Home Teaching Publications Research CV

Academic Research and Teaching Focus

  •  Popular music studies (especially rock and metal music studies)
  •  Music technology & art of record production
  •  Music industries studies (monetisation of music, blockchain technology/web 3, copyright)
  •  Creativity research (songwriting, production)
  •  Music analysis & methodology (musicology, music theory, cultural studies, sound analysis, semiotics)
  •  History of popular music & development of musical styles and genres
  •  Empirical musicology
  •  Music performance studies

Research Areas

Songwriting Camps in the 21st Century (in collaboration with Prof Michael Ahlers, Lueneburg University, Germany & Dr Simon Barber, Birmingham City University, UK) (2023-2026)

This project (SC21) researches how collaborative songwriting takes place in songwriting camps. As the first study to focus on the UK and Germany, it investigates what forms of songwriting camps exist in the 21st century to understand the interests of convenors (publishers, record companies, individuals) and participating professionals. It investigates the collaborative creative processes and interplay of the different skill-sets of various roles (topliners, beatmakers, lyricists, producers, performers) and offers insights into the organisation of offline and online camps, legal factors, and the role of songwriting camps within the wider music industries. The investigation will uncover who convenes these events, for what purposes, and what is created and ultimately selected for release. Legal factors such as royalties, shares and splits will be considered as well as the power structures at play. Apart from the organisation of these camps, the research will investigate how the participants’ personal, professional and cultural backgrounds influence their aims and actions. This includes an in-depth analysis of the collaborative creative work and the evaluation of the value of collaborative songwriting offline and online. Furthermore, the research will study how the industry uses the results of the camps in the short and medium term.

The project is supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) in the United Kingdom and the German Research Foundation (DFG) (project website) (funding website)

Extreme Metal Vocals: Musical Expression, Technique, and Cultural Meaning (in collaboration with Dr Eric Smialek, Huddersfield University, UK) (2022-2024)

"At last! A book about heavy metal as music." This opening exclamation in Sheila Whiteley's preface to Andrew Cope's history of Black Sabbath (Cope 2010) laments a long-standing practice in popular music studies of under-emphasizing musical details. This project (EMV) remedies this gap with four articles that synthesize linguistic, acoustical, historical, and musicological studies of vocal techniques. The first will be a reception study of verbal descriptions of extreme metal vocals, taken from magazines and online reviews. From this chart of semantic relationships, the second article will use spectrograms to demonstrate patterns between the descriptors and musical aspects of extreme metal vocals that correlate to different time periods and genres. The third article applies these acoustical findings to study the rhetorical qualities of climactic song sections. Finally, the fourth article's kinetic approach uses motion-capture footage of vocalists to see how their movements communicate tension, anticipation, and climax without requiring participants to verbally articulate that information or consciously reflect on their actions. Ultimately, the project will offer unique insights into extreme metal's appeal and contribute to debates about musical meaning and its relationship to identity.

The project is supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) in the United Kingdom (funding website)

The Impact of Digitization and Online Spaces on Women's Electric Guitar Practice (in collaboration with Dr Gabrielle Kielich, Huddersfield University, UK) (2022-2024)

This two-year postdoctoral project will analyse the impact of online spaces on women’s electric guitar practice and examine the factors that enable and motivate women to become electric guitarists. Studies have shown that women have been inhibited from becoming electric guitarists due to a variety of sociocultural factors. However, these studies largely pre-dated the Internet and did not examine its role in related musical practices. The objectives of WEG are as follows: 1) To generate new data on women guitarists’ online practices, with attention to different generations, and affordances of relevant platforms; 2) To generate new data about the specifically gendered nature of that engagement, both positive and negative; and 3) To generate new data on the changing discourses about guitars and women guitarists. The objectives will be achieved through three phases of research. The first will involve analysis of online guitar magazines to locate content related to women and their guitar practices and to establish what the discourses around them are. Next, the ER will utilize netnography to explore and analyse women’s online activities related to electric guitar practice, such as watching tutorials, taking lessons, buying equipment, posting self-performance videos, and engaging in online forums. Third, the ER will conduct in-depth qualitative interviews with women electric guitarists from a wide age range and with different levels of experience. WEG will generate new knowledge that will be of interest to scholars across disciplines, will be relevant to the marketing departments of guitar manufacturers, and aims to encourage more women to become interested in the electric guitar and therefore play a role in consumer awareness. WEG will enhance the ER's career prospects by enabling a more developed intellectual profile, methodological expertise, four publications that will strengthen her publication record, and will foster a relevant, UK-based professional network.

