Interview transcript, Instrumental Saturdays with Mary Bartlein
WMSE Milwaukee, April 30/2005

Mary Bartlein (MB), Thomas Barth (TB)

(music: "Reverie d'Elfs"- Beyond Left, track 1)

MB: Tell me a little bit about your background in music. When did you first start playing the piano?

TB: I started playing the piano when I was a child. I was naturally drawn to the piano from early on. Playing the piano was always a natural means of expression for me. My mother encouraged me to study with a wonderful piano teacher, Dr. Karl Schnürl. He is a wonderful man, because he not only taught me the language, the vocabulary of the classical literature, including theory and scales, but also, from the very first moment encouraged me to play with him on an improvisational basis. He had two pianos set up. At the beginning of each lesson he started a theme randomly and we created music together. This was actually a wonderful symbiosis between something preconceived - which is classical literature- and something which comes in the present moment: with structure, with playing together, with listening to each other. That was basically the groundwork for everything else.

MB: So that actually opened you up to know the piano in not such a structured way- so you were actually able to approach the piano freely.

TB: Exactly. It showed me two main approaches to play the piano: The preconceived way (the language and vocabulary) and the experimental way- which means the encouragement to create something on your own.

MB: At what point did you believe that, well this is going to be what my life is about?

TB: It was more or less from the beginning. The years it took to full development had to do with: Ok, this is what I want to do: HOW do I want to do it? Another exercise was keeping the focus on music because the main thing for many people is: Oh my god, here is my life and what is it that I want to do with it? So there were several options: I was always drawn to science, to nature, to philosophy, to all different kinds of interests. The great thing now is that I can see now how it all accumulates and can be used in musical expression.

MB: When you were a teenager- did you follow the usual path of joining a band?

TB: Yes- these were the first seeds - or roots- to come to the United States. I joined a band in Vienna which had Americans and Austrians in it. We played at the "Marine House" in Vienna- the house where all the Marines in Vienna were stationed. So I found out what a real T-Bone Steak is like- and all of that in Vienna. The next steps were going to Denmark, there were fantastic Jazz Clinics there. I met American teachers there who encouraged me to come to the United States. Later on, in 1987, I had a wonderful workshop, a master class with Herbie Hancock , at the Mozarteum in Salzburg/ Austria, later on with Joe Zawinul, the founder of Weather Report, who is also Austrian. All that summed up plus my own studies gave me a very solid, very diverse background to go my own way.

MB: Having learned from your teacher to be spontaneous- did that help you to in Jazz bands, where you could jam?

TB: Absolutely, because this is the foundation of creating music in the present moment. I have often thought about it: Why do great musicians, classically trained ones, who can play anything from sheet music, sightread- why is there a fear of spontaneous musical expression, a fear of creating your own music? When you go back in history, to all the great composers and instrumentalists, it used to be ONE THING: People like Bach, Beethoven and Liszt- they were also great Improvisators. A lot of it got lost, because of very academic, very forceful means of teaching music to people.

MB: The CD on which we are going to focus on tonight is "Beyond Black and White." Is this your first CD?

TB: It is my second CD. My first CD is called "Seven Worlds.", a fusion - Jazz/ World CD which is actually the first CD I recorded in New York. I have people like Mike Stern on guitar as guests, Craig Handy, Gerald Veasley, Mike Baker. I chose a wonderful lineup of musicians. "Beyond Black and White" is the first solo piano CD, a double CD.

MB: I noticed on the CD that you just don't play the piano, but you PLAY the piano. You know what I mean? You do.

TB: Thank you, I am glad it came across.

MB: It very much does. We heard the opening track, called Reverie d'elfs. The next track is called "Nocturne in d-minor OP 139. Can you tell me about it?

TB: Yes, it is one of the pieces on this record which is written in the old style, like a Classical piece.

(music: "Nocturne in d-minor op. 139"- Beyond Left, track 2)

MB: Thomas, right off the bat I have to ask you about the recording of this CD. The sound and the dynamics of the piano are so pure. I get so many Acoustic Piano Solo CDs that I play on my show, but none of them have the recording quality that this CD has. It is amazing, the difference is truly black and white. What did you do?

