SS: Your music draws on a wide range of styles and traditions. What do you say when people ask you, "What kind of music do you play?"
HY: I usually say that my music is eclectic and draws from various cultures all over the world. When it comes down to it, I say that I play contemporary acoustic pop music.
SS: What does the phrase, "world music," mean to you?
HY:
I find “World Music” to be the result of cultural melding in every possible combination of traditions. Brazil is a good example of that. The Portuguese brought European classical music and their own folk music, including the “Fado,” characterized by mournful tunes and lyrics. The African slaves brought the deep and hypnotizing drums and grooves. The indigenous people added mysticism and sounds of the rain forest with instruments designed to create animal and ambient sounds. When American Jazz entered the playing field in the 40s it triggered the birth of a new beat, the bossa nova, which then became an ambassador for Brazil, making lifelong friends all over the world. This is only one example and you can find “World Music” wherever musical influences cross over borders and boundaries reaching out to the hearts of all people.
SS: Tell me about your musical beginnings in Germany.
HY:
I started on the piano, and later came to the guitar when I was 16. I knew that this was it, and could hardly put it down. At 18, I had a full scholarship for Berklee College of Music in Boston. I was totally thrilled, but in the end my parents could not afford the housing and food. The exchange rate was not in my favor. That was very hard; I already saw myself walking the campus, as you can imagine. At the time there was nothing comparable in Europe, so I started playing and touring. Nowadays I’m glad that it went that way and I feel at home when I’m on stage.
SS: When did you first start writing songs?
HY: I was about 14 and wrote some piano pieces. My uncle, who is a jazz piano player always encouraged me to sit down at the piano during our Sunday visits and improvise and play whatever I wanted.
SS: Who were some of your biggest influences when you were coming up?
HY: I was a music junkie and could listen up to 10 hours to music, one LP after another (there were no CDs yet). I loved Joni Mitchell, Led Zeppelin, Pat Metheney, Claude Debussy, Steely Dan, The Police, Genesis, Neil Young – the list could go on forever, you know.
SS: Are there any songwriters whose work has been particularly important to you?
HY:
Joni Mitchell made a huge impact on me, along with a German artist called Ulla Meinecke.
SS: When did you make the leap to playing in DADGAD guitar tuning?
HY:
I started in the early 90s. I was playing with my “World Music” quartet Moka Efti, and had written a couple of songs in DADGAD. I was fascinated by the open sound and loved discovering with a beginner’s mind. I simply started by exploring and never stopped since then.
SS: What music are you listening to these days?
HY: I get a lot of CDs while I’m on the road, so I listen to many unknown artists of all levels. Some of my favorite Cd’s I listened to this year are:
Feist “Let it Die”
Herbert Grönemeier “Mensch”
Kym Tuvim “On the Mend”
Sting “Brand New Day”
Teitur “Poetry & Aeroplanes”
SS: Tell me about your experience living and playing in Rio de Janeiro. How did it influence the way you approach your music and your songwriting?
HY:
Wow, that’s a whole book right there. Living in Rio was intense by all means and different from anything I had experienced before. After all, I came from a village close to the German-French border and had never been in a city that big. In Rio, it is so hot on a constant basis, that life starts later, in the early evening when it cools down a bit, and goes through the night. The rhythms are always present in everything you see and hear, the way people walk and talk… it was totally musical and inspiring.
Brazilian songs influenced me and changed my approach to writing. They sometimes have different forms from what we’re used to. Some might have a chorus that is only a phrase coming once at a musical climax. They also use different meters and a lot of waltzes of all kinds. It certainly turned me upside down and triggered something that was there, but not yet awake. I could feel it the first time my father put on a Baden Powel LP when I was five or so. Then I forgot it and it took more than 20 years to rediscover.
photo: Brian Hartman SS: Many of the songs on "Inside Out" were written with other lyricists. Share a bit about working with these other writers, and what collaboration means to you in the "big picture" of being a singer-songwriter.
HY: This is my first English album so I was glad to have some good writer friends that I could work with: Tom Armstrong, Evo Bluestein, and Phil Cohen. They have all played an important role in my life in the U.S. Collaboration means more to me than just working together, it’s like building community. I learned a lot through that process and it was very inspiring.
I love being a songwriter, having the ability to be creative. Expressing myself through music and words feels like the best thing I can do to contribute to society, giving back and hopefully inspiring others.
SS: Tell me a bit about your songwriting process... How does a song typically begin for you, and where does it go from there?
HY:
Sometimes I start out playing around on the guitar or the piano. Usually I find something I never played before, a melody or chord progression that captures me and inspires me to fool around with vocal sounds and just a few real words here and there. I record it and come back to it a week later to work on lyrics.
