Jérôme Klein is a multi-instrumentalist who has become an essential figure in the Luxembourg jazz, rock and electronic scene. In an interview with culture.lu, he reflects on his career, his inspirations and what he hopes for the future.

To start right at the beginning: how did you get into music?

In fact, nobody in my family played music. But they were all very passionate about music. I think at some point I saw an instrument, a piano or a keyboard, and I was so fascinated that I wanted to play it. It just happened naturally, and I never really questioned it. When you’re young you don’t really ask yourself many questions.

I always liked just playing around on the instrument, rather than focusing on the academic side of classical music the way some other people did. But of course I also went to the conservatory, you had to go through that part. I also started percussion when I was about 11 or 12.

Then suddenly it was the end of secondary school and the question came up: what am I going to do now? I had been making music all my life, should I continue with it or not? Another question was whether I should go into classical music or rather into jazz. In the end I chose jazz. Looking back, I’m happy I chose to go more towards jazz improvisation and modern music. I wouldn’t have really seen myself playing in an orchestra for the rest of my life.

After your studies at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels you played as a sideman in various ensembles. Where did the motivation come from to start your own project?

The motivation came a bit by chance. I had played a lot with Pol Belardi and Niels Engel, we’ve known each other for about twenty years. Everyone always had their own respective projects. For example, it started with Niels having his trio and so we played his music, then Pol started his project.

Then in 2017, I was offered to be the artist in residence at the Like A Jazz Machine festival. I had carte blanche there. I couldn’t imagine playing with anyone else but those two because we know each other inside out. That was the opportunity for me to write my own music and show a bit of my own musical universe. That was the beginning of the Klein project.

What was your musical approach for Klein?

Basically I didn’t want to make a kind of conventional jazz that had already been done a thousand times. At the time, in 2017, it wasn’t yet so common to mix electronic elements with improvisation and acoustic instruments, now it’s done much more.

That was the idea behind it. Over time it evolved and we also incorporated live acoustic instruments, especially piano and vibraphone, together with synths and electronic beats, which we then blended together.

Your song “Episode” explores existential questions about self-worth and one's place in the world. When you write songs, do you start with specific ideas or do you let the music develop naturally? 

It depends on the piece. When you’re making an album you try to find a common thread. The last album definitely had a melancholic tone, and the pieces stayed within that aesthetic. But sometimes you just sit down at the instrument and something appears. If you already have an image in mind, though, the writing tends to follow that direction. Some pieces have lyrics, others are instrumental. In those cases it’s more about creating an atmosphere, and every listener can imagine their own story.

Part of it was about how everything moves so fast, especially with social media, where there’s a lot of pretending and things can feel somewhat fake. I think that’s even more relevant today.

As a professional musician, how do you deal with social media? Do you use it?

Yes, I think as a musician you can’t really avoid it. People always say it’s free publicity, but it’s not really free because nothing is, and you’re hidden in this huge sea of information. It is still a good platform though, and you get a sense of what’s going on.

But we didn’t grow up with it, we had to learn how to use it. When you look at the new generation, they are very used to it. They live with their phones in their hands. 

Today, everything is recorded and has to be shown, and I’m not really like that. In the end, for us it’s more about the product itself. Still, it’s interesting. I also look at what other musicians are doing, how they write and what their process is. But in the end it shouldn’t become too much like Big Brother.

And the process was different for musicians before social media. You were sometimes bored and you had to be bored, because that’s when you become creative. Today some artists may write songs because they want them to become a hit and to immediately resonate with others. Back then you didn’t do that. You played to make yourself feel good, and you hoped that others would like it too. And then you printed a few flyers and that was your marketing [laughs].

Today there’s often already plenty of content, but not much behind it yet. Some bands have huge amounts of content and everything sounds great, but you’ve never seen them live.

We basically write music in order to play it on stage. Other musicians are never on stage, they write music mainly to exist online. That’s not meant as criticism, there’s room for everything. But especially jazz improvisation needs to live and continue to live on stage. And that audience needs this, too.

You performed at the Glacis for the “Trounwiessel” ceremony last year. What was that like?

That was a huge event. In March and April we were contacted by den Atelier. We were a whole team of musicians and we tried to create a programme that would showcase the Luxembourg music scene as well as possible, so there was a bit of every genre.

We were responsible for the whole concert part, about an hour and a half of music. It was a great experience, especially working with that production team. It was incredibly professional. We only had two rehearsals and everything went really well. I had never experienced such a fast and smooth production before.

And despite the October weather, people still came. It was a really good stage to showcase Luxembourgish music and how professional it has become. Many people discovered bands that they might otherwise not have been interested in, especially when it comes to Luxembourgish music.

What projects are you working on at the moment?

This year I started a duo project with Pol Belardi and we’re doing something completely acoustic, leaving out the computer and electronic elements. We’ll present it towards the end of the year.

We’ve also founded a new label with other musicians: Maxime Bender, Jeff Herr, Pol Belardi and Gilles Grethen. The label, called Melusina Records, focuses on improvised jazz and will be presented in September. Two new releases will come out then, one by Maxime and one by us. That’s the newest project for this year. 

And Mad Fox is back. We’re playing festivals all summer. And, very cool: We’re playing at Beautiful Decay as an opener for Jet. Five years ago we recorded an album that never got released, so we also want to finally finish that this year.

And with Pol Belardi and Niels Engel we have the project Same Same Same. It’s instrumental and improvised, but it uses codes from the clubbing/electronic world. It’s like going to a club, but the music is played live. We’ll also release a few new pieces there.

You have a busy year ahead! What goals would you still like to achieve as a musician, in the future?

Well, I’ve already played for the Grand Duke, so I guess I’ve achieved everything now, right? [laughs]

It’s hard to say. I had some really great times when we toured a lot, when we were in our twenties and thirties. We travelled almost all over the world. When you get older – I just turned 40 – you may become a bit more comfortable. I probably wouldn’t play all the smaller concerts anymore. But a nice big tour, maybe returning to places we’ve already played and seeing the fan base again, that would be great.

But I wouldn’t necessarily want much more than that. Especially in the kind of music we make, we’re not people who need to play on huge stages in front of tens of thousands of people. Sometimes I actually prefer a small club where you’re close to the audience and can really feel the atmosphere. The goal is simply to play as much as possible.