TB: First of all, Mary I really appreciate you saying that and hearing the difference. To answer your question: There was a whole sound conception which is the basis for "Beyond Black and White". The idea was - and everything came into place to support this idea, to bring this idea to reality: The concept is: Holistic Resonance. What does it mean? I had the chance to record this CD in a room which was sponsored by a friend of mine, Bruno Weinberger. He is a piano dealer and manufacturer from Austria. We recorded the whole CD in a room that was filled with about 30 acoustic pianos. I wanted to get across the idea that you hear not only the the piano itself, but also, on a fine vibrational level, the answer- or the resonance- of all these other instruments in the room, which in sympathetic resonce vibrate to every sound which was played. The second thing- and this is a big credit to the engineer, Alex Tomann. He is a young guy from Austria and he was my "partner in crime", so to say. I asked Alex, "How would it sound if you also place the microphone underneath the piano - plus how would it sound if there was an additional "ambience" microphone in the room, which captures all these fine vibrations? We were pretty quick in finding the perfect microphone setup with four different microphones which he very dilligently placed. Of course, this was an adventure as well for him. So with excellent preparation of the instrument- credit of Bruno Weinberger- and the preparation of the sound setup- which is Alex Tomann's credit, we managed to bring this sound across. This sound - and you mentioned the purity of it - was preserved in all the subsequent steps: the mixing and the mastering of it. As far as mastering, I give credit to Horst Pfaffelmeyer, who is a fantastic, visionary mastering engineer. He immediately understood that concept of "Holistic Resonance" and the fine vibrations. I guarantee you that there was no artificial reverb used on the recording, no compression. In other words- for people who do not speak the studio language: No technichal Schnickschnack. No "special sauce", no taste enhancer, like in Chinese food.

MB: Yes, it does show, you can tell the difference between the pure acoustic sound and something that was compressed, limited or reverbed. What I like the best, especially in the last song that we heard: It is so dynamic. And then you have very quiet parts that are just perfect. There is no sound of a pedal, because that's what you hear a lot in poorly recorded acoustic piano: The sound of a pedal.

TB: It all came together in a beautiful way. I remember, when I recorded this, it was in July and it was very hot. There were only two people in the room: Alex and me. I only had shorts, because it was so hot and I played barefoot. So there was no shoe between my foot and the pedal. It all paid off.

MB: Absolutely. You are mentioning Bruno Weinberger. He has built a brand new piano. I read on your bio that you are on of the first people to have it?

TB: Yes. It is called the Weinberger Passion Grand piano. And as we speak-. I'm talking to you from New York, it is the first- his Opus One- that is here in the United States. It is a revolutionary piano, a five foot seven Grand Piano, which makes it very compact. When we talked about pianos, I said, " You must make a grand piano." And he found a way to bring a lot of sound into very small dimensions. There is an inch between the lid an the corpus. This inch and other sophisticated sound- enriching details make this piano stand out even in comparison with much bigger grand pianos. It is the best of its class and I am endorsing it.

MB: Does it give it a different resonance?

TB: Yes, and it is beautiful! It is a sexy piano, the design is unusual. It also makes a great touring piano if you find a bunch of roadies you can afford who can schlepp the piano in and out of the truck to the stage. It had a long journey from Austria to New York, via ship and truck. When it finally arrived, I played it and it sounded very good. That is the sign of a good instrument- that it keeps in shape despite the stress of a trip like this.

MB: I look forward to your next album on this instrument. Now when did you start composing?

TB: Pretty much from the moment where I could play five notes with my tiny fingers.

MB: Let's listen to the third track on the CD, it is called "Shaman" What would you like to tell us about that?

TB: The first two tracks on the CD are very Classical- or movie score- oriented pieces. Shaman however, is based on "What can happen with the overtones of one single note?" It is one of the spontaneous compositions on the album and requires a special playing technique. It was a first take. Every track on the CD is either a first or a second take, nothing was cut, edited or overdubbed.

MB: It is a little darker than the first two tracks.

TB: Yes. Focus on the one tone and put your attention on how this one tone, this low C# evolves. Listen to the overtones you might hear.

(music: "Shaman"- Beyond Left, track 3)

MB: What's amazing about this song is that for as hard as you are hitting the notes, there is no distortion. It's very nice. You have played in some Jazz Bands before and you got your current career. What do you like better? Is there a style of music playing that you like better- do you like Jazz or is the straight- up improvisational piano more what you wanna do- or do you like bands more than playing solo?

TB: I recorded an album after "Beyond Black and White" which is completely mastered now. It is a wonderful trio recording with Ian Froman on drums and Chris Minh Doky on bass. A classic Jazz Trio Setup but with music in the conception of "Beyond Black and White", it is not yet officially released. The beautiful thing about playing in a Jazz setting- if you have the right energies and people together is: They create the sound, their interplay creates the sound. Everyone throws something in and the whole is bigger than the sum of its parts. As far as playing solo- and because of the fact that I am hearing music all of the time, I do not necessarily need to express the solo playing to other people, because I am hearing it anyway. But here the challenge is not so much the self- expression, which is a term that got quite overused. A lot of people think they express themselves by throwing up on the street, putting a frame around it and hanging it in a modern art museum. It is not so much about self- expression, but the goal is to draw in, invite and seduce the listener so he/ she can embark on their own individual journeys. These are two different basic concepts about creating music. So a very simple answer to your question would be: Before I find players that are uninspired or you throw beautiful balls at them and nothing comes back or it is cold or self- indulgent, I'd rather do it myself. But once you find these players, WOW! That can transcend your own artistic ego. It's a beautiful thing, because then it does not matter who is doing what. It is a more "Aquarian" outcome then, because everyone is on the team. But the goal is to find the right people, which requires good management of the project and good resonances in human beings coming together and creating something useful.

