Name: Marc Méan
Occupation: Pianist, composer, improviser
Nationality: Swiss
Current release: Marc Méan's Mist is out via Unit.
Recommendations: The book Silence: Lectures and Writings by John Cage; The album All Life Long by Kali Malone

If you enjoyed this Marc Méan interview and would like to keep up to date with his work and music, visit his official homepage. He is also on Instagram, and Facebook.



When I listen to music, I see shapes, objects and colours. What happens in your body when you're listening? Do you listen with your eyes open or closed?

It depends on the circumstances. Nowadays we are surrounded by music everywhere. So most of the time I don't really pay attention to it in public. But when I am actively listening to music at a concert or listening to an album. I usually listen with my eyes open.

But more than shapes or colours, I am in a deep state of concentration. I can't help but analyse the music and try to understand what is happening. I suppose after so many years of making music I am conditioned to listen to music in this way.

I am a bit nostalgic for the time when I only listened to music for the music itself and not for the underlying harmony, melody or rhythm ...

Entering new worlds and escapism through music have always exerted a very strong pull on me. What do you think you are drawn to most when it comes to listening to and creating music?

I am usually drawn to the unexpected. What really matters to me is the narrative arc of the music itself. I like music that tells a story.

I like to be surprised by happy accidents, whether listening to music or making it.

What were your very first steps in music like and how would you rate the gains made through experience?

My first steps in music began at a very early age. I started with classical piano at the age of 6. Jazz music and improvisation came later in my early teens.

I was never very good at practicing my instrument. I was more attracted to playing the instrument as if it were a game. I had this hunger for more knowledge and the discovery of new territories.

According to scientific studies, we make our deepest and most incisive musical experiences between the ages of 13-16. What did music mean to you at that age and what’s changed since then?

I had a discman everywhere (portable CD player). I spent most of my walk to school listening to CDs I had bought, or borrowed from the library. I listened to the great jazz piano heroes like Keith Jarrett, Herbie Hancock, Mc Coy Tyner, etc. I could sing all their solos by heart on the way to school and I loved it. It was pure passion and nothing else. I was not thinking of making a career out of it, I was just enjoying the music.

Nowadays I have a different relationship with music. I don't have the excitement I had as a teenager. My relationship is deeper, calmer and more personal. Music is the way I see the world now. Or the world is the way I see music, I don’t know …

How would you describe your own relationship with your instrument, tools or equipment?

I have never thought of myself as a pianist. That is, someone who plays the piano. I am a musician who happens to play the piano, nothing more. The difference is small, but very important to me.

The instrument has always been a tool for making music. I don't crave virtuosity just for the sake of it. it has to have a musical meaning attached to it for it to be interesting for me.

I can be without a piano for several weeks without missing it. What I miss is the music, not the instrument.

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, creativity comes from the most mundane things. I usually need to be bored or understimulated to create. It usually comes as a simple musical concept or idea. And I build from there.

I have always been fascinated by people who create from dreams or other forms of art, because I am not like that. Creativity for me is like a muscle that I have to exercise to get better at.

Are you acting out parts of your personality in your music which you couldn't or wouldn't in your daily life? If so, which are these? What, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to music?

I tend to create things that reflect the way I experience and see the world. Authenticity, acceptance and honesty are now driving factors in my work. I don't want to pretend to be someone I'm not on stage.

I see the music I make as an extension of my own personality. So even if there are aspects of my own personality that I don't fully appreciate, they are part of who I am and therefore part of my creative process.

If music is a language, what can we communicate with it? How do you deal with misunderstandings?

Music is a language for me, but it is not meant to convey information, but emotions and feelings. If truth is in the eye of the beholder, truth in music must be in the ear of the listener.

I can't be sure how my music will resonate with people, every listener will receive my music differently and that's something I like about it.

Making music, in the beginning, is often playful and about discovery. How do you retain a sense of playfulness and how do you still draw surprises from tools, approaches and musical forms you may be very familiar with?

When I compose, I always try to do it quickly. This means that once I have an idea, I usually allow myself 30 minutes to do something with it. After that I tend to be too analytical and that probably affects the quality of the music. If I haven't finished it after those 30 minutes, I'll let it sit for a few days before I come back to it. This helps me keep things fresh.

When I play live and improvise, I like to pull the rug out from under me. I consciously try to play something different from what I usually do or go in a different direction to encourage that sense of freshness and playfulness.

Sound, song, and rhythm are all around us, from animal noises to the waves of the ocean. What, if any, are some of the most moving experiences you've had with these non-human-made sounds? In how far would you describe them as “musical”?

I think the most moving experiences I've had are with silence, the most non-human sounds of all.

I like this quote from John Cage: «We should listen to the silence with the same attention that we give to the sounds».   

There seems to be an increasing trend to capture music in algorithms, and data. But already at the time of Plato, arithmetic, geometry, and music were considered closely connected. How do you see that connection yourself? What aspects of music do you feel can be captured through numbers, and which can not?

Music is all about mathematics and ratios. Whether you're playing a polyrhythm, an interval or a melody, you can always describe it in mathematical terms.

What the algorithm lacks is the sense of dramaturgy in music. The tension and release aspect of it, how you can play with the listener's expectations. That is still a human trait at the moment.

The computer is a great tool for copying existing styles of music at the moment, not for fully creating. It still needs prompts and human taste to tell it what might be good and what might not.

How does the way you make music reflect the way you live your life? Can we learn lessons about life by understanding music on a deeper level?

Music is the way I live now. I have been a professional musician for about 20 years. I have been doing it for so long that it is probably part of my personality and way of thinking.

I think making music is a great way to confront your ego and understand when and how ego can be beneficial or detrimental in your process.

We can surround us with sound every second of the day. The great pianist Glenn Gould even considered this the ultimate delight. How do you see that yourself and what importance does silence hold?

Like I said, silence is really important to me. I live in a city where I am bombarded with sound all day long and to be able to experience silence is becoming a privilege.

In music, silence holds great significance to me. I believe that the most crucial moment when playing the piano is not when you play the note, but when you decide to release it.

Do you feel as though writing or performing 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?

I don't really see a big difference. I express myself through music, it is the medium I am most interested in and I have spent many hours perfecting it. After all these years of practice, I have developed my own voice in music and I feel that I have something personal to say.

I am sure a barista with years of experience will feel the same.

If you could make a wish for the future – what are developments in music you would like to see and hear?

I would like to see a jazz scene with a more diverse presence, both on and off stage.

The jazz scene in Switzerland is really white cis-male dominated and it can be intimidating for musicians from different backgrounds and genders to make a place for themselves. Even though things are moving in the right direction, we are still far from perfection ...