Part 2

Once you've started, how does the work gradually emerge?

That depends so much on the type of project, the surrounding / circumstances and the flow of the moment. It can be that I finish a tune in a one day, and that’s usually a very good sign. It also often feels finished then and it would be hard to make changes after that.

But sometimes it can feel like a difficult labor, it feels endlessly and painful. That’s the time when you measure your own insecurity about “worse musical ideas” with the ones you are most satisfied with. For me, at that point it would most likely be a good idea to share it with someone I fully trust to get some feedback on.

Oftentimes I kept writing and finished the tune after since all it needed was confirmation that I am on the right track or not. More experienced musicians (and mostly older musicians in my circle, not always!) can simply see the bigger picture better than I in those moments of desperation of making the decision to either toss it all or continue the writing process.

One thing I have learned is to not throw away any idea. It’s all little seeds planted and you never know when or if they ever sprout again.

Many writers have claimed that as soon as they enter into the process, certain aspects of the narrative are out of their hands. Do you like to keep strict control or is there a sense of following things where they lead you?

I can say for sure that the best parts I’ve written came somewhat simply to me. That’s also the reason why I find it rather difficult to talk about ‘my music’ or ‘my compositions’.

Music is so much bigger than us as people. But this topic would require an entire other interview. ;-)

Often, while writing, new ideas and alternative roads will open themselves up, pulling and pushing the creator in a different direction. Does this happen to you, too, and how do you deal with it? What do you do with these ideas?

Yeah, it happens all the time. Oftentimes though those ideas are not necessarily related to the piece I’m working on. When that happens, I will record those or / and write them down to get back to another time.

Sometimes I go with the flow and start working on that idea with the knowledge of it becoming another tune. And that’s okay too.

There are many descriptions of the creative state. How would you describe it for you personally? Is there an element of spirituality to what you do?

For sure there is. I am person who likes to analyze and needs to understand how things work. I cannot handle situations well that haven’t been fully proven or where I am told to “simply let go” and “follow your feelings”.

The next assumption made then is often that a person like this would most likely rather be a cold person. I would for sure not describe myself as such, but rather full of warm and loving feelings for my people and the environment that I live in and with and that I treat with a lot of kindness. In music, though, you cannot fool yourself. Music requires honesty to go deep and some things that go that deep can sometimes no longer be explained – I find.

The journey as a musician has taught me many tough lessons in life. My relationship to music and writing music has always been a love / hate relationship. A million times, I tried to quit music entirely but it always found me again. I guess I have to hide better next time? It feels like a curse that won’t let me go and I sometimes wish I would be able to feel happy and satisfied with whatever society considers “a regular 9-5 job”.

I would even go as far as saying that the creative state is a spiritual journey and at the same time a lifestyle you either live or you don’t. There are many more creative people living out there than they themselves are aware of. But not every one of them is as obsessive or cursed than full-time creators are.

I know this sounds rather negative, but ask me again tomorrow and I might call it a blessing or even true happiness to gain all my life-energy from.

Once a piece is finished, how important is it for you to let it lie and evaluate it later on? How much improvement and refinement do you personally allow until you're satisfied with a piece? What does this process look like in practice?

I don’t like evaluating my own pieces. A piece is never really fully finished since every time you play it live it will slightly differ from the recording. But once it is recorded, I would consider it as close to ‘being finished’ as possible. On the other hand, there are compositions in a writer’s lifetime that will always somehow come back or being referred to as parts in other pieces.

For me it is the piece "Narcissus" that you can hear on my very first EP curiosity’ (2010) …



… then again on my EP empathie (2012) …

… then on my debut album No White Shoes (2016) …



… and then as the last piece on my newest album Homage to Grämlis (2023).

This re-writing or re-recording the piece doesn’t necessarily have much to do with improving my works or finding something new or exciting in it. It’s for me rather a sort of therapy of going through a sound landscape again that once meant so much to me during a specific time in my life.

It’s probably similar to the kind of feeling you get when you hear that song again that you danced to when you first fell in love or that you heard at a funeral of a beloved person.

What's your take on the role and importance of production, including mixing and mastering for you personally? How involved do you get in this?

So far, I have always been the producer of my own works as well. I love managing everything in the studio and being in charge of the process. Making sure the musicians, the sound engineers and everyone are as comfortable as possible, are getting nice meals, enough breaks and are simply feeling good in order to sound as best as they can.

Creating that kind of atmosphere is necessary in order to invite those musical sounds to come together the way they are supposed to. Whatever that means. Harsh, rough, loving, tender, light, dark etc. In order to go deep we need to have some basic needs covered and the room set up nicely. And that often starts with the people you chose for a specific project since they are the ones that will fill the room with their vibes.

In terms of mixing and mastering: I find it best to leave that up to a professional I fully trust and that is Luis Bacqué.  

After finishing a piece or album and releasing something into the world, there can be a sense of emptiness. Can you relate to this – and how do you return to the state of creativity after experiencing it?

Oh, one-hundred percent, yes! Unfortunately, there is often a sense of emptiness that follows an album release because your most important work of that particular moment in time has just been shared with the audience with all love, honesty and humbleness. You kind of wonder if you have more left in you to give or if you can make them feel something again when they listen to your future works.

Ideally, you should take a paid vacation and simply digest and recover from everything that just happened. As a freelance musician though it means most of the times that you always have something to follow up with about this record and there’s much more of a “fade-out/fade-into the next new works process” happening.

It can of course happen that you feel so empty that you don’t have anything to say at the moment. That’s okay too. The moments of writing come if they want to come and oftentimes you can’t really choose yourself when it happens. There are great artists out there that only released about 2 or three records and others who have released hundreds of them. Some artists release their first solo album at a very late stage in life and some take years of breaks in between their works.

There’s no formula for this process. Everyone’s story is unique and therefore the musical works they create.

Creativity can reach many different corners of our lives. Do you personally feel as though writing 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?

Writing a piece of music can for sure be compared to many ‘mundane’ tasks in our lives. As I mentioned in one of my responses above, I see my life as a musician rather as a lifestyle you either live or you don’t.

And that shows in pretty much everything you do throughout the day. The conversations you have with people, the meals you cook, the clothes you wear (or don’t), the walks in the cities or nature you walk, the journeys you take, the smells you smell and so forth. So, making a great cup of coffee can certainly be a creative process where you can express yourself.

I would claim that one can’t be a great inspiring yoga teacher (for example) with an incredible posture, the right breathing technique and calmness if once the lesson is finished and the people have left the room you go back to your old habit posture, bad eating habits and stressful office job. Either you live what you’re doing (lifestyle) or you are projecting a life with the hope to one day reach such an ideal way of living.

One story from my own life that shows a ‘mundane task’ such as cooking becoming something more meaningful was ‘Dinner with my Neighbor’ that I created during the pandemic. You can find more about this here, simply scroll down.