The Obelisk Questionnaire: Felix Gebhard of ZAHN
The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.
Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.
Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.
The Obelisk Questionnaire: Felix Gebhard of ZAHN
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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?
In ZAHN I play electric guitar, a craft that was taught to me (unbeknownst to them) by listening to and watching several generations of electric guitarists play numerous styles and genres of music.
More generally – being moved by music made me want to create a bit of it myself.
Describe your first musical memory.
Riding up front in my father’s Volkswagen van, listening to the cassettes he used to play – mostly The Beatles, Johann Sebastian Bach and Ton Steine Scherben.
Describe your best musical memory to date.
Barely being able to play guitar but nonetheless writing songs and recording a 7“ with my first band mere months after its formation was a very intense experience.
When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?
Above-mentioned first band sacking the drummer, then breaking up altogether, then, a few weeks later, surprisingly playing a show with two new people replacing the drummer and myself was a pretty sobering episode.
Where do you feel artistic progression leads?
As artists progress they – if they’re lucky – discover paths to places hitherto unknown to themselves. Where those places are, or what or why they are, nobody knows beforehand. So I honestly can’t say.
How do you define success?
I am currently extremely stoked about the new album we made with ZAHN. To be able to collectively create something that leaves all three of us scratching our heads in awe thinking: “This really didn’t just come out the way we thought and hoped, it actually turned out even better!“ makes me feel that we were quite successful with this one.
What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?
The flyer to above-mentioned show by above-mentioned first band.
Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.
With ZAHN I would like to get the opportunity to make music for film or theater.
What do you believe is the most essential function of art?
Art in its best moments can give people subliminal pushes in new directions and make them think about things they hadn’t seen or thought about before without being too striking about it.
Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?
I haven’t had the chance yet to put my canoe in the water this year – I hope to be able to do that before the fall.
https://www.facebook.com/zahn.band
https://www.instagram.com/zahn.band
https://zahn3.bandcamp.com
https://crazysanerecords.com
https://www.instagram.com/crazysane_records
https://www.facebook.com/crazysanerecords
https://www.youtube.com/c/crazysanerecords
https://crazysanerecords.bandcamp.com
