I knew that everything would fizzle out if I didn’t take the next step." A year later she got a publishing deal from Freibank. She was subsequently interviewed by several record companies, all of whom expressed interest, but eventually were unwilling to unconditionally support the clear line of her music. By lucky coincidence, however, Freibank had heard that the London, England-based label Grönland was looking for new German talent. In November 2002, at an appointment in London, Kira was introduced to the label’s founder, Herbert Grönemeyer, a singer in his own right. Kira’s singing and guitar-playing made such a huge impact on him that he signed her to the label four days later. Inauswendig Her first album, Inauswendig, was released on October 25, 2004. "To be signed by him was like an accolade," she has said. "The great thing was that Herbert knew how easily he could have influenced my album with his experience and personality. But he didn’t do anything. He trusted me and left me to do it. That’s the greatest compliment he could give me." Following the release of Inauswendig, critics soon started comparing her with Nena, a comparison Kira does not like at all. "It seems as though all dark-haired singers in Germany have to go through this," she told the German magazine Die Welt, "but I hate it." Goldfisch After a string of appearances throughout 2005, including opening for Herbert Grönemeyer at the LTU Stadium in Düsseldorf in January, a multi-city tour with Virginia Jetzt in March and an appearance at the Schupfart Festival in Zürich in late September, Kira began recording her second album, Goldfisch, which was released on August 11, 2006. Whereas the themes of Inauswendig hover around introversion, the ego and the comparison of one’s reality to that of other people, the themes of Goldfisch hover around extroversion. "For me," she said in a press release, "these two albums are like two completely different worlds that have almost nothing at all to do with each other. They’re each based on a totally different attitude toward life." After the release of Goldfisch, Kira made another string of appearances, including a multi-city tour with the German band Keimzeit in December 2006, her own "Fast wie Sommer" tour in the spring of 2007 (named for one of the songs on Goldfisch) and opening for Herbert Grönemeyer on four dates of his own tour in May