An artist that straddles numerous different musical universes, Nils Frahm’s work has been likened to that of a classical composer - blending piano and ambient electronic minimalism with captivating effect.
But, when speaking to us in anticipation of the release of his new live-album Paris - recorded at the prestigious Philharmonie de Paris - Frahm told us that that the general attitude he senses when performing at classical venues, seems to be one of minimisation and derision.
Frahm explains; “To be honest, not every venue is generous in terms of supporting artists. They mostly want to make money and most of the classical venues in particular have a very arrogant attitude towards pop music, which is what I’m considered to be by most of them.”
Nils did stress that Philharmonie de Paris, where the 10-track performance was recorded, was the complete opposite. “They support arts from across the board and didn’t charge us insane fees to make a recording. In places like the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Hollywood, you wouldn’t be able to do that without paying a million dollars.”
Frahm explained to us that the lack of openness to genres beyond the closed canon of celebrated composers is disappointing, as he himself is a big classical appreciator; “I don’t know how many young people go to concerts to watch Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert or Schumann, or whether they start their musical education listening to people like Max Richter, Nils Frahm or Ólafur Arnalds, but that’s beside the point.”
Nils continues, “the point is that people like to see this type of music and it deserves a venue that is suitable for it. I don’t want to replace classical music because I love it and suggest that people watch concerts of music by Mozart, Bach and Beethoven. I don’t offer a modern version of that - I can only offer my music, but it’s a fact that 99% of my music is stolen from others.”
As our interview progressed, we further asked Nils how this pervasive snobbery affects him, and he underlined a potential subtext to it; “When I’m playing in Philharmonies it appears that I’m a threat to Mozart, Bach and Beethoven because every time musicians like me play at a classical venue is a night when those composers are not heard,” Frahm explained.
“I’d just like to contribute, but because of that there is a little bit of tyranny going on that you have to deal with. From that perspective, it’s normal to be under attack or involved in the discussion about “is this classical music?’ or ‘this is much worse than classical music’.”
Nils concludes his point with a concise comparison; “Sometimes I think, shit, what happened? Oasis never had to say in an interview, “Well, we are a little bit worse than The Beatles, but we make music anyway.”
Read our full interview will Nils Frahm here and listen to/buy Paris from Frahm's Bandcamp from December 6th here
