Many people are involved in the daily effort to keep NOTHING BUT HOPE AND PASSION running on the quality level you’ve come to love and enjoy over the past years. Everyone is driven by a massive amount of passion and dedication since, despite the fact that this might look quite professional, we all not make a living from it. This magazine is a result of that everday passion, multiple characters and tastes in music.
To appreciate that massive amount of dedication and to give these people the spotlight they deserve NOTHING BUT HOPE AND PASSION will introduce our writer’s staff and their personal playlists via our Spotify profile right here every few weeks. Today, we are happy to have the almighty Mr. Henning Grabow on board. The bearded gentleman has been a longtime supporter and force of strength when it comes to the idea of NBHAP. As our Executive Editor he’s also the taste police and a reliable force when it comes to quality and profound musical knowledge. So, you can be sure that this Staff Playlist is packed with pretty spectacular material, trust us.
Explain a bit why you start your personal playlist with the song you picked for the first spot?
Well, first of all it’s a little play with words around ‘building’ this playlist. Second, the mood of this very song has always deeply affected me. It’s mysteriousness is really captivating. In all it’s physicalness it’s an essential TOM WAITS. Also I am a big fan of music as a channel for poetry.
Which musical decade represents your personal taste best?
Tough one. As you can see from my list I’m a huge fan of classics and older folk music. But still, I think I’d have to go with the 90s . Those were the days in which I was musically socialized. Punk, Grunge and Metal have been important back then. I was more of a rock dude. Aside from that, the 90s have also been the peak time of the whole slowcore scene that I learned to love later on in my life. Probably that’s been the most influential music genre to me so far. But then again: My love and passion for music only really started with some records in the early 00s. Long story short: Good music is timeless.
What’s the first music (single/album/song) you bought yourself?
Don’t know about that really. But the first EP I owned was Pretty Fly from THE OFFSPRING. Listened to Americana recently and it’s still a great record!
Name three bands or artists that, in your opinion, are criminally underrated and why?
Grumpy me would prefer to name three over-rated ones but okay, here you go: VIC CHESNUTT, THERE WILL BE FIREWORKS, ANGEL OLSEN.
If you could fix pop culture: What would you change?
I think we have the pop culture we deserve. Why should I complain about its superficialness, the big money being spent on ridiculously irrelevant artists or the ongoing misogyny (that I am a part of, just look at my list)? Pop culture is an industry like any other. With the only difference that it’s slightly more subtle in selling us meaning, sense and entertainment. The only thing I hope for and simultaneously am pretty confident about is that artists ought to be the ones to define the rules. No one else. A good song is a good song and I hope that it’ll always find a way to get an audience. If that is the case, pop culture will remain to be a truly inspiring changeling.
What do Hope and Passion mean to you?
Well, definitely this little project of ours means a lot to me. Apart from that: Hope is the driving force behind my idealism and something to desperately hold on to. And passion can be both, the most productive and destructive fuel. So I’m careful with that…
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