Fabian Buch, a singer-songwriter from Germany, released his single “Hello, Hello” on Amazon and iTunes Oct. 5, and his album is set to be released in early spring 2011. TheCelebrityCafe.com’s Jaclyn Baldovin spoke to the motivated artist about his music, his experience on “The Flatstar,” a German TV show similar to “American Idol,” and his contest which will allow fans to meet him during his listening party in Los Angeles.
TheCelebrityCafe.com: What was the inspiration for your single “Hello, Hello”?
Fabian Buch: When I it heard for the first time, I was at “The Flatstar” show and it was the demo track of that song. When I heard that song for the first time, it was a really, really cool feeling because I listened to the song and I fell in love with the words, like I really took the words into me. I really liked them, so I started picking up my guitar and started to find some chords because I didn’t like the background at that point. I started taking my guitar and took the words and changed it a little, like I did my own thing with it. When I actually sung it then for the first time, I really knew this was going to be like the single. Not the single – I didn’t know I was winning [“The Flatstar”], but I thought this, like if anything happens, would be the song I would want to do for a single, like this was a really great feeling to me. Yeah, that’s pretty much how I got the inspiration for that.
TCC: What was the inspiration for your song “When You’re With Me”?
FB: Yeah, actually, the “When You’re with Me” song I wrote together with Emile, one of the producers and we wrote it after “The Flatstar” show. “Hello, Hello” shows the really kind of the sad side of love – like love can make you feel really bad. The “When You’re With Me Track” is like the opposite of that. It’s a really happy love song. We just tried to capture that feeling of just falling in love with a girl, just having that feeling of just wanting one, certain girl and be with her in your life. And that feeling’s pretty good and everybody knows how that feeling feels and I do too, so we tried to work with it and made a really happy love song right there.
TCC: Tell me about the album that you will be releasing in early spring 2011.
FB: The name of the album is going to be “Hello, Hello” like the single. It’s the first album I actually put out and it’s Sony International, so it’s pretty, pretty huge for me. It’s going to have 14 tracks on it and it was pretty crazy that we recorded the whole thing in like 20 days right after “The Flatstar” show. It was pretty heavy, but still it was a lot of fun. It was an amazing experience and everything, but it was still a lot of work. I put all my heart in it and in general, I think the album turned out really great. I really can say I did everything I can. If you want to explain the sound of it, I guess it’s kind of, like in general, it’s pop, but the cool thing is I actually got the chance to put a whole lot of stuff I actually do in it, so we put acoustic guitars in it. I play them, and we got rock elements in there too. So we tried different things and just as long as we felt the music everything was good and we tried every kind of thing. So we got a whole lot of different styles on it and it’s a really great album.
TCC: Will you be releasing an album in both English and German?
FB: Right now there’s one German track on the album here [Germany]. So I’m not sure yet if it is going to be on the American release too. Probably not because I don’t know if people speak German that well or not. Maybe we might just leave it on it to show people that I speak German too. In general, we sing in English. I hope I get a German album out too at some point. I like both. I write German songs too since German’s my language. I enjoy doing both.
TCC: I know you’re having a listening party in Los Angeles soon. Do you have any other upcoming concerts planned for when you arrive in the United States?
FB: Right now, everything’s being planned, so when I get there [United States], I will definitely have that listening party that you just said and we’re going to have a little intimate show. I’m going to be there with my acoustic guitar. I just want to present the songs that I actually do. I want to show them that I’m actually a musician. I love the music. Like they can do a lot of stuff in the studio, I think. You can produce a whole lot of things out of it even though you’re actually not that good. But I think it’s worth it to actually show that you’re feeling the music and actually, like get there and play it – if it’s really small and showed this side of my kind of music. Shows are going to come up definitely too. I can’t tell any dates right now, but people definitely should go on my Facebook, MySpace or Twitter and follow me there, and we’re definitely going to post any date that’s coming up on those networks.
TCC: How does it feel to hear your music on the radio and see your music video on TV?
