The Red Bulletin June 2020 (US)

41
Charli XCX
Singer, 27, GBR.
Discovered after posting songs to MySpace
in 2008, the Los Angeles-based star has
written, sung and produced worldwide hits.
42
Resilience trainer, 47, GER.
Wallert was kidnapped by terrorists while
on a diving vacation in Malaysia in 2000.
He now uses the experience in his work.
Marc
Wallert
MARCUS COOPER/WARNER MUSIC, PRIVATARCHIV WALLERT PETER PRASCHL, TOM GUISE
“I’M MAKING IT
USING ONLY THE
TOOLS I HAVE AT
MY FINGERTIPS,
INDICATIVE OF
THE TIMES WE’RE
IN. WE CAN MAKE
A SICK ALBUM.”
Charli XCX announces to 1,000 fans—via Zoom on
April 6—that she has postponed her current project
and will create a new album “from scratch, [using]
things in my house, people I can reach online,” with
fan input on everything from lyrics and beats to
album art. “I want to open the entire process to all
of you.” How I’m Feeling Now debuts on May 15.
“How I survived
140 days in captivity”
Marc Wallert lived through
more than four months
of being held captive by
terrorists alongside his
parents and other tourists.
Here he explains how
he coped with such an
extreme situation.
I embraced the challenge
“My first thought after we
were kidnapped was that
we’d still be free if we
hadn’t decided not to go
on the night dive. It was a
human but pointless way
of thinking. You can’t turn
back time, but you can
make the most of a
situation. You need energy
for that and shouldn’t
waste it.”
I kept a happy ending
in my mind
“When times were hard,
I imagined a positive
outcome and thought of
myself sitting in a café
back home, drinking a
cappuccino. That gave me
emotional strength.”
Jungle camp: Wallert in captivity
in Malaysia in 2000.
I kept busy
“When you’re forced to
sit around waiting, there’s
nothing more useful than
doing stuff. We built rain
shelters in the jungle or
wrote down what was
happening to us.”
I helped others
“Swapping ideas, consoling
others or just having fun
will make any situation
more bearable. I looked
after my mother, who was
sick. That gave me the
motivation to carry on.
People needed me, after all.”
I saw opportunities
“Every crisis also gives
you the opportunity to
recalibrate your life. I asked
myself, ‘Who am I? What
do I still want to do with
my life? What can I do
without?’ It taught me to
value my life more.”
Marc Wallert’s book, Stark
durch Krisen [Tough in a
Crisis], is out now.
THE RED BULLETIN 61