Today, we sat down with TurboWitch to discuss their inspiration to write music, heroes, and much more! Be sure to check out the music of TurboWitch on Spotify below after the interview!
Interview:
What is your inspiration to write your music? Is it your
surroundings?
Yes, and Merlin’s inner world. The emotions inside created by the world around him. These emotions seek expression. But being honest, a lot of this initial creative step is still a total mystery to him. These ideas simply pop up, often at the worst possible timing, and he tries to make sense of it. These ideas are like a certain emotion emerging and he tries to find out what situations or topic might fit this weird emotion like finding a musical home for it.
What type of music did you listen to growing up?
Merlin grew up with all sorts of music, a lot. Thanks to his mum, a lot of Soul, Motown, and Phil Collins. When Merlin tried to find ‘his own’ music, he began with classic Rock ‘n’ Roll and Bryan Adams, but quickly realised it was the harder types of Rock that resonate more. When he was feeling itchy to pick up an instrument, Aerosmith launched a new record – and we are not talking about their late ballads but before 2000 when they still made some real noise. On that fateful day, Merlin was exposed to their track “Falling in Love (is hard on the knees)”, and it was the map to his Holy Grail: guitars, hymn-like melodies and massive, dirty riffs:
Now Bryan Adams or Elvis were replaced by Aerosmith, Guns N’ Roses, Black Sabbath. Soon he would take guitar lessons and he was initially trained on Blues Rock, so Hendrix and Led Zep joined the playlist very soon. At the same time, he noticed Grunge and Goth somehow resonated way too much to be ignored, which meant he might be listening to Led Zep and Guns N’ Roses, and 30 minutes later to Type O Negative, Nirvana and Alice in Chains. Last but not least, Kate Bush, Tori Amos & PJ Harvey got the same inexplicable musical resonance, maybe because of those deep emotions expressed in their gorgeous music. This all while Phil Collins, Marvin Gaye and 90s Dance music were blasting out of his mum’s hi-fi the next room.
Maybe this diverse playlist & upbringing is the reason he never bought a single genre and would refuse to align himself with a specific genre. A dirty riff, pushing rhythms, and hymn-like melodies and Merlin is a happy wizard.
Is there someone you looked up as a hero?
Jimi Hendrix, he was like a pioneer and a voodoo-blues-guitar-priest to Merlin.
Slash, his riffs and the way he expresses emotions overly dramatic in his massive solos was a massive inspiration for a young, shy Merlin who was struggling to do exactly this: expressing his deepest feelings.
Lyrically, Jim Morrison. His technique to combine quite different stylistic sources inspired Merlin to do the same with his guitar.
If you weren’t a musician, would you be doing today?
Merlin was brought up bilingually and his other passion besides music is languages. As a matter of fact, he has turned his language skills into coins.
What advice do you have for our fans out there that want to create
music?
Do it! Make mistakes! Do not worry about having a good instrument or the technique. Just make some noise. Have fun. And do not think in separate musical genres, think in ‘good music’ as a concept that does not know any boundaries.
Music:
