Formula Indie Sessions _ Interview with Alex Flora
What is your earliest memory connected to music?
Niklas: My father used to sing lullabies to me to make me fall asleep when I was really young. Still remember the lyrics of some, though. And it always warms my heart thinking back at it.
Carsten: My father playing the harmonica, or my mother putting on an Elvis record. Later, car rides with my father and Queen on the radio.
Luca: The earliest memories that I can remember connected to music would be listening to my fathers music collections of old tapes and lps
Frederik: Not my earliest one though but me sliding around a Christmas Tree on my knees playing an airguitar is a fun one.
How did your passion for creating music begin?
Niklas: My mother made me play the melodica in first grade, and I didn’t really like it. My teacher then wanted me to play the accordion, which I didn’t want either. Instead, I started playing the piano and never stopped.
Carsten: As a child, I spent hours playing the keyboard and singing in the choir. Music has always been with me and became more and more important to me. When the band found me and we began creating our own music, being able to unite my lyrics and feelings in a musical context became such an indescribably amazing feeling.
Luca: I have always been into music, since my mother has already been playing several instruments. I would say the passion for music was present all the time, creating my own music started maybe a few years ago.
Frederik: For me the passion for music was not always. It first started quite early but for a lot of time it was just a means to meet friends. Just later on with the first successful jam-sessions it started again and hasn’t let me go so far.
What’s the story behind your current music project?
Niklas: It’s a long story, to be honest. My brother, Flo, and I started playing together back in fifth grade or so, as a trio of drums, guitar, and keys. We initially focused on covers, although none of us would sing, so I had to play the melody on piano. Right from the beginning, we started to write our own songs, although in hindsight, it is clear that we learned a lot since those times. We would also mostly play casual and did not really try hard to get gigs. Then, five years ago Carsten, our singer, joined our band and then Gisa, our then bass player. Afterward, we got more serious about writing music, doing covers, and playing gigs, and Flo’s brother Basti joined our group as a second guitarist.
A highlight last year was recording our first songs in the studio and publishing them. This summer, Gisa sadly couldn’t continue playing with us because she had to take care of her kids, so Luca joined us as a bass player, and we had some really fun gigs this autumn.
At MyMusicLab, we have the opportunity to come together and become creative.
How would you describe your sound to someone who has never heard your music before?
At this point, it has become cliché to say that is cliché that it’s difficult to describes one’s sound. We are definitely making rock music, although often of a softer and more melancholic kind. Our guitars are typically not heavily distorted, and we like to play around with piano and synthesizer sounds. Carsten, our singer, has a really strong voice that he often uses almost like another instrument. Meanwhile, Flo is really enjoying going at it on the drums, and I feel like the task of the rest of us is to provide the harmonic layering and melody to support both of them. We also used to like to play around with song structures and rhythms, but in the last years we gravitated back towards simple classic setups.
What is one thing you’ve learned that completely changed the way you make music? Niklas: A quote by Johnny Greenwood comes to my mind, “the best guitarist know when
not to play”. I think this summarizes one of my biggest realizations about writing music. That is that you really have to think about giving space to every instrument. That difficult and complicated parts more often serve the ego of the instrumentalist than the song. And that the absence of an instrument can elevate its presence at a later time.
Carsten: If you dare to allow mistakes, you are free enough to become creative.
Luca: There is no such thing, my view of music keeps changing all with every single instrument I am learning.
What tools, instruments, or software are essential in your creative process? Niklas: Mostly, we use Reaper as a DAW when writing music.
Carsten: The Notes app — many lyrics come about spontaneously. Many others are already written.
Which indie artist or song are you loving right now?
Niklas: This year, I often listened to Sixto Rodriguez, and Neue Neue Deutsch Welle artists like Blond or Paula Carolina, but in general I also like Neutral Milk Hotel and most
of the 90s/00s Grunge and Metal scene, bands like Radiohead, System of A Down, Alice in Chains, and more.
