Name: Juan Hansen

Nationality: Argentinian
Occupation: Composer, producer
Current release: Juan Hansen's Higher EP is out via Meiosis.
Recommendations: I will recommend two artists from Latin America. First my favourite Argentinian painter and sculptor Max Gomez Canle, here is a link to his surreal world.
Second one of the most beautiful songs I listened in the last couple of years, “Todo Homem” by Zeca Velozo (Caetano Velozo´s son). Here's a link to the track.

If you enjoyed this interview with Juan Hansen and would like to find out more about his music, visit his official website. He is also on Instagram, Facebook, and Soundcloud.



When did you start writing/producing/playing music and what or who were your early passions and influences? What was it about music and/or sound that drew you to it?

I always felt attracted to musical instruments. Every time I saw a piano or a guitar time stopped and I was hypnotized by it. My first instrument was a drum set that my grandfather bought me when I was 12 years old.

I played in punk and hard rock bands as a drummer until I got a guitar and started writing my first songs at the age of 15. At the same time I started recording these songs in Garage Band and without knowing it, I entered the infinite world of music production.

When I listen to music, I see shapes, objects and colours. What happens in your body when you're listening and how does it influence your approach to creativity?

Since I can remember my dream was to be a great cartoonist and painter. Music and plastic art are extremely linked for me.

Whether listening to music by Gustavo Santaolalla or looking at a Turner painting, in both scenarios I am interpolated by a lot of different emotions that my head automatically turn to inspiration, many times simply wanting to recreate what I felt at that moment.

How would you describe your development as an artist in terms of interests and challenges, searching for a personal voice, as well as breakthroughs?

I think that every artist needs to be in a process of constant change in order to keep being creatively active, and only if the artist is really being honest with oneself, then the personal voice appears on its own.

I think an artist needs to challenge himself to be in this place of healthy discomfort in creativity.

Tell me a bit about your sense of identity and how it influences both your preferences as a listener and your creativity as an artist, please.

I think that once our artistic personality begins to flourish, we have to take care of it; always seeking to listen to new things as well as continue listening to the pillars that forged us.

I think it's the other way around, my creativity as an artist influences my sense of identity.

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

• May inspiration find you working
• Stay informed about what is happening around you
• Be honest when making art and stay true to yourself
• Do not be afraid of technology but do not forget the bases that denote talent
• Be passionate about what you do

How would you describe your views on topics like originality and innovation versus perfection and timelessness in music? Are you interested in a “music of the future” or “continuing a tradition”?

I think a good recipe would be a mixture of the two visions. While creating music I’m definitely interested in both visions. Without knowing the rules that made the genres it would be just chaos. And without artists who are willing to experiment and explore art would be stuck.

I am always trying to get something new and fresh in every project I start, while also trying to look for inspiration in music really far away from what I am doing, like Dire Straits or Bob Marley, both of whom I love.

Over the course of your development, what have been your most important instruments and tools - and what are the most promising strategies for working with them?

Well in the analog / acoustic world, drums have been a portal of entry for me to music and rhythm but I think the most important instrument has been the guitar, on wich I have written the most of my music. Later synthetizers came into my life and the world of texture and sound design dazzled me.

I think the strategy has always been to really play with instruments, trying not to lose the human touch in electronic music.

Take us through a day in your life, from a possible morning routine through to your work, please.

When I'm home in Buenos Aires, where my studio is, I try to start the day with a big breakfast but without coffee. I drink the first cup while turning on the studio and open a blank project where I throw the first idea that comes into my mind. Sometimes it is good, sometimes it is bad. If I don't like it I'll save it anyway cause sometimes I like it in a month or two.

If I'm falling into a music-making routine I change things in my studio, sometimes by plugging different synths or maybe downloading new samples for inspiration.

I make music all year round, even if I'm touring I need to make music or play guitar.

Could you describe your creative process on the basis of a piece, live performance or album that's particularly dear to you, please?

My last EP called Higher is out now on Meiosis records and was super emotional to make.

As I said earlier I am always listening to old ideas, and “Higher” was one of that lost recordings on a hard drive. I made the structure of the track back in 2019 while going through a tough personal time and never touched it again until I found it some months ago and felt it was the right moment to finish it.

I usually start from a melody, but this track started from the opposite direction. I began by chopping a drum recording I made years ago and then the main harmony came to me while playing a Yamaha Reface synthetizer. Lyrics were written in the last phase of the process and basically talk about not giving up on something or yourself and trying to get to a higher state of mind.

Listening can be both a solitary and a communal activity. Likewise, creating music can be private or collaborative. Can you talk about your preferences in this regard and how these constellations influence creative results?

I love making music with other artists. I’ve been in bands all my life so I'm used to the collaborative workflow.

I have a band side project right now called Forma where we share every step of the process. We produce, record and write all together and it is something wonderful to share with more people.

I also have my own studio time where I'm totally alone and the decision-making is only mine, which I also love.

How do your work and your creativity relate to the world and what is the role of music in society?

I think music has always been inspiring and shaping how we think. Without art and music, our society would be boring and bland.

The only thing I expect from my music is to generate some kind of good feeling to the listener. If I achieve that then I'm fulfilled.

Art can be a way of dealing with the big topics in life: Life, loss, death, love, pain, and many more. In which way and on which occasions has music – both your own or that of others - contributed to your understanding of these questions?

As I said before I'm a big Bob Marley fan. His music and lyrics helped me through some difficult moments of my life so my brain has connected his music to healing. Now after many years I can listen to the first two seconds of any track of him and a little smile will draw in my face.

I think that's the beauty of it, that familiar connection one can make with an artist or a song that can change your mood in the blink of an eye.

How do you see the connection between music and science and what can these two fields reveal about each other?  

As a Carl Sagan fan and a ¨Cosmos¨ reader I would say that they have so many things in common. Both use mathematical principles and logic, blended with creative thinking and inspiration to arrive at conclusions that are both enlightening and inspirational.

Creativity can reach many different corners of our lives. 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?

In my opinion, through music an artist is able to express a lot more feelings than what a great cup of coffee can provide.

It is not that making a cup of coffee does not involve creativity, just a sip can take you to a special place and time in your mind. But music has the power to lift you up in the air in one song and make you cry in the next.

Music can reach such a level of hypnosis or meditation in the listener that most people around the world just need music every day.

Music is vibration in the air, captured by our ear drums. From your perspective as a creator and listener, do you have an explanation how it able to transmit such diverse and potentially deep messages?

There's a technical explanation on how sound waves travelling through the air are captured by our eardrums and processed in our brain, but not an explanation on why these sound waves make us feel different emotions.

On the technical side of a musical composition there are a few things that I've learned and put into practice to make the listener have different feelings. From building a song in a major or minor scale to give the effect of something happy or sad to holding a chord for a couple more seconds and combining it with some inconclusive melody to raise up some tension.