2024 in review

I know that I’m a bit late to the party but I just did a review on my year 2024 (which honestly felt amazing, I feel a lot more grounded now). For me a lot of things came together in 2024 and I’d like to share some of my thoughts on that.

The obvious and biggest change that happened for me musically was the release of my debut piano album in august. For years I had worked on my own tunes and ideas, and to bring them out into the world for everyone to listen to truly feels great.

My bass teacher once said: learning how to make music is a marathon. I often think about that phrase. For me it means that a lot the times when I make music I don’t see the progress right away - or I think I’m just getting better really slowly. (Of course this also has something to do with fact that I still spend a lot of hours per week in my day job and that I also want to have time for friends, sports and social activities).

When I think about my progress it sometimes helps to look back and listen to old voice memos (I often record musical ideas that I have on my phone so I won’t forget them while working on them). Especially when they are a few years old I can hear that my ideas are getting more interesting now and that my chords become more complex. Sometimes I also come accross a melody that I still like or I’m confronted with what I still can’t do yet, like adding a beat or create certain sounds.

I think that even if we don’t see that we are improving, a lot of the times we still do as long as we stay committed to an activity and also add new elements to our routines. Sometimes progress is just not always visible to ourselves and others.

So when I finally recorded my songs in January not only did I learn a bunch of stuff about the music industry (i.e. how do I put my music online, who has which rights, how does GEMA work etc.), in the following months I also began to shape my work and my musical identity more (by asking myself which stage name I want to use, if I want to name my songs in English, what kind of texts I write about myself and which of the work I can do without help, for example my album cover art work).

Those alone are really big steps but one of the most beautiful things for me to see was that a lot of my musical work of the previous years (basically most of my twenties) became audible in this project. The skills and ideas were already there but they were kind of hidden behind unfinished and unreleased compositions. Playing my own music in concerts and showing my work to people is something very personal, intimate and beautiful I think.

I didn’t release my album for the fame or the money (although it would be great to have some of course ;-) ) but I see it as something coming from my soul that is there to bring moments of joy and peace into the world and makes my audience be completely caught in the moment. Sometimes people tell me how much they enjoyed listening to my songs and that makes me really happy. It is something that wouldn’t have been possible without the release of the album and the concerts I started playing shortly before.

Being immensely grateful for this opportunity (I will tell the story of how I got record my songs another time, it is a good one) I am curious about what 2025 will bring to the table. I am a big believer of the fact that (if we’re not financially dependent on it) we don’t have to set goals all the time, that it is okay not to always improve and that we can also allow ourselves to float and see where life takes us. That being said (and knowing that I find it also hard to follow my own beliefs sometimes) I still have visions for my music for this year and achieving them would satisfy me very much. Before my inner eye I maybe see a vocal project, some experimenting with Logic, more lyrics or a combination of the piano with other instruments. Also I want to improve my technical skills on my instruments (there is always room for more, right? ;-) ). I know that this a a lot for one year so I will just keep being patient, do my thing and enjoy the hell out of it all.