Carsten: I’ve been listening to Nutshell by Alice in Chains all the time lately. Other than that, I listen to many of our own songs — both the finished and the unfinished ones.
Luca: I really enjoy listening to Frank Zappa and Moses Yoofee Trio
Frederik: Really enjoy listening to Fiona Apple and getting into Spanish HipHop. Not at all representative of our music though.
How have your personal experiences influenced your music and artistic vision? Niklas: For me, mostly subconscious in the sense that my mood influences the kind of
melodies that I’m improvising and writing. But Carsten’s lyrics are mostly autobiographic, so it’s probably best if I let him answer the question.
Carsten: My personal experiences, losses, fears, and dreams are always reflected in my lyrics.
I believe that only those who truly dig deep within themselves have the ability to truly touch others.
Luca: I usually get inspired by the music I’m listening to. Sometimes I have little melodies or lyrics in mind that I wanna work on. Essential for me would be a rhythm fraction usually built on drums, bass and percussion and some melodic elements that can be pretty much anything to create harmonies. Personal Experiences have changed the way I am approaching to write music but the playing itself is more likely influenced by my emotions in the moment I am playing.
What emotions or messages do you hope listeners take from your work? Niklas: Even though our songs are often melancholic and about the hardships in life, for
me, it is really important that we really enjoy playing music, and that this feeling transfers to the audience when we are playing live. And also, maybe just the enjoyment of listening to beautiful music.
Carsten: We all go through hard times, and it’s often a comfort to know that you’re not alone.
Just as I process many things in my lyrics, maybe someone who listens and feels them can do the same.
An example of this is the death of my grandmother, who suffered from dementia in the end.
The song is called When You’re Gone, and will hopefully be released soon. Creating a place where my feelings — or yours — can be free is what I strive for.
What’s the most important lesson music has taught you so far?
Niklas: In some way, that hard work pays off. That the years of practicing instruments in the end led to us being able to make our own music, which is just such an enjoyable experience.
And maybe, just how freaking good some music out there is. With a bit of insight of one’s own songwriting, you begin to grasp the craftsmanship that went into the making of the song by for examples the Beatles, Radiohead or Pink Floyd.
Carsten: Music is my outlet — I can let myself fall into it, and it always carries me.
Luca: Everyone should take their own messages of it, I’m doing it more for myself, because I need it. But of course it’s nice to hear someone’s enjoying the music I do.
Frederik: To be present and in the moment. To listen and adjust to others. If you’re not doing that, you’re unable to create.
What is a dream venue or festival you would love to perform at?
Carsten: Rock am Ring, Glastonbury Festival and Coachella.
If you could collaborate with any artist, past or present, who would it be and why? Niklas: Rick Rubin, I think. It is just crazy with how many artists and on how many
albums with completely different styles this guy worked. System of a Down, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Slipknot, but also the likes of Johnny Cash, Adele…
Carsten: Since we function as a band, it’s hard for me to say. In any case, there’s more than one artist I could imagine.
Where can our listeners follow and support your music? (Website, Spotify, Instagram) https://www.instagram.com/alex_flora_official?igsh=MXRmaG5ubmtqcDVjZA==
https://open.spotify.com/artist/4V40AY8KvaWyvdNOdufnHi?si=2ADR79nYQwi3_J22lva4 sA
https://music.apple.com/us/artist/alex-flora/1823549850
https://www.youtube.com/@AlexFloraofficial
Looking toward the future, what’s your dream for the next chapter of your musical journey?
Niklas: I think a dream for me would be to play at some smaller festival, but I think the next steps are to further work on improving our playing on stage by playing a few smaller gigs.
Carsten: My dream is to stand in front of our audience and hear everyone sing the songs along with us.
What do you hope listeners will discover about you along the way?
Carsten: I hope they see that our music isn’t like any other —
that it carries passion, love, and hard work.
Something that, in today’s world of fast-paced living, AI, and excessive consumption, has become rare in my opinion.
Luca: Without music to decorate it, time is just a bunch of boring production deadlines by which bills must be paid