MB: Exactly. The way you approach music: Does that make it difficult to talk about the songs you have written- because you want it to be the listener's journey as well?

TB: No, it is not difficult because every song triggers a certain frequency- conceptually and performance-wise.

MB: How long did it take you to record?

TB: We did it in two days, that's it. It was over the weekend, at Bruno Weinberger's shop. We exactly knew when it was done and that's a good sign.

MB: Now for your first solo release, to put out a two- CD disk, that's very adventurous.

TB: Well, I said to myself, "If you are crazy enough to do it, then go all the way."

MB: The concept of the two discs- you have "Beyond Left" and "Beyond Right": Maybe I miss something but I expected one to be real fast, up-tempo and the other one to be slower and darker. But actually, there is a balance on both CDs.

TB: You did not miss anything. It is just that your expectation level was different to what was actually on the CD, which is fine.

MB: That was nice, because there were two balanced CDs and I like that.

TB: Yeah. Why did we call it "Beyond Left" and "Beyond Right"? The overall concept was to create a double CD which transcends polarity. "CD one" and "Cd two" is already a polarity. "Left" and "Right"- I admit it- is a polarity still. But if I put just fast tracks on the left one and slow tracks on the right one, then it would be, "OK- if you wanna hear a fast song , then put in the first CD…It would be perfectly right when it comes to marketing. I studied marketing as well, because I wanted to learn about how the whole world works- outside of my own fantasy world with music. Marketing-wise it would have been probably better, but I said to myself, "No- let's give it a shot beyond left or right. It is about overcoming polarity and - as you see- on the left CD there is the left vibration spiral and the right one the right vibration. The process of listening itself is doing something with the listener. There ares a lot of different vibrations on the left CD and on the right CD.

MB: I was confused on the pictures though. Before I ever heard the CD, on the "Beyond Left", there is a nice casual picture of you, leaning on the piano, playing and you are very happy. On the "Beyond Right", you are in your Tuxedo, playing very strictly. So that's why I thought, this will be the classical side and this will be the fun side.

TB: But listening to the music was a different experience for you?
MB: Totally.

TB: This is actually an optical game, illusion which I played- and I am glad you did not fall into that little perception trap. The left picture is very much me, the right one we jokingly called the Carnegie Hall picture, Thomas with the sacred halo around him. I recommend to take it with a grain of salt.

(music: "October"- Beyond Left, track 5)

MB: Being a classically trained pianist, obviously you know all the master's works. Are you influenced by them at all? Is something like this last track (October) influenced by composers like, say Chopin?

TB: I do not know them all. There are so many composers and works, and we only know that little tip of the iceberg. There is a vast array of composers which are probably still unknown. We now know the Haendels, Bachs, Mozarts, Beethovens. Bach was forgotten for a long time- Mendelsohn resurrected him many years later. He is responsible for the popularity of Johann Sebastian Bach's music. I am now in a different space then when I recorded this album. You develop, you do not stand still, that is good. Everything you do or are interested in has some sort of impact on you. It certainly colours and shapes the outcome of whatever it is that you are doing. At the same time- and that is the goal about one's way of artistic development- to find your own voice, which - to quote Goethe freely- carries the roots and also the wings: to embark on your own journey to new frontiers, to discover something new for yourself. Whether it is now "new" or not, or it "has all been there before" or not- that is basically a mood issue.

MB: Yes. Before I forget: In "Shaman", there is a harmonic sound that you have in that track. How did you achieve that harmonic sound? Was the piano prepared at all?

TB: No, it is all by hand: One hand on the key and the other hand inside the piano, on the low C# string. With the pressure that I apply to that string, I create those overtone harmonics.

MB: Wonderful! And that's what I meant by "You playing the piano." You are playing the whole instrument.
TB: And it's playing me at the same time.

MB: There is so much music to listen to on these two CDs. When the idea to put this CD out came to you- did you have enough material at the time or was it more like, "I am gonna do a two CD set and I better start writing."

TB: The first case. I had enough material, it needed to come out. At that time it was not easy for me to bring a record out. I approached record companies and they said, "Yeah right." - they gave me the typical "Yeah right thing". My basket was full of this music. Then a producer friend of mine, Werner Stranka, said, "Screw them, we do it on our own and just bring it out. We just roll up our sleeves and make it happen. When you approach a company you have to deal with their corporate world. They are afraid the record won't sell. The times now have become very difficult. If one A&R person is making a wrong decision, he cannot drive his BMW anymore and gets fired. Then he goes back in the banking business or is selling real estate or whatever. This on the other hand has opened a new ground for independent productions. It still needs more attention from the public, but there are independent productions that come out which are based on craftmanship, love, a real vision and a hands- on- attitude.

