We were lucky to catch up with Herald K recently and have shared our conversation below.

Herald, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today, can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

That has to be my latest album project, ‘Mythologies’! I had had some song ideas and song lyrics laying around for some time. Then, when the pandemic happened, I found time to develop these songs, and write some additional ones. For instance, some of the songs were created during a forced solitary quarantine in a mountain cabin, after a journey from Austria to Norway.

Later on, I realized I had enough material for a full album, and that now would be a better time than any to start recording. I ended up picking a number of songs that seemed to have some common themes and motifs to them. There were a lot of ancient stories and old literary influences, and mythology was a recurring topic, so I chose to give the album the title ‘Mythologies’. The motivation is to retell these stories and myths musically, in my own way. Make them accessible and enjoyable to a modern listener.

I started recording and producing, and then contacted a bunch of musicians I admire in and around Vienna where I live, and luckily they all agreed to help me on the project! And this is the reason this has been the most meaningful project I have been involved in: The collaboration! Every single one of the folks I worked with on this record did an amazing job and really put themselves fully into it. I’m grateful for all they added to these songs. Without their contributions, the record would have been nowhere near the level we got it to. It has really been an amazing experience of creating something together with a number of other people, mutually benefiting from each other’s unique strengths and experience!

We started releasing singles in 2022, and the full album came out in May this year. Thus far it has been well received, with lots of international reviews and radio and playlist features. It has also given me some amazing concert opportunities alongside esteemed artists such as Freeman Dre and Early James.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I’m a singer-songwriter. My aim is to create songs that are meaningful and valuable to listeners out there. Lyrics combined with melody that will stir people in a particular way. So my main motivation for doing this I guess, is just creating good songs. If I manage to do that, and perform them well, I believe I will reach some people. I don’t really think much about how many listeners I should have, or how much money I should make from this. I acknowledge that music is a business and that artists need to brand themselves, and part of my work is connected to that side of things of course. I don’t like to think of it too much in those terms though, but rather focus my energies on the crafts of creating and performing.

I took to music out of neccessity. I liked writing little poems, but figured I had to learn how to sing the things I write, and to learn how to accompany them with a guitar, in order to reach more people.

I call our particular style ‘Folk Noir’. It’s down-to-earth music, with traditional folk influences. It’s often a bit dark and dusky, and a bit old-fashioned and mellow, kinda like an old Humphrey Bogart movie or a Raymond Chandler novel. Like Don Draper in ‘Mad Men’, when he orders a drink, we often go for ‘old-fashioned’ too. I’m quite proud that we’ve created a bunch of songs thus far that are all pretty unique. I try to combine this Folk Noir style (which was dubbed as a genre before I started out by the way) with lyrics inspired by ancient and classic literature, and that makes for quite an unusual mixture. I try not to be too wordy or contrived or anything like that. The best songs tend to be the simplest and most accessible ones I think, and that’s what I strive to achieve too. Some country songwriters like Hank Williams, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, and Guy Clark knew that better than most, so they are people I admire and would like to be inspired by in my writing.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

Like I’ve touched upon above, the main goal for me is to create good songs, and be able to perform them well, and never forget that the songs are more important than me. The performer, and even the creator of a song, to my mind, is only really a conduit. That idea is quite liberating, I feel. No need to take ourselves too serious as artists. Just let loose and enjoy the creative process and the performing. If we can do that, that’s bound to bring better experiences to the audiences too!

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

During my time in music I’ve met lots of supportive and generous people, who have helped me on the journey. I try to follow such people’s example, and support others in turn if I have the chance to.

But sometimes you also meet with less kind people though. I feel a bit sad that it has to be that way. I think it would be great if more people, and the society, would think more communally about music, and be more generous to artists. Music should really be about community. I think that’s really the essence of it. In today’s arts scene I believe there’s more individualism, competitiveness, and even selfishness then what used to be. I’ve been confronted with that a few times on my journey as a musician: People who are condescending towards you, or people who ghost you when you reach out. Why not just be supportive of others when you can, at whatever level of development they may be? It shouldn’t be a competition. And if you’re in a position of power as a gatekeeper, whether as a venue, a writer, curator, media host: Why not just be decent and kind? Write back also if the answer is no? And why not think more out of the box? Be open and back some different kinds of acts? If everything just caters more and more to an expectation that people just want more of the same, music is just gonna become more and more shallow, and eventually shrink into that cultural ‘black hole’ that the postmodernist Baudrillard was talking about. You might as well leave songwriting to AI then.

Your magazine seems to be about just that: Granting some attention and publicity to individuals and communities that think outside the box and go ahead and create something of value, because they have that courage that it takes to go into new directions. There may be some failure along the way when someone tries producing something new, but that original effort should be rewarded, not mocked. If you pardon my pun: We need creative rebels to fill new canvases!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://heraldkmusic.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heraldkmusician
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HeraldKMusic
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/HeraldK12
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@HeraldKVideos
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/intl-de/artist/1rG4pmrcpdK5cmkqFDVXRk

Image Credits
Collage photo credits: Robert Fischer, Julia Hosp, Christina Milassin, Flo Moshammer, Nathalie Weider, Martin Winzisch, All other photos: Funky Eye