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I guess I started actually understanding
the English
language while reading Even Cowgirls get
the Blues by Tom Robbins. It explains partly why I feel more
comfortable with it than with German. I never really got into my own
language. Haven't given up
on it though ..
In the 90s I
spent some years moving between places and countries,
trying to figure out what it might be that makes me feel most alive,
what it is that I want to keep doing after I found it. I didn’t find
anything that
kept me, but that moving around was my escape from boredom. I felt
stuck with everything and everyone after some time and it took me a
while to admit to myself
that in my case music was the only thing worth pursuing, which is what
I've been doing ever since returning to Berlin in the early 2000s.
My travelling
years included some time of roaming the United States.
And when being asked where my affinity to music and English language
comes from, I sometimes feel inclined to refer to the US. For the
language, that is certainly true. As for music though, who knows.
Growing up in a family of classic musicians, one takes in way more
musicality and understanding for harmony than all the enthusiastic
consumption of songs and records in later years can hold.
Songwriters teach you how to write songs
though. We start becoming
ourselves by imitating people we admire. So I did, bought all Beatles
records on vinyl and easily fell for other giants, Neil Young, Tom
Petty, Crowded House, and later people like Wilco, Gillian Welsh, Dan
Bern .. most
of all it’s their incredibly powerful, melody laden song writing that
gets to me, that got me moving before I ever started my actual travels.
I still enjoy
listening to the great ones today. Rarely though.
Listening to bands and singers I meet here in Berlin and upon the
travelling I do on tour is often more rewarding. Compared to most of
the music in my mp3 collection, their sound feels more intimate, their
stories more personal .. I hope to leave that impression on people who
listen to my music.
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