MB: I agree. It is very difficult to do it on your own, but I think it is more important to do it that way.

TB: Yes, number one. And number two, if you wait until some corporate monkey gives you the green light to have the official authority to be creative, to release something, you might die and you have not brought it out. So it is better to just do it and bring it out by yourself. And then, if it catches on fire, it can create some revenue, well then you get the phone calls from people that want to book you and want to do something with you because then you have become a commodity for them. It's very simple. That's why I started marketing- to understand the other side. It makes sense. On the other hand, do you like plants?

MB: Yes I do.

TB: You just love the plants for what they are, right?

MB: Right.

TB: A rose does not have to be "feasible", you do not have to make a lot of money or income by just appreciating the beauty of a rose. And I think, appreciating art has a lot to do with that. I am being very unrealistic and romantic now, but this world needs that kind of attitude again. When you take art, you see it as a commodity: How many places will I fill? How many records or MP3 players will I sell with it? How many soft drink coupons will I sell with it? What eventually survives in that paradigm is what at a certain moment - which happens to catch a certain fad of that time- makes money. The other ones are neglected. It creates very visible outcomes on a very short basis. The beauty of a rose can be experienced without putting a name tag or a price tag on it.

MB: You have a short, little 55 second song- and I must say you say it all what you have to say in these 55 seconds. But as a producer of a radio program, I can't do anything with 55 seconds.

TB: Well it's got a jingle length. What about that?

MB: Tell me why you put on a 55 second song on it- it obviously means something to you.

TB: There are three of these so- called "Salamandes" on it. This is an artificial name I came up with. A salamander in mythology is a fire being. These three Salamandes stand for that kind of fire energy. I recall the process when we recorded all the songs. As said before, some of them were pre-conceived and some of them just came out. I said to the engineer, "Hey, something wants to come through." And these were these Salamandes. We only gave it one shot- like in ZEN painting- and it worked. It wanted to be 55 seconds and we listened back and said, "OK, it's a keeper." It probably won't get heard on American Idol, but the world is bigger than that.

MB: Yes!

(music: "Salamande Une"- Beyond Left, track 6)

MB: When you recorded this CD- did you record in this progression or did you lay everything down and then say, "I want to put this song first, this one second, this one third…?"

TB: It was the second case. When it came to deciding upon the sequence of these 21 pieces, I used a pendulum. I asked every song, "Where do you want to go?" I wrote down the names of the tracks on little post- its, put them on the floor and then, with a pendulum, I asked every tune, "Who wants to be next?" I gave them one shot to answer and every one spoke and aligned itself to the song order you can hear on both discs.

MB: I don't think that method would really work in the marketing community, but…

TB: If someone gives me millions of dollars and a company to promote it, I guarantee that it will work.

MB: That's an interesting way to lay out the CD, because it does work very nicely.

TB: Well here is one aspect: We were speaking about the egocentric aspect of an artist when we talked about self- expression. I also believe that when you bring something down as a creating artist, you are giving birth to something. You see the image of Isis, the Goddess, on the cover. The whole approach of this record is a very "maternal" one in a way. There are very personal songs on this record that are dedicated to my mother and to my grandmother, who were and still are very significant people in my life. I believe that an artist is also a birth-giver. Once these "beings"- if I may call it in a new- age kind of language - are on their own and are on this plane here, being real, being on a sheet of music, being recorded, they have the right to their own lives. When you ask me what kind of inspirations I have, I sometimes directly ask the music itself, "Who wants to come through and what do you want me to do with it?" And when I'm writing something- you know you have a chord here (plays a d-minor chord on the piano) - you can go many different ways. There are infinite possibilities. And when you are in the right attunement with the music itself- at least that's the kind of strategy I'm working with- the music- or my interpretation of its answer- tells me where and how it wants to go next. That's why I aligned them all and said, "OK- who wants to be next?"- number one and - number two: Great, cool! And I asked them again and it was fine. Of course, I was shaping the outcome by what I was doing, but this is explaining the resonance between the music itself and the person who brings these beings down. Maybe the creator is in a different sphere, but with your hands, brain and heart you have all the tools to bring them down to this plane.

MB: We spoke about the length of the 55 second song. Are the lengths of the other songs also just where they took you?

TB: Yes. I do not recall a single run or "lick" on all these tracks. The emphasis on the whole music was more in the notes itself and in allowing them to have their own length. A tendency in skillful instrumentalists is to play too much or too fast because of too many ideas. That does not give enough space for the listener. You are overwhelming the listener. It is like talking: You can come to the point or you can "qua qua qua" forever. So the space between the notes …I am aware that some listeners may listen to the record and say, "Come on- where is the uptempo song?", where is the …(plays a funky groove on the piano). This is not happening here although I can play it. The focus was on the notes itself, the space between the notes, which even can be much, much more expanded. This needs the avid listener with time and ability to tune in into the music, to resonate to it.

