Part 2

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

Due to my busy touring schedule, I've never really been able to establish a morning routine. Only one thing is always part of it: coffee. When I'm at home, I usually have a couple of those and then start working in the studio. The first hour or so is usually for getting business stuff out of the way, writing some emails and making calls. After that, it's all about music.

Often, I have a specific project that I either need to prepare for (tours, concerts, recording sessions) or record for (remote sessions, making demos). If that's not the case, I usually just go with the flow: I might come up with a couple of ideas and try to compose a new song or two if I can find some inspiration - by the end of the day, I'll try to have them done with a good sounding demo and a lead sheet.

During the production process of the new album Peace Of Mind, I spent almost every day in the studio trying to optimize the music and really make it speak the way I wanted it to - that was a very intense and satisfying experience.

I really cherish just having time to do that and let the music flow, although most of the time I'm either on the road or busy doing project-based work.

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

My creative process is always different. It really depends on what I'm trying to achieve. Sometimes I have a very clear thought or goal of which I know exactly how to make it work artistically - but many times, it's a rather diffuse vision or idea that takes shape throughout the process.

A perfect example is my new album Peace Of Mind. I had many different new compositions and musical sketches, some finished, some in a very early stage of completion. My dear friend, musical soulmate and mentor Wolfgang Haffner and I started working on them together during the pandemic and at first, there was no plan of recording an album - we were just having fun with it.

But as we dove deeper and deeper into the music and connected the dots, it became clear that we were working on something bigger than just a pool of musical ideas. Throughout our collaboration, the songs started taking shape and evolved into a very cohesive collection with a distinctive vibe and sound. It might sound a bit cliché, but the music really showed us the way. We felt that we had to record an album and that's how Peace Of Mind was born.

The amazing bass player Will Lee agreed to record with us and took the music to yet another level which I am really grateful for. Once again, this process showed me that if you do something purely for the music - not for your ego or for satisfying some kind of trend or hype, the music will lead the way and enable you to create something truly wholesome and personal.

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?

I love both. I really enjoy being alone and working on music on my own - it's a fulfilling experience for me and it has an almost therapeutic impact on me. I really need that alone time in the studio from now and then and most of the time, I'm able to come up with something that I like. The results are always 100% personal which I find very special.

On the other hand, creating with other people that share your vision and vibe is beautiful - especially because it is invaluable to have other people listening with fresh ears and helping you whenever you get stuck. The mutual inspiration that can happen in a collaboration like that is unparalleled and usually results in a very fun and rewarding artistic process.

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

My mission is to contribute to a more friendly, loving, social and sensitive world by bringing people together through music. It might be a small contribution, but every bit counts in this crazy world we live in.

Music has the power to unite, communicate and spread positive energy. I try my very best to emphasize these features that are much needed in society.

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?

The music has always been there for me. It has accompanied me through many happy times and comforted me throughout some unpleasant periods.

Listening to and playing music has always been my way of processing the things I experience in life, positive and negative. Inversely, music has inspired the way I live my life in so many ways - it has helped and continues to help me grow emotionally and intellectually.

There seems to be increasing interest in a functional, “rational” and scientific approach to music. How do you see the connection between music and science and what can these two fields reveal about each other?  

I have to admit that a rational approach to music is absolutely not my cup of tea. I am certainly sometimes impressed by or interested in people that have perfect technique or that play or write music based on "rules" or scientific research but in the end, that has really nothing to do with the way I like to experience music and what I love about it.

Most of the time, I find music (and art in general) made that way really boring and cold. That, of course, is highly subjective but I really want to feel rather than think when I make or listen to music. Technique and theory are great tools to a certain degree but in my opinion, none of them will help you make better music if you don't put your love into it.

The great thing about it all is that everyone is completely free to create art whichever way they want - just like everyone is free to consume whichever kind of art they want. There's no right or wrong, it's all about personal preference. And that's beautiful.

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?

Well, I certainly haven't put as many hours into perfecting my coffee game as I have into making music but there's certainly a parallel with many things in life. Music and life are always connected and I try to live my life the way I try to make music: with honesty, sensitivity, positivity and care. If I were to live differently, I wouldn't be able to make music that way either.

Music has given me a way to express thoughts and feelings that I would have never been able to put into words - and still can't. It's a beautiful and liberating feeling to have this colorful language available for you to express what's going on inside and would never have come out otherwise.

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 seriously have no idea. And I think I wouldn't want to know about any scientific explanation because I love music so much.