Name: Norlyz
Members: Paul David Heckhausen (Producer, drummer, composer) Philipp Pueschel (Trumpet, Flugelhorn), Lasse Golz (Tenor Saxophone, Bass Clarinet), Gábor Hartyáni (Cello)
Nationality: German, Hungarian (Gábor Hartyáni)
Recent release: Norlyz's First Dawn On Planet B. is out now.
Recommendations: Gábor: Two great recent discoveries are the movie The Triangle of Sadness and drummer Makaya McCraven and his latest album In These Times.
Philipp: Kinder, der Tod ist gar nicht so schlimm. Über die Zukunft der Musik- und Medienindustrie. / Tim Renner

If you enjoyed this interview with Norlyz and would like to find out more about the band, visit them 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?

Paul: At the age of 6 I started drumming on anything I could find. Even before I had a real drum kit, I built my own out of buckets and pots. My parents' Beatles and Pink Floyd records were probably my first inspiration.

I started playing the piano at the age of 8. I could stay in our basement for hours practising and exploring the drums and making my first experiments and recordings with my grandfather's tape machine. In my youth, I discovered the piano as a versatile and inspiring instrument for improvisation and songwriting. Keith Jarret's The Köln Concert was on every day.



On drums I wanted to play everything from System Of A Down's "Chop Suey!", Green Day's "Basket Case" to "50 Ways To Leave Your Lover" or Stevie Wonder's "Superstition" and later got into jazz and big band drumming.



I think that a good and tight groove fascinated me the most.

Gábor: I started to play the cello when I was seven, though without any serious plan to pursue music as a career. Later on, what reinforced my commitment and gradually pushed me to become serious about music, was the liberating feeling and joy of playing together with others and the higher states of consciousness that music can facilitate and support for both players and listener.

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?

Paul: Listening to music always brings me back to places and feelings I associate with a certain song, artist or genre. Most of the time it feels very activating and gives me good energy and hope.

When writing music I often have a scene or picture in mind that guides me in the further composition process. Sometimes it’s just a feeling or emotion in my body.

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

Paul: It feels like a lifelong process.

Sometimes I curse my broad training as a musician and am torn between my various options as a producer, instrumentalist, composer or sound engineer. In such moments, I wonder what it would be like if I concentrated only on playing drums, for example. At the same time, I am very grateful for this and can slowly accept more and more that this is exactly what is part of my musical identity and what makes me as an artist and makes projects like NORLYZ possible.

For a few years now, I have enjoyed going all the way North to experience nature in Swedish Lapland. Such a longer stay in the wilderness definitely helps me get in touch with myself and see my life more clearly.

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.

Paul: I am a rather introverted person who loves to be in the quiet nature and wilderness. At the same time, I also enjoy the input of a crazy city like Berlin or Sao Paulo as a contrast.

When producing my own tracks, I'm always looking for a sound and style all my own and sometimes feel very German with my attitude to be precise and detailed when writing music.

As a listener, I am also attracted to music that shows a certain care, comes from the heart or has a great and authentic flow.

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

Paul: I want to create a space where people can immerse themselves and experience their own journey, maybe experience magical moments or just have a good time.

In a way, it also feels spiritual, because I often feel guided by an unconscious force that leads me into new territories that are still unknown to me.

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”?

Paul: For me, it's not so much about what's new or old. I think music should feel interesting and fresh, and I believe that great music is always very personal and thus becomes authentic.

Good and "timeless" music can still feel that way even after decades.

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?

Paul: My acoustic piano or analogue synthesizer, time, a clear head (usually in the morning hours) and the possibility to record myself are best for me, as many of my ideas come from improvisations. As soon as I lose my production flow, I let it go for that day and continue listening with fresh ears the next morning.

Field recordings I've made in nature or in cities are also a good starting point to find unique sounds and inspiration.

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

Paul: My ideal production day looks like this: In the morning, right after breakfast (sometimes even before) is the best time of the day to listen to the previous day's work again or start with something new. After getting an overview, I usually want to jump back in with the fresh impression and continue immediately. In between, running, skating or a long walk outside on Tempelhofer Feld here in Berlin is the perfect break from work.

In the evenings, I need good food and like to meet up with friends, go to concerts or just continue producing when I’m in a good flow.

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

Paul: Usually everything starts with jamming with one of my instruments. For our piece “Eltanin”, for example, it was my handpan in combination with some effects.



After I found the main melody, I programmed a rough groove and a bass pattern to jam to. For the drum and percussion sounds, I mostly use samples that I recorded with my little zoom recorder that I always have with me. On “Eltanin” you can hear the timer of the Danish toaster I found in a house on Bornholm, as well as some interesting sounding "rattling" plants I stumbled across while hiking on the island.

Once I had this first, still very rough backing track, I played the handpan melody again and tried to build it up by starting with less, a free and improvised intro before putting in the full pattern. That's basically what you can hear now in the intro of the extended version of the piece.

So far the direction was clear to me, so I kept arranging and adding more sound design around the intro improvisation. For example, you can hear some reversed and bitcrushed sounds of my piano. And yeah, basically the process just went on like that. In the middle, I wanted a quiet solo part for the handpan to show its fragility, and felt that it needed this huge bass drop afterwards for contrast.

That's what I like to play with: Surprises, big contrasts, fragile and emotional parts, but also strong and danceable groove parts.

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?

Paul: I actually like both, working for myself and working with other musicians. I need time for the detail work, the sound design and the creation of samples, that doesn't work in a group.

But it's always very inspiring to play together and further develop certain ideas, melodies or patterns with the actual instrumentalists. That often leads to unique results that you wouldn't achieve alone in the studio.

Gábor: I’ve been observing myself having more original ideas in a co-creative setting, where I have loose inputs or requests from other musicians or artists from other disciplines (especially dancers). But at the same time I am free to experiment, improvise and create in my own pace and form, while the others are simoultaneously working with their own formats and materials being inspired by what I’m doing, therefore crosspollinating each other‘s processes.

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

Paul: I think music is a universal language that brings people together and has the power to unite them and forget the everyday worries and stupidities for a while.

It can be like an anchor, and at least for me it can be very healing and liberating.

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

Philipp: Compared to science, there is no wrong or right in music, even though it is taught in some parts of Western classical music.

I think that the big challenge and task for music and science is to inspire people, who haven’t been reached yet. Both must not be elitist things.

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?

Philipp: As a father of a young daughter I can see everyday how music can change a child’s mood within seconds and make her dance or laugh. Music can reach people on a non-rational level within seconds. Words can't do that so quickly.

Without words and abstracts concepts, escaping cultural or language barriers music can move us emotionally and physically. Music as a universal code has been evolving with humanity from the beginning and all of us can decode it easily!