The project is supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) in the United Kingdom (funding website)

Heaviness in Metal Music Production (in collaboration with Dr Mark Mynett, Huddersfield University, UK) (2020-2023)

The project (HiMMP) sets out to explore heaviness as the metal genre’s central quality feature. It will show how heaviness is created sonically on the record and also, how leading metal producers define it and as such process and control its constituent aspects when mixing recordings. Heaviness in metal music can be created in different ways so it will be studied how genre, composition and performance determine technical mixing requirements. Ultimately, it will be evaluated what impact technical requirements have on the producer’s personal style, their aesthetic intentions and on genre conventions.

The project is supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) in the United Kingdom (project website) (funding website)

German Metal

Wacken, Rammstein, Teutonic metal. It is probably safe to say that Germany is a country where metal music enjoys huge popularity. After the genre emerged in the UK and the USA, Germany was amongst the first countries to adopt this new form of music. With German hard rock acts such as the Scorpions and Accept having been successful since the 1970s, metal exploded in Germany in the 1980s and shaped a unique style that is valued and has often been copied by international artists. This work in progress book-sized project investigates the history and the sound of German metal. It identifies key places, musicians, producers and labels, covering many aspects from original approaches to songwriting, performance through to production, ultimately discussing if there is, or has ever been, such as thing as the ‘Teutonic metal sound’ as commonly labelled by the media and public discourse.

Gear Acquisition Syndrome (‘GAS’) (in collaboration with Dr Jonas Menze, Paderborn University, Germany)

Gear Acquisition Syndrome, or just GAS, has anecdotally been described as the musicians’ compulsive and unrelenting urge to buy and own gear as an anticipated catalyst of creative energy and bringer of happiness. This research projects explores the GAS phenomenon, analysing how person-related factors like age, gender and occupation as well as musical factors like the instrument or the music played interrelate with the behaviour of dealing with musical equipment. Next to musical motivations such as expressiveness and sound design, it explores the cultural discourse surrounding the obsession with musical gear as can be observed in countless discussions on musicians’ message boards and in music stores (website)

The Electric Guitar In Popular Music

This project explores the musical and cultural relevance of the electric guitar in popular music. As one of the fundamental differences to the acoustic guitar, distortion determines the playability and expressiveness of the electric guitar. Central themes explored in the project are effects of distortion on solo guitar playing (e.g. playing techniques, ‘shredding’) and on rhythm guitar riffs (e.g. interrelation of distortion level and consonance perception, rock harmony), as well as recording techniques and practices, guitar amplification technologies, genre-specific guitar equipment and rock aesthetics.

Rock Guitar Virtuosos: Advances in Electric Guitar Playing, Technology and Culture (in collaboration with Alexander Vallejo)

This project is motivated by speculations about the stagnation and demise of the electric guitar and the lacking recognition of advances in guitar playing. By analysing why certain guitarists were recognised and how they developed the instrument, the case is made that playing styles and sounds have continued to evolve to this day, as evidenced by the likes of player Tosin Abasi, Jason Richardson or Yvette Young. The early guitar heroes of the 1960s and ‘70s developed lead guitar styles outside the idioms of the blues. A decade dedicated to the pursuit of speed and progress of playing techniques were the 1980s. Characteristic of the 1990s and 2000s was experimentation with sound effects, seven-string guitars and amplifiers. After the ‘shred boom’, progress in guitar playing was more ‘musical’, bridging styles and genres, drawing inspiration from other instruments and using the new affordances not only for lead guitar playing but above all as a compositional tool. This project systematically explores how virtuosic electric guitarists in search of new forms of expression dealt with the unique characteristics and ergonomics of the instrument, and it will show how some overcame those challenges to advance the music. By combining playing with culture, technology, production, the recording industry and guitar communities of practice, the project will contribute to the understanding of how guitar playing reflects and drives cultural change.