MB: Yes, I did notice about the CD- and again: I hear tons and tons and tons of instrumental piano music: The way you play and the sound, just everything about this CD is totally different from any performer out there right now. I don't know how to explain it, I don't. But it just totally, overall. The whole presence of your sound is different. Maybe it's just a quality step above all of that. I don't know -but I was immediately drawn to this CD just because it was like This, your playing, your compositions - everything was different.

TB: Wonderful. To answer your question- or comment: This means to me- on a very individual basis- that the music has come full circle. Creating it and putting it out is one thing. But what comes back- it is the same with a live performance. We met actually at Shank Hall, after a concert.

MB: Yes.

TB: Whatever goes on on stage is also -in my belief system- a product of what's going on in the room and what comes back. It is a communion. I think that this aspect of music is so important: To take it to the next level of sharing something and- I know I did something bold on the cover- I wrote "Music for a Higher Vibration". Well this is very presumptuous. I mean: Who is the guy? Who does he think he is to write such a claim on the cover? But the claim is honest and your feedback shows me that it actually works.

MB: It does. And you know it is really hard for me to describe why it's so different, but it is. I knew immediately that it was different. And also- I have to say- when I saw you play with Mary Fahl, because I actually came to the concert on the third song or something- so if there was any introduction as to who you were or anything I did not hear it. And I knew immediately also that you were not just a guy that was touring with Mary, because the fullness of the music that you brought to Mary's songs was huge. I walked in and just saw , "Uhm- there is just a piano player and Mary- hmmm…I wonder whether that's gonna be kinda dry." Not at all! So I was very impressed by that alone- to see you play live.

TB: Thank you, it has many components, especially with Mary. The first one is that her music- which we know from the records- is arranged and orchestrated in a very rich way. Given the fact that we were doing that in a duo setting- and this is Mary's conception: She wants that richness to be a part of the duo performance. This is why I use- also Mary's idea- a very good Kurzweil keyboard to incorporate all these sounds. So here, I went one step away from the piano. The second thing might be- and it is definitely from our point of view- the alchemy, the magical thing on stage.

MB: Yes.

TB: Because when I first heard her sing, it was one of these guided moments. One of these rare, rare moments where you say, "Oh my god!" This voice I have been knowing for thousands of years. Who is that woman? This is how we met. Mary exactly knows what she wants, she is an impeccable performer. She has a voice that comes on this plane every so often.

MB: Right, exactly. I agree entirely with you. What is a good accompanist like?

TB: A good accompanist is like a good producer. He brings out the best in the singer and enhances it without being in the way between the singer and the process itself.

MB: Thomas, in perusing your website I found some quotes from people. Somebody mentioned here- and this is where it went, "Yes, this is exactly how it explains the CD." One from Carole Puanani, from Seattle, where she said, "You have known much about the research studies with children with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and listen to Mozart's music and help them calm down and your music had that same miracle effect ." And I agree with that. What do you know about the research with Mozart's music? Is that something you ever thought your music could do?

TB: I learned about it by the feedback given to my music by others. I believe- and this is a way to explain the claim about resonance- I believe, that when a person goes in natural resonance with a vibrating sound, and this sound in interaction with the person has a positive effect on well- being, on body functions, on psychological states of being, then this is certainly a healing effect. We remember that music, from its early beginnings, when you go back in history to Greece, China or India was always connected to that healing aspect. There were times when all these different professions like the medicus, the doctor, the healer, the shaman, priest and musician were one. So when this happens and I am speaking now with gratitude and at the same time a lot of responsibility, because music is such a powerful language or communication means. I got one e-mail from a person in Austria who was about to commit suicide. She wrote me, "I listened to your music and it turned me around. It saved my life."
One cannot express this feeling in terms of money and that is the point when I get really humble and also confirmed in "why am I here to do this?": If my work has an effect on other people, if it saved one soul, if it helped another one, if it made a plant grow, a child laugh, this is a very humanistic thing which can transcend one's own- again- egocentrical definition of "Why am I here". Music is a sacred language to me and it has always been that way. I am really glad that this awareness is now rising. They made studies, of course with the "Mozart effect", everyone knows that book. And the effect that music has on body centers, energy centers, also called "chakras".

MB: Music has an impact on disease states, we had mentioned being a mood lifter. There is powerful research that music is used for relaxation- it does make a difference.

TB: There is an interesting thing which I read when I was researching that. There were patients who were regularily listening to Rap music. They did not resonate to Mozart's music so much, but were in resonance with Rap music, which benefitted their healing process. That same music that would torment another person. So those who are in natural resonance with a particular kind of music can increase their energy level with it. That brings us one step away from the dogma that says, "Mozart is great and Rap music is bad." - the good and bad music paradigm. To people who are resonating in a rap frequency, this feels different.

