Markus Zosel
Brilliant artist and entertainer Markus Zosel taps into a compelling vibe to create an original blend of folk / singer-songwriter alchemy. It's little wonder why the radio single 'All Gold On Earth' is racing up the charts.
ALEXIS: When did you first get that feeling that your music career was gaining momentum?
MARKUS ZOSEL: I've always enjoyed making music. To write music, to produce own songs or to stand in front a whole lot of people and sing all of my songs to them has always been a great feeling and privilege. I've done so for twenty-eight years by now and it still makes me smile how fast these years have gently flown down the river of time. I've won quite a handful awards in years before but my first AKADEMIA AWARD in 2016 for the song "Off We Go" and the reactions that followed had an impact on me and I've really enjoyed each and every single step taken further since then. And I am grateful to the AKADEMIA, those wonderful bunch of people in Los Angeles/California, to be a part of a good movement that tries to realise and to help every new and unknown artists from all over the world. They do so well.
ALEXIS: Is there an underlying theme to your latest single 'All Gold On Earth'?
MARKUS ZOSEL: My song "All Gold On Earth" is really a celebration of life and of love. To me personally, there is no real life without love in all shades of its meaning. I love to share and I love to care about someone close beside me. And in addition I love caring about the friends and people standing near by. I try to create the world around me in a positive and sensitive way and look the same way at it. Love is the key and the essence to life and I thank GOD that he created it this way. I really do and I try to find my way within its structures.
ALEXIS: Does this theme connect to all of your recent musical works?
MARKUS ZOSEL: This is, indeed, a topic that connects all my musical works in recent times and years gone by. It's a main theme to me and I am very grateful to be able to share love in this way even though I've been disappointed and desillusioned by some people many a time. But as I said, I am so grateful for all the things I've seen and all the things I am going to experience.
ALEXIS: What is the quirkiest thing about you as an artist?
MARKUS ZOSEL: Simply the way you live and you have to live your life in order to get results in what your doing on stage and in what you're doing in studio when writing and recording your music. It not always easy to live like that, but it's the only way to live for someone who really does try to work as an artist. It's not always easy to understand for other people who are not involved in processes like these.
ALEXIS: When do your musical ideas come to you?
MARKUS ZOSEL: They do not depend on any action or time of day. It might happen in the morning after getting up or late in the evening before going to sleep. Most of the musical ideas reveal outside in nature, some place I am heading for or while I am talking to good friends. Musical ideas or tunes might reveal everywhere but it's still magic to me the moment they come around to be discovered and ready to be written down.
 |
 |
ALEXIS: In addition to music, what are your other passions or interests?
MARKUS ZOSEL: I am spending quite a lot of my spare time outside in the wide open of natural landscapes or with friends somewhere in town. And I am writing books in addition to music. Narrations, short stories, poems and novels. You can find them on amazon.com or at concerts. I sell them in breaks, when people feel the need to talk to me about topics that need a little more time to talk about. I need to write books, because there are sometimes stories that need a little more space than the three or four minutes of a song. That's when literature comes in. And it's such a wonderful place to be and to work in along with music.
ALEXIS: What change or changes would you like to see in the music industry?
MARKUS ZOSEL: It seems that that the music industry rushes on and is getting quicker and a bit faster with every new year. But music isn't that way. It needs a little time to write, to produce and it needs a space to grow in the ear of the listener. And every musician needs a little more outcome of the work he has done, not only in the aspect of financial royalties. But streaming pennies aren't pennies to build a life on no more. Touring and selling CDs must accompany the streaming- and download market to make a living all along with a lot of other activities that you can rely on financially. This is very sad and one of the greatest changes in music industry to me in the past 40 years.
ALEXIS: As you were growing up, what is one of your best memories associated with music?
MARKUS ZOSEL: It has always been a place I could go to without any regulations or boundaries to my own thought. It has always been a shelter to me personally and also a place to communicate to others at the same time. I could say things I wasn't able to mention or communicate in any other way. I still wouldn't be even today. The famous classical composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein once desribed it as an island for him to go to when he was young and dearly in need to express himself. It seems to be same to me. It still is. A beautiful part of childhood and always dear to bear in mind.
ALEXIS: What is your proudest moment in your music career to date?
MARKUS ZOSEL: The moment after my very first gig at the age of nineteen. I came home and had it made. I entertained a lot of people at a local fair - and I really got them entertained. My voice used to be kind of tired that day but it really worked out fine. Friends of mine told me that they liked my show and that really made me proud and smiling - and it made me able to go on for many a year. It's now twenty-eight years since that first show...
ALEXIS: What new music do you like?
MARKUS ZOSEL: I am also working as a teacher with teenage kids and I get to know a lot of new music while working with them. I try to help them musically in realizing dreams of singing these songs themselves. There's alot of good rap stuff, rock or alternative music - too much good music to mention only one of the songs here. But there was one song a couple of years ago I really liked a lot. It was "Hero" by the Family Of The Year. I just played it with the kids, along with some others, when we were performing for a school concert a few days ago. But as I said, there are a lot of very talented young artists who are doing great music right now.
ALEXIS: Which musician would you like to collaborate with most?
MARKUS ZOSEL: I always enjoyed the music of John Denver, Jim Groce, Jose Feliciano, Gordon Lightfoot and Cat Stevens. These are singers of another generation and two of them are gone by now. But it would be really exciting and challanging to work with the ones who are still alive and still involved in the process of producing and writing.
ALEXIS: Are you working on new material now? If so, is it in a similar vein as your latest single or a radical departure?
MARKUS ZOSEL: I just finished a new album called "Singer & Songwriter". It was released on 15th February. My song "All Gold On Earth" was the first single release from that album back in October 2018. I also wrote and produced a new EP with the title "Character" which will be released on the 1st April. I am really looking forward to the listener's reactions to both of them. They both continue to draw the line further on that started twenty-eight years ago. I think I found a very unique style in everything I do musically and literary. So the new album and the new EP is a reflection of that very personal note. In case you might be interested to listen to it, give it a try and just enjoy.
ALEXIS: Sounds good. Congratulations on your success thus far! Wishing you much luck and prosperity in the year ahead!
https://www.theakademia.com/artistkit/MarkusZosel-AllGoldOnEarth.html
https://www.facebook.com/markuszoselofficial