With a unique blend of Synthwave and EDM the artist approaches different shades of Melancholia, the record is a clear counterpoint in the power of the songs, demonstrating strength, resistance and the faith in never giving up.
Originally based on piano tracks, TLF turned the songs of his debut album into Synthesizer madness, celebrating sounds from the most famous 80ies Synths mixed with modern Sounds. The tracks stay mostly instrumental so that the music alone takes on the important part of reflecting all the intimate feelings in such a natural way that words could never come as close to the core.
„Planet Sadness“ tells the story of a life. In a cross section through decades and genres it reflects sonically as well as emotionally the life of the producer. Recorded in just four weeks and finished under special self-imposed conditions, it is the most personal work he has created to date.
The album is released on the world’s leading Synthwave Label “NewRetroWave Records” (NY), on the 7th of January 2022. In its first weekend the longplayer peaked at #1 in „Synthwave“, #1 in „Chiptunes“ and in the Top Ten of „Electronic“ on Bandcamp. 10% of all TLF’s income through the record will be donated to Unicef or other organizations that are making our planet a little bit better.
Tell us about the genesis of your project. How did you get to where you are now?
Hi and thanks for having me! I have been making music pretty much all my life. I learned many instruments, starting with classical piano, guitar, bass, synth and some drums.
I played in different bands, toured a lot all over Europe & UK and now I’m a professional songwriter and producer living and working in Berlin, Neukölln. I discovered Synthwave about 10 years ago and the beautiful, nostalgic feeling of it with constant flashbacks to good childhood memories.
The sound grabbed me instantly like so many, many others! With my project TLF I want to go a step further cause I wanted to have more of the musical influences represented that live in my heart. These influences have quite a wide range.
It all starts with Punk and Metal – Tobias Forge from Ghost for example was such an inspiration, Daft Punk will always be one, I listened a lot to the Strokes in the making, but also electronic acts like LukHash, Chris Hülsbeck (computer game music legend) who are both featured on my album or Starcadian, Porter Robinson or even the pianist Bill Evans. These artists have all left their impact.
What should a song or piece of art communicate in your opinion?
I am a fan of music, literature and art, (especially paintings). The most important point to me, is that art must touch deeply and transport its power – I need to feel the energy of art, no matter what kind of energy this is.
It can simply be an aesthetic energy, a destructive one or a form of a compassionate energy. I guess that is why I am into many different music styles as well. To me the transfer of this energy from the creator to the recipient can only be achieved when there is a truth behind the work and the artist has opened the doors to her (or his) soul during the creation. That counts for all forms of art and that is what I try with my music. As a consumer I can deeply be touched by a painting by Alice Neel, a book by Jesse Burton or a piece of music by Vivaldi.
Who were your top 3 artists last year?
In music it was Turnstile („Love Connection“), Lorna Shore („To The Hellfire“) and Bill Evans (“Always”). But it’s hard to narrow it down, cause in Synthwave alone there were tons of great releases.
In painting it’s my wife Anni Heuchel (exhibition „Die Schönheit der Zecken“ and always), Walton Ford (Gallery show in Berlin) and Jean-Michel Basquiat (always). In literature I was deeply impressed by Deborah Feldman’s „Exodus“, disgusted, amazed and late to the party with John Niven’s „Kill Your Friends“ and as always warmly hugged by Murakami’s „First Person Singular“.
What do you do when you’re feeling uninspired?
I have accepted that my creativity comes in waves and that I cannot do a lot to force it to reappear. So I basically wait till I am somehow reconnected to either the universe or my deeper self. In the meantime I have a barley tea and listen to some genre that is far away from what I actually wanna do. That helps, but I’m pretty relaxed about writers’ block.
What are your 2022 projects and goals?
I want to go on with writing, composing and producing. But first my goal is to reach as many people as possible with my album „Planet Sadness“. I want to connect to people, exchange experiences and just be in touch in times when so many feel isolated. I’m planning a filmed live-session for TLF and some more stuff. Follow me and wait and see!
Favorite movie or TV show?
Star Wars- in particular „The Empire Strikes Back“ – Period.
