Artists have many things in common, and one of them is passion. Robin Janssens believes that a musician without passion is like a person without a soul. No matter how much an artist might try to conceal a lack of passion, others are going to pick up on it immediately. This is why Janssens staunchly believes that if you do not have at least a spark of passion for your craft, you need to take up another profession.
When a piece of music lacks passion, emotion, or even meaning, people are going to pick up on this. It will sound hollow and probably won’t make a positive impact on listeners.
Unfortunately, many “artists” put out highly commercialized work simply meant to be catchy and sell a lot of albums. The craft takes second place to profits, and Robin Janssens has strong feelings about music for the sake of money.
Like most commercial musicians, Robin Janssens set out with a dream of making a comfortable living from his passion. While the music, and the experiences behind it, always comes first, countless people hope to turn what they love into their livelihood. The difference is whether or not you “sell out” and profits become more important than your passion. This is where Janssens draws the line and sees that emotional void of music without passion.
Some musicians and audiences are completely fine with synthetic commercial work that lacks passion, depth, and emotion. Robin Janssens is not one of these people and refuses to fall into that trap. He feels that no self-respecting artist would ever release something that does not have at least a sliver of passion driving it. After all, we experience a tremendous range of emotions that are the basis for amazing music. There is no need to ever put out a song that doesn’t reflect at least one of these emotions.
Music is passion, and our passions lead to the creation of music. It is a symbiotic relationship. Robin Janssens believes that artists are free to produce whatever they like, but he will not be putting out work that lacks emotion. While others might decide to sell out, this musician refuses to take that route.
