Name: Emil Lewandowski aka neinzer
Nationality: British
Occupation: Composer, producer, DJ
Current release: neinzer 's  Flurry / Obsoletion is out via Yumé.

If you enjoyed this neinzer interview and would like to keep up to date with his music, visit him on Instagram, Facebook, Soundcloud, and twitter.



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?

Depends on the situation. I usually listen with my eyes open, but in a club I’m more likely to close my eyes.

What happens in my body depends on the music. If I enjoy it, I dance and try to replicate what I hear with my body. If I don’t enjoy it, I can freeze up and/or leave.

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?

Music definitely offers a great form of escapism.

A part of me doesn’t like the term ‘escapism’ though. It has this negative connotation, as if we shouldn’t be escaping. But I think it’s totally fine to spend your time imagining other worlds in music.

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

I played in bands as a teenager. When I discovered computer music, that blew my whole world wide open.

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?

Music was the focal point of my life around that time - it meant almost everything to me.

Today, it’s still incredibly important, but I’m older and am wary not to place too much importance on it.

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

Playing acoustic instruments offers the richest experience, to me. I can’t reach the same fidelity through computers or machines.

On the other hand, machines allow you to reach places which you can’t with acoustic instruments.

I work ‘in the box’ mostly - strictly a software guy. Although I can foresee one day getting bored of that setup … but maybe not.

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 guess the impulse comes from hearing what has come before me, and wondering whether I can ever create something quite as special. Discovering my potential perhaps.

But creating great music is hard work. It requires dedication and focus, and does not come easily. So I have to be disciplined - which I very often am not. But when you get it right, it’s incredible.

I would say everything in my life, in some way or another, influences what I create.

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?

The main thing I am conscious of is the fact that I have complete control of the music, when I make it. Very rarely do I have so much control in the rest of my life, so perhaps this is one area of my life where I can act without resistance.

That being said, when I DJ, or when I send music to labels, there is already resistance (but also support). So it’s a short-lived freedom, but it does exist.

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

To put it bluntly, a taste of the sublime. That’s ideally where I’d like to get to. But it is, by definition, hard to reach.

But the fun is in trying to reach it. It’s a bit of a game with myself.

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

I think we can communicate emotions and stories through music. We can’t control how others react to things, and music is free for interpretation anyway.

I’m not sure one can misinterpret music - all interpretations are valid.

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?  

This is something that I’ve been struggling with a bit lately. I try to mix things up, of course. Try new instruments (analogue or digital), collaborate with new people. Basically feed in randomness back into your own process.

No fun without risk!

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 can’t say I’ve experienced many “moving” moments from the sounds you describe. I certainly respond more strongly to "organised” sound.

I would say that sounds from the animal world do pique my interest, but I wouldn’t go so far as to say they were moving.

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?

I sort of believe everything can be represented by numbers.

But I’m not a physicist so perhaps deep down there’s a layer which goes beyond that.

How does the way you make music reflect the way you live your life?

Probably in quite a structured and ordered manner. That’s my way of maintaining control over this potentially mad show called life.

Can we learn lessons about life by understanding music on a deeper level?

Maybe we can learn about ourselves, by understanding music deeply. We can learn what moves us, what we are drawn to. This might help guide us through life.

We can surround ourselves 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?

I have tinnitus, so I can never hear true silence. However, it’s not the end of the world, as you learn to live with it.

Regardless, down-time is incredibly important, and so “silence” for me means recuperation.

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 think music allows the expression of a much broader range of emotions.

But I do see parallels between making music and making coffee. For example, you can weigh your coffee beans to the gram, you can set the water temperature to a precise temperature, in the same way you can tune a kick drum for hours.

But I can’t make coffee to make you feel sad. I could probably make you one to feel sick though - haha.

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

I have some nerdy wishes for Ableton Live’s development (being able to record automation into clips in arrangement view), and I’m curious to see how AI will affect music making.