Andreas Ryser

What did it take in your case for you to develop so beautifully as a musician?

First of all, I'll answer the question as a musician: I think we stuck to one project unconditionally for many years. At some point it must have been a bit successful, and we were lucky enough to do something that nobody else was doing ... We found our niche. And with Joy, we probably had the greatest singer in Switzerland at the time ... We benefited from cultural subsidies, especially for the tours abroad. But we also made something out of these subsidies. And that's where I'm changing hats: I was always the one who was interested in business, and also in building something sustainable and using the cultural subsidies in such a way that they would bring us something in the long term. So instead of great fees, it's promo mandates and so on.

Are the conditions in Switzerland conducive or detrimental to musical development?

If you play a niche, then you have to go abroad, but not to realize yourself musically (we also made great music in Switzerland, but we didn't follow any role models or bands, we just did what we wanted and were lucky that someone liked it ...), but to be able to reach enough audience. The problem is always the very high cost of living in Switzerland, we always had 20-30% jobs on the side. If you earn most of your money abroad, the fees in Switzerland are worth less ...

Is it essential for musical self-realization to go abroad?

But I believe, and now I'm speaking as a manager and label and publisher, that there are already many Swiss people who don't have the bite and then decide pretty quickly to take the easier route. We have an unemployment rate of 2% in Switzerland and it's almost always possible to find a job. As a musician, deciding to pursue music also takes courage and a lot of self-confidence and probably also a great team that provides input and feedback.

Experience can also bring success if someone is exceptionally good. There are enough examples of musicians who don't manage to be successful because they get in their own way and don't want to understand how things work, or because they don't have anyone to support them. And I think this is a problem in Switzerland: there aren't enough good people in the music industry who have a lot of knowledge and can help and support musicians in the long term.