Part 1

Name: Caspar Brötzmann
Nationality: German
Occupation: Guitarist
Current Release: "Live At Candy Bomber Studios Vol.1" on Karlrecords
Recommendations: Chant Avec Cithare - Burundi - Musiques Traditionnelles *Recorded by Michel Vuylsteke. The Waterboy - Odetta ( The first two versions)

I don´t know how to answer all these questions, because I don´t want to pick and fix only this and that or separate and divide my influences at this kind of scale. What should I do with all the other ones?

You have to know, for the most of what I am doing, there isn’t only one reason, there are many ways, complex backgrounds and influences. I am doing different things at the same time. I guess I have no special musical taste and if I am listing music by myself, it's like a rollercoaster.

Please let me just write down in a free open way a few things about music and inspiration.

I have been playing guitar for over 40 years. My whole life was and is full of different sounds, magic, music, friends and people I like very much. I think, my thing about music is the sound and the deep feeling coming from people who made music and tried to say something with music, whatever the instrument, whatever the kind of music. I don´t care. For me this is a never-ending and timeless story of life. I make my sound with my hands and press steel nickel strings on a maple wood guitar neck. This is anyway crazy enough.

My inspiration comes from my heart and soul, this landscape is always full of colors, deep and high steps, and in these up and downs I try to find a way to show my feelings with music, without any explaining in words. I paint with my guitar and her sounds. Sometimes in my dreams I can hear melodies. Who can explain this?

To live on this planet we all live can sometimes make me confused and sad; and in those moments I think, what a » dark side of earth « and inhuman place to live on in all this beautiful and wonderful earth and nature. And sometimes I lose myself in my thoughts and see this bad luck happening to other people, the heavy and bad things people do against each other, which I do not understand. And than my Fender Stratocaster, my Marshall Amps and friends helps me, to jump over this brutal story on earth. And I am lucky to share this with people I love and like, also musicians, whichever color of skin they have, so this way I can survive.

With music I can say and play things in a peaceful way and not killing the other. In other words, it is all the time the same story of love and sex about peace and war and to give a sign on stage for freedom with a high volume and playing live a short moment long. If I stand close to the sea or if I walk though deep woods and listen to the sounds around me, waves and birds, storm, rain and the heat of sun, if I sit in the really early morning on my bike or if I am together with my wife and son, here starts my freedom, love and spirit. If the night comes and steals the colors of the day and the sleep comes, I feel free. But the most important thing is to sit with friends together, people I love and like and talk with humor about whatever and if I wake up the next day, I will play for all of them.

I guess, people are for me the highest inspiration I can have. This is my freedom I take in my time on earth. My understanding of blues I feel. In other words, music is a cycle between questions and answers, breath and silence.
The other thing is to play guitar. Most of the time I play my Stratocaster at home without any amplification. Just listen the pure nickel strings with the sound in my mind and sometimes my hands and body working hard to get the chords and melodies I can´t play. I never give up and this feels good in the end of the day with the heat in your » burning fingers «.

This is my simple life as a man with a guitar without any notes and teachers. I learn from myself, from my mistakes, my highlights and my longing. My notes are coming from my own experiences. I follow my listening ears and play my inside world and give my feelings a space to the outside world. That’s all. Playing guitar for ever.

You know what is a good thing in music? If you sing and play or dance, mostly nobody interrupts you. You can be yourself alone in a protected space.

Hope you will find a few answers in all these words. Thank you.