Tell us about your latest release and how it came about
Originally the tracks for „Planet Sadness“ were piano ideas that I mapped out in Electronic,
Synthwave soundscapes. Piano is the closest instrument to my heart, that’s why it felt right to start
composing on it.
I consecrated myself on the feeling of Melancholia, that dark, but at the same time
soothing cloud around your head, that is always there – if you are someone like me. I thought a lot about how it feels, if it is a good or a bad thing, where it comes from and how one can live with it and even draw positive things out of this state.
Also I reflected about connected topics like how it feels being an outsider to society, how to deal with life-changing situations and why so many people in our society are actually sad while everyone looks so happy on Social Media.
Dealing with these matters and somehow translating them into music on a concept album helped me with being a melancholic person myself – I found more peace within me and felt closer to my true core. I am happy that my label NewRetroWave supported my vision and decided to release my album „Planet Sadness“. They made it happen that I am able to share these heart-pieces with the listener.
What is something you would want to change in the music and entertainment industry?
In general I would like to see that more people are able to live (financially) from their art. For
music I want streaming platforms to have a fairer payment structure. It is great to have streaming, no question and it’s amazing as a listener.
But Spotify started with the mission to give creative artists the chance to live off their art. In their „Loud & Clear“ report, the numbers found show that less than 1% of the recording artists make 5k a year with Spotify.
This is nowhere near what the artist gets. So Spotify cannot even make it happen to let 1% of their „content creators“ live off their art. At the same time they can invest 100 million dollars in a military AI start-up, right in the time when Covid was hitting the culture business hardest.
And for sure, in the whole entertainment industry there is the problem that women are highly
underrepresented – may it be in music, art, comedy, films or whatever. On top there are also huge pay-gaps.
In my field, (music), I’d love to see more female acts get booked and that festivals take care of an equal relation between male and female acts. In the recording industry the numbers are crazy as well…The ratio between male to female producers across 500 popular songs was 37:1 and there seven times more male songwriter. These numbers are from 2020 (Dr. Stacy L. Smith, USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiation) and they show more than clear that there is still a lot to do.
Can you outline your creative process?
This is a difficult thing to do because I see creativity as something unnatural and unearthly, so the non-verbalization is an element of it’s very own character. In my case it is literally that I feel inspired – I can hear a melody in my head, I have a line for lyrics in my mind or the feeling of a track that I wanna lay down. Then my „work“ is to channel that and record it in the way I want. For sure I am influenced by other art surrounding me. In some cases books are a great inspiration (or other music). To a certain point I need to be completely alone with my creations. In this lapse of time I work like a maniac, encapsulated from the rest of the world and I cannot stop until I reach a certain step. But later in the process I am always happy to work with others.
Who inspires your style and aesthetics?
For TLF it is quite an eclectic, pop-cultural mixture. My act has its roots in Synthwave and in this genre the visual aspect is very important. But I wanted to have more of my life represented, since this is such a personal album and a solo project.
You can never get the punk out of me, so a (vegan) leather jacket is obligatory. Metal is another inspiration, as well as the pictorial language of Sci-Fi movies. For my album it was important for me that everything shown underlies the aspect of the mood of the music.
Keywords for the whole style would be solitude, alienation, vastness, inner strength, revolution and hope. The mask that I am wearing is coming for sure from a comic-book, superhero movie direction.
What is the achievement or moment in your career you are the most proud of and why?
For a long time in my career as a songwriter I didn’t have the success that I wanted. I had to deal with so much rejection that I reached a point where I didn’t want to go on – more than once. But I had the stamina to struggle through all these hardships.
When I finally made it with some of my songs appearing on an album that won a gold award and more appearing on two number 1 records, I felt so overjoyed – for not giving up and sticking to my vision. But at the moment I am just super proud about my first solo album „Planet Sadness“!
What do you think an artist should sing about nowadays?
I miss a revolutionary attitude in music. Songs were instruments for peace, square hammers against
injustice or rebel yells for unity amongst kids.
Coming from the punk scene, I do miss that and it feels like that is getting less and less. But I have to sweep in front of my own door maybe at this point… So let’s see what my next songs will be like!
Do you have any regrets?
Yes. They stay under the mask.
What is some piece of advice you would give to yourself right now?
Concentrate on Bandcamp, you fucked it up with Spotify!
