Ten years ago, I traveled alone around Europe, staying at random strangers’ houses that I found through Couchsurfing. It was an amazing experience, and I met many great people—some of whom I’m still happy to call friends.
In the early autumn of 2014, my plane from Reykjavik landed in Copenhagen. I took a bus to the city, passed a few stops, and headed to the home of a guy named Bille.
As soon as I arrived at Bille’s place, a massive rainstorm started. It poured throughout my entire stay, which was the first reason I didn’t see much of Copenhagen. The second reason was Bille himself.
We were sitting around, doing nothing (because of the rain), when Bille said:
— Let’s make some music.
— Yeah, let’s do it.
He asked if I could play anything. “Guitar and ukulele,” I said. “In that case, you take the keyboard, and I’ll play the guitar,” he replied. “Okay,” I said.
We started jamming. I had no clue how to play the keyboard, and I’m not sure he really knew how to play the guitar either, but we gave it our best shot. And at one particular moment, I heard it. For just a few seconds, we managed to produce a melody that didn’t suck. It could actually be called music.
Wow.
That tiny moment changed a lot.
Since then, I’ve tried to play any musical instrument I come across. I even started making lo-fi beats myself, which I really enjoy.
And it’s all because of that brief moment when I realized I could create something, even without knowing how.
Next time I met Bille in Berlin five years later. And of course we spent some time jamming.
Thank you, Bille!
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