Country Webzine - Novembre - Décembre 2002

meaning by the way you say them or by the way the melody is said. And sometimes when you write a song, sometimes you write a line and you think 'That's really a smart line' and when you try to sing it, then it doesn't work ! Then you'll have to change it and maybe on the paper the line will look so smart that it's easier to sing and it ma-kes more sense if you sing it that way. My songs are not meant to be poems, they are not meant to be read that way. And I've never really been very keen on poetry ; I studied literature and I know my stuff looks like poems by Robert Frost. I really think that my songs have a lot more to do with short-story writing. The way the narrative flows … to me, it's got a lot more to do with story writing than with poetry writing because I think the main goal is to convey an emotion. The main goal of my songs is to make the story move from one point to ano-ther. A lot of poetry is maybe more static. Most poetry is not really narra-tive. Poetry isn't really about story tel-ling."

M.F. : "Could you tell us why and how you came to song writing and 'song singing' ?"
- Markus : "Well, what has always interested me for as long as I have been listening to music … I have always been more interested in who wrote the songs rather than who were singing them, and, in my youthful naivete, i have figured that the ones who deserved more credit were the song writers, because the song writer is the one who is doing the job ; I know now that there is a lot more to make a good record : you need good musicians, good production and all that. But I was always interested in song writing and this is still what I consider as my main job. I mostly think of myself as a song writer.. that's sort of what I'm good at, and I just happen to be the one singing the song."
- M.F. : "We found that the texts of your songs are well-framed, well-organised … they're real poems, grasping texts … Would you agree with this ?"
- Markus : "That's a nice compliment !"
- M.F. : "It's more than that …"
- Markus : "This is what I'm aiming at … Well, first of all, I think it's a really a whole different thing, whether you write poetry or you write songs. Songs can't stand on their own, they are not meant to be read from a piece of paper, they've got music to accompany them and complement them ; some words that might look OK on paper, they've got a

lyrics and songs separate. Usually one goes with the other. Usually you have some guitar music that starts off the song and then that new guitar thing triggers some kind of lyrics. Or some-times you have a new guitar thing sitting around going round your head for months and every time you think you're going to play that thing, you don't really know what to make of it and even if you stum-ble on a line and you think that's going to become a song. But I don't write them separately, so from the very beginning when I'm writing a song, I'm trying to match the lyrics to the music."

- M.F. : "Do you write on your own or do you collect advice from your musicians and friends?"
- Markus : "As far as song writing goes, I have to be alone to write a song. And I have to have my finished version of the song the way I think it should be done before I play it to the band and then I have some ideas of how the arrangement should go. Usually I have a written version of how it could be played. And then we try to work on the song and sometimes we discuss how about using a different accord here and there. I might think I have a finished song when we bring it to rehearsal… Sometimes what I consider like the real song, if we play with a different beat, then it will come out a little different. But, as far as writing goes, when I write a song, I'm alone."