I am flying again

I am flying again…..

I just arrived to the airport…. And I realize now that’s its been half a year without travelling. Without playing a single note of music outside my country.

I have always seen myself as a travelling musician. No matter if I lived in Berlin, Copenhagen or Aalborg I felt a need to travel with my music. To meet new audiences, clubs and collaborators, but equally important to meet new music.

We musicians are working with something that is so flimsy and hard to describe, and yet it is this magical thing that everyone has opinions about. It can bring tears, smiles and goosebumps. But we cannot really put a price tag on it. Why do we need it? And do we? 
Why do I sit here on my way to Vienna to listen to a piece of music that I’ve arranged for a string quartet that I’ve never met? What is the meaning with paying me a fee, flight tickets and hotels to just sit and listen to this music? Couldn’t it have been done without me?

Why is it a thing, that I fly all the way to Japan to play in jazz clubs in Osaka and Kyoto? 
Who cares???? And wouldn’t it be MUCH cheaper to just have me playing at home in Denmark? 

Well….. to be honest I’ve been ruminating about these topics the last few years.

I have found that once you’re bitten by the passion bug, specific things diminishes in value. Once the ideas pop up in my head, 
I don’t really spend too much time on the work vs money equation. My fuel is always a vision of the music being played, or how the score looks….. It is from that thought I set sail, and then I fix all the rest along the way (money, time etc etc)

I make it sound so romantic here. It is, and it is not. Right now I’m sitting in Schiphol airport in Amsterdam. I was supposed to sit and enjoy my morning coffee in Vienna, but KLM wanted it differently, and my plane was delayed.

This has happened so many times. But somehow I’ve learned to enjoy these situations. These are the times where I listen to music, and check out new stuff. In airports I see so many different people, and it helps me wonder….. where do they come from? Where are they going? Why are they going there? What is that language? Hmmmm I wonder how their music sounds…..? 
And that brings me to my point…. I travel because it excites me! I spend all this time on the road, because I want to have a broader spectrum. I want to laugh and cry because of the stories people tell me or the breathtaking sceneries that our little planet holds…. I want to build bridges with the mean that I have…. music.

People often ask musicians if they can actually make a living doing what they do.

It IS difficult to make money on art. Especially in the first part of your career.

But the beautiful thing is:

If I had a lot of money I would go travel…. I would listen to beautiful concerts…. I would stay in hotels….. I would eat food from all the corners of the world….. I would take music lessons….. I would try to find a way to meet new people all the time….

I don’t make a lot of money, but I have all of the above… and I love what I do. I love playing music…. And music gives me all of that.

The reason we travel is because our planet is still so diverse in cultures. My music sounds the way it does because I’m from the Danish woods. Therefore it is interesting for me to present my music in Japan, and vice versa.

In future posts I will talk more about touring. Now, I’m approaching Vienna, and tonight Yury Revich’s string quartet will perform my arrangement of Lars Schwander’s “Opus 1 for Benzoni”.

Until next time…..