Q&A: This is Mark Schirmacher (Low Key Trampoline)
“It’s pretty easy to be a passive, non-invested listener these days with Spotify and the other platforms so aggressively promoting the “next thing” or the deeply embedded genre climate, but that gets really old and I try to make stuff that doesn’t sound like anything else. I guess I see that as ‘risky’.” - Mark Schirmacher (Low Key Trampoline)
It was a pleasure to recently interview Mark Schirmacher (Low Key Trampoline). Through his multi-decade career, he has made music in disparate genres and is a gifted multi-instrumentalist to boot! We discuss his musical beginnings, the powerful story behind his new album “Variations Vol. 1”, balancing a music career and family life, and his musical goals for 2024. In between, Mark drops a lot of gems of wisdom in regards to perfectionism and risk-taking. I learned a lot and I’m sure you will too from this incredible interview! Be sure to check out the playlist below at the end and continue to support his future work! I know I will!
How did you get started making music?
I’ve been writing music and playing in bands for a long time, going all the way back to my first projects in the late 1980’s. I sang in choirs growing up, and studied the trumpet pretty seriously, and when I discovered the drums and the guitar as a 15 yr old, my life was over haha. I played all the time, wanting to learn everything I heard, and eventually writing my own songs and forming groups with friends. We would play at parties and shindigs, and eventually, started gigging regularly around the Minneapolis/St. Paul music scene in the ‘90s, playing bars, clubs, coffee shops, events - that kind of thing.
Low Key Trampoline came out of my desire to reclaim the recording process and release music more spontaneously. It also gave me a platform to A) collaborate with musicians from all over the world, B) explore the realm of instrumental music (especially Lofi & Ambient), and C) to become more adept at self-production and getting to play a bunch of different instruments (guitar, bass, trumpet, piano, banjo, mandolin, percussion, etc.).
Tell me about your new album "Variations Vol. 1". What was the inspiration behind it?
It started with a song of mine called “Waiting Room”, that I started when my mother was passing away. I’d spend the day with her at her bedside, and hang out with my family, and then I’d go home and work on this track a little bit. This went on for a few weeks, and then right about the same time as my mom eventually left us, I had finished the track. But it was, like, almost eight minutes long (wayyyy tooo long for most people to ever listen to haha), and I decided to ask if any of my collaborators would like to try making their own remix of it - partly to shorten it up. But also to try and reinterpret it.
It’s a unique song that doesn’t have just one genre - it’s part Ambient, Post-Rock, Indie, and Lofi - so I thought a different producer could take it and mold it into anything they wanted. I invited people I knew - and people I didn’t - to make their own “variation” of “Waiting Room”, and we put them all out on one album via my record label, Green Key Records (a Dashgo/Downtown Music Services label).
Producers from all over the U.S. and Europe - France, Sweden, Portugal - took my stems and made some AMAZING versions, so proud of the album. Actually, I’d like to do the next volume pretty soon, taking another artist’s unreleased track and passing it around to a bunch of different producers to play with. That’s what’s next for the “Variations” series.
My favorite track from "Variations Vol. 1" is "Till the End of Time" which you made with one of my favorites, Offghost. Can you explain the process of making that track?
Yeah, I love that track! Me and Offghost work together a lot, actually. We have seven or eight collabs out there and are working on finalizing a new one right now, actually. I sent him the entire stem set of my OG song, “Waiting Room”, and he took what he wanted from that and built off of it.
He added beats, some synth layers, some wild transitions in key & tempo, completely rewriting the song. Which is exactly what I was hoping for with this project. A complete re-work of my OG track. He just nailed it, it’s so creative and inviting - plus, it comes in at a very reasonable three minutes - a definite improvement from my 8-minute epic, haha.
What are some main themes in your music?
Risk: I practice risk-taking in my work, often pushing my sound into new areas, oftentimes making an out-of-genre piece. This means that not as many playlists support your music (possibly), and that listeners might be more dedicated once they find you. It’s pretty easy to be a passive, non-invested listener these days with Spotify and the other platforms so aggressively promoting the “next thing” or the deeply embedded genre climate, but that gets really old and I try to make stuff that doesn’t sound like anything else. I guess I see that as “risky”.
Spontaneity: I don’t like to work too hard to get the perfect take or the perfect mix. If it isn’t happening, I just pivot to another project, let it breathe a little bit, or find a new approach. When I work too hard on one aspect of a recording, it tends to drag the thing down.
Anti-Perfection: I want my mixes and my individual instrument tracks to be the best I can do, but I know that I will never be “perfect.” That’s been a very important lesson/development for me as Low Key Trampoline, really embracing the imperfection of the work. It’s easy to hold tracks back from release or not send a collaborator your work because you feel it’s not “up to snuff”, but that’s mostly self-defeatist bullshit. Everybody has a different take on what sounds good or not, and maybe your “best take” isn’t nearly as good as some other guy’s - OR - your worst take sounds amazing to the next guy.
Example: I sent a collaborator some guitar stems to choose from for a thing we were working on, and I included the first pass effort, full of mistakes and odd things, just to let him hear my process. He ended up using some choice nuggets from that take, even including some of my (self critical) “bad” moments. They sounded great in his mix and made the track feel loose and buoyant. My “imperfect” take worked perfectly for his final vision for the song, so we went with it and that lesson encouraged me to let the perfectionism go.
Have you received feedback from fans?
For sure! That’s the coolest thing about being a producer in this age - the distance between artist and listener is very small. Since I post most releases on Instagram, the friend group/follower base I’ve developed the past few years is very supportive, responsive, and engaging. And that translates to support on the streaming/downloading platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora, Soundcloud, and Bandcamp.
The best thing is when you drop a project and a fellow producer or a particularly invested listener drops a note in my DMs , feels great. That’s actually how a lot of collaborations occur, as well. Another artist will reach out, saying “thx for the new music” or whatever, and we’ll end up working together. It’s a great, big, beautiful circle of creativity, mutual respect, and artistic procreation, haha.
What are your musical goals for 2024?
Balancing Music & Family: I love making music, but as my kids are getting older, I realize that time with them is more important. I am actively choosing to hang out with my wife & kids instead of hitting the home studio. But producing music is vitally important to my mental/emotional health, so gotta find the balance.
Improve the Mix/Master game: I’m digging deeper into mastering my own work (I’ve been farming that part out for years) and working at my mixes. I’m probably the least technical producer out there, working from the sound + feeling standpoint, so I’m trying to learn more production theory and getting a little better footing to be applied to the larger sounds I’m envisioning.
Grow The Label: I run a small, artist-friendly label called Green Key Records (@greenkeyrecords on insta) with another artist, Torgny Elgstrand.
We like working with emerging artists on larger projects, providing a space for musical explorers and risk-takers to thrive.
Collaborate: I’m hoping to work with 20 new (to me) artists this year - HMU! Lofi, Ambient, Folk, Post-Rock, Indie, Electronica - it’s all good.
If you could live anywhere in the world for a month, where would you go?
Hawaii.