Professional Roles In The Recording Industry

In the last years, the role of the music producer has received increasing academic attention. This project extends the current research by focusing on less explored roles in the music industry such as the recording studio operator as a variation of the role of the traditional record producer, the one commonly being at a more grass roots level in the industry. Another profession not having received much attention is the role of professional session and studio musicians. This project reveals how changes in the industry and advances in music technology have affected their work, now needing other skills for becoming successful ‘hired guns’, and how national copyright regulations and musicians’ unions have an impact on their economic situation. Other professions explored include for example composers for advertisement media, who are challenged to balance their creative aspirations with the wishes of their clients.

Network Sound: An Educational Challenge Of Popular Music

The project deals with music production in popular music genres from historical, technical, aesthetic and educational viewpoints. Starting from the premise that produced sound is a key element of recorded popular music, the project explores topics such as the history of recording practices and equipment, sound and identity, authenticity in music production, sound and emotion as well as functions of space in recorded audio. It presents a methodology of popular music analysis based on the means of technological (re-)production as the centre of the music’s aesthetics, cultural inscription and decoding. One main intention of this research is to raise awareness of technologically mediated sound in educational contexts. The final outcome is a theoretical educational model of teaching music production and listening skills accompanied by sample lessons.

  • (2025) “Deconstructing Metal Music Production’s ‘Heaviness’ Aesthetic” at the 7th ISMMS Conference: New Metal Worlds: Building Bridges and Mending Broken Backs, Seville (ES), 3-6 June 2025 (with Mark Mynett).
  • (2024) “A Web Interface for Acoustic-Semantic Analysis of Extreme Metal Vocal Styles” at the annual conference of The German Society for Music Psychology (DGM), Hochschule für Musik und Theater München, Munich (GER), 6-8 September 2024 (with Isabella Czedik-Eysenberg, Eric Smialek & Christoph Reuter). Poster presentation
  • (2024) “Exploring the Perception of Extreme Metal Vocals via Verbal Associations and Audio Feature Analysis” at the annual conference of The European Society for Cognitive Science of Music (ESCOM), University of York (UK), 3-6 July 2024 (with Isabella Czedik-Eysenberg & Eric Smialek). Poster presentation
  • (2024) “Towards an Acoustic-semantic Space of Extreme Metal Vocal Styles” at the DAGA (German Society for Acoustics) Annual Conference for Acoustics, Leibniz University of Hanover (GER), 18-21 March 2024 (with Isabella Czedik-Eysenberg & Eric Smialek). Poster presentation
  • (2023) “Was macht (Metal) Musik heavy? Empirische Studien im Schnittfeld von Practice Research, Netnography und Musikanalyse” [What makes (metal) music heavy? Empirical studies at the intersection of practice research, netnography and music analysis] at the lecture series “Cutting Edge Research on Popular Music”, University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (AU), 21 November 2023.
  • (2023) “Publishing Open Access Monographs as an Academic Researcher” at the conference “On the Fringes of the Publishing Landscape: OA Monographs and Institutional Publishers”, convened by Academic Libraries North (ALN) (UK), 25 October 2023.
  • (2023) “Songwriting Camps in the 21st Century” in the popular music lecture series at Birmingham City University (UK), 18 October 2023 (with Michael Ahlers, Simon Barber, Katherine Williams & Ingrid Tolstad).
  • (2023) “Songwriting in spätmodernen Gesellschaften: Netzwerkbildungen von Schlafzimmer-Individuen bis Gruppen-Fließbändern” [Songwriting in late modern societies: Network formations from bedroom individuals to group assembly lines] at the conference “Musik in der spätmodernen Gesellschaft: Krisen – Chancen – Transformationen” at the University of Music, Weimar (GER), 21-23 September 2023 (with Michael Ahlers).
  • (2023) “Towards an Analytical Methodology for Vocalist’s Live Gestures in Extreme Metal” at the conference “Rock Your Body: Bodies in Interaction with Popular Music” of the German Society for Popular Music (GfPM), University of Siegen (GER), 14-16 September 2023 (with Eric Smialek).
