In Conversation with Monolink on “The Beauty Of It All”

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I have to begin with these lines, because they are already so incredibly beautiful. They are lyrics from Monolink’s new single Perfect World, accompanied by a haunting video that lingers long after the last frame. The track is part of his just-released third studio album The Beauty Of It All — a record that blooms like an intimate diary, carrying reflections, questions, and a quiet acceptance of change.

“It was a journey of rediscovering the joy of making music within myself,” Monolink tells us — a feeling that runs through the whole album. Written in retreat, surrounded by stillness and nature, The Beauty Of It All is perhaps his most personal work to date, moving between acoustic fragments, pulsing electronics, and moments of breathtaking fragility.

After his genre-defining debut Amniotic and the darker cinematic tones of Under Darkening Skies, this new release feels like a return to essence — spacious, heartfelt, and timeless. And while the album speaks for itself, we are grateful to have shared a conversation with Monolink about melancholy, rediscovery, and what it means to feel at home.

photography by Honeystills

Hey dear Steffen, I’m just listening to your upcoming album The Beauty Of It All, which drops on Embassy One in September. It’s really so beautiful, wow! I truly love it — the sound is just mesmerizing, deep, and it’s the kind of music that carries you away, lets you dream of what was and what will be, and reflect on things. You created this album in the countryside of Germany, surrounded by nature and stillness, and like you said: “you went back to where it all began.” Where exactly did you stay?

Yes indeed. I wanted to get out of the city and out of my own studio in order to really focus on making music, with no distractions. I grew up in a suburb of Hamburg where there was literally nothing to do for young people, so when my friend and I discovered playing guitar and making music back then, that was all we did. In a way, making this record took me back to those times — it was a journey of rediscovering the joy of making music within myself. I had been touring so much that there was a lot of pressure to create new material for my live shows, but hardly ever any time. That took away a lot of the excitement and playfulness I needed in order to write. Dedicating my time fully to being in the studio was the best thing I could do then, and it really brought me back to making music that I love.

And you also mentioned that this is the most personal music you’ve made so far, a reflection of everything that has brought you here — both the joy and the pain. What was one of the most joyful moments that brought you to where you are today?

Around 12 years ago, before I started the Monolink project, I had a folk band and we were playing at a tiny festival near Berlin. I had just started to discover my love for electronic music, and at the festival I saw an artist called Touchy Mob play. He played an acoustic guitar and had a tiny midi-controller glued to it, so while he was singing his songs he added beats with his controller. I had never seen anyone do that — to me, electronic music came only from DJs. At the same time, I loved his voice and his lyrics. I was in pure awe and knew that was exactly what I wanted to do as well. Now I sometimes get messages from people who tell me they started making music because of a show of mine they saw, and I find it so amazing to see how this inspiration just seems to travel through us and pass itself on.

“Once you get to a point of not feeling defined by your own emotions, you can find beauty in all of them.”

And what was one of the most painful?

I think I often felt lonely as a teenager, and also later as a touring solo artist. Music was my way to get out of it — to write songs about how I felt and find connection to people at my concerts. I’m thankful for everything the way it happened, but it was always a struggle. When you pour your heart into a song and you play it to someone who doesn’t want to hear it or doesn’t like it, it’s really hard not to take it personally and feel rejected. Luckily, that doesn’t happen to me very often anymore, but it’s still painful when I feel like a show didn’t go the way I was hoping it would.

Are you a melancholic person?

I think I’m a lot of different types of person, one of them certainly melancholic. But I’m also a really happy person and luckily I hardly ever feel depressed. When I write songs, I like to embrace my melancholia though, because those songs tend to touch me more than happy songs.

The themes of beauty, impermanence, and human connection are central to your album. What do those topics mean to you personally?

I think the appreciation of beauty is the reason we’re here. I think it’s everything, in all kinds of forms. In the process of making this record, I rediscovered my love for the beauty of music, and I realized that was the theme holding all the songs together. Embracing joy, dance, and playfulness as well as sadness, breakup, and isolation. Once you get to a point of not feeling defined by your own emotions, you can find beauty in all of them. Not that I’ve achieved that state of being, but sometimes there’s a glimpse.

I love reading about the inspirations behind your tracks. For example, in Powerful Play you explore your roots and go back to mixing acoustic guitar with electronic elements. It’s about that time when, around 15 years ago, you moved to Berlin, covering Bob Dylan songs on the street and exploring house and techno in the clubs. What was your favorite club back then? And what are your best memories from playing on the streets during that time?

