Herbert Grönemeyer – HuffPost 11.26.12

Mike Ragogna: What advice do you have for new artists?

Herbert Grönemeyer: I think, first of all, they should check whether they really like to make music like they play football or kiss. On the one hand, I always think it’s a bit dangerous. If they just go for the success, they treat their art not very nicely, because the main thing must be that they like it, that they enjoy it. That’s the first point, and that has to carry them through life. Now, they have to take it step-by-step. What does it mean to go into the public, what does it mean to make an album, what do I have to learn about the industry, about the media, about promotion. If they fail, then I say, “Okay, but you still have your music.” It’s not that you have to stop making music now. The first thing is that you love it. Even later in life, if you would be very successful, people always ask me, “Why don’t you stop now? You’ve made enough,” and I say, “That’s not the point. I like it. I don’t stop kissing because I’ve kissed already so many times.” Look out for a label or for partners where you feel that, yeah, you might fail one or two or three times, but try to find the right people that help you to develop. Take your time, go slowly, and I think it will be more and more common that the big companies will, more or less, be just big dinosaurs, and the small cells, in a way–with all the possibilities, the internet and freelance people–they can do a lot more or less the same. The thing with us is we have three offers per year. A big company like Universal has fifty, so if number thirty-two doesn’t work, they say, “Forget it. Thirty-three…” We can’t. We have to work it so we take out of that year as much as possible. Even if we don’t succeed, we work it as far as possible so the artist has a feeling we really care. “Okay, we, together, made it halfway; maybe the next one will be more,” so you always feel sheltered. In a big company, you can’t have that anymore.