  • (2023) "Busy but Poorly Paid: Empirical Data on Precarious Jobs of Songwriters in the UK and Germany” at the conference “Popular Music in Crisis” of the International Society for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM, International), University of Minneapolis, Minneapolis (US), 26-30 June 2023 (with Michael Ahlers).
  • (2022) "Peak of the Assembly Lines? Online Songwriting Camps as Current Spaces of Individual and Collaborative Creativity” at the conference “Parallel Societies: Effects of Structural Juxtapositions on Popular Music, its Research and Mediation” of the German Society for Popular Music (GfPM) and IASPM D-A-CH, Vienna University of Performing Arts (AU), 20-22 October 2022 (with Michael Ahlers).
  • (2022) “What Does it Mean for Professional Metal Music Production to Move Online? A Practice-Based Analysis of Workflow, Quality and Business”, conference “Challenge and Change in Popular Music” of IASPM UK & I, University of Liverpool, 31.8.-2.9.2022 (with Mark Mynett).
  • (2022) "Heaviness in Metal Music Production: Investigating Complexities through Practice” at the conference “Heavy Metal in the Global South” of the International Society for Metal Music Studies (ISMMS), Mexico’s National Autonomous University (MEX), 7-10 June 2022 (with Mark Mynett)
  • (2021) “Gear Collections as Part of the Extended Self: Individual Attributions to Musical Instruments and Equipment, and their Social Relevance” at the conference “All the Things You Are: Populäre Musik und materielle Kultur”, Technical University Dortmund (GER), 22-24 October 2021 (with Jonas Menze).
  • (2021) “„Es ist einfach meine innere Ablehnung”: Innovation und Konservatismus in der Gitarren-Verstärkertechnik” at the conference “Electrified! Musiktechnologien und Medien im 20. Jahrhundert”, Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg (GER), 7-9 October 2021.
  • (2021) “Recording studios as museums? Record producers’ perspectives on German rock studios and accounts of their heritage practices” at the biannual IASPM D-A-CH conference, Paderborn University (GER), 12 March 2021.
  • (2021) Panel discussion on ‘One Nation Under a Groove’, organised by the German Society for Popular Music (GfPM), 27 January 2021, Vienna University.
  • (2020) “Keeper of the Seven Keys: Record Producers’ Practices of Preserving German Metal” at the biannual IASPM UK & I conference, University of West London (UK), 3-5 September 2020.
  • (2019) "Modern Rock", lecture at the postgraduate course MAS Pop & Rock at the University of the Arts Berne (CH), 14 December 2019.
  • (2019) "The sound of Teutonic metal: A production perspective on the musical and technological differences of metal music from across the world" at the conference of the German Society for Popular Music (GfPM) in Mainz, 1-3 November 2019.
  • (2019) "Teutonic heritage: A producer's view on the effects of cultural origin on Record Production and artist interaction" at the Home of Metal Symposium in Birmingham, 13 September 2019.
  • (2019) “Teutonic Metal Attack. Power Metal in and from Germany” at the conference “Locating Heavy Metal Music and Culture” of the International Society for Metal Music Studies (ISMMS) in Nantes (FRA), 17-20 June 2019.
  • (2018) “'Gear Acquisition Syndrome' (GAS): Instrumenten- und Genre-Abhängigkeiten in den Kaufmotiven und im Sammelverhalten von MusikerInnen der Populären Musik” at the conference “(Dis-)Orientierungen populärer Musik” of the German Society for Popular Music (GfPM) at the Carl Ossietzky University of Oldenburg (GER), 17 November 2018 (with Jonas Menze).
  • (2017) “Technology in Popular Music Education”, lecture at the postgraduate course MAS Pop & Rock at the University of the Arts Berne (CH), 12-13 October 2018.
  • (2018) “The work realities of professional studio musicians in the German popular music recording industry” at the "Crosstown Traffic" conference of the IASPM UK & Ireland, the Association for the Study of the Art of Record Production (ASARP), the International Society of Metal Music Studies (ISMMS) and the Dancecult Journal at the University of Huddersfield (UK), 3-5 September 2018.
  • (2018) (with Jonas Menze) “’Gear Acquisition Syndrome’: Attitudes and motifs for collecting musical gear across genres and instruments” at the "Crosstown Traffic" conference of the IASPM UK & Ireland, the Association for the Study of the Art of Record Production (ASARP), the International Society of Metal Music Studies (ISMMS) and the Dancecult Journal at the University of Huddersfield (UK), 3-5 September 2018.
