Part 2

Music is a language, but like any language, it can lead to misunderstandings. In which way has your own work – or the work of artists you like or admire - been misunderstood? How do you deal with this?  

I sincerely don’t care. Music is subject to interpretation and there’s nothing we can do about it. Nothing. I can try so hard to make my message super clear and someone is gonna listen to the song and believe it is about something else, totally not even remotely close to reality.

It happens all the time and not only to my own music obviously. It is very funny to watch how sometimes people project their own interpretation of music onto the musician’s private life and it becomes a very interesting picture to see.

I just let it happen, if it isn’t a major issue that doesn’t need to be addressed. I don’t have to deal with anybody’s idea of my music. I would go insane if I had to.

Making music, in the beginning, is often playful and about discovery. How do you retain a sense of playfulness as things become more professionalised and how do you still draw surprises from equipment, instruments, approaches and formats you may be very familiar with?  

Even here I will say it depends. Making music for me is always something very serious. It is not so playful indeed. It becomes playful after a certain part of the process, once the song exists and I am adding sparks then it’s very fun and it feels light but initially for me is serious work.

I find myself more playful in a live environment where to keep myself engaged I like to spice things up and slightly change parts or play with new pedals and things like that.

When I play bass on tour for Ron Gallo, I have to have fun within the live situation and make things more complicated for myself and my own sanity. I would get kinda insane to not do it and play the same songs for weeks.

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”?

This might sound very not poetic but Mela (our puppy) used to make this insane high-pitched sound that I honestly don’t even know how her vocal cords can produce something that thin. It is not even a sound, it is more of a swish.

That isn’t musical at all but she used to do it while we played and I associate it with music now.

There seems to be an increasing trend to capture music in numbers, from waveforms via recommendation algorithms up to deciphering the code of hit songs. What aspects of music do you feel can be captured through numbers, and which can not?

I mean, music is math due to the fact that music tempo is basic counting (sometimes not so basic).

I feel like that is the only thing that music and numbers should have in common. anything else is the result of how the world is upside down.

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?

The way I live my life influences a lot the way I make music, very much. I am not quite sure how but most definitely there are specific factors I can see clearly playing a part. If I am in the city or if I am in a more natural environment if my seasonal depression kicked in yet or not. what are our circumstances at that precise moment. This, is very lightly and superficially speaking.

On a deeper level, when we apply this question to the way we live our lives in terms of values, it does reflect some of the values I carry along and how they make me live. I think they are very personal and deep, some of them but on a deeper but still pretty tangible level we can find Spirituality, Divinity, the search for beauty, sentimentalism, nesting, devotions, and more. Might not make any sense.

I think we can at least try to understand music on a deeper level and maybe it will open up something deep down within ourselves that could be seen as lessons or potentially lead us to lessons.

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? What role do headphones play for you in this regard?

Silence used to be something I couldn’t really tolerate much, causing me anxiety. Now, after 3 years in Philadelphia, I want silence, I want it and I need it. Sometimes I feel as if it is impossible for me to even hear my own thoughts because there is always noise.

Under the music aspect, I don’t mind music in the background. I don’t mind putting on a record and listening with attention, I don’t mind any of it but there is a moment and a place for everything and it needs to be balanced with silence, for sure.

I recently purchased noise-cancelling headphones. I don’t use the noise cancellation often but when I really need it I really appreciate the complete silence.

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 guess music is just the thing I know how to do better. I am not good at making a pour-over coffee but Ron is, God bless him. I am good at making a moka but I can’t make that my way of expressing pretty much everything I want.

All jokes aside I think every human has a lot to say and sometimes words aren’t enough. I had the good gift of being good at music and I that’s my way of conveying feelings, emotions, and messages that I would not be able to convey otherwise

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 which don't appear to have any emotional connotation. Do you, too, have a song or piece of music that affects you in a seemingly counterintuitive way – and what, do you think, is happening here?

Claude Debussy Arabesque L.66: No.1 in E Major.



I don’t really know how to describe it but this is only one of the pieces that gives me a physical feeling, I almost feel sick but it is beautiful. I think harmonically it touches me in a different way and brings up lots of emotions.

The list is very long but I feel I could go with this one this time.

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

I don’t wish anything for music itself, I am sorry to not be giving you the answer you want but I will still tell you what I wish: I wish for the people that work in the music industry to be decent humans.

To actually care for the artists. To not treat us as numbers or opportunities. To not be so business-oriented and have a little bit of vision. To put themself into the shoes of those who go on tour. To use their power to help us instead of using us to make more power. Great, innit?