted to ask again about the moon concept, didn't you?
I keep talking about this because it is interesting, and I love it. When you came up with the name for the song, did you think about the moon first, or did you think about a particular aesthetic or style to go with the song or album?
Both, in a way. In today's world, I think about how we can connect a record to every platform possible. It's silly, but even while I'm making records I think about which emojis I'll use when I post. There are four moon emojis, so we can really run with that. It was as much about the concept as it was about the aesthetic.
That's such an important part of being an artist, isn't it? Even though it has changed with social media, visual aesthetics have always been important for music artists. We look back at the 1970s and Pink Floyd's amazing album covers and visuals, and then the 1980s—
especially The Dark Side of the Moon .
Now, perhaps more than ever, we live in a very visual world.
Some artists have changed the way we look at music. There have been so many artists over the years who have changed the concept of music or done something that hadn't been done before. Michael Jackson, for example, added all those dance moves, and I think that's what made him iconic and gave him the nickname “King of Pop”. The moonwalk is one obvious example.
I recently heard an amazing story about Michael Jackson. I'm a big Prince fan too, so it's a story about those two artists. Apparently, Michael Jackson got his team out of bed at 3 a.m. when he had a song idea because he was worried that, if he didn't record it immediately, God would give the idea to Prince instead.
That's crazy.
The source is the internet, so I don't know whether it's completely true, but I hope it is. It's a fun story.
There is so much interesting lore around different artists and bands. The cool thing is that you can create your own lore too—your own artist persona.
Songwriting, Melody and Showing Up
Speaking of writing and world-building, Mason helped us prepare this interview, so shout out to Mason. He had a question, and I'm pretty sure he meant it specifically in relation to Sister Moon , although…