Name: Christopher Marin Schmid aka Schlindwein
Occupation: Composer, pianist, producer
Nationality: German
Current release: Schlindwein's Ein Elektronisches Requiem is out via Emika  Records.

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



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?

For me, the impulse to create is something inherent. When I can’t make music for a few days I get in a really bad mood. It is like eating to me and something absolutely necessary for my well-being.

But of course, I also get inspired by paintings, movies, and observations in daily life. In the end, it is always about the expression of emotion for me.

For you to get started, do there need to be concrete ideas – or what some have called a 'visualisation' of the finished work? What does the balance between planning and chance look like for you?

If I have the finished work in mind already it is a lot easier for me to get creative.

I like to work conceptually and follow a clear idea in my work. When I am just playing around there are sometimes good moments too, but then I don’t know what to do with them or how to continue.

Even when I just make up some random rules for a piece myself it already helps a lot.

Is there a preparation phase for your process? Do you require your tools to be laid out in a particular way, for example, do you need to do 'research' or create 'early versions'?

Yes definitely. For the Requiem, I for example did a lot of research, got translations of the texts, and created many sketches before I started to work on it. When I work this way the compositions just fall in place very fast.

Also, I am very interested in music history and always want to know how music evolved and what techniques were used in the past. So research is something I am not only doing in preparation for a project, but it is a constant habit.

What do you start with? How difficult is that first line of text, the first note?

Harmonies are very important to me. Usually, I try to get the feeling that I want with some chords first. Then the sound selection is quite vital. A lot of melodies, sequences, and parts are influenced heavily by the sounds / instruments that I am working with.

The start of the Requiem was particularly challenging, because I knew it was super important to get the listener into the right mood from the very beginning.



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

When I have a clear plan it is like scoring a movie and I just try to conduct the flow of the piece.

In every piece, there are some high and low points that you are working towards. Once I start to feel an emotional response it is just about emphasizing and building on that. This can take very long for some pieces and go very fast for others. It is different for every song.

Then there is the mixing part which is very important. To have a good sound is almost as important as the composition itself.

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 over the process or is there a sense of following things where they lead you?

Most of the time I like to be in control of where the piece is going, but sometimes there are happy accidents that actually work out. It can be an unexpected sound for a melody that takes it in a different direction or gives it a new movement.

It is important to stay open to unexpected things and allow them to happen. This is the case for the composition process as well as the production and mixing process.

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?

Yes it happens all the time and it is quite difficult to stay focused in these moments. A lot of times I have like three, or four different ideas of how to arrange a song.

For example “Agnus Dei” from my Requiem was a piano piece at first. Then I recorded it only with synthesizers for my Journey To The Sky EP and now did it with classical singers for the Requiem.

Every composition can be arranged in many different ways.



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 me music is one of the most spiritual things that you can do. Composing the Requiem was a very spiritual practice where I tried to give every note a purpose and make it serve the whole work.

In the liturgical texts are many hidden wisdoms that I wanted to express musically. It describes the journey of the soul from this world to another which is a very spiritual and mystic process.

Especially in the digital age, the writing and production process tends towards the infinite. What marks the end of the process? How do you finish a work?

This is truly the most challenging part of making music I think. There are endless sounds and tools to use. It is also very fast to try ideas which leads to an overflow of options sometimes.

The core idea of a composition is usually very short and a lot of times pieces are longer than they have to be. I try to stick more and more to this core recently and keep things more simple. Otherwise you end up with dozens of unfinished project which can also distract your focus.

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 practise?

That is another step which is hard to manage since you can do countless revisions digitally. There is always another little thing you can add or another technique you discover that could improve it.

I think it is important to take breaks and not listen to whatever you are working on for a few weeks. If it still sounds good after a long break you shouldn’t change anything.

Again, the amount of revisions and time can vary greatly from song to song. Sometimes I delete everything and start again after working on something for weeks already. Sometimes I record it once and it is good right away.

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?

In electronic music all of it flows together and is super important. The lines get very blurry since you start mixing in the production already. Then you want to hear it at a competitive level to judge it properly and you start to apply mastering processes. In the end everything influences the sound and your decisions and it is important to visualize the end result.

There are many creative as well as technical challenges which are super fascinating and I try to learn something new every day. You need to have some skills in order to create what you imagine. If you need to rely a lot on other people to get there it will be very hard and expensive to finish an album.

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?

Yes that is true and I can relate. During an album production, you get very obsessed with tiny details and sounds. You listen to the same songs every day for hours and you can feel kind of empty when it is done and you gave it everything.

I usually just need to do something completely different when an album is finished and then the creative juices start flowing again.

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?

As soon as making music becomes like making a cup of coffee I think I will quit.

What I enjoy most is that there are endless challenges in music. There is a never-ending internal battle between a vision and its execution. From playing an instrument to composing to producing and mixing.

There are too many things to learn in one lifetime and there will always be things that are challenging and new.