No Straight Lines: LIE NING in Conversation with Planningtorock
Two artists on queering the voice, composing futures instead of mirroring the present, and what safety means for queer musicians at a moment when visibility carries a price.
East Hotel / C2Two artists who would otherwise meet on the concert stage sit down together for a conversation. The voice is their first shared space. Planningtorock has been working for over two decades on queering sound, shifting pitch and formants until the voice can no longer be clearly forced into rigid, normative categories.
LIE NING approaches the same question from a different angle, uncompromisingly placing their own soft, velvety voice centre stage. They are one of the defining voices of a younger generation that has forged its own aesthetic through a blend of music, fashion and visual language.
What do queer futures sound like, and who is composing them right now? Where does the queering of sound actually take place, and where does technology open up room for reinvention? What happens in the moment when an aesthetic choice is suddenly read as a statement about one's own identity, whether one intended it to be or not? And does queer music have a common sound at all, or is it queer precisely because it resists any standardisation?
Twenty years of industry experience lie between the two. What has changed since Planningtorock began, and what has remained alarmingly the same? The music industry has made attempts at celebrating queer visibility and diversifying line-ups. It has been slower to ask who actually decides which queer stories are marketable. Where does openness end and co-optation begin when you are both needed and restricted at the same time?
Underlying this is also a political issue that is currently very pressing. Anti-queer attacks are at a record high in Germany, most recently at Berlin Pride. Safety is therefore no longer an abstract concept, but concerns the club, the tour bus, the festival site and the office. What networks and allies have supported both of them throughout their careers? What structural support is missing for queer and FLINTA* artists, beyond visibility on stage? And what responsibility lies with those sitting in the audience in this session who will be making decisions again on Monday?
LIE NING will be moderating and has no intention of remaining neutral.
