I get to create something that wasn't there before

We met artist, producer and singer-songwriter Ingrid Witt to pick her brain about how to stay creative as a musician and where her passion for music stems from.

Hi Ingrid! Please tell us about yourself and your background.

I’m an artist, songwriter and producer, living in Stockholm. I started to write songs when I was about 10 years old, and went to different music schools. After high-school I studied law and worked in that field until a couple of years ago when I decided that I wanted to try music once and for all. Haven’t regretted it yet.

When you started out making music, did you have a particular genre or sound in mind that you wanted to be your niche?

I started to write songs and produce at the same time. Back then I was slightly pretentious and wanted to include everything in one song, different styles of music and different types of melodies and sounds.

I wanted to make something that “had never been heard before”. My early work is quite chaotic to say the least. I have always been a sucker of pop though. I still search for something new in my music, but the process is more controlled. Now I try to intensify one idea in one song and that is hard enough to pull off.

You’re an experienced producer and singer-songwriter. What would you say is your biggest passion out of producing and singing?

The biggest passion is that you get to create something that was not there before. It is in itself insanely rewarding. I like to write and produce alone and those are the only moments when I forget to eat or to pee.

What’s your biggest source of inspiration when it comes to making music and why?

Music. I really love music, my teenage idols are still my guardian angels and nothing gets me as excited as discovering new good music. I think music (and maybe movies) set me in a kind of mode that I don’t get from anything else. Like entering a parallel world. Music helps me feel my feelings and understand what I want to write about.

Making electronic music you have to combine your skill with a lot of different instruments. Is there any instrument that you don’t know but wish that you’ve learned, why?

From my experience, it seems like drummers become really good producers, so maybe a drummer? I don’t play many instruments and to people like my parents’ friends I just say that I “play the computer and I sing”. The singing they understand.

Being from a city like Stockholm, do you have a favourite place or environment where you go to get inspired?

Anywhere I can wear my headphones works.

If you would give us three tips on how to stay motivated and creative as an artist, what would they be?

1. Find people that you like to work with
2. Be brave enough to suck
3. Take a break from the genre of music you normally make and listen to something completely different. I took a break this winter and listened to medieval sacral music and brazilian fusion, I think it was good for my brain.

What’s the biggest challenge you’ve faced in your career so far and how did you overcome it?

It is probably the constant struggle to continue even though I often get disappointed and things do not work out the way I want. However, maybe it is in the lowest moments I write my best songs. I am privileged to have music as my go to when I am sad. Then I can be sad and dark and it can even be constructive. So I am constantly overcoming the challenges.

You talk about your music-making process varies a lot. What is the most unexpected way you’ve had an idea for a song or your process started?

Maybe it is unexpected in this industry to say that I work really good early in the morning? Like 8 am is my prime time.

Four Quick Questions with Ingrid!

• Pop or Indie
• City or Countryside
• Drum or Bass
• Headphones or In-ears

Don't forget to check out Artist Stories with Ingrid Witt!