Name: Hendrik Otremba
Nationality: German
Occupation: Author, musician, visual artist
Current publication: Hendrik Otremba's BENITO is out via März.
Recommendations: Spontaneously I choose Everywhere At The End Of Time by The Caretaker (music) and Good And Bad At Games by Michael Andrews (paintings).

If you enjoyed this interview with Hendrik Otremba, visit his official homepage for a deeper look into his work. He is also on twitter. He is also the lead singer of post punk band Messer.



When did you start writing- and what or who were your early passions and influences? What is about literature and writing that drew you to it?

Oh, I started early, just when I learned writing in school and wasn’t able to construct a proper sentence yet. I wanted to write a detective novel, worked on a Batman novel (sort of fan-art as it is labelled today), but these were just experiments on lonely childhood-afternoons. I quit after the first few sentences …

When I studied, I mostly worked on scientific papers, worked as a music-journalist, too, and then started writing sort of “miniatures” (like very short narrations) for my friends’ projects – a magazine, a record sleeve etcetera.

Then, when I became the singer of Messer, I realised how much writing already meant to me at that point and I got deeper into it. Quit my academic career and focused on writing fiction. Today for me it has become some kind of a way to live and to find balance in these strange times.

For most artists, originality is preceded by a phase of learning and, often, emulating others. What was this like for you: How would you describe your own development as an artist and the transition towards your own voice?

I always knew what I didn’t want to do and I knew that I didn’t want to be a part of some sort of school or certain aesthetic that was modern in a period of time. So I focused early to find my own sound, my own subjects, my own way.

Working in different disciplines might have been helpful. Today I realise that from my first novel on – having made experiences as the singer of Messer already – I tried to find rhythm and melody and that there already was a certain mood I felt attached to.

How do you feel your sense of identity influences your creativity?

I’m not sure what this question means. I don’t really know what my identity is and I try not to figure out too much about that, keep it fluid.

Sometimes I feel like something inside of me is demanding for more clarity regarding that question, but I am sure it is better not to know too much about yourself and use writing and other artistic processes as this diffuse spot where it finds its own shapes.

What were your main creative challenges in the beginning and how have they changed over time?

I am not a good singer in a classical sense, so I really needed to find self-consciousness. And this never really changed in my work as a musician. But I realise that I made my experiences, that I don’t hurt my voice anymore etc.!

And I am not hurt if someone doesn’t like what I do. In my early days I was very sensitive.

How do you see the relationship between style, form, plot and storytelling – and how would you rate their importance for you, respectively?

You can’t miss any of these aspects in your work.

You need style and form, but they only work with a great plot and skills in storytelling. That doesn’t mean that you have to have that much knowledge; gaining a feeling for all these things – let’s say: the hard way (without education at a writing school or something) – is the most important thing and I don’t think that great literature or art in general might develope because of good education.

So experience is the most important thing and the will to tell something, that comes from I-don’t-know-where … But over the years you get to know your tools and instruments and it gets a bit easier because you not only feel but then know the relationship between style, form, plot and storytelling.

Observation and research are often quoted as important elements of the writing process. Can you tell us a bit about your perspective on them?

It is possible to create straight out of your head, but then there is always your experience and the things you have seen and done in life that become part of your writing. And after a while these things are a bit used up maybe.

So in my case I feel like I wrote my first novel just from my imagination and I think this is a proper way for a first novel. But then you need new impulses, so observing and doing research becomes more and more important.

So now it really has become part of my writing process. Mostly I travel and dig deep into the worlds that become relevant for my work.

How do you see the relationship between conscious planning and tapping into the subconscious; between improvisation and composition? When dealing with the end of a story, for example, do you tend to minutely map it out or follow the logic of the narrative as it unfolds itself?

It is always different and I think the most important thing is to stay open minded and keep your “Kunstvertrauen” (“trust in art”), so in the best case the story tells you if it needs everything planned or a very open way of writing.

In my case it is always a close mixture of both, like planning certain things and then waiting for those magic moments that you can’t expect. As long as these moments happen, I am happy.

Could you take us through a day in your life, from a possible morning routine through to your work? Do you have a fixed schedule? How do writing and other aspects of your life feed back into each other - do you separate them or instead try to make them blend seamlessly?

There is always work today so my days are pretty packed.

I have a daughter so these days I get up earlier than when I was younger and use my time more effectively. Then there are phases in which I am very focused on a novel or a record or something and then there are times when I do everything in parallel. It always changes and it’s my job to make sure that I find the right time that the subject is demanding.

So I have breakfast and start to work. That’s my routine. Like it is said in Bernard Malamud’s beautiful novel The Tenants: Heute war wieder ein Tag (Today was a day again). Most of the days I cook in the evenings to calm down. I like it that way.

I really am thankful that I am able to spend my life creating things.

Can you talk about a breakthrough publication in your career? Why does it feel special to you? When, why and how did you start working on it, what were some of the motivations and ideas behind it?

I still think that Die Unsichtbaren by Messer was a very important step because it showed me that I wanted to be a narrator.



There are many descriptions of the ideal state of mind for being creative. What is it like for you? What supports this ideal state of mind and what are distractions? Are there strategies to enter into this state more easily?

To be concentrated and to be without fear to fail. Being happy to be able to write and create. Being concerned about the world. Not thinking of your own relevance. Being in the mood (listening to music might help – or reading something that you like, because it might push you into your will to create something equal).

Words can heal, but they can also hurt. Do you personally have experiences with either or both of these? Where do you personally see the biggest need and potential for literature and poetry as a tool for healing?

I don’t know. Writing a book is such an intense and long process and sometimes I’m not sure whether it healed me or got me deeper into trouble. What would my life be like if I had a day-job? How would I feel? Would things be easier because I wouldn’t be attracted to all this darkness all of the time? I don’t know.

But I know that I am able to face my demons through writing and I guess that makes them less harmful in a way.

There is a fine line between cultural exchange and appropriation. What are your thoughts on the limits of copying, using cultural signs and symbols and the cultural/social/gender specificity of art?

I am very interested in exchange and finding inspiration, adopting techniques etcetera, and I think that this is what culture consists of: a living, changing organism. A rhizome.

I am motivated to make no one feel I have stolen from something. But I really try not to think about this while I’m creating. Like John Cage said: Never create and analyse at the same time. They are different processes.

So the critical view on my own work always comes at a later point and hopefully before publication.

Literature works with sense impressions in a different way than the other arts. How do you use them in your writing? From your experience, what are some of the most inspiring overlaps between different senses - and what do they tell us about the way our senses work?

I don’t know how they come into existence but these inner images are the most important thing: things that I see that are not real and then become real through writing.

But to be honest: I try not to understand how it works because I am sure that it works best when you don’t really know how it all comes together. Just trust that it happens.

Art can be a purpose in its own right, but it can also directly feed back into everyday life, take on a social and political role and lead to more engagement. Can you describe your approach to art and being an artist?

Uhm, no. I am a narrator and I hope that my work helps people to ask questions and reflect on themselves and to find own approaches to express. I hope that literature is a way of becoming more emphatic – in both ways writing and reading.

But I don’t feel responsible for that. I just hope that it happens and people become more mindful through reading.

What can literature or poetry express about life and death which other forms of art may not?

I am not sure. I think it is part of the game to figure out how to answer this question and that I am not capable to answer this one straight.

But I see that literature often is less abstract and really creates a world of experience that guides the reader in a certain way. In music or painting or even film you are often left alone and that is good. In literature you maybe more often find a guiding voice that leads you.

So yes, maybe the answer is to show the complexity.