Changing the style of music

I received a lot of e-mails and comments asking why I quit producing electronic music. The answer is not as easy, so I decided on writing a blogpost to explain what is the real idea behind my change of music genre.

Flabbergasted. That’s how people reacted, after I uploaded my hard rock / classic rock song “Fight for you”. Most of my friends, acquaintances, fans and co-musicians know me from composing and producing electronic music. All in all, the change of style was well appreciated, but some people were worried. They assumed, I’d write two, three songs and return to uplifting trance.

This is not a phase. I have never been attached to one single genre of music. And I never will.

Neither as songwriter, producer nor listener; I never felt connected to one certain kind of music excluding everything else. There is so much beautiful music outside, so why should I put myself into boxes?

There’s only one good reason for focussing on a certain genre or peer group: Marketing. My name was torn into a brand without noticing it. Since 2007 people seem to connect my music with uplifting trance. Around 2014, where my first commercial releases emerged, electro house was another tag attached to my name. It helped me to build an audience, but it never felt natural to me. Now I have a super hard time, changing a brand that I never was.

Those who know my musical work, from the very beginning, know that I always have been a multi-genre songwriter. Yes, my music production has been focussed on electronic music, but I write pop lyrics since my early beginnings. In 2007, I founded an alternative rock / punk rock band The Verge, with whom I gained a lot of experience as songwriter, arranger and producer. However, rock music has always been connected to my band, independently who wrote it. With my return to music, I want to become more visible as a composer, arranger and producer.

I wrote about 120 songs in over 30 different genres in total. You can listen to most of them in my YouTube discography or at the SoundCloud profile of The Verge, and a lot of new stuff is in development.

I decided against choosing a new project name.

Artists, who write and produce different genres or work with different people, split their songs into different projects either by (a) genre or (b) people they work with. It is a good strategy on targeted marketing, but in my case both do not make sense. I’m into too many genres, resulting in too many side projects, I cannot handle. Every side project needs at least one social media profile with a decent amount of activity. Besides of The Verge (which is a real band with fixed members, roles and team spirit), there’s no way to split up by people. I work with plenty of musicians and the roles are different each time. Therefore, I decided against new project names and opened my name for multi-genre collaborations. It feels more natural to me, because I identify myself as composer / songwriter first, producer second. The other reason is, that I want people to know, that I am a multi-genre composer and producer.

What writing songs in different genres feels like.

Some years ago, I forced myself to write music in a certain genre just to please my audience. I turned a pop rock song into trance, because it was easier for me to realize. I can’t play guitar, so I changed the style by playing the arpeggio with a synthesizer and fasten it. Looking back, it’s one of the worst ideas I ever had.

Write a song in the genre that feels natural, instead of pushing your idea into a certain direction. You cannot force writing songs with a certain feeling or instrumentation. Bury the thoughts of matching the expectations of the audience and embrace creative freedom!

Uncertain future of electronic music

So what exactly led to my departure from electronic music? Already around 2014 I lost my connection to electronic music as a producer and listener both. Some super cool drafts like “The Awakening” were realized around 2017, but afterwards I lost my ideas and stuck completely. My third studio album “Event Horizon” gave a new home to the drafts, that got lost somewhere in between space and time. It just needed a push to complete. That’s what I meant by closing a chapter and starting something new.

Sometimes you have to switch perspectives, try something new or just do whatever your heart wants. My intuition urged me to expand my songwriting and production skills instead of matching modern standards of electronic music sound design. It may happen, that I produce some electronic music in future, but even then, I will not stay there forever. I keep moving, even if that means, that I constantly change my focus and style.

I hope I made some things clear on the fuzz about leaving electronic music for good, changing styles, rebranding etc. It was never my intention to become a brand and to be attached to a certain kind of music. I embrace being a multi-genre songwriter. The only thing that changed is, that I made it public.