So far, what’s really given me support in my life is art and my mother. Even as a little kid I’d be playing games all the time on the Amiga and PC at my grandfather’s. Through that, I also started for the first time to get into a music software program called “eJay Dance” and I loved building up and putting together audio samples. I never lost my passion for art. I trained how to be a carpenter, and then I did a further education course that specialised in CNC [computerised numerical control]. I was born and grew up in Germany, in the east part of Berlin, and have lived there ever since. From 2011 to 2018 my life was an absolute nightmare. After a lot of discussing and reflecting, I built up my own recording studio in Berlin. Construction began in 2017, and it was completed in August 2022. This process wasn’t an easy one for me, because if you don’t have a lot of money and you’re not getting support from outside, then you can be as creative as you want in your head, but it’s a long haul to make those ideas a reality. So I started buying up various bits of second-hand equipment, to sell them on again in good-as-new condition, for a profit. That allowed me over time to acquire new studio and recording equipment. I’ve done every single step of the process myself – the complex building up of a PC with sound-card cascading, the studio racks with their complicated technical components, all the cabling for each piece of studio kit, the acoustic set-up with DSP [digital signal processing] calibration, and the design and layout of the entire recording studio.

A good friend of mine – Stephen – said to me, after the studio was finished, that I was like a man possessed (and that’s putting it kindly) – a time that’ll never be forgotten and which left a deep mark on me.

I’m especially grateful to my Mum, because she’s been 100% behind the project all the way.

NORMAN CLAIM®