MB: Right- and perhaps that has to do with what they know from birth.

TB: Yes, it is a "body knowledge", which in a way is linked to musical perception. Also, pitches have been changing over those hundreds of years. A sounding "C" today (plays a "C" on the piano) is not the "C" it was hundreds of years ago, because there is a tendency for the frequency to shift. Everything leads to a sort of quickening and this is why the attunement of physical bodies on this plane are also shifting. We are constantly confronted with a lot of different vibrations: The beeping of the cell phones, electromagnetic waves, boom boxes, cars passing by with subwoofers and these super low frequencies, which have a lot of distorting effects on the human body, mind and soul. People like Emoto - a wonderful scientist from Japan- found out how frequencies and sound can shape the structure of water chrystals. And he has photography to back it up. He made research that if you drink water Mary, then it is a good thing to bless it, to just say, "I bless this water." It changes the vibration of the water. Dr. Emoto made studies of people cursing at something and then they eat it- well, it totally changes the whole cellular- molecular structure of what we eat, what we live with. This is the power of music: To change the vibration in us, in our space, in our lives. I sincerely hope that the awareness of this is rising again- which goes beyond fads and beyond cultural preconceptions and so on. So music can certainly have a healing effect on people's heart and souls, because we are living in a very challenged, troubled world at the moment.

MB: Right. Well, I have always believed that music had everything to do with mood and can be a mood lifter. What you have mentioned about music being a sacred language: My thought was that it takes a special person like you to translate that language. And that's what you do. Because you bring it to us, a place where people understand it. Like I said, your music is totally different from what I have heard before.

TB: Thank you for saying that, I am aware that I am not alone, because it is a long tradition and may my voice be one of the big choir. I'm still an adept, a student of this, but music has- and it always had- that enormous power. When we read about Jericho and the trombones, we speak about destructive power. But I think it's a good moment now to put the focus on the constructive power of music. We now know that if you play punk rock music to a cow that the milk turns sour- in simple Austrian thinking. But what can it really do? There is music but there is also also music as an integral part of one's life which goes beyond- you hear that I'm using the word "Beyond" a lot?- even beyond one's instrument. I sometimes wonder- this makes me sometimes sad, because how many people have listened to - say Beethoven's Ninth symphony over the years? And they say, Oh what a great performance! And then they go home and on the next day they are the same people they used to be before they went to the concert. It is like people going to church on Sunday, they are enlightened for a little moment and then on the next day they start putting down their neighbor, yelling at each other, beating up their children. There is too much bad stuff that has already happened, it is enough. I am using your airwaves now for this manifestation, to say, Stop it! People are stuck between a higher vibration and a very very low vibration and it seems that we are struggling between those coarsenings of our ages and also the finer vibrations. Where does life proceed? It must go on, it must go to the finer vibrations again. There must be more love than hate, it's as simple as that.

MB: This discovery reminds me of a Kate Bush Song, where scientists are used to create music and sound that can destroy. That can be, but like you say, it should be meant to restore.

TB: Yes. It can go both ways. It is like the typical hammer example, where you can hit someone on the head with it or build a house. We see all these HAARP experiments and pollute the stratosphere with sound. All that aggressive stuff. Yeah, destroy, but also create. For the song "Those Who Are Brave", which is on the record, I also wrote lyrics and one quote is, "It's braver to build than to destroy." It's EASY to destroy. It is great self- expression when someone goes down to a shopping mall with a pump gun or kills 10,000 people. It's so easy for everyone to kill everyone and to get the attention in the news. But is this where we wanna head? Is this what we want to do?

MB: No.

TB: Why were all these people alive to tell us about other options? Music is strong, at the same time it is limited, because if it does not reach the point where people go on and build their own lives, are better human beings or are thriving to be something better, then it is useless and becomes pure entertainment- killing the time of bored people.

MB: Well I do have this track cued up and it is a beautiful track, let's take a listen to that.

(music: "Those Who Are Brave"- Beyond Left, track 11)

MB: Now Thomas, there is a track called "Sleeping Beauty". That is a piece that was inspired by a long lost Beethoven piece?

TB: A long- lost piece of Beethoven, which was found in an attic in England in 1999. It was sold at Sotheby's. There was a string quartet which was allowed to be looked at for the first time only 10 minutes before the auction started. It was only one page starting with these first four notes (singing). I happened to listen to the mp3 of it and it inspired me to write that song. Beethoven has been one of the major, early childhood influences for me and that's the story of "Sleeping Beauty." Sleeping beauty, because it slept so long, it is still beautiful and it is now rediscovered in my own rendition.