  • (2018) “The work realities of professional studio musicians in the German popular music recording industry” at the Music and Sound Research Seminar at Leeds Beckett University (UK), 6 June 2018.
  • (2018) “British, US-American, Scandinavian and Teutonic metal. A producers‘ talk about nationality and culture in metal music's sound and performance (open discussion with demonstration).” Workshop with producer Charlie Bauerfeind at the conference “HardWired VI: So far, so good… so what? Approaching the Metal Realities” at the University of Siegen (GER), 3-5 May 2018.
  • (2018) “The formation of the German metal scene and the question of a ‘Teutonic’ power metal sound” at the conference “HardWired VI: So far, so good… so what? Approaching the Metal Realities” at the University of Siegen (GER), 3-5 May 2018.
  • (2017) “Old sounds with new technologies? Examining the creative potential of guitar ‘profiling’ technology from a production perspective” at “The Future Sound of Pop Music” conference in Bern (CH), 1 December 2017.
  • (2017) “Modern Rock And Metal Music”, lecture at the postgraduate course MAS Pop & Rock at the University of the Arts Berne (CH), 21 October 2017.
  • (2017) "Musikpädagogik und Musiktechnologie: Eine Fallstudie aus der Praxis am Beispiel von Dub Reggae" [Music Technology and Music Education: A practice-based case study on dub reggae] at the conference "Jugend musiziert – musikkulturelle Vielfalt im Diskurs" of the Institute for Research on Musical Ability (IBFM), Paderborn University (GER), 29 September 2017. Poster presentation
  • (2017) "'Heaviness' and the metal music guitar. Interactions between harmonic structure and sound from acoustic and perceptual perspectives" at the conference of the German Society for Music Psychology (DGM), University of Hamburg (GER), 15 September 2017. Poster presentation
  • (2017) "Gear Acquisition Syndrome - An empirical invesigation of electric guitar players' dealings with equipment and its consequences for musical genres" at the conference of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM), Kassel University (GER), 29 June 2017.
  • (2017) “Musikalische Darstellungsweisen der Elemente am Beispiel des Konzeptalbums 'The Alchemy Index' von Thrice" [Musical presentation of the natural elements in Thrice’s concept album The Alchemy Index] at a lecture series on aesthetic education at Bielefeld University (GER), 3 May 2017.
  • (2017) "Transkulturelle Musikpädagogik – Ziele, Methoden und Potenziale für ästhetische Bildung" [Transcultural music education – aims, methods and potentials for aesthetic education] at a lecture series on aesthetic education, Bielefeld University (GER), 17 January 2017.
  • (2016) "Shredding, Two-Hand-Tapping, Feedback. Eine experimental-analytische Studie zur Auswirkung von Gitarrenverzerrung auf das Solospiel im Rock und Metal" [An experimental and analytic study on the effects of guitar distortion on solo playing in rock and metal] at the conference of the German Association for Popular Music (GfPM), Hamburg University (GER), 19 November 2016.
  • (2016) “Para-Sonic 3.0. Eine Klang-Körper-Interaktion“ [Para-sonic 3.0. A sound and body interaction], Bielefeld University (GER), 11 November 2016.
  • (2016) "Der Einfluss von Verzerrung auf die Wahrnehmung verschiedener Gitarrenakkorde. Eine quantitative Studie auf Grundlage psychoakustischer Messungen" [The effect of distortion on the perception of guitar chord structures. A quantitative study based on a psychoacoustic experiment] at the conference of the German Association for Music Psychology (DGM), Vienna University (A), 11 September 2016. Poster presentation
  • (2016) "Verzerrung und Noise – Formen, Intentionen und Geschichte des Heavy Metal Sounds" [Distortion and noise - Forms, intentions and history on heavy metal sounds] as guest lecture in the seminar "Musik, Kultur und Geschichte des Heavy Metal" (Prof. Dr. Florian Heesch), Siegen University (GER), 28 June 2016.
  • (2016) "Die Verzerrung als Gestaltungsmerkmal des Gitarrenspiels. Methodische Grundlagen und praktische Anwendungen" as guest lecture in the seminar "Stromgitarren" (Nils Kirschlager), Paderborn University (GER), 16 June 2016.
  • (2016) "George Martin – Eine Rückschau auf seine Arbeit mit den Beatles und seinen Einfluss auf die Musikwelt" [George Martin – A retrospect on his work with the Beatles and his influence on the world of music], Bielefeld University (GER), 1 June 2016.
