Name: David Nesselhauf
Nationality: German
Occupation: Producer, bassist, composer
Current release: David Nesselhauf's A Guide to Afrokraut III is out via Légère.
Recommendations: Ron Carter/Richard Galliano: Panamanhattan - A study in adventurous improvisation in the field of Jazz and Musette.
Peace: Burial at Sea by William Turner - An awesome painting about things to come.

If you enjoyed this David Nesselhauf interview and would like to stay up to date with his music, visit him on 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?

I listen like the music is part of my surrounding nature, like boiling water or traffic, noise of kids playing in the yard – music is floating around me, interweaving with everything else.

What were your very first steps in music like - and how do you rate gains made through experience versus the naiveté of those first steps?

Born in West Berlin in the 80ies, I attended something like a Waldorf Kindergarden, a more or less open concept, where making music also was part of the daily routine.

I still remember the feeling of complete stiffness while trying to play those pedagogic instruments. Much later, in my teens, I started again, having much more fun!

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

When I was that age, I listened to grunge and “alternative rock” (like everybody) as well as jazz (like the few cool grown-ups I knew).

I still am a mixture of these two main ingredients.

Over the course of your development, what have been your most important instruments and tools and how have they shaped your perspective on music?

I started out as an electric bass player, playing all that notes at once all the time - so switching to doublebass only some years later made a big change for me. It taught me that “less is more! Love every note! Practice is good!” and stuff like that.

What, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to music and what motivates you to create?

Music is so much fun, it does hurt nobody even when taken to extremes – I really like to explore music and be bold, subtle, naïve and complex at the same time.

Of course, I do fail a lot in the process, but I don´t worry too much about that. I'd say I do it for joy of the adventurous journey it is to me.

Paul Simon said “the way that I listen to my own records is not for the chords or the lyrics - my first impression is of the overall sound.” What's your own take on that and how would you define your personal sound?

My friends and family easily recognise “me” – my typical sound – on everything I do. I must say, it's a little frustrating if you are in for adventurous music making.

I try to challenge myself and them by checking out different paths all the time. Like avoiding clichés, not using my instrument or known vocabulary so much … Of course, that does not work at all, but I will not give up!

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”?

Ah, I enjoy listening to everything. If you really listen, airplanes and washing machines are no less beautiful than kids chatter or a Bach piece.

I really dig what Jean Hervé Peron did with his collection of old cement mixers and 4 Cellos.



From very deep/high/loud/quiet sounds to very long/short/simple/complex compositions - are there extremes in music you feel drawn to and what response do they elicit?

Very loud and very low sounds amaze me. Bridges and pontons sometimes produce these otherworldly noises. The thing is: you can hardly record them. Which makes it even more fascinating.

From symphonies and traditional verse/chorus-songs to linear techno tracks and free jazz, there are myriads ways to structure a piece of music. Which approaches work best for you – and why?

I like to mix them all up. Of course, I am not a mature arranger of music, I do it in a far more simple way.

But arranging “conventional” melodies (evoking “conventional” expectations inside the listener) on top of, say, extremely quiet and strange ambient drones, is a lot of fun to me, because a lot of listeners will have very different experiences with this music, coming from their personal and very different point of views.

I used this technique a lot on my recent album.

Could you describe your creative process on the basis of one of your pieces, live performances or albums that's particularly dear to you, please?

I love to be free from any limitations brain-wise. No thoughts. No “I cannot do it”.

I once played a fully improvised solo 50-minute concert at dOCUMENTA 13 in Kassel, recorded it and made an album out of it with no rehearsal or editing. I mean, I really recommend this experience to anyone. Go to a very strange place, do a performance of whatever you do without even thinking about it, record and release it and have fun. Repeat.



In the end, life is kind of an improvised performance for you and the people / environment around you. Nobody cares. Failure is not a problem. Maybe you can make someone happy, even if it´s only yourself. Sorry for being a little pathetic here.

Sometimes, science and art converge in unexpected ways. Do you conduct “experiments” or make use of scientific insights when you're making music?

Yeah, on my new album I stole some text passages from recent physic research papers, check it ou t…

Music is math, math is the universe – I love to show the relation but do not understand much of it to be honest.

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?

As I said, the improvisation skills everybody has in life, they keep on growing in each of us, and that´s just beautiful to look at at any stage. And music can display all of these stages very beautifully.

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?

No. I think making a cup of coffee is art. Everybody could write a long letter about what this act of art (making coffee) implies on a lot of different levels.

Making music may seem much more iconic because usually there is a stage and an audience. But I can see a “making coffee” performance on stage with no problem and a big round of applause in the end.

Every time I listen to "Albedo 0.39" by Vangelis, I choke up. But the lyrics are made up of nothing but numbers and values. Do you, too, have a song or piece of music that affects you in a way that you can't explain?

Yes. Most of “my” songs take me to a strange place, because of the adventure it was to make them ... That is also true for stuff I did with other artists.  

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

As long as artists are so un-sure about themselves that they are anxious to release their stuff, we should all encourage them. It will be so cool for all of us!