(music: "Sleeping Beauty"- Beyond Left, track 9)

MB: Sleeping Beauty is one - I have several favorites on these two CDs, but I think "Sleeping Beauty" is right up there with the top ones. I really like that track very much. Do you play any other instruments other than piano?

TB: I played several instruments to find out that I am at home with the piano. When I realized that, I commited to it.

MB: So what did you play?

TB: I picked up the saxophone for a time, deeply inspired by "A Love Supreme" by John Coltrane when I was 15. And I left the credit to John Coltrane. If you look at the history of Jazz- wasn't he amazing? How he transformed his own life, got out of Miles Davis' aura and did his own thing, then made this wonderful piece which is energetically- a mantra. That was another very important influence.

MB: Did you mention that your piano teacher Dr. Karl Schnürl is still alive?

TB: Yes he is, he is still in the hometown where I grew up, which is St.Andrä- Wördern, about half an hour from Vienna. He is one of the rare and blessed spirits.

MB: Does he comment on your music? What does he think?

TB: There was an interesting moment. When I was 14- and this made him such a great teacher: He saw that I was going towards other "styles" of music, such as Jazz etc, and he said, "Thomas, I'm not good at Jazz. If you wanna go there, I let you go." He showed me an important thing. He showed me that he had the greatness of admitting "I goota let you go your own way. What he said to me carries the essence of the one Khalil Gibran quote, "Our children are like arrows", and they go their own way. That made me learn about the importance of a great teacher, who does not cling on you. He gave me the tools and let me go my own way. Some characteristics of a teacher are similar to what I have said about being a great accompanist or producer: Discover or plant that little seed and bring it out in the best possible way. Spirits like Yehudi Menuhin had that quality, or Leonard Bernstein.

MB: One of my favorites that I play a lot is the longest track on your CD, if I would not like it I would not play it- but I do like "Friends and Places." But I play that a lot, so let's skip it and should we just play "Father To Son?"

TB: That song means a lot to me. It is dedicated to my son who is now 12 years old and growing up in Vienna.

(music: "Father to Son"- Beyond Right, track 1)

MB: Thomas, that's a sweet track but not in a sugary way, not flowery. It is very nice. Does your son play any instruments?

TB: He is going his own way, which is fine. He is one of these rare beings: I've never seen him doing anything mean. He is great with animals, he rides horses. He is a sweet soul and we are deeply connected.

MB: That's a whole another form of communication, you know. Yours through music and his maybe through animals.

TB: Exactly. And if it's about love, it is the same language.

MB: Fabulous. Do you split up your time a lot between here and there?

TB: The main reason to go back to Vienna from time to time- on a heart level- is my boy - and that is a very good reason.

MB: The next track is "Shelter". What do you want to tell me about that?

TB: It's very simple and very deep at the same time. This is everything about my mother. She is one of the godesses in a human form that I had the luck to encounter in my life. She brought me on to this plane, a wonderful bright spirit. This is my love to her in music.

MB: I like the title. It makes perfect sense.

(music: "Shelter"- Beyond Right, track 2)

MB: Thomas, what inspires you to create a piece of music and what is your technique to write a song? Where do you start?

TB: There are different approaches and different experiences. What I found most effective - meaning that a song gets done- in all loftiness and "high vibrationalness", I am a person who wants to get things done. Bring it down, work, finish it. It is the approach of first cleaning my own noise. I believe in an alchemical process of creation. Imagine that every person who is creative has some sort of "antenna". My job as birth- giver is also to keep this antenna and this attunement as clean as possible. It is the same process as cleaning my plate that I eat from. This is a very personal and intimate process which means cleaning myself from all the clutter which is: The daily fear presented in newspapers or TV shows. Another clutter-pattern is "consume more and more and still be unsatisfied". Or to look at movies where a lot of people are killed. It is a mixture of being romantic, some sort of escapism and finding some sort of basis which allows you to connect with the energy itself- and certain frequencies which I channel. Then I bring it down, finish it, record, make it complete.

MB: If you more or less clear your plate before creating a piece of music, have you ever created a piece from something where you could not clear your plate?

TB: No. I am aware that it works for other people. For me it works best when I clear my plate. Maybe that's another "Austrian shaman technique": Clear water produces clear wine. Hey, Milwaukee is a beer city! You got good water, you got got beer- It's that simple. On a transformed level, it is: Once your mind is free from all the daily pet peeves, fears and - I admit, it is a continuous struggle with the daily "non- spiritual" yet spiritual things to deal with. Once that is done and once you are free from that, I found that my body being an instrument with brain, heart, soul, hands and whatever - is tuned. We tune our instruments but when do we tune ourselves? We wake up to the morning news - do you know of one newspaper with only good news? I think, there is one out there but their news is fake.

MB: That's what I mean. Have you ever been inspired by all the bad news?

