With a new album unleashed unto the world, punctuated by an impressively organic songwriting method and gorgeous melodies, Judith Haustein has the world to conquer and all the right tools to do so. Boasting such incredible soundscapes and a profound emotional resonance, we dived beneath The Flood’s strong tides and spoke to the artist herself to find out more…
SS: How would you describe your songwriting process and how has this process evolved over time?
Mostly I start off writing lyrics. Sometimes I already hear them with a melody and have an idea of what some of the chords could become. I then accompany myself on the guitar or the piano, improvising on the melody. This is my favourite part, I think, as I absolutely love harmony and how the way it moves can change the way you perceive the lyrics…Once I have gotten to this stage I usually end up going to bed very late as I get really hooked and can’t sleep until the harmony is moving perfectly and as I hear it in my head. Because I am a perfectionist I tend to get very specific and elaborate, up to a point where the harmonies absolutely blow my mind.
For my new album I tried to go back to quite an intuitive way of writing. I basically tricked myself by using a guitar tuning that I wasn’t that familiar with so I was forced to find and use voicings that I hadn’t used before.
Also, the song-writing process was sometimes a little more unusual because I let myself be inspired by natural ambiences and noise that I recorded on my phone. These recordings became the core of some of the tracks, the best example for this being “EGO2017”: I heard an escalator in the supermarket ‘sing’ a motif that contained a very obvious flat sixth, over and over again. While shopping I couldn’t get the melody out of my head and it became one with the thoughts I was thinking. So I went back and recorded it on my phone. Later I started writing a song based on this melody, which became the hook of a synth line being the main inspiration for the overall sound of the track. So I think you could say that when writing for my new album the creative production process has definitely been part of the writing process as it involved a lot of experimenting which has partly influenced the compositions.
SS: Do you take songwriting inspiration from anyone in particular?
I absolutely love the atmospheric arrangements and mixes of James Blake and the way his vocals feel so natural and warm yet ethereal. Over the past years I have listened to his records a lot. But I also listen to alternative rock, jazz and world music, I guess the latter is where I take a lot of inspiration from harmonically. I saw Avishai Cohen live a couple of times, backed by an orchestra and it absolutely blew my mind. I feel he inspired me a lot.
Last but not least I also still listen to the Beatles a lot. I don’t think I will ever stop listening to them. And of course I love the compositions of of Björk. I adore her music and think she’s a genius. I especially love her earlier work.
SS: What is the hardest thing about songwriting to you?
Mostly it’s making time for it and getting started. There are always your instruments and certain tunes that need to be practised so sometimes it’s hard to prioritise. Also, I feel the older I get the more commitments I have beside writing music.
And finally I think my perfectionism occasionally gets in the way, which is probably the biggest problem to be honest.
SS: Do you have any remedies for a creative writing block?
I guess exploring new music, learning a new style, a new tuning, a new instrument. Covering music you love and improvising.
But mainly: being honest to yourself about what you want to say and how you want to say it. When I started writing ‘The Flood’ I was coming out of a terrible writing block. The only way for me to overcome this block was to realise that I had to be authentic. When I realised I had changed as a person or that I did not want to be the person I was anymore, I had to challenge myself by writing and producing something a bit more direct, loud and energetic, lyrically and musically and by singing differently. It was amazing to realise how you can grow emotionally and personally when you start working on your voice to make it go to places that it hasn’t been before. I wouldn’t have been able to write those songs, had I not tried to find this ‘new voice’.
SS: How does The Flood compare to your previous work?
It is definitely very different to my debut album. It’s important to note though that I have written quite a lot of songs in between that have not been released. But even those are very different to ‘The Flood’. If anything, it’s working with choirs and writing several orchestral arrangements for documentaries and corporate movies over the years that has formed my style. ‘Fire & Sleep’ was an album that is very playful and kind of indirect. It takes a lot of reading between the lines to understand those songs emotionally. Stylistically, even if it has some elements of electronica and I was already working with samples, it’s mainly inspired by Brazilian Music, which is what I practised a lot at uni studying jazz at the time. It’s recorded in a live context whereas ‘The Flood’ is not. For this project the engineers and I recorded various musicians from different backgrounds in three different cities.
When writing ‘The Flood’ the more instruments and sounds I added to my arrangements the more creative the production became. I always try to force myself to be really open to things I’ve never tried before. This usually happens when I improvise with my voice or play around with vocal recordings, instrumental sounds or noise samples processing them with a lot of effects or even swapping the parts. On ‘My secret’, for example, I tried to imitate a horn section by using a choir I recorded and then I put that through a lot of processing…this is similar to what I did on the first track of ‘Fire & Sleep’ (making the voice sing the percussion parts of a Batucada) but ‘The Flood’s’ arrangements are literally built on ideas like that. Having started to work like this on my debut album, I think I might have taken these principles to another level with my new album.
SS: Did you encounter any interesting/funny stories when writing/recording The Flood?
I was visualising one of my favourite places, a quiet and peaceful beach on my favourite island where I like to go in my mind when I am trying to relax and feel safe. I was sitting down in the sand watching the waves. Suddenly I look at my right and realise my sweet cat ‘Fritzi’ from my childhood days is walking into the picture. It was a very emotional experience for me. Part of me was so happy to see him again, the other half of me was incredibly sad because it reminded me of when he died while I was not there anymore (I had moved to England already). This is what inspired me to write the song.
SS: What did you learn about yourself as a musician from writing The Flood?
That whatever you hear your instrument play or your voice sing in your head when writing a song is possible for you to perform. With practise you will get very far but you also need the right energy behind it. Basically you have to physically feel it. I was lucky to get some coaching sessions from a singing coach that teaches Complete Vocal Technique, which was really interesting as the technique works with these principles a lot.
The Flood is out now and available everywhere!
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