FB: It’s pretty crazy because the first time I heard it was on the radio. At first it’s pretty hard to realize, but then you’re like, “All right, my stuff is running on TV and radio.” It just gives me an awesome feeling. Right now I know I can do music, like I don’t want to say everybody, but I can reach so many people with just my songs. For me it’s really important to get feeling. Like music just shows you feelings, right? So I’m really happy that I can reach that many people. I also have to say, on the other hand, it makes me want to do better, it gives me more motivation. I know everybody’s listening, so I try to do the best I can. Right now I have the chance to reach so many people, so I want to show them the really, the very best I can. So I really want to do this as good as I can. That’s pretty much how I feel.
TCC: What was your experience like on “The Flatstar”?
FB: “The Flatstar” was a TV show and it was kind of like “American Idol,” but in some ways it was really different. I found out about it on the Internet. I was just surfing around and I then found an advertisement for it and I just signed up. You had to sign up with a video where you actually play a song and just videotape it and it was really simple. And that’s what I did. I played Jon Mayer “Free Fallin.’” That’s the song I played and actually I just closed the page and didn’t even worry about it anymore, but then about a month later or so, a call came and they were like, “All right, you’re on the show.” That was pretty crazy. My flight was the next week. It was crazy! As soon as I got to the show, there was like six people living there, living in one apartment. It was like every week the producer came and you had to show your interpretation of the song you got earlier. It was kind of strange being away from home, but I really just didn’t think about that. I got the songs and I just tried to do the songs and worked on them really hard and just tried to make the best out of it, so I could show them what I can do. I didn’t really think about what position I was at that point or how great the turnout, if I actually make it, I just was thinking about the next Friday when the producer came in and tried to give him the best I could. I stayed focused all the time. I was thinking about the music.
TCC: I read your father was the person who first inspired you to get involved with music. In what ways did he inspire you?
FB: Yeah my dad is a pretty important person when it comes to [music]. Like, he plays the piano and he sings a lot. He was also into music when I was growing up. When I was really little I was hanging out downstairs and he was just doing new songs and was just singing all the time, so I kind of grew up with that. As soon as I turned 10 or so, I was still really little, he sang songs with me and I had fun with it. Like I really wanted to do it, so when I was really little already, I got introduced to the whole singing and producing of music. He was really a big support of myself. He was really motivating me all the time like when I started the band in high school. He really helped me out with everything. He bought me amps and everything. His recording room he gave to us to actually practice there. He’s a really good guy.
TCC: Are their any particular music artists that influence your music?
FB: There’s one German one, Clueso. At the beginning, I had some certain artists that inspired me. I always got into a certain artist for some time. When I started the high school band, I was into all the Nirvana stuff like Kurt Cobain. It was really the thing that I wanted to do at that time. I was still 14 and I really enjoyed doing that stuff. We were a 3-guy band. And, as I got older, I kind of wanted to get more into guitar. At some point I got into Jack Johnson. I really loved what he was doing with the guitar and how he played it and how he sung to it. It was kind of the style I wanted to do. I started to find out the song that I listened to from him and I tried to figure out how he’s doing it, and I really wanted to do it as he does it because I really liked it so much. I spent a whole lot of time just practicing guitar and getting that straight, so I could actually play good because when I played the Nirvana stuff, I didn’t really focus too much on actually playing the chords or anything, just making loud music. The Jack Johnson [song] was really harder to actually do it, but I still wanted to do it, so I practiced and practiced. At one point I got it and that’s when I actually started writing my own songs on guitar. As soon as I got the scales – I don’t want to say I can play as good as he [Jack Johnson] does – as soon as I got better and I actually could play, I wanted to start writing new songs right away. That was just what I was doing.
TCC: I know that you play the guitar. Do you play any other instruments or plan to learn to play any other instruments?