TB: Not really, because if I channel that part, I just add more to the negative energy, because I get in resonance with it. It does not work for me. In that state I do not want to create. I do not know whether people want to listen to all that stuff that enhances the problems we have to deal with in this world.

MB: No.

TB: Please tell me that we are in a big club of people.

MB: Well I'd like to think so and I like to think that the listeners of WMSE are in that club, because they want to enhance their world.

TB: Yes, and I want to use your airtime to say this: There is a common conception that an artist has to suffer in order to create. I stand up now and say, "This is a wrong assumption." Being creative to me means to balance a fire energy with earth energy- bring it down to earth. It is a very real process. It is not about pain and suffering- it is about the transformation of it. If someone goes to the Chelsea Hotel and writes a depressive love song….it is a good strategy, but finish the song. To be depressed or to pee on mankind is reactive. That is a low energy form. But to be able to transform it and bring it to a higher level - like John Lennon did with "Imagine", or Coltrane, Beethoven or Mozart. He turned so much around. He had to watch his children die, he was kicked out by the Archduke of Salzburg- the same city that sells now Mozart balls and makes a lot of money from American and Japanese tourists. He struggled financially. So it is the transformation of negativity that matters. I believe, artists are a lot like a compost heap which can transform rotten material into something new. Being rotten alone is just a cheap way out. At the same time, you do not have to deal with the rotten in order to create.

MB: Now technically- is it a tune you are humming in your head, is it a sound that you hear? What starts a song?

TB: That is one way- a tune internally manifesting itself. Another way is to record everything I play. I have to be really fast to catch the ideas sometimes, because they come and go so quickly.

MB: Does a blue sky inspire you? Do your surroundings inspire you? Where does it come from? We know that you obviously clear your palette, but there is something that triggers something…

TB: First of all, I don't meditate. I am sorry that I can't sell you a fool-proof program to yoga or whatever. It works for a lot of people, it does not work for me. I was preparing myself for the question "What kind of music do you listen to?" And I remembered that there is white noise in the sounds of a waterfall. White noise carries all the frequencies, all music. So at the moment, my waterfall is my favorite inspiration. It clears me and makes me hear everything while hearing nothing at the same time. I believe it is a responsibility for the instrument- the physical and mental instrument of the composer- to keep it in tune. There is something out there, something bigger than your own ego, or every religion, bigger than the world, bigger what people try to tell you , sell you or convince you of. Inspiration is an alchemical process. Scientists have written about brain waves, people are writing about the state of flow. These are still left- brained attempts, worthwile, but still lacking something. It's exactly the part where the magic comes in. The magic is not a secret. You said you have a lot of artists as listeners on your show. Those artists are all in resonance with that, because they do it their own way. One with yoga, one with incense sticks- all different ways to come to a certain frequency or state of being or whatever you may call it.

(music: "Borea", Temple dance from Atlantis- Beyond Right, track 3)

MB: I love that song, I love the bass end. Now in the beginning of the song, were you actually plucking the strings?

TB: Yes.

MB: It is very powerful because the bass end of the piano has a lot of resonance. I like that.

TB: The idea was to create some sort of a 3D- experience of every listener inside the piano and around the piano at the same time. What matters is what it triggers in the listener.

MB: What's next? Where do you go from here? What will we on WMSE know from you next?

TB: I just had a beautiful performance in Vienna of an orchestral work that I have written for a project with a partner- his name is Günther Paal, also known as "Gunkl". In Austria, he is a famous comedian/ philosopher. He is a unique, brilliant spirit. We developed a novel with orchestra called "Via Emilia". It is about 8 friends who meet regularly and some of them go an a journey to Italy. I conduct the orchestra and play piano. The next thing beyond that- because this play is already part of my history- is to find a wonderful movie which is being seen by many people. Can I throw the dice at the universe right now?

MB: Yes, please!

TB: Let's manifest this: A real movie which is compatible to what I can express in music. I am aware my sounds are audible and tangible- that's a lot. But there are also visual elements - that is a marriage of different energies. Let me throw the dice: I do not know what movie it is, I have the music already- that's what I feel inside. Movies that are about what I am doing. I don't want to make a movie about death or war- I want to make a movie in a high vibration- there is a lot of these out there. Ron Howard makes these movies, Lasse Hallström makes these movies. These people make me cry and be grateful for the fact that I am alive and have the blessing and responsibility to create. Boom- that is my next project!

MB: You have to get on the stick and send them your CD.

TB: Well, if I can get past the lawyers, past the gatekeepers- it's possible.

MB: What I thought was a good summation for the interview was the T.S. Eliot quote that you have on your website- that we shall not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started- and know the place for the first time.

TB: That's right. My left brain still does not quite get it. But my right brain has a glimpse of understanding. It's all good.

MB: Thank you, this has been a wonderful conversation and I really enjoyed it.

TB: Thank you for having me on your show.

(music: "Friends and places"- Beyond Right, track 5) -end of show