Name: Stella Sommer

Nationality: German
Occupation: Singer, songwriter
Current release: Stella Sommer's Silence Wore a Silver Coat is out via Buback.

If you enjoyed this interview with Stella Sommer and would like to find out more about her music, visit her official website. She is also on Instagram, and Facebook.



Where does the impulse to create something come from for you? What role do often- quoted sources of inspiration like dreams, other forms of art, personal relationships, politics etc play?

For me, most of the inspiration comes from reading. I like to think of it as input = output.

Also, Karl Lagerfeld said something that made a lot of sense to me. He said something to the effect of: “There are people that go to the beach to wait for inspiration to come to them. Trouble is, inspiration never goes to the beach.”

For you to get started, do there need to be concrete ideas – or what some have called a ‘visualisation’ of the finished work? What does the balance between planning and chance look like for you?

I try to read lots of books and write down everything I think could be useful. I try to only start working on an album when I know there are enough ideas I can work with.

Is there a preparation phase for your process? Do you require your tools to be laid out in a particular way, for example, do you need to do ‘research’ or create ‘early versions’?

I always lay down early versions of songs. I basically first write the outline of the song, which means a verse and chorus. I only finish writing the lyrics for a song once I come to the conclusion that the song is actually good. Otherwise I always tend to try get songs on an album just because I like the words in a verse or something like that.

I like to get an objective idea of whether the song actually works before finishing the lyrics.

What do you start with? How difficult is that first line of text, the first note? When do the lyrics enter the picture? Where do they come from? Do lyrics need to grow together with the music or can they emerge from a place of their own?

Every song is different. For me, most of the time the lyrics come first. Ideally you come up with lyrics that are that good, you can’t really screw the song up with music anymore.

For example when I came up with the lyrics for my song “Silence Wore a Silver Coat” I wrote down: “Silence Wore a Silver Coat and took me out for dinner, Silence Wore a Silver Coat and took me out for lunch. And asked if I could stay, if only for the night until the break of day”.

I instantly knew that nothing I did could mess up that song, because the lyrics were too strong. It doesn’t even really matter what kind of melody you use, because sometimes the words become their own melody. Songs sometimes work in miraculous ways.

Other times I would star a song with a little guitar riff or chords on the piano and then look for lyrics that work with it afterwards.

What makes lyrics good in your opinion? What are your own ambitions and challenges in this regard?

I prefer strong lyrics. Words that already have their own melody to them and almost seem to emerge fully formed.

Many writers have claimed that as soon as they enter into the process, certain aspects of the narrative are out of their hands. Do you like to keep strict control over the process or is there a sense of following things where they lead you?

With writing I agree that certain aspects are out of your hand. You have to cater to the song’s needs. And it’s the song that dictates where things are going. One should never try controlling a song, it never works and usually in a sense kills the spirit of the song.

Once you’ve entered the stage where the song is mixed and mastered it is at least technically possible to have some sort of control over it. But even then it should still be about the song’s needs and not your own desire to control the process.

There are many descriptions of the creative state. How would you describe it for you personally? Is there an element of spirituality to what you do?

Maybe there is some element of spirituality. I think a lot of it has to do with maintaining a sort of childlike sense of naïveté and wondering about the creative process in general and songwriting specifically.

You have to be able to still be amazed by the songs that present itself to you. You can always tell whether there was some sort of magic involved when a song was being written. You can hear it.

Especially in the digital age, the writing and production process tends towards the infinite. What marks the end of the process? How do you finish a work?

I don’t know, it’s just a feeling. Of course you could spend months mixing an album but at some point, you can’t really tell anymore whether something that just happened made the song better or worse. I think it helps, to never look at an album as finished. At a certain point you just have to stop working on it and that’s the way people will get to know the album.

It is of course never finished, because everyday is different. You’d maybe prefer a totally different mix 6 months after having finished mixing the album. But that’s just the way things are. I think an album is just a snapshot. It is the best you could do at a certain time.

Once a piece is finished, how important is it for you to let it lie and evaluate it later on? How much improvement and refinement do you personally allow until you’re satisfied with a piece? What does this process look like in practise?

Once it is finished, I don’t really listen to it again. As I said earlier, I think of it as the best I could do at a certain time.

Afterwards I only think about what I’m going to do next.

What’s your take on the role and importance of production, including mixing and mastering for you personally? How involved do you get in this?

It depends. I didn’t really get that involved in the beginning.

Now I’m very involved and can be very persistent until everything is exactly the way I want it to be.

After finishing a piece or album and releasing something into the world, there can be a sense of emptiness. Can you relate to this – and how do you return to the state of creativity after experiencing it?

I can totally relate to that. It is a bit like post-natal depression.

I try to give in to it for a while and tell myself that I’ve sort of earned it. Then I just do nothing for a bit and once the energy is coming back I go back to work and read some books.

Creativity can reach many different corners of our lives. Do you personally feel as though writing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn’t or wouldn’t in more ‘mundane’ tasks?

You can’t touch, see or drink songs like you can do with a cup of coffee. Songs are different. They have their own souls and you don’t really have control over them.

Even in the process of writing songs they are never really “yours” to begin with. And after they are released they have a life of their own as well. One can never tell who connects to a song or why.

A song can change a person’s life. But that’s the song's merit alone. The person who wrote it has little to do with it.