Structure & Chaos: Tim Bendzko

For starters, a seemingly contradictory question: How structured do you have to be as an artist?

I try to be very structured, though I don’t always succeed. In fact, I’ve given up believing that you reach a point in life where everything is one hundred percent organized. I’m planning my next tour right now, and of course there’s a lot to do, because organizing a two-hour show is really complex. So you can’t get far without structure. That’s why I use a computer program called Notion to keep track of things, but also to be able to share the status with others.

Does that leave any space for creative freedom?

I’m forty years old, and by now I know how I tick. I know what works for me and what doesn’t. For example, I have to tackle important things first thing in the morning. I drink my coffee early when I get up and start working through the first tasks. That usually means that I have time in the afternoon to create the free space I need.

What motivates you? What drives you on?

I actually have this incredible energy in me that hasn’t been exhausted yet. I really like to move around a lot, which is a need that probably not many people have. I like to put new ideas into practice. If I have a white sheet of paper in front of me, I can write a song or paint a picture on it. If something doesn’t work or things get too chaotic, I always ask myself the same question: What can I do with that now? And that’s exactly where something new comes from. I don’t have to do anything for that, it’s just there.

You’ve always wanted to be a musician, isn’t that right?

I decided that quite rationally when I was still very young. Not in the sense of: I want to be an artist, but: I want to be a singer! For a long time I maintained that music had nothing to do with art. Oddly enough, I later discovered that it’s not the music that drives me at all. It’s just one facet of my aspiration to be creative. For me, it’s all about having an idea and making it happen.

So what is the most important thing to you about music?

That’s just it: What comes out in the end isn’t that important to me. It’s the process of creating something that I love. It’s a bit like writing a song: I have a rough picture of the piece in my head, but how it will turn out is something I only see at the very end. I don’t plan the second line of the song; rather, the first line dictates what happens in the second. It’s the same with the tour I’m planning right now. I enjoy thinking about what the whole show will be like, what it will look like, what there will be on the LED screen, what the lights will do, who will be on stage when and where. I look forward to seeing how the whole show has taken shape in the end. That makes me happy, because the whole thing started out in my head – and soon other people will see it, too, and hopefully they will celebrate it as much as me. Maybe that’s it: I love turning ideas into reality.

To change the subject a bit, do you practice any sports?

Yes, I do, when I get around to it, which is often difficult. If I’m writing songs and thinking all the time that I’m going to do some sports ­afterwards, you can bet that I’ll end up doing music for an hour or two longer. And then I think: Oh well, it’s too late now anyway, maybe tomorrow – and before you know it, another day has passed.

And if you had all the time in the world?

I love cycling, especially on a road bike. In the summer I’m out on the road, and in the winter I ride indoors on a stationary bike. Though the way I said that it sounds like some kind of a simple exercycle . . . but what I have is a real high-tech machine. I’ve probably got the same kid of equipment like a pro cyclist.

You recently became a father. How do you balance family, job, career?

Without going into too much detail, I have to say that I get a lot of support at home. I try to do as much as possible too, of course, and to free up time for the family. Now that I’m not busy writing songs every day, that’s easier to do. Before, it was really difficult for me to commit to it mentally.

You were born in April, your new album is being released at the beginning of April, and the album title is April. That can’t be a coincidence, can it?

In the run-up to the release, I was thinking about what the album should be about and what had been on my mind these past two and a half years. Somehow this line “Neuer Anfang aus Chaos” [“New Beginning from Chaos”] stuck with me. For me, that’s ( . . . )

Read the whole interview with Tim Bendzko in rampstyle #28.

The Location: Das Konzerthaus Berlin

Music moves and brings people together - they are convinced of this at the Konzerthaus Berlin. It is therefore a major concern of the team there to give a broad audience, regardless of previous education and social background, the opportunity both to get to know classical music and to pursue their long-standing passion. This includes large symphony concerts of the highest standard performed by the Konzerthausorchester Berlin as well as various innovative formats: The enthusiastically received "Mittendrin" concerts, in which the audience sits right next to our orchestra* musicians during the concert. Also in the programme: festival tributes to important personalities of the music world and experiments such as the analogue-digital hybrid festival "The Sounds of Berlin", which are aimed at diverse audiences. the entire programme can be found here:

→ konzerthaus.de