Christoph Niemann on connecting with an audience

The great joy of art, whether it’s music or writing or visual arts, is always that you realize that you have something in you. When you listen to Mozart, and it really touches you, it’s not so much that you love Mozart. The music opens, it reveals something that’s already present in you. The art is the key. Sound waves cannot transport that amount of emotion. It’s more about showing what you already have.

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The real magic is supposed to happen between the art and the reader and not between the artist and the reader. It sounds like a small distinction, but it’s really important. It’s not about me having a connection with my audience. I have a connection with my art, and then the art has a connection with the audience. What’s happening between them is beyond my control. I cede control the moment I release the art in the world, and I think it’s fun that that might actually be different from what I intend, even if I make it very precisely planned.