Name: Dani Scheffels
Nationality: German  
Occupation: Drummer, multi-instrumentalist, producer, composer
Current release: Dani Scheffels’s hi is out via tunnel.visions.
Recommendations: EWBO (dystopian future) by EXEM PLAR; Notes With Attachments by Blake Mills, Pino Palladino

If you enjoyed this Dani Scheffels interview and would like to know more about his music, visit him on Instagram, Facebook, and bandcamp.



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?

When I really concentrate on the music, then I like to listen with eyes closed. I love to get lost in music and have it guide my thoughts a little bit.

It's really interesting to me that music can affect your body the way it does! For example if someone can dance like Gelya (who did an amazing performance for "slick dancer") I think it can be a very powerful force to watch! Almost like watching nature in its beauty.

Sadly I suck at dancing, though.

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?

When creating music I am still amazed by how mystical it is. That's probably what I am drawn to the most! Like the fact that all these frequencies, sounds, harmonies, rhythms exist together as a sonic beeing is very mystical to me.

I'm not necessarily drawn to it to escape reality, sometimes rather the opposite. Because through music its possible to create something very original and make it a part of reality!

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

My first steps with music were as a child. My mother played organ in church and we (my sisters and I) sometimes where allowed to pull the organ stops as little children. That was a lot of fun!

Ever since then there have been so many different gains through experience! The biggest ones being early piano lessons by my mother, later my time studying jazz drums at the university.

I think some of my biggest steps just came from listening to great records and concerts at the right time to be honest.

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?

Thats very interesting! I think between 13 and 16 I listened to a lot of different stuff. I was very much into skating at 13.

My most listened bands at the time would probably be A Tribe Called Quest, Nirvana, Linkin Park and I also remember listening a lot to Wu Tang 36 Chambers as a 13 year old haha (that was my first CD). Also everything from the Tony Hawks Underground 2 soundtrack probably.

At that time, music meant a lot to me style wise, but I didn't care too much about how it was made and I also didn't think I would be a musician growing up. That changed with 15, when I started getting more serious with the drums and had a big Medeski, Martin and Wood phase.

[Read our Billy Martin of Martin, Medeski & Wood interview]

I would say that I care a lot more about how music is made now and can probably listen to music more intensely. Sometimes I would like to go back to my 13 Year old listening style, though.

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

I think I definitely develop a little bit of a weird relationship with some of my instruments. For example I still didn't throw out my old cymbal case which I was driving around from concert to concert ten years ago, even though I don't use it anymore.

Sometimes it's like some memories are linked to the instruments that I played at the time. The instruments I made the album hi with will probably have a similar place in my heart.


Dani Scheffels Interview Image by Stef Zins

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?

Dreams and personal relationships definitely are a big inspiration for me.

A big impulse for me is also that I really like the flow state I'm in, when I create music. It really feels like a good use of my time when I start a new project and see what happens.

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?

Making and writing music doesn't really feel like acting something out to me. More like experiencing something and finding stuff out.

When I wrote the songs for this album I didn't know what the songs are going to sound like before they where finished. It's the "finding out what is there" part that's really interesting to me.

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

There are no misunderstandings in music, that is the beauty of it! Once music is there, everyone takes their personal things from it.

I think that misunderstandings only occur, when it comes to lyrics or when there is a very concrete statement and music is used as a tool to transport that statement.

The latter is not how music should be approached in my opinion.

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?

That is true! I try to stay very open minded when it comes to listening to new music. Even if something is not my cup of tea I try to find something positive about it and not get so much into why I don't like it haha.

I hope this translates to me being playful when writing or producing. I also think it helps with a overall positive attitude towards making music.

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”?

Now that I think about it I feel like I really like the sound when you jump in the water and it goes "clooosh". To me that always feels like my head can reset now.

As you said, the soundscapes that surround us everyday can have a very similar effect on people as music does in my opinion.

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?

There is a interesting connection between music and physics/maths for sure. Like when it comes to overtones and how we perceive harmonics and everything.

But I would say that music is a phenomenon that other sciences/music theory try to explain, rather than music beeing a science itself.

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?

I think we can learn lessons about life by achieving any type of skill.

Personally I don't regret diving deep into music, as it has helped form my character a great deal. I hope that my music reflects the way I live in that it is trying its best to be positive and constructive.

A very cool thing about music though is that one can be heavily influenced by it, even without a deeper understanding.


Dani Scheffels Interview Image by Stef Zins

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?

Interesting statement! I think I could agree with him, since there is always some kind of sound even in silence.

But that being said I am definitely a fan of very silent sounds from time to time haha. Silence makes you appreciate sound more, doesn't 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?

That really depends on the intention. There are probably cups of coffee, that have more artistic intention than some music out there. But I feel like music is a very amazing and complex field, that has such a huge range in what can be expressed through it.

In my opinion, art can be found in every skill though.

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

I would really hope for a development away from playlists, where music has to match certain criteria to be played. That really takes away from experimental music.

I hope that music will be viewed for the amazing piece of human history and culture it is, instead of being utility!