Villeman
Chris who originally came from the Lake of Thun area in the swiss mountains, has been musically active for a long time. Up to now he was mostly to be found in the background as a sound engineer at the mixing desk, but now he has implemented his own musical ideas as Villeman.
Together with Lukas Kipfer (The Souls) as producer, he started setting his songs to music in the Groovefactory in Bern. With his thoughtful, profound lyrics, a tender voice that gets under your skin and organic guitar sounds, he conveys a feeling of security to his audience.
Who is the human behind the artist Villeman?
I consider myself to be a multifaceted person, which sometimes can be stressful, when opposite sides are in conflict. For example I'm an IT specialist, an audio engineer, a nerd , I love chess, I need steadiness in my life and at the same time I need to break out of my routines, I love to experiment in the kitchen, I'm an artist, I crave variety in every aspect of my life. I think of that as a main part of my creative source.
"Thirty Years" sounds great, what was your inspiration, what's the story behind?
Thanks for the compliment. It was actually the first song I've ever finished, right around my 30th birthday. It somehow started all with that hammer-on E minor chord on my guitar, which you can hear at the beginning of the song. I was so excited about finally being able to play the guitar, and thus writing songs, that at the same time I started thinking about why it took me so long to get there. The process of writing was accompanied by these thoughts about finiteness and led to this spiral I'm describing in the song, because I found that it's also ridiculous to worry about things we can't control.
From the idea of a song to the released version, how many times are you changing the direction and when do you decide that a song is finished?
That depends on the song, there is no pattern or receipe I can follow (unfortunately). Normally I re-write lyrics and change chords until I'm satisfied and then in a second phase I look into it with my friend and producer Luk Kipfer, who helps me to cut things out and gives me some directions.
It's in this stage of pre-production, when we’d decide the final version. For me to play a song and discuss it with others is a very important factor. I wouldn't want to finish it in isolation.
How would you describe the music scene in Bern?
I think the commercially successive bands are native speaker oriented (swiss-german). And there is not a very well connected scene in Bern, although I must confess that I'm unfamiliar with the existing platforms. The place I meet most of my fellow colleagues is the co-working space and community called “Groovefactory”, where we recorded our stuff. It's a complex of several ateliers, including also a studio founded in 2019 by Matthias Urech. It's the first successive attempt in this city to build a place dedicated to music. So there is still much headroom communitywise.
What's in your opinion the hardest part of being "indie"?
I'm starting to like being Indie. It means not being conformed with parts of the industry and therefore doing what you like and not what others tell you to do.
What are your Top 3 Songs at the moment?
Imitation of Life - R.E.M
Black Hole Sun - Soundgarden
Last Goodbye - Jeff Buckley
What's next for you?
I'm currently recording three more tracks. Strings have been involved, and we'll stay with that 90's fusion for now. Hopefully I will release them as an EP in spring 2023 and then play lots of gigs in and out of Switzerland.