Rummels Bucht was the club my friends and I mostly went to. Unfortunately, it had to close a couple of years ago, but I had my best nights there. It was small, hot, sweaty, smelly, and had all the things you need in order to fully let loose.
I always loved playing music on the streets because it gave me so much freedom. I didn’t have to please anyone, nobody had any expectations. I could make up songs on the spot, and sometimes magical moments would happen. I used to travel just doing that and always met really interesting people along the way.

By the way, I also love your little acoustic snippets you sometimes share on Insta. Do you ever think about releasing a full acoustic album?

One day, yes. It’s always been in the back of my head, I’m just waiting for the right moment.

“When I write songs, I like to embrace my melancholia, because those songs tend to touch me more than happy songs.”

So back to The Beauty Of It All… About the track Mesmerized, you said it might be your favorite track you’ve ever made. Did you already feel during the production that this one was something really special — and if so, how?

Yes I did. It was one of those songs where everything seemed to fall into place, as if the song wrote itself. It all came together really fast and every step along the way felt playful. The starting point for the song was the pulsating kick drum we got from an analog kick drum synthesizer, and from there we created those cinematic soundscapes. At some point, I felt like I wanted to contrast it with something really fragile and intimate, and instantly had the guitar theme and vocal melody in mind. The whole song was finished in about two days.

Once I Understood is about the beauty of being young and naive, and how as we grow up, our minds become more and more corrupted. […] Was there any particular moment in your everyday life that sparked this idea for the song?

Before I started recording this album, I was just coming back from an intense phase of touring and I felt like I might be heading into burnout. I was questioning everything I was doing, the price I was paying for living the life of a touring artist. There were moments I really just wanted to quit. And as I slowly found my love and passion for music again, this was a song that came up. I was revisiting those feelings I had as a teenager, my dream of becoming a musician, and now living in that reality — but realizing it’s not quite the way I imagined it. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still amazing and I love my life, but obviously dreams tend to see things in a very selective way.

Musically, the song was influenced by The Beatles, and another one on the album by Pink Floyd and Bob Dylan. Which are your favorite songs by those three?

I love that question, but there are so many. If I had to choose, it would be A Day in the Life by The Beatles, Shine On You Crazy Diamond by Pink Floyd, and Masters of War by Dylan. All masterpieces in their own way.

“Sharing something you love and being loved back for it is the best feeling in the world.”

What advice would you give to young or aspiring musicians just starting out?

I’d say try to listen to as much music as you can and do your research. Unless you’re a genius on some instrument — most of us are not — what people will hear in your music is your mind and the emotions you feel when you listen to music. And in order to find out what genre, style, or sound that is, I think you really have to discover different types of music that you love. And there’s so much amazing stuff out there. It may be something that’s popular right now, or it may be the complete opposite. I think that will eventually lead to you making something unique — your individual taste — and that’s what matters.

You travel all around the world with your music — constantly moving between cities, cultures, and time zones. How do you experience life on tour? What are the moments that energize you, and what are the parts that challenge you the most?

Tour life is a blessing and a curse, I’d say. 90% of the time is just waiting for someone or something, which can feel like a complete waste of time — but then the other 10% are so incredibly amazing that it all feels worth it again. Being on stage, feeling connected to thousands of people at the same time, is an indescribable feeling. Sharing something you love and being loved back for it is the best feeling in the world.

What does home mean to you?

I keep asking myself that and I keep having to redefine it. I used to have a strong desire to be bound to one place, maybe even own a house, but over the years that shifted into a feeling of “home is where my friends are,” and that’s all over the planet now. So I’m trying to embrace that, and currently I’m really happy with the idea of being a nomad.

“In the process of making this record, I rediscovered my love for the beauty of music.”

I read that you always carry a notebook with you. Could you share a few lines from the last thing you wrote in it?

I actually switched to writing notes on my phone. The last thing I wrote is:
Nothing makes sense
So might as well
Lose our minds
If you haven’t already
Begin to stop thinking
Begin to let that sink in

What are your very earliest memories of music — even from when you were a child?

My dad used to listen to a lot of 80s music. I think those were the first times I thought about music, found songs that I liked, and developed some sort of taste maybe. I remember The Final Countdown having a big impact on me, I found it so epic as a kid.

You like to wear a hat. How did you come to that style? And what does fashion mean to you?

The hat is somehow still a relic from my teenage years. When I started my first band, my friend and I were huge fans of The Libertines, and I wanted to look like Pete Doherty. So I obviously had to wear a hat. Somehow that just never really left me.
For most of my life, fashion was more of a tool to show some sort of belonging to a social group, but in recent years I’ve started to also see it as a form of art and appreciate seeing my clothes as some sort of canvas.

Happiness is…

Having friends around. I think that’s all we need.