CCB Magazine

Nachgefragt with Alexander Meurer: "Our approach simply worked"

Photo: © Meurer

What do artists and cultural workers do after they have been in consultation with us? In the second part of our series "Nachgefragt" we talk to Alexander Meurer from the music label and platform "bohemian drips", who is currently organizing the "Speicher" festival from June 15 to 17.

Kreativ Kultur Berlin: Hello Alexander, please introduce yourself briefly.

Alexander:Hello, I'm Alexander Meurer, 29, musician and co-operator of "bohemian drips", a music label and cross-genre platform for experimental music. "bohemian drips" I started in 2011 with my partner and friend Fillipp Vingerhoets. Since then, we have been working together with different musicians to create space-specific compositions, which we release as recordings and, since 2017, have also made accessible to visitors as part of the "Speicher" festival.

Alexander Meurer in action. Photo: Meurer 

Kreativ Kultur Berlin: You came to us for counseling last year. What questions did you have then and how could we help you?

Alexander: Our goal was to organize a festival in the water reservoir and we were looking for ways to finance it. Benjamin Krauth, one of the co-organizers at the time, then became aware of the Kulturförderpunkt's offer. We booked the appointment and got the consultation. Basically, the interview taught us to ask the right questions first: What is important in the application? What do the funding donors look for? In addition, we were made aware of good funding opportunities that matched our project and we received a number of good tips on how to apply. In the end, it worked out: We were subsequently funded by the Pankow district office through the cultural funding program. I am very happy that we were able to take advantage of this individual and targeted consulting service.

Basically, the conversation taught us to ask the right questions first: What is important in the application? What do the funding donors look for? 

Kreativ Kultur Berlin: What happened next? How did you implement the festival in concrete terms? 

Alexander: The first "Speicher" festival was a great experience. We didn't have a lot of money for a project of that scale, but the great thing was that our approach just worked: At the Speicher festival, we develop space-sound compositions together with artists and musicians from a wide variety of backgrounds. Our audience is very heterogeneous. The first festival last year was sold out in no time. The feedback was impressive. That's why we're currently planning the second one: it will take place from June 15 to 17 in the storerooms. We have also financed this with a grant, from the Musikfonds e.V., to be exact. Because of the first application, we already had a tangible reference to show, because we had successfully carried out the festival. And we had a watertight financial plan, a concisely formulated, coherent concept and were well aware of the funding guidelines. In the end, this focus was the decisive factor.

Kreativ Kultur Berlin: If you were to give a tip to other artists and cultural workers who want to have their project financed: What is important to keep in mind? 

Alexander: You must be able to present the main features of your project in a coherent way on one or two pages. And you should ask yourself very specific questions to do so: What are the goals of my project? How and with what means do I want to achieve them? How do I comply with the respective funding guidelines? Of course, you also need a reasonably watertight financial plan. If it doesn't make sense, even the best concept won't help. It also makes sense to find out from the respective funding agency which formal criteria are particularly important before submitting your application.

You must be able to present the main features of your project in a coherent way on one or two pages

Kreativ Kultur Berlin:Alexander, where else do you want to go in the future?

Alexander: Besides our own music projects, which we all pursue privately, we continue to release records with "bohemian drips", we organize concerts and are currently planning even more international projects. Basically, we do what we enjoy as a collective and what we really believe in. It's important to us that it works on a personal level, and it does.

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