  • (2016) "Das Konzeptalbum im Wandel der Zeit – Transmediale Schnittstellen als zeitgemäße ästhetische wie auch ökonomische Strategien?!" [Concept albums in the change of time – Transmedial interfaces as aesthetic and economic strategies?!], Bielefeld University (GER), 20 April 2016.
  • (2016) "Methoden der Klanganalyse und ihre Anwendung in Musikpsychologie und -analyse" [Methods of sound analysis and its use for music psychology and analysis] as guest lecture in the seminar "Funktionen und Wirkungen von Musik" (Prof. Dr. Heiner Gembris), Paderborn University (GER), 19 April 2016.
  • (2016) "Kommunikation und Wissenskonstruktion in der Vorlesung. Eine quantitative Praxisstudie" [Communication and construction of knowledge. A quantitave study] at the "Higher Education Day", Paderborn University (GER), 16 February 2016. Poster presentation
  • (2016) "Die Verzerrung als Gestaltungsmerkmal des E-Gitarrenspiels in der Rockmusik" [The distortion as an expressive tool for rock guitar playing] at the symposium "Transcultural and Popular Music Research", Weimar University of Music (GER), 29 January 2016.
  • (2015) "Dub Reggae – Das Mischpult als Instrument" [Dub reggae – the mixing desk as an instrument], Bielefeld University (GER), 12 December 2015.
  • (2015) "Busby Berkeley – Höhepunkte der Choreographie des Broadway Musicals der 1930er Jahre" [Busby Berkeley – Highlights of 1930s Broadway musical choreography], Bielefeld University (GER), 4 November 2015.
  • (2014) "Rethinking sound – an ontological perspective" at the Sonic Signatures Symposium, Aalborg University (DK), 9 April 2014. Poster presentation
  • (2014) "‘What’s that sound?‘ Sound als didaktische Herausforderung der populären Musik" [Sound as a challenge for popular music education] at the symposium "Popmusik-Vermittlung: Zwischen Schule, Universität und Beruf", Leuphana University Lüneburg (GER), 13 February 2014.
  • (2013) "Stilkopie" at the "Day of Higher Education", Paderborn University (GER), 5 March 2013.
  • (2013) "Netzwerk Sound – Hören, Kultur, Praxis. Präsentation des Dissertationsprojekts" [Network sound – Listening, culture, practice. Presentation of PhD project], Paderborn University (GER), 19 February 2013.
  • (2013) "Didaktik der Populären Musik. Sound und aktuelle Herausforderungen" [Popular Music Education. Sound and contemporary challenges] as guest lecture in the seminar "Musik lernen und vermitteln: Grundfragen und Perspektiven der Musikpädagogik" (Prof. Dr. Thomas Krettenauer), Paderborn University (GER), 13 January 2013.
  • (2024) Industry round table discussion at the Reeperbahn Festival, Hamburg (GER), in the context of the AHRC-project “Songwriting Camps in the 21st Century”
  • (2024) Participation in SWR Kultur Forum (Germany), a 45-minute panel discussion/podcast on the topic: “Harte Schale, weicher Kern - Die eigenwillige Welt des Heavy Metal [Hard shell, soft core - the idiosyncratic world of heavy metal]”. Broadcast on 31 July 2024.
  • (2024) Interview with Guitar World magazine ‘“Technical playing can get cleaner, and that’s possibly even more challenging than just being faster”: We met the academics who study shred guitar for a living – they explained why it’s changed dramatically since the ’80s, and the 3 ways it can develop', 16 February 2024. interview online
  • (2023) Review of book 'Rock Guitar Virtuosos: Advances in Electric Guitar Playing, Technology, and Culture' in Guitar World magazine, 13 December 2023. review online
  • (2022) 7-minute-long radio interview with Deutschlandfunk (Germany): ‘Gear Aquisition Syndrome Besser Musikmachen durch Instrumentehorten [Gear Acquisition Syndrome: Enhancing Music-Making Through Acquiring Instruments]’, 26 January 2022. interview online.
  • (2021) 7-minute-long interview with TV channel TRT World for their culture and arts pro-gramme Showcase on the surge of guitar sales during the Covid-19 pandemic (broadcasted in Istanbul, London and Washington); broadcasted on 26 November 2021. interview online
  • (2021) Interview with ‘Guitar Acquisition Syndrome: what it is, how you already have it, and why that’s no bad thing’, Guitar World Magazine, 25 June 2021. interview online
  • (2018) Radio interview with the Deutschlandfunk (broadcasted throughout Germany): “Heavy-Metal-Forschung. Als die Stahlindustrie den Takt der Musik vorgab” [Heavy metal research. When the metal industry dominated the beat of the music] on 5.5.2018.
    interview online


