Since 2012, Nora Steiner and Madlaina Pollina have been performing under the name Steiner&Madlaina. Three years later, in 2015, they released their first EP. Since then, the two have been a fixed size of German-speaking female indie pop. They are Swiss women with European identity, Madlaina Pollina has a half-Italian, Nora Steiner a half-Greek background, and by working and living across national borders (the band has now divided into Vienna and Zurich) they could not be underestimated as a homely nostalgic phenomenon from the beginning. The Swiss in Steiner&Madlaina is the frictional surface on which cosmopolitan thinking, privileges and responsibilities are tested and negotiated. (Almost) every album contains at least one song in Swiss German - that's the mother tongue, the home and your own. And at the same time, every album also points far beyond that.

These albums were - after the first two EPs "Ready to Climb" 2015 and "Speak" 2017 (both on the Zurich label Lauter) - "Cheers" 2018, "Wünsch mir Glück" 2021 and "Risiko" 2023. In 2023, Steiner&Madlaina composed for the film score of "Sophia, der Tod und Ich". A digital-only EP "Ich kanns nicht glauben" followed in 2024.

In many years of cooperation, the band publishes all previous albums on the German indie label Glitterhouse Records. In 2025 follows the fourth album "Nah Dran", which continues this collaboration and at the same time marks the 10th anniversary of the band.

The clear content orientation, the excellent songwriting and a stringy musical development run through these 10 years as a common thread.

Nora Steiner and Madlaina Pollina not only stage themselves as - but are also - friends who actively live the idea of an equal artistic partnership. In songwriting, in the work behind the scenes, as well as on stage, you want to push yourself and the common cause, move forward and treat yourself, each other and everyone to the spotlight. Steiner&Madlaina are among the few duos that do not have a secret front woman or a mastermind. Everyone writes their own songs and lyrics with different, own qualities - Madlaina Pollina finds the texting in Schwyzerdutsch easier and the ambiguous puns. Nora Steiner the tableaux, story snippets and pictures that give us the typical mood moments. Both have in common the content, the courage to address feelings, the humor and an empathetic value system that runs through all publications. Their topics are relationships, love, class criticism, Switzerland and Central Europe, political-European consciousness, Check Your Privilege, feminism, the present. And their message is always: be appreciative to each other and give yourselves (please, finally, more!) Effort to make the best of it. Because neither have we caught it so well nor so badly that it would not be worthwhile to criticize and change the wrong things and to value and protect the right things.

Pop music was and has always been the medium in which themes and phenomena of the zeitgeist can best be negotiated. Less bulky, angry and exclusive than the subculture, not flattened to death like mass culture. Indie marks the sweet spot of this pop culture with its content orientation at the same time connectivity. In this sense, Steiner&Madlaina are an indie pop band in the narrowest sense, in their content, in their impetus and in their sound.

It has a particularly high recognition value - melodies, danceability, lyrics and a hook that you sing along with, if not rocking. The will to musicality. Steiner&Madlaina often expand the classic band cast. You sing and play acoustic and electric guitar yourself. As a band and trusted friends, the "Romantic Commission" is (almost) always there. Often, however, strings, wind players or piano and keyboard are also found in the recordings and on stage. This makes the musical range great; while the first album contained many acoustic, folk elements and the second more guitar pop, the third album was more rocker and broad-legged. But each album is a sovereign game with elements of jazz, rock, Schlager, nostalgia, singer-songwriting, folk, pop.

When Madlaina Pollina and Nora Steiner called their 2025 album "Nah Dran", they emphasized: this music and everyone who listens to it is close to us, it will be intimate and personal, and we want it that way. But - close is also, who is not there yet. You can still get there, but there is still something to be done. And it is completely clear - these two reject stagnance. With everything they already are... Steiner&Madlaina want to go even further.