Sometimes I have the words come first, though mostly in close approximation to a melody or rhythm. I can work on the words until 2 minutes before I sing the part in the studio, to find just the exact word for a certain feeling or picture. Luckily there is a moment when I know that it’s done and I can let go of it.
SS: In your experience, where do songs come from?
HY: They are like the sculpture within the blocks of stone, already existing on some level and just wanting to be uncovered. Songs come from the depths of human experiences and zillions of lifetimes that share similar feelings, longings and encompass the need to express themselves through melody, rhythm and word.
SS: What's your sense of what a song is "for?"
HY: My sense of what songs are “for” is fluid. I don’t expect my songs to have the same effect on everyone. Some touched me in different ways at different times. I just hope they inspire positive change and remind us of what is essential.
SS: Does it get disorienting living in the States, and writing and performing your songs in English?
HY:
Not at all, in Germany we grew up with English lyrics and listened to them from childhood on. It seems natural to me to write in English.
SS: Tell me about your national tour this last spring.
HY:
That was the biggest undertaking I’ve ever done - 37 shows, 2 TV shows and various radio and newspaper interviews. I worked for about 5 months on the preparation, 12-16 hour days doing everything from sending out CDs, promo kits, and press releases, to researching, booking and figuring out logistics for a 9,000 mile drive across the U.S. It was totally grassroots, and I had no clue where I would sleep most of the time. Luckily, people opened their homes and I made a lot of new friends out there.
photo: Randall TomarasThe most appealing fact for me was being absolutely in the moment, not thinking about yesterday, or tomorrow for that matter. That’s a very powerful place to be.
I also stopped complaining and knew that I was wandering into the unknown and couldn’t expect a thing. I’ll give you a little example. After a 10-hour drive I came to Chicago for the first time in my life. It was rush hour and took me forever to reach the venue, just in time to get ready to play. I realized that I didn’t know anybody there and had no idea where I could stay that night (Sunday), and I had the next two days off before a show in Cleveland, Ohio. So I asked the audience if anybody was willing to offer a couch for the night – no reaction. I could have been down or negative, but stayed open and positive.
Just before I left, a couple of hours later, someone tapped my shoulder and offered me a place to crash. It turned out to be an apartment in Old Town, walking distance from the lake and downtown with safe parking, a view, a piano, and a full fridge! My new friend gave me the keys and said I could stay as long as I wanted! That would certainly not have happened if I had harbored any negativity. There were several incidents like that.
The different landscapes were also fascinating. I especially loved Montana, Colorado, Maine, and New Hampshire. One of the best shows I had was in South Dakota. The tour was so satisfying that I instantly started to plan for another from late December 2006 to late March of 2007. It’ll bring me from Seattle down to L.A. and then east to the Georgia coast, down to Florida and all the way back. I hope my '92 Honda Prelude agrees to that.
SS: You've played in a number of ensembles over the years, including, most recently, Lyquid Amber and the Jamie Laval Trio. Is being an instrumentalist a priority for you?
HY:
Being an instrumentalist has never been a priority, though I spent many years playing mostly instrumental music. From the very beginning, I felt more like a composer and songwriter, and have written with or without words ever since I played my first note. Now I’m just more focused on the songwriter aspect and enjoy that particular process of writing.
SS: What do you like most about being an independent musician? Least?
HY: Most: I can do it the way I imagine.
Least: I've got to do most everything myself.
SS: Do you have a "day job?"
HY: Yes, I’m my own manager, booker, promoter, designer and secretary. I spend up to 14 hours per day when I’m not touring or am in the studio. The U.S. is a big country and logistics become more and more crucial for any kind of traveling.
SS: For other singer-songwriters who might just be starting out, what advice would you offer them about writing, recording, touring, or promotion?
HY:
Write about what matters to you most.
Question the very first idea that comes up.
Record yourself and get used to listening back to your own voice.
Build community, build community, build community.
Play all over your home town before you think about touring.
Be persistent and remove your ego when doing promotion.
SS: Despite the relatively short time you've lived in Seattle, you've built strong ties to the scene here. Tell me about what community means to you as an artist.
HY:
Community is my playground and the safe harbor to where I come back to. We all need community to learn and unfold as human beings. For me as an artist it is about sharing creativity and inspiring each other.
SS: What's next for Hans York? What are you working on now, and what are your plans?
HY:
I’m looking forward to going back in the studio producing Steven Franz, a Singer-Songwriter that came from Miami to the Northwest. While at home I do more and more producing to have a balance between the touring and the time in Seattle. I’m also intensively working on booking the next year, a three month tour down South and some weeks in the Northeast later on. I also might go to France and Germany in the summer.
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More about Hans:
Hans's song, "Inside Out"
www.hansyork.com
buy Hans's CDs online
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