Part 2

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

It's very different from piece to piece. “Dichte” was written during the beginning of my stay in Copenhagen in fall 2017.



I felt a calm and comforting solitude and inner peace which was inspired by the vastness of the landscape in Denmark, the (in the beginning at least) comfortable coolness and the relaxed mood. The fact that I had just moved there and didn't know anybody, made me feel free enough to create a new version of myself because nobody knew my past self.

Being in this mood I sat down on the piano and, out of an improvisation, came up with the bassline/harmonic structure of the piece. It's in 13/8 (3+4+3+3) and every bar contains 2 notes with intervals ranging from a third to a tenth. I played around with different pitches, recorded it and transcribed what I had improvised. The harmonic form felt confusing and it was difficult to decide where it should start or end. I decided it could start or end anywhere. I liked that idea of endlessness and the impression of arbitrariness.

Then I tried to sing a melody (with my voice, not on piano) on top of the recording. I tried to come up with something that felt calm, simple, plain, melancholic. While singing I didn't pay attention to the rhythmical form so I ended up composing melodies that started and ended in different parts of the bar, led by my breath and not the formal structure of the piece. I liked that.

I came up with lots of different melodies, decided on the ones I liked the most. I wrote on the sheet music that the material that's being played in the solos should have similar melodic qualities as the composed melody in order to blur what's composed and what's improvised.

It felt very right on that day to compose this one calming mood that didn't need to develop or resolve anywhere.

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?

The music on all my past albums that were released under my own name was composed by myself entirely. Usually the problem with more collaborative projects is that they take a lot more time (that's usually not paid) and since everyone is busy with lots of different projects almost no one I know would be willing to dedicate that much time to one single project that isn't fully their own, where that time investment isn't compensated and where it isn't fully clear where it's going and if in the end they'll like the outcome.

But if a band comes up that decides to create music in a more collaborative way and where these problems are somehow solved, I'd be up for that!

In my own bands I always love the input/opinions of my fellow musicians about the music and often they lead to nice arrangements and changes in the music.

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

That's a tough one. Of course I'd love to say that art can change the world and the solution to everything is that people only need to love each other, let go of their selfishness and that art can lead the way to that. But that's not true I think.

I guess since artists are a part of society like everyone else, they face the same struggles and have similar thoughts to those of many others. In one way or another their art will portray these topics (maybe on an abstract level) and that again might touch people who've gone/are going through similar experiences in their life. I think most people in societies consume art on an emotional level or out of emotional reasons. It's a great privilege to know that some people consume your art because it makes them feel a certain way.

I assume almost nobody makes life-changing decisions because of different art pieces. But I like to imagine that music touches people, helps them cope with their problems and inspires them.

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?

All of these topics belong to our lives and can be addressed through art. I think by being a practicing musicians I've become a lot more humble and respectful towards other people than I was some years ago.

When I started studying music I struggled with the lack of thoroughness. Thanks to experiencing great musicians around me, I learnt to leave that behind. But also I've gained self-confidence and treat myself better now than before because I believe we can only treat our work and loved ones as well as we treat ourself. If I'm not able to work on my own music, because I think it's not worthy to be worked on, I usually find myself thinking the same about other peoples work. Or the other way round: Enjoying other people's work and being really crazy about it inspires me a lot to work even harder on my own and take it very seriously, just like the people did who created these works that I love so much.

With these realizations in mind it hurts, angers and irritates me more than ever to encounter people who don't listen with care (like talking during a concert), are not willing to spend money on art (which boils down to lowering its worth and not taking it and its creators seriously) or assume they're able to achieve what many other great musicians achieved in a lifetime within a year or two.

I can only speak for myself but for me great art can communicate pain or love or everything in between. Loss, death, grief, horror scenarios but also very positive, light and pleasant feelings - possibly even simultaneously. I think that this is very beautiful and makes it so authentic, strong and real.

Sometimes people after concerts tell me that they found some of the music exhausting or difficult to listen to. I think already the fact that they're telling me this as a sort of “feedback” like they would write a review to a hotel, is based on their misconception that this concert was supposed to be some kind of service to make them feel good and that their critique will lead to me playing differently next time. But I didn't plan on providing some kind of service to them in the first place.

For me concerts are meant to be a true expression of many things the musicians on stage worked through individually and collectively. And on that evening they're working through something together again and whatever that something sounds like, so be it.

That probably sounds very heavy and dramatic but I think it is that reality combined with the lightness and spontaneity of how many artists approach their work that also fascinates me again and makes me love it.

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

For me music has a lot do with order, different systems and structures that depend on each other. No matter if these things are valued by the performing artists, they're always there, like some physical laws of nature always exist too. Completely ignoring these can also be a choice and an expression.

I'm not a scientist but I would assume that in science systems and structures and doing deep research is equally important as in music.

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?

I think by labeling something as art we are able to communicate way more deep, true and vulnerable parts of ourself as we'd be willing to do in, for example a random conversation with a stranger.

What I'm expressing through my art is hopefully always very dear and close to me. This makes me feel like it's something very personal that I'm putting out into the world. Probably none or only few of us would put a photo of their bedroom (or something else that's very intimate) online or on public display in another way. Still with our art – that is just as personal – it seems possible and completely fine.

Maybe also because in Western society we somehow agree on a vague term called artistic freedom, due to which artists can be almost sure that not everything they express in their art has to be taken literally.

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?

I'm not able to explain what happens in our brains when we consume art but I sometimes imagine it as form of food or nutrition that varies greatly in its shape, amount and content.

Just like with food the effect it has on us can be different from person to person and also the intention people that make food or art have, can differ from the effect it actually has on the consumers.