Name: Alvin Schwaar
Nationality: Swiss
Occupation: Composer, improviser, producer, pianist, synth player
Current Release: Alvin Schwaar teams up with, Bänz Oester and Noé Franklé for their new trio album Playground, out September 6th 2024 via Unit.
Recommendations:
Book: On Connection, Kae Tempest
Book: King Kong Theory, Virginie Despentes
Paintings: WAMA WOLA, DIPS

[Read our Bänz Oester interview]
[Read our Noé Franklé interview]

If you enjoyed this Alvin Schwaar interview and would like to know more about his work and music, visit him on Instagram.  
 


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?

I don’t have any readymade recipe and honestly, I mostly don’t remember my dreams.

I have very different ways of getting into composition and the first one might be through improvisation. I record myself very often with my phone. While listening back, a snippet might strike my ear and then I would transcribe myself and develop the idea.

I am very interested in any form of art, read a lot, love to exchange with friends and I am sure it has an influence on my way of creating and perceiving my environment though it seems to me that often the concrete intention of what I want to do comes after the spark of the creative process.

For me the spark is very intuitive and the meaning comes later, when I develop the idea.

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 never have a clear idea of what should be the finished result, it stays very open.

I do have a sense, though, to perceive when something feels complete to me and I guess that helps this music to sound like myself.

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?

I guess there are many different creative states; because sometimes you can struggle with a piece for days/weeks/years without feeling where it should go and this is so frustrating.

And sometimes it’s the opposite - I am almost just a vessel, because everything comes very clear and in half an hour, I finish something.

When you're in the studio to record a piece, how important is the actual performance and the moment of performing the song still in an age where so much can be “done and fixed in post?“

Even though I am not so keen on the word “performance”, I think the key of a great recording for me is to capture the vibe, the life.

I don’t think you can add this presence in post-prod. I really don’t want to make these different ways of making music compete, because there is so much music I love that transmits strong vibes which weren’t recorded all at the same time in the same room. I also think that mastering these production tools is a form of Art that is underrecognized.

Let’s draw a parallel with photography. There are great pictures captured with an analogue camera that transmit this exact emotion and I am sure some beautiful collage of different images which could describe this exact emotion as well but from a different perspective?

What I am trying to say, is that there is no better or worse way of doing, they are just different techniques and you need to capture this presence in both.

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?

I don’t think there is any hierarchy between making music or making a great cup of coffee. Most important for me is how much passion, care, thought you put in what you do and this reflects in anything you undertake.

Music is a place where I am fully there and everything should be possible.