Name: Emily Wittbrodt
Nationality: German
Occupation: Cellist, improviser, composer
Current release: Emily Wittbrodt's make you stay is out via Ana Ott.
Recommendations: Music: Ellen Arkbro and Johan Graden - I get along without you very well.
Book: Marlen Haushofer, Die Wand

[Read our Ellen Arkbro interview]

If you enjoyed this Emily Wittbrodt interview and would like to stay up to date with her music, visit her official homepage.



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 like to listen to music with my eyes open and an active mind. There is always a direct connection to my body, but of course the way I react depends on the music I'm listening to, so there is no general answer I could give.

But I think there is no music or sound existing on this planet that doesn't affect me. I hope I will never loose that.

What were your very first steps in music like and how would you rate the gains made through experience - can one train/learn being an artist?

I started playing the cello at the age of five, later on I also took lessons in classical singing and piano. My early education in music was rooted in classical music, but I liked to compose music myself already at a young age and used to bore my family with my own shows.

There was always a deep fascination for improvising and composing my own music, but there was no place for it in my music lessons. So I kept it as something I would do when my teachers were not present.

I definitely think being a musician or artist in general is something you can learn. I don't like to think of it as something that is naturally given to you, I don't like the idea of a birth-given genius in general.

Where I stand now is a result of a lot of patience, great musicans around me and a safe surrounding where I had the resources to focus on music - I'm very thankful for that.

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 think it is not exaggerated to say that music was my most loyal companion in those weird teenage years. I was always the strange girl playing the cello, Hagrid was my nickname at school - that says all I think.

I listened to music every minute of the day that was not occupied by school. Pavement and The Moldy Peaches were my favourite bands back then, I still know every song by heart.



Now, more then ten years later, things changed a bit. Music has become my profession, I'm maybe even more surrounded by it, but the way I listen to music became a bit more analytic I would say.

Sometimes I miss my teenage melancholy from which only music could safe me. But still I can't imagine a life without music and nothing else makes me feel so alive.

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

There's always music in my head; I have a disturbing compulsion to compose silly songs from randomly picked up phrases that are not leaving my brain for days (for example: “I am a mammoth in permafrost“, that stayed with me for weeks, I was obsessed. It was very disturbing.)

To speak more seriously: Creating music is a way for me to sort out the cacophony a bit and feel more rooted. And I think music is the best thing I have to contribute to this world.

In my music itself, I am always looking for the most honest way to translate my observations, thoughts and feelings into sound.

To quote a question by the great Bruce Duffie: When you come up with a musical idea, have you created the idea or have you discovered the idea?

I don't think we have the possibility to create something really new. I'm not interested in that either. I think the concept of discovery is much closer to my approach to music. I either discover a feeling in myself or maybe even a whole melody, or I find it in my environment.

I feel more like a radio antenna that can tap into a higher-level whole and make it accessible for other people.

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?

When I finish an album, I don't listen so much to the details anymore. I'm more interested in whether I stay with the music for the duration of the album and whether it can put me in a different emotional state. The detail work happened before that. Still, of course I continue to listen to the lyrics and sometimes, in retrospect, I would do some things differently.

When I listen to my music I sometimes have the impression that this is how it must be when people meet me for the first time or come to my apartment, see all my personal stuff and meet my friends, getting to know all things and people that I like to be surrounded with, it's a nice way to look at myself from the outside and inside at the same time.

My sound is of course very influenced by the cello and the music I have made so far and love very much myself. That's experimental improvised music, electroacoustic, classical music and my love for kitsch.

[Read our Redi Hasa interview about Interpretation and Arranging Nirvana for the Cello]
[Read our Clarice Jensen interview about the cello]
[Read our Theresa Wong interview about the cello]

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 would call any sound potentially musical, and I don't make much of a distinction between the sound of a cello and the rustling of leaves. One of the most beautiful moments on my current record make you stay is the chirping of crickets, which a friend recorded in the Philippines.

I remember as a child sitting for hours with a small chair in front of my parents' dishwasher, listening to the repetitive and magical sound coming from the machine. I could hear the clinking of dishes, knowing that our plates and glasses were playing a concert with each other for the duration of a wash cycle without us being able to see them.

There was something mysterious and fascinating about that.

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?

I find simplicity, transparency and space for each sound important for my own music. Thereby I like long durations and very limited material as well as short songs as long as you can still hear all the details. What doesn't interest me so much is virtuosity in the sense of rhythmic complexity or fast notes.

Giving space to the individual sounds and instruments is what excites me.

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?

My compositional practice comes from improvisation and I would consider myself an improviser rather than a composer in the classical sense. I don't write music at a desk, I improvise with the cello, the piano or voice, alone or together with others, and then write it down. It's a very intuitive process in which I don't pay attention to rules of composition or music theory.

For my most recent album, make you stay, I had previously researched the baroque forms of recitative and aria for some time and looked at forms of musical theater in jazz. From there, I wanted to write four experimental recitatives, each followed by an instrumental piece, effectively an aria without vocals. That was the overarching form.

I composed the recitatives directly along the four texts, all by means of improvisation and a long and sometimes tedious process of trial and error. I wanted to create exactly the music that was already in the texts and tried to engage completely with the content, but also with the rhythm and melody of the language.

The "arias" gave the preceding recitative space to have an effect and to further process the emotions created by the text.

Do you conduct “experiments” or make use of scientific insights when you're making music?

What is experimental about my music is maybe the fact that I try to stay open to the musical direction of the album until the end. I like to bring musicians from different scenes and genres together in my projects and give them a lot of space to bring in their respective skills and characteristics.

I like to bring together musicians from the DIY-scene with others that have an academic musical background. I write my music exactly for the people who will play it, so it's almost impossible to find a replacement if a band member drops out.

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 don't think you can tell my lifestyle from my music. Good friends have often said that my music suits me well, so I think that some of my character traits can also be found in my music. What exactly those are, my friends should perhaps rather explain.

What we can definitely learn from music, especially from improvisation, is the beauty of cooperation and the gift of listening to each other.

Giving each other space, taking the ideas of fellow musicians seriously, supporting each other in music without hierarchy and not working against each other - all these are things that would certainly help us in "real life" to make the world a little more pleasant.

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 believe that a barrista or chef can also express similar things as I do through music, it's just a different channel. If you like doing something very much and you share that with other people, I don't think it matters much whether it's food, music, film, social work or friendship that expresses it.

I personally can express my joy in life and its beauty better through music than words. Also, my expression in music is much more sophisticated and direct than through spoken words, for example.

Sometimes it feels like I can wire my audience directly to me through music and don't have to take a detour through words or gestures.

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?

It's “Gold Soundz“ by Pavement. Everytime I listen to it I feel like I will never have to die.



That sounds very dramatic, but sorry, there is no other way to say it.

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

I like that it's never been easier to release your own music and reach a wider audience through the internet. I think this is a good development and I would like it to stay that way.

At the same time I wish that especially smaller venues and labels with experimental and non-commercial music still have a chance to exist. Music should be diverse and remain even more diverse. These smaller venues are irreplaceable for that.

Moreover, especially in times when a lot of music is listened toand discovered on the internet, they are an important social place for different people with different backgrounds. Music is social, that should never be forgotten! I wish that with all the positive developments through the Internet, this factor will not be lost and the live concert, even if it is very small, will not die out.

And the music world still needs to become more diverse, fair and free from abuse and racism, maybe that's the most important in the end.