Clara Knör is a Munich-based DJ and illustrator known for her vibrant and eclectic style. Despite playfully insisting, “I am not a D.J.,” she has become a key figure in the city’s music scene. She hosts the monthly radio show Nuff Respect on Radio 80000, curating sets influenced by roots, reggae, and dub. Beyond music, Knör is an accomplished illustrator, describing her artistic style as “funny, colourful, confident.” Deeply inspired by skateboarding culture, which she has been part of since she was 13, her work reflects the energy and attitude of the scene. She has also released music mixes, including Public Possession 014: Clara Knör (DJ Mix) in 2022, showcasing her diverse musical tastes and seamless blending of genres.
Your mix was very lighthearted, sunny, and bright. Was this what you were going for when you put it together, and is this what you normally try to achieve, or was it something different for you?
⎯⎯⎯ I think all my mixes are very lighthearted. With this mix, I wanted to do something that is just very easy to listen to while you're working. It should be stimulating, but not distracting. A little bit boring, but not too boring. You can work and not get distracted, but at the same time, you're like, ‘yeah, all right!’
It's funny that you say boring, but not too boring. I love this loungy, Buddha Bar sort of vibe, but it is kind of boring. It’s sort of like background music.
⎯⎯⎯ When I'm thinking about what I want to listen to while I'm working or while I'm doing something, I want to listen to something like that. I like that kind of music. I like it when it is a little boring. Sometimes if I listen to mixes while I'm working, it often happens to me that I have to shut down my laptop because it's too annoying.
What are your musical touchstones or inspirations? Is this indicative of your style, or was it put together specifically for this mix?
⎯⎯⎯ It was more or less specific to the mix, because this mix is for your working space. So I was like, OK, what do I listen to when I'm working, or what kind of mixes do I like when I'm working? Nothing annoying, nothing too crazy, but something with some tempo. I wanted to create a mix that I would search for if I wanted a mix to listen to while I'm working. Of course, when I'm digging for music and I want to get inspired I’m listening to other mixes which have more variety in their genres or whatever, but if I’m working, I want to work and not listen to music. But at the same time, I want to listen to music. Does that make sense?
Absolutely. So what kind of music do you gravitate towards? Is it always changing?
⎯⎯⎯ Well, I think you really nailed it by saying the mix sounds very bright and lighthearted because I think that's what I like in general. Doesn't matter which genre. I do love reggae, but I also love country music. I also love electronic music and I also deeply love disco. So it's hard to pinpoint a specific genre. But I pick music that is very light and also funny in a way. I like when songs have some sort of weird twist to them, something that almost makes you laugh because it's so funny. You can imagine the person, the artist, making it and being like, ‘let's see what happens when I do this.’
Is music your job or do you have another job, and do you bring that humor and lightheartedness into the other stuff you do?
⎯⎯⎯ Well, music is definitely not my job. Music just happened. I mean, there was always a big interest, but I never played an instrument. I was always drawing, so I'm an illustrator. That's my thing. And then music just came. I think it got bigger in my life when I moved to Munich. I mean, everything is connected. When I draw, I get inspired by music. When I listen to music, I get inspired by whatever is around me. But yeah, music is definitely more or less a hobby.
What do you illustrate for? Is it for magazines, books, fashion?
⎯⎯⎯ You can see them mostly on t-shirts from streetwear or skateboard brands. The illustration thing was always strongly connected to my skateboarding lifestyle. Then with my growing interest in music and the music scene, I also did a lot of flyers and posters and covers and so on.
Is that a lifestyle that you created, or did it just sort of just happen that the music, illustration, and skateboarding connected?
⎯⎯⎯ Skateboarding and the skateboard culture was very big early in my life, and then the illustration stuff and the drawing stuff fit in pretty well. You also need a track for your skate video, right? Also your identity is around your music taste. That's how you make friends. What do you like? What's your favorite band? It all just happened in a very natural way.
Which came first?
⎯⎯⎯ I was always drawing. So I guess drawing was first, and then skateboarding came. I started skateboarding when I was 11 or 12. And when I started skateboarding, people were listening a lot to punk rock and were kind of emo. So, the interest in music and culture was very vibrant early on. Then, when I moved to Munich and joined Radio 80000 and started my own show, that's where the music really became a thing in my life.
Why did you start your own radio show? Was it because you were asked to?
⎯⎯⎯ Well, I mean, everyone in Munich has a radio show. My local skate shop SooHotRightNow had their own radio show called SHRN Soundsystem. We were all listening to reggae and then they were like, ‘oh, you have to be a part of our show.’ I think I did two shows with them and then they said, ‘you should have your own show.’ And I said, ‘all right.’ So I started my own show called Nuffespect because of the Lady G' song, “Nuff Respect”. It was my favorite song at the time. This was in 2020.
And before that, you were interested in music, but were you playing shows or making mixes?
⎯⎯⎯ No, not at all. I was just surrounded by a lot of people who were doing it, who were either DJs or musicians or whatever. But I never did anything, just because I never thought about it. I was more consuming it. I was just skating and drawing. That was my main focus.
Was it nerve-wracking to put together a radio show?