    +++ Interview length 6:40 +++

  • (2016) Interview with newspaper Neue Westfälische on "learning an instrument in the adult age" in May 2016.
  • (2016) Interview with Radio Bielefeld on "ear worms".
  • (2016) Interview in the Bielefelder journal on popular music. Bielefelder, 3/16.
  • (2015) Interview with Radio Herford on "music and emotion" in December 2015.
  • (2012) Interview with newspaper Neue Westfälische on "music festivals" in July 2012.

Service to Academia

  • Member of the Chartered Manager Institute (CMI) - (from 2024)
  • Member of the Executive Committee of the International branch of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM) as Online Finance Manager − (2021-2022)
  • International Association for the Study of Progressive Rock Music (Progect Network) − (from 2021)
  • Member of the Executive Committee of the UK & I branch of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM) as Treasurer − (from 2018)
  • Member of Mental Health First Aid England (MHFA) − (from 2018)
  • International Society for Metal Music Studies (ISMMS) − (from 2016)
  • Higher Education Academy (HEA) − (from 2016)
  • Association for the Study of the Art of Record Production (ASARP) − (from 2014)
  • International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM international, UK & Germany) − (from 2013)
  • German Society for Popular Music Studies (GfPM) − (from 2011)
  • German Society for Music Psychology (DGM) − (2011−2020)
  • Reviewer for the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) − (2024)
  • Member of the Peer Review College of the British Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) − (2022−2025)
  • Member of the Peer Review College of the British Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) − (2022−2025)
  • Reviewer for Bloomberg’s book series ‘Music and Sound Studies’ − (from 2024)
  • Editor of The Cambridge Companion to the Electric Guitar. Cambridge University Press − (2024)
  • Reviewer for Creative Industries Journal − (from 2024)
  • Reviewer for Philosophia Journal − (2024)
  • Reviewer for the INSAM Journal of Contemporary Music, Art and Technology − (2024)
  • Editor of The Cambridge Companion to Metal Music. Cambridge University Press − (2023)
  • Juror of the 2023 Book Prize of the International Society for Popular Music (IASPM) − (2023)
  • Special issue editor: ‘Exploring Audio and Music Technology in Education: Pedagogical, Research, and Sociocultural Perspectives’. Journal of Music, Technology and Education − (2023)
  • Reviewer for Journal of the Acoustical Society of America − (from 2023)
  • Invited member of the editorial board of the Yearbook of Music Psychology, published by the German Society for Music Psychology − (2022-2025)
  • Reviewer for the special issue ‘The Sound of Germany: How Political is German Pop Music?’ of Textpraxis − (2021)
  • Special issue editor: ‘Metal Music Studies at the Intersection of Theory and Practice’. Metal Music Studies, 7(3) − (2021)
  • Special issue editor: ‘Crises at Work: Potentials for Change?’. IASPM Journal, 11(1) − (2021)
  • Reviewer for Rock Music Studies − (from 2021)
  • Member of the Editorial Board of the German Society for Popular Music (GfPM), which publishes two book series (Beiträge zur Popularmusikforschung, texte zur populären musik) and the online journal Samples − (from 2020)
  • Appointed member of the Editorial Board of IASPM Journal − (2019−2023)
