Erstellt am: 4. 9. 2009 - 15:10 Uhr

Die Songschleuder

Jonathan Mann schreibt seit Jahresanfang einen Song pro Tag. Über ein Experiment zwischen hastig ausgestreuten Musikartefakten und verblüffender Rastlostigkeit.

Jeder Mensch hat seine eigene Geschwindigkeit. Für den Fluss der Lohnarbeit, den Aufenthalt in Gesellschaft, Notsituationen und schlagfertige Spontanreaktionen wird sie im Alltag einer sinnvollen Norm angepasst. Doch dann findet jeder wieder zur persönlichen Geschwindkeit zurück. Nach Feierabend, in der Freizeit, im Urlaub.

Jonathan Mann

Jonathan Mann ist weder besonders ehrgeizig, noch auffallend strebsam. Auch wirkt er keinesfalls überanstrengt. Und doch trägt er eine Natur gegebene Rastlosigkeit in sich, die dazu führt, dass er unentwegt etwas schafft. In einem klassischen Versuch, das Wesen eines Künstlers mit hohem Output zu beschreiben, könnte man sagen: Es muss alles aus ihm raus.

Jonathan schreibt Songs, nimmt sie auf, macht dazu Videos und stellt seine Werke danach online. Es sind Songs über alltägliche Gedanken, Belanglosigkeiten, Suchmaschinen, Haarschnitte, Videospiele, TV-Moderatoren, Geld, Roboterliebe, verliebte Tiere, Obama, Demos im Iran, das Internet an sich, Löcher in Kappen und gestohlene Bankomatkarten.

A Song A Day

Seit Anfang 2009 legt der, der sich früher "GameJew" nannte, nochmal einen Zahn zu und veröffentlicht seine Lieder im Tagesrhythmus. Ein vertontes Journal quasi, ein auditives Tagebuch, vorgetragen in meist kurzen, teilweise komischen, teilweise absurden, teilweise langweiligen Häppchen, manchmal durchsetzt von unglaublicher Größe, Schönheit und Wucht.

Unabhängig von der jeweiligen Qualität eines Songs ist die Arbeit dieses Mannes stets von einem bemerkenswerten Mut geprägt, sich selbst und das Leben in der gesamten Bandbreite darzustellen. Vom treuherzigen Hund der Eltern bis zu ernsten Gedanken zu Politik und Wirtschaft gibt es nichts, was nicht in ein Lied gegossen werden kann. Jonathan Manns hohe Kunstfertigkeit sorgt dafür, dass für jedes Thema die passende Form gefunden wird. Sei es ulkige Indiepop-Kindlichkeit mit selbstgebastelter Pokémon-Maske, weichgezeichnete Versponnenheit mit psychodelischem Hall, anklagende Konfrontation mit verzerrtem Sprechgesang oder Musik-Comedy mit Schauspieleinlage.

Jonathan, when someone looks at your website rockcookiebottom.com, she or he gets the impression that you are restless. Are you pursuing your song-efforts fulltime now?

"I don't have a day job, if that's what you mean. Yep, it's all songs all the time."

After some years of dedicating your songs almost entirely to video game culture, you obviously felt the need to move on with your music. How did this decision influence your work?

"Looking back, it seems like my real, true, insane obsession with video games and my nostalgia for them kind of peaked in 2006 with the release of the Wii and Episode 10 of my online show 'GameJew'. I kept doing almost exclusively video game related songs and videos, but my real obsession started to wane, I think. It influenced my work in pretty much the way you'd expect: I started writing more songs about other things than just video games."

Did you ever think about bringing the old 'GameJew'-idea to a new level or would it have killed your creative process after the decline of your personal interest in games?

"I tried for quite a while, I think, to find a way to keep 'GameJew' going in a way that would really sustain my interest. But as with any creative endeavor, if there's that element of 'forcing' it, it's just not going to work. Only when you are thinking about something all the time, dreaming about it, talking about it, can you sustain something like the pace at which I created the original 'GameJew'-episodes. A lot of people miss those, and I understand it. But they came from a different version of me, and there's no way I'll ever be able to make that kind of thing again, at least with regards to video games."

At the beginning of 2009 you started the 'A Song A Day'-project. How do you manage to keep up with this?

"You have to sort of be obsessed with something to be able to do it all the time without killing yourself. I happen to be obsessed with writing songs. It's the one thing artistically that I've always done, no matter what else I had going on. Writing a song a day, forcing myself to do it even when I don't feel like it, has been a great exercise. Once you make a commitment: 'I am going to write a song a day', it becomes something that you just stick to, and you know you have to carry out no matter what."

Since your old "GameJew"-shows, you always had a very good sense of how to treat and present art content online. Which do you consider the most important rules when it comes to online presence?

"There seems to be two ways to go about being successful online. One way is to be posting things constantly, like at least 60 items a day, so that people can't help but refresh your page over and over all day. The other way is to make a product, a show, whatever, that appeals very specifically and release one every two weeks or so, highly polished. I don't do either. I post a song every day. Admittedly it's not the best way of doing things, but then, I don't know how much of what I do is for the audience and how much is for myself."

What are the perils and opportunities of exposing yourself online? What are common and uncommon reactions you get out of your work?

"The perils are pretty few if you're able to block out the noise of pointless comments, such as many of those you find on YouTube and other such sites. The opportunities are endless, really. Meet new friends, find work, collaborators, etc. Reactions to my work vary. People are often really astonished that I can keep up with a song and video a day."

You recently released a lot of your older music through online albums for free. People can donate as much money as they want for high quality MP3-downloads, medium quality is for free. Does it work out?

"I like the model of letting people download for free, but pay if they want. I think it's a great way to do it. Most people don't pay, but some do and that's great."

Until now, how many songs have you written in total, approximately?

"Over 700 for sure."

You have already written around 250 songs alone with your "Song A Day" project since the beginning January of 2009. Can we expect more songs a day until Christmas and New Years Eve arrive?

"I plan on keeping the 'Song A Day'-project going as long as I can. Past the one year mark and beyond."