⎯⎯⎯ Totally. At first, I didn't think about it at all. I think I had two hours once a month, and I played a lot of reggae. Then I switched to one hour later on. I mean, with everything you start, first it's fun and you're like, ‘I don't know what I'm doing.’ Then at some point you're like, ‘I think I should know what I'm doing.’ So yeah, that definitely happened at some point. But the radio and the community there are so helpful and supportive.
Do you think doing a radio show, or putting together a mix, is similar to drawing?
⎯⎯⎯ When I create a mix there's always one or two songs, which I love, and I build the mix around those two songs. That's how I do it every time. Whenever I get lost, I go back to those two songs and I'm like, ‘oh, yeah, okay, that that was the idea.’ With drawing it’s a little different. Every time I have to start a new project or every time I'm in front of my blank paper, it's just super scary. I'm like, ‘I don't know what I'm doing. I can't do it.’ And then after two or three papers of rubbish, I'm getting somewhere.
Music is a little easier to work with. I find it more emotionally accessible. If you pick up an instrument and you start playing it, we immediately respond to the sound that comes out.
⎯⎯⎯ Exactly. It's also more from the outside. It's not all from your inside. The sound is something that is a little more far away from your person than the drawing, I find. Drawing is so personal. It's very vulnerable, especially with illustrations.
The vulnerability, you mean?
⎯⎯⎯ Maybe, yeah. I don't know if that's the best word. It sounds a little dramatic.
Where were you living before you came to Munich?
⎯⎯⎯ I'm originally from Cologne, and then I moved to Hamburg, did a lot of skating there, and also some education stuff. And then from Hamburg, I moved to Munich. I was skating a lot. I was doing my illustrations, and then at some point, I started also working for Public Possession. So before Munich was Hamburg, and before Hamburg was Cologne, and now I'm in Vancouver.
Is that temporary?
⎯⎯⎯ Yes, this is just for a year, and then I'm gonna go back home to Germany.
What was the skate culture like in Cologne?
⎯⎯⎯ My first job was at the local skate shop, and I found it very bold. I mean, not bold, but I think the skateboard scene was pretty big everywhere, just because it was so trendy. Or maybe it was just so big in my head because I was just thinking about skateboarding all the time.
Do you remember the first thing that turned you on to skateboarding?
⎯⎯⎯ I liked the people who skated. I could identify with them. We had the same music taste. That was very important. And then I just liked the brutality of skating, but at the same time, it was also so creative. So I just liked the brutality, but at the same time the community thing.
What do you mean by the brutality of it?
⎯⎯⎯ Just that every time you come home after skating, you're covered in something, or something's bleeding, or something hurts. You always fall. It was a great way to just get rid of extra energy or frustration or whatever.
It sounds like a painful learning process.
⎯⎯⎯ Yeah. It's a sport you have to fall in love with, otherwise you will stop because it's so frustrating, and it takes forever, and it's annoying, but it was also very fun. I'm very happy that I had skateboarding in my life. It was really about the people that you were skating with, the community. I was moving a lot, so the community always changed, but also anywhere you go, if you show up with a skateboard, you have friends immediately.
Nowadays, how do you break up the time between illustrating, music, and skating?
⎯⎯⎯ Well, right now, skateboarding is very low on my to-do list just because I had two knee surgeries. Skating is very difficult and very hard and nothing works and it's just annoying.
Are those from skating?
⎯⎯⎯ Yeah. The last two years have been recovery from knee surgery again. That's when I started my Knee mixes because I was laying in bed and I needed to do something. I couldn't go to the radio because of my crutches. As for how I spend my time, it depends. Sometimes I don't want to listen to music at all, so drawing becomes more of a priority and then sometimes I do five mixes at the same time. Right now it's definitely more drawing just because I don't have my community around me, my music community in Munich, which I'm very grateful for. They're awesome. So yeah, it depends.
When it comes to finding music to play, like in this mix for example, how do you go about sourcing it? This one has, like you said earlier, a funny element to it, and it felt very nostalgic.
⎯⎯⎯ Yeah, it's like a DVD menu. You don't turn off the television because it's nice, but it's also not distracting.
Is it friends in your community that turn you on to certain music, or are you digging through record stores and stuff?
⎯⎯⎯ Well, I have my reggae friends, I have my disco house, whatever friends, and so there's always always an exchange with them, but there's also the classic internet research from Bandcamp to Discogs to whatever. It helps if I have a specific time range where my music comes from. This mix, for example, there is stuff that just came out and there's stuff from the 90s, but it's pretty fun that everything sounds very much the same somehow, but it's from totally different times. There are also a lot of friends in there too. That's the cool part about music. It's about community building. It has this ability to connect people and making mixes is like building little story islands. It's a different way to express yourself and communicate with other people. And like you said, it's just way quicker with emotions and less individual, more like community thinking.
Do you feel like you're telling a story when you make a mix?
⎯⎯⎯ I don't know. I mean, I'm telling a story to myself with a mix. I understand what kind of little island or story I made. Sometimes people see that and sometimes they don't. It should still be silly and fun and not too serious. I'm not here to tell anyone anything.
Have you ever created music for a skate video?
⎯⎯⎯ I only made one track last year with my GarageBand for my second knee surgery. It has something more special than just another Knee mix. The track is called “Knee High To A Grasshopper.” It's ambient snake jazz.
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