Joy Denalane on album with Max Herre: “Private life and music flow together”

Joy Denalane (51) and Max Herre (51) will release their first joint album “Alles Liebe” on November 1st. In an interview with the news agency spot on news, Joy Denalane reveals what the couple learned about their love through working together. She also explains how the two’s strengths and weaknesses balance each other out, why their tour life is more structured than expected and whether they could imagine not living in Berlin anymore.

Joy Denalane: When creating the album, we learned again how resilient, urgent and harmonious our love is. And that she knows how to focus on what the respective situation demands.

Denalane: Of course, when you’re in the project, things always turn out a little differently than you imagine. But I wouldn’t describe any of these experiences as a setback. There is a continuous adjustment and adaptation to the circumstances and also to the status quo of the moment. That’s also the exciting thing about making music, that you don’t know exactly what the bottom line will be. To put it in a song. You have a general idea of ​​what you want and pursue it. But since the song isn’t finished until it’s recorded, you don’t know exactly how it should sound in advance.

Denalane: Luckily we have different strengths and weaknesses. For example, my weakness is my stamina. I lose concentration more quickly and mentally say goodbye an hour or two before the end of a session, while Max stays highly focused until the end. My strengths lie in the quality in which I deliver things and my lack of vanity.

Denalane: As artists, we have never separated our personal lives from our music making. These flow into each other. Always in different proportions, but it’s always part of the journey.

Denalane: It was of course a great experience to be able to work with so many different colleagues. Because at this point there is something special about sharing space with people you trust, respect and who have great expertise. The dynamics and perspective change when you share the space with others. You need a consensus in order to be able to work with each other and that is really exciting and very complex.

Whether we were perceived as a couple or as an individual depended on how long we were in the studio together. If we only spent one day together, then it’s quite possible that we were only seen as a couple at first. But if the collaboration took place over a longer period of time, then we were definitely perceived as individuals, as we obviously bring very different things to the table.

Denalane: We like living in Berlin, but we can always imagine living somewhere else again. Since we haven’t taken the step yet, it’s of course difficult to say in which other place we could imagine our life, as that of course always depends on many different factors.

Denalane: Our touring life is more structured than you would think. We try to get enough sleep, eat healthy and don’t forget to exercise so that we can put on a great show night after night.

Denalane: Yes, we’re planning on taking a Christmas vacation after the tour, but we’re not sure where we’ll spend the holidays at the moment. It will probably remain exciting until shortly before Christmas.