Falling in love with music

When working on an album, I share many moments of vulnerability with an artist. They come to me with the music they’ve worked on for a long time, and often have songs about topics dear to their heart. Things can get quite personal. An album project last to over a year. During that time I get close to the other, and they get close to me. At some point I was in doubt wether this was a good thing… or made the lines between work and friendship too blurry. I’ve made up my mind about that now.

To enter a valuable artistic process in the studio, I create a space in which an artist can be totally vulnerable. It’s something I do in a myriad of ways. It means I open up to them too. As an effect, they can give their best and be their worst, try out things… fail… It is a safe space. This is not something that only the young or inexperienced artists need. Even someone like Sevdaliza once told me she was so happy to finally be able to be vulnerable in the studio.

Over the years I’ve found I can be quite porous - the advantage of that, is heaps of empathy and patience for everyone I work with. On a certain level, I fall a little bit in love with the artist, with their music and their playing. The music starts feeling like it is also my music. Even though I know it isn’t and working on it doesn’t change that. Feeling like this however, allows me to dive into the music and the story to the extent I need to do my work and to be who I need to be for the process.

I’m glad some of my studio-friendships continue long after the production process is done!

Miriam Moczko exploring the MS-20 synthesizer during a production session in my studio.