Name: Jascha Hagen
Nationality: German
Occupation: Producer, musician
Recent release: Jascha Hagen's Songs For A Future Generation LP is out via Oath.
Recommendations: Pink Siifu - Negro Deluxe; Moondog - H’art Songs; Beach Boys - Smile

If you enjoyed this interview with Jascha Hagen and would like to find out more about his music, visit him on Instagram, Facebook, and Soundcloud.  



When did you start writing/producing/playing music and what or who were your early passions and influences? What was it about music and/or sound that drew you to it?

I started playing piano when I was 6. My father was playing piano, so as a little child I was fascinated by that instrument very early in my life.

My piano teacher noticed my urge to compose rather than reading and playing sheet music, so he got my mother to buy me very simple recording gear when I was 16. Back then I was listening to a lot of French electro - Justice, Crystal Castles, Daft Punk - so my first tries of producing music were going in that direction (lol).

When I listen to music, I see shapes, objects and colours. What happens in your body when you're listening and how does it influence your approach to creativity?

I am no synaesthetic as you are (apparently). Music effects my body depending very much on which music I am listening to - most techno is very physical, wheras listening to Natasha Barrett is something deeply mental.

[Read our Natasha Barrett interview]

Listening to Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music is pretty much Musical BDSM …



The longer I am spending time making music and listening and exploring musical worlds, the harder it gets for me to even put boundaries around what music can be and music can express. As I have a very explorative character, this keeps me circling around this bottomless hole, hopefully and most probably forever.

How would you describe your development as an artist in terms of interests and challenges, searching for a personal voice, as well as breakthroughs?

When I really started to produce I was 18 and what I wanted to do was clear - produce techno (mostly edits and remixes) and make people dance! But I started to mingle with basically everyone around me that was as much committed to music as I was (or am) and things got a little off track (lol).

The last 6 years I was studying electroacoustic music and was very much on the other side of electronic dance music (which means, music that is not intended to make anyone dance!).

All that shaped me and is still shaping me.

Tell me a bit about your sense of identity and how it influences both your preferences as a listener and your creativity as an artist, please.

In my perception the question of identity in music (if I understand your question correctly) is very much linked to music that is performed on stage. If you are making music with a guitar and sing and then on stage you do the same, what you are acting out is your identity.

In the role of an electronic music producer I don’t feel, personally, that this question matters as much. Electronic music is very comparable to cinema, whereas rock music or other genres are closer to theater. In the latter category, the question of identity has a bigger urgency (I think).

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

Be honest.

How would you describe your views on topics like originality and innovation versus perfection and timelessness in music? Are you interested in a “music of the future” or “continuing a tradition”?

Everything is a remix baby. You can only create something new by stirring up a nice pot of things that already exist. The idea of being original is a hoax when it is about composition. It only holds true for special human attributes, like a temperament, look or voice, but not on a structural level.

I am definitely more interested in stuff that is contemporary, even though preserving traditions and culture is very valuable in my sense. So no clear opinion here, sorry. :)

Over the course of your development, what have been your most important instruments and tools - and what are the most promising strategies for working with them?

For sure the most important tool is the piano for me. An instrument that follows my musical journey from the beginning.

And my most promising strategy has to be - just press the right keys. Shout out to good old J. S. Bach here.

Take us through a day in your life, from a possible morning routine through to your work, please.

During or after morning coffee I sit down and play sheet music for 30-60mins - a lot of Bach and Scarlatti, Brahms, I recently discovered Ravel for me! After that I go to the studio and produce for 3-6hrs.

That goes through the usual artistic cycles of being depressed, doing nothing, playing games on my phone, producing again, getting really hyped, being scared of finishing the track because I like the draft so much …

And finally after a week or two, I finish up a couple of new tracks that eventually form something like a new EP or Album.

Could you describe your creative process on the basis of a piece, live performance or album that's particularly dear to you, please?

Not really, but I remember that for my last unofficially released album Harmoniques Romantiques, the last track, called “trois”, I was really trying to put the love into it, this moment of being touched by sweet harmonies blasting through loudspeakers at 4am in a club (or something like that).



Sometimes I have images like that when I produce, but that does not describe my creative process properly (unfortunately). Sometimes it is also more like with the current album that I think, oh, it needs a synth based ambient track in between two tracks to make it cohesive, and the whole sound design is already there, everything else is already there and I only try to piece a last puzzle piece into a gap … or something similar …

Listening can be both a solitary and a communal activity. Likewise, creating music can be private or collaborative. Can you talk about your preferences in this regard and how these constellations influence creative results?

Very good question. In my perception communal works are better, deeper and more fun to create, but to organize and maintain a functioning group that produces music is very hard. I suck at this.

As much as I am against this narrative of the solitary artist, I am doing exactly the same shit. But I try and really look for communities right now! xoxo

How do your work and your creativity relate to the world and what is the role of music in society?

Very very good question. For a long time I was convinced that being an artist, especially for electronic music, in a capitalist society is a good way of dealing with everything, because what you do is very unuseful, it is only about temporary enjoyment and the money that is paying your bills comes from beers and entrance fees that people spend from money that they can waste.

At the same time, a good techno party can really leave you changed for good. Being around accepting and loving people is a wonderful experience!! :)

Today, with an ongoing war, CO2 emissions still RISING, and a few more apocalyptic tendencies, I am not convinced of that thought anymore. But neither do I have a good answer on what to do instead. So I pretend, as we are all doing, that everything is still ok.

Music in general is I think one of those mysteries in life that is keeping us faithful and alive, it is in one way or the other part of our life journey, may it be children songs, church songs, traditional dances, national anthems, classical music, jazz, blues, hip hop … - it is part of our culture, our identity, we sing with it, hum it, dance with it, only listen to it, make it, share it - it is deeply deeply embedded in our human existence.

Personally I would like to promote making music as a “self care” practice, like brushing one's teeth or going to a yoga class - I think this idea of learning an instrument got a bit lost. It is not about presenting it, it is about making it, and making it with others.

Art can be a way of dealing with the big topics in life: Life, loss, death, love, pain, and many more. In which way and on which occasions has music – both your own or that of others - contributed to your understanding of these questions?

I don’t think it has contributed in a way that I was able to understand the meaning of them “more”, but rather wrapping those topics into good and, that I think is remarkable, enjoyable stories.

Of course love is enjoyable, and death and loss are not. But when I listen to Townes Van Zandt I can enjoy his deeply sad and sorrow music.

How do you see the connection between music and science and what can these two fields reveal about each other?  

For me music or art in general are not easy, or maybe impossible to define. So I think the question is difficult to answer.

I recently stumbled over the best definition for art (music included) that was given to me by a judge that was holding a lecture at the university were I studied. In German law the definition of art is - we have to decide if it is art from case to case, how it was made and if it is perceived as art by others. So it really depends what kind of music you mean that is influencing science vice versa.

I think for music as for all other arts and science creative processes are shared, so it is the same way of learning and understanding a system and then altering it or looking for new ways of combining stuff.

Creativity can reach many different corners of our lives. 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?

Music is a language with particular characteristics. You can drink and enjoy a coffee, but can you dance a coffee? You can only dance to music. You are not dancing to a film or a book or a painting.

You can not drink hot music on the other hand.

Music is vibration in the air, captured by our ear drums. From your perspective as a creator and listener, do you have an explanation how it able to transmit such diverse and potentially deep messages?

Nope. :)