  • Reviewer for the special issue ‘Sport and Music’ of Sport in Society − (2019−2020)
  • Reviewer for Routledge’s book series ‘Perspectives on Music Production’ and the ‘Ashgate Popular & Folk Music’ series − (from 2019)
  • Appointed member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the Metal Music Studies journal − (2017−2021)
  • Reviewer for conferences of the Association for the Art of Record Production − (2016, 2018), and the International Association for the Study of Popular Music − (2018)
  • Special issue editor: “Music and Arts”. Musik & Unterricht, 126 − (2016−2017)
  • Reviewer for the Journal on the Art of Record Production − (from 2016)
  • Reviewer for the Journal Psychology of Music − (from 2016)
  • Reviewer for the Journal Metal Music Studies − (from 2017)
  • Reviewer for IASPM Journal − (from 2014)
  • Advisory board member of the DFG (German Research Foundation) funded project ‘Artistic Music Research: Potentiale und Perspektiven für die künstlerische und wissenschaftliche Musikforschung im deutschsprachigen Raum’ [Artistic Music Research: Potentials and Perspectives for Artistic and Scientific Music Research in German-speaking Countries], led by Dr Wolf-Georg Zaddach (Germany) − (2021−2025)
  • Juror in chief of the ‘Battle of the Band’ contest organised by Huddersfield Student Union − (2021)
  • Member of the advisory board of the Centre for Aesthetics, Bielefeld University − (2015−2017)
  • Member of the advisory board of the annual music festival ‘Night of Silence’, Bielefeld University − (2015−2017)
  • Jury member of the SPH band contest, Bielefeld and Paderborn − (2014−2015)
  • PhD: 9 (2 University of Huddersfield, 1 Leeds Beckett University, 1 Kent University, 1 Salford University, 1 University of West London, 1 City University of London, 2 Australian National University)
  • MA: 23 (16 Huddersfield University, 4 Bielefeld University, 1 Paderborn University, 1 Leipzig University, 1 Leuphana University of Lueneburg)
  • Leeds Beckett University (2019−2023): BA (Hons) Music Performance and Production
  • University of West London (2019−2024): BMus (Hons) Performance and Recording, BA (Hons) Music Technology Specialist, BA (Hons) Music Technology – Audio Post Production, BA (Hons) Electronic Music Production, BA (Hons) Music Recording and Production, BA (Hons) Live Sound Production, BA (Hons) Music Mixing and Mastering
  • Deutsche Pop (2019−2024): BA (Hons) Music Technology Specialist
  • Cardiff and Vale College (2020−2023): Electronic Music Production
  • Lead organiser of the symposium “Afro-Futurism. Arena Rap. The Self-Producer. A Popular Music Studies Research Day” at the University of Huddersfield, 25 May 2021 (symposium website)
  • Co-organiser of the Eleventh Biennial International Conference on Music Since 1900, University of Huddersfield, 8−10 September 2019 (conference website)
  • Member of the core organising committee of the "Crosstown Traffic" conference at the University of Huddersfield, 3−5 September 2018 (conference website)
  • Organising of the summer school "Music Education" at Bielefeld University, 12−16 September 2016
  • Organising of an advanced training for music teachers at Bielefeld University, 15 April 2016
  • Music festivals with seminar bands of Paderborn University (2012−2013)
  • Coaching of amateur bands at Vocational Colleges in the years (2012−2014)
  • Grants of the federal state NRW for an educational music project on history of popular music in 2013