FB: I do play the flute and I play a little piano – just as good as I can actually play chords – a little bass and very little drums. But in general, I have to say, I’m don’t want to be the best, elite guitar player in the world. That’s not where I want to go. I’m [when Buch plays the guitar] just interested in connecting with the locals and to be the background. It’s really important to me to have good melodies with it. I think simple chords are everything, like you can do everything with simple chords and just sing great melodies to it. I think it’s all about the melodies and that’s what’s important to me, so I always give instruments as the background thing for my actual locals.
TCC: I read you’ve launched a contest for fans to meet you at your listening party by friending you on Facebook and following you on Twitter. Can you tell me more about the contest?
FB: It’s all about the release, on the 5th of October, the single [“Hello, Hello”] came out. Right now, we’re trying to get people to come on Facebook and Twitter and follow me and if they’re doing that, they can actually send me their name and e-mail address. As soon as some people do that, we randomly pick people to actually join me on that party [Buch’s listening party] we do, just to listen to my music and hang out with me.
TCC: Do you have any other things that you’re passionate about besides music?
FB: I used to do a lot of sports. I actually did judo for a long time, like martial arts kind of thing. But I was actually going for pro, but then I realized I was not good enough. Then I quit. Right now, actually, I’m really focused. Like I work out sometimes, but it’s not like I actually have fun doing that. I’m really focused, like right now I’m busy too. I really have a lot of stuff to do with music, but I’m happy with that. Everything now that’s in my mind is just to do with music.
TCC: Where do you see yourself, in terms of your music career, in the next five years?
FB: I want to see myself at some point maybe have like five albums out. I want to do music in the next five years, as I’m doing now, so maybe have five albums out. I want to play, tour, even tour the U.S. if it’s possible. I want to tour Japan, anywhere. I want to keep doing what I’m doing now. I hope everything’s going great for me – I get the chance to keep doing what I’m doing.
TCC: What has given you such a strong sense of motivation to achieve your goals in music?
FB: As I told you, music’s been a part of my life for a long time. And when I connect with music, it’s a feeling. It gives me some kind of feeling. It doesn’t even matter what kind of music it is. I can listen right now to every music. I can listen to house music, rock, pop, everything, I just need to get the feeling. That’s what motivates me. Like I want to give people a feeling. It doesn’t even matter what feeling it is. It can be sad, it can be happy, whatever you’re trying to do. But the cool thing is, in my opinion, you actually can do that to people only with music, right? What I want to do, I want to just touch people. That kind of motivates me just to keep doing what I’m doing. I mean, I know it’s a lot of work and I put a lot of work in it. But still, I think, as long as you do what you love, it’s not actually work, right? I mean, sometimes it’s hard obviously, but in general, I think it’s important to do something you love, so you can actually put your heart in it and stick with it.
TCC: Out of all the experiences you’ve had so far as you’ve grown as a singer and songwriter and promoted your music, which has been your favorite and why?
FB: I’ve definitely had a lot of experiences in the last couple months. It was pretty crazy. I really have to say, the greatest experience was right at the beginning, right after the show [“The Flatstar”]. When I walked into that huge studio in L.A., it was like the craziest thing of my life because I went in there and I knew I was going to record my whole album there. It was just a really crazy feeling because this is just what I wanted to do. I have a little studio at home, like really not good quality stuff, but just as good as I can do anything. And then if you get into a huge studio with all that equipment and all that pro stuff, you just freak out. That’s what I did and it was a pretty great experience for me.
TCC: Will any of your other singles be released on Amazon or iTunes in the near future?
FB: “Hello, Hello” just got released. We’re definitely going to put out a different single, a second single – that’s for sure. Right now we still keep fighting about what song it’s going to be because I don’t know yet because I like all the songs. I can’t really pick myself and so we have to figure out what we’re going to do. Tell people to stay on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, so when we figure it out, I can post everything there and they can find out everything [about new Amazon or iTunes releases] on those pages.
“Hello, Hello” iTunes Download: http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/hello-hello-radio-mix/id393533602?i=393533619
Friend Fabian on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/fabianbuch
Follow Fabian on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/fabianbuchusa