There are conversations that almost never happen in everyday family life. When the person who could answer is one day no longer there, those answers are gone for good. At Tonstudio Leipzig you record those interviews, calmly, with structure, with help on the questions and in a protected atmosphere.
Most people do not simply start talking about their life. They wait for somebody to ask. They wait for a setting where it fits. And in everyday life that setting almost never comes up. Sunday lunch is about the grandchildren. The birthday visit is about health. The phone call is about the next plans. The big stories, the ones that really matter, stay untold. Until the person who knows them is no longer there. And then they are gone.
That is exactly what a podcast interview is for. It creates a setting in which stories can be told. There is someone asking who carries the conversation. There is someone answering who is finally being asked. There is an atmosphere that everyday family life does not offer. And what comes out of it is an audio recording that will still be just as listenable in twenty years as it is today. At Tonstudio Leipzig I record these interviews calmly, with structure and with help on the questions. You come with an idea, I help you with the questions, and you go home with a family legacy.
The five most common formats are: a birthday interview for a milestone birthday of someone you love, a witness interview with grandparents about the war, the GDR and reunification, a couple's interview for a wedding anniversary, a conversation across generations between parents and children, and the life interview recorded ahead of a serious illness or in old age. Each of these formats has its own tone, its own list of questions and its own pace. Whichever format suits you, a short first assessment can always be booked online in the studio shop.
Every format has its own tone, its own questions and its own occasion. Here you can see the kinds of interview families come to me with, often combined or slightly adapted.
For a 60th, 70th or 80th birthday, the person celebrating is interviewed in a calm studio session, like a guest on a talk show, with real questions, real stories and real attention. “What was your happiest moment?” “What shaped you the most?” “What would you want to pass on to your grandchildren?” As a birthday present or as a CD keepsake for the whole family.
The generation that lived through the war, everyday life in the GDR, the fall of the Wall and reunification is getting smaller. What these people know is contemporary history at first hand. Recording a structured witness interview with your grandparents, great grandparents or older family members is a priceless gift to the next generation and to your family history itself. In twenty years there will be no second chance.
For your 10th, 25th or 50th wedding anniversary you sit down opposite each other and ask the questions you rarely ask in everyday life. “When did you know it was me?” “What was your hardest phase?” “What would you do exactly the same way today?” A loving gift to yourselves, and to your children, who get to hear this recording later.
The most moving format. A younger member of the family interviews an older one, a daughter asks her mother, a son asks his father, a grandchild asks a grandmother. Conversations come up about values, lessons from life, unspoken questions, things that were never talked about. Both sides gain just as much. Sometimes it is the loveliest gift families can give each other.
When someone you love has a serious diagnosis or is reaching old age, families often want to preserve the voice, the stories and the words for those who come after. At a relaxed pace, with breaks, in shorter sessions across several dates if needed. Preserving the voice while it is still there, a moment that becomes priceless.
A less well known but especially lovely version: a godparent records an audio interview for their godchild, about their own life story, their wishes for the child, their values and memories. It is handed over at the christening, the confirmation or the child's 18th birthday. A legacy that carries the relationship across decades.
Depending on the format, the number of people and how deep the interview goes, one of the three packages will fit. Editing, preparing the questions and, on request, a CD cover are all included. For special requests, such as a life interview across several dates, I find the right solution individually.
Ideal for a birthday interview, a couple's dialogue for a wedding anniversary or a compact conversation across generations. Up to 45 minutes of final audio, one studio session, editing out pauses and slips, a finished file for sharing privately or handing over as a gift.
The most popular format. Up to 75 minutes of final audio with room for longer answers, several themes and questions that go deeper. The classic choice for witness interviews, detailed life interviews and conversations across generations. Includes help with the questions, editing, sound design and handover.
For when the person being interviewed should not do one long session in one go: a life interview recorded in advance, a detailed witness account, a family story in several parts. Recordings spread across several sessions, edited together into one audio series. With breaks, at the right pace and with dignity.
For each format you get a tried and tested list of questions: birthday, witness account, couple, generations, life interview. You add your own questions to it, the ones that fit this particular person. That way you walk into the studio prepared.
The interview becomes a CD with an individually designed cover, a photo of the person interviewed, their dates and a line that means something. As a present for a milestone birthday or as a keepsake CD after a witness interview.
Several interviews with different family members are brought together into a structured family archive, with a consistent cover design and an index. An heirloom for the generations to come.
An MP3 disappears into cloud storage. A CD with a photo cover stays tangible, at the home of the person celebrating, at the grandfather's, at the daughter's. Anyone giving an interview to someone they love hands it over with the CD in their hand. Noticeably more personal than a gift basket.
You choose a photo that shows the person interviewed at their best, in their younger years or today, laughing or quiet, alone or with the family. The photo becomes the centre of the cover and gives the CD a face you recognise straight away.
The cover carries the name, the date of birth or the wedding date, the title of the interview and a line or motto that means something. You decide on the layout, the type and the colours, classic and elegant, warm and homely or modern and restrained.
The finished cover is printed on the CD and on the case in professional quality. You can order a single CD or several at once, one for the person celebrating, one for each sibling, one for the grandchildren. That way every family member has their own keepsake.
The CD with a cover is an optional extra, just write that wish directly into your enquiry. If you only need the digital file, you get that too, of course.
An interview is not just a recording. Things happen in the asking, in the answering and in the years that follow. Small, quiet, important moments that turn a simple interview into a family legacy.
Putting the questions together is already part of the gift. You think about what you really want to know from this person. What was never asked. What you always suspected. In that process you often notice for the first time how much you still do not know, and how valuable the interview will be.
In the studio moments come up that cannot come up at the kitchen table at home. The atmosphere is focused, the recording is running, the person asking is really listening. Suddenly the person answering tells things that stayed unsaid for decades. That is the real magic of this format.
When the interview is handed over as a gift, at a birthday, an anniversary, at the big family dinner, a moment comes up that outshines the whole occasion. Tears, laughter, hugs. In that instant the person receiving it understands that somebody really listened to them.
In the years after the recording the CD is brought out again and again. At family gatherings. At birthdays. On the days when the voice of the person interviewed is missed most. The interview becomes part of the family memory, and sometimes part of what holds the family together.
When the interview gets old enough, children and grandchildren hear the voices of people who are long gone. Grandparents they never got to meet. Ancestors who were only names on photographs. An audio recording is the only form in which that person really is “there” again.
Anyone recording several interviews with different family members builds a real family archive over the years. An audio library that will still give an authentic picture in fifty or a hundred years of who these people really were. An heirloom that does not sit in a cupboard but really gets listened to.
A good interview does not happen by chance. Here are the six steps that turn your recording from a good one into a genuinely special one, whichever format you choose.
Think it through beforehand: is it a birthday present, a witness interview, a couple's dialogue, a conversation across generations or a life interview recorded in advance? Every format has its own tone and its own questions. During the enquiry I talk through with you which format fits best.
You get a tried and tested list of questions from me for your format. You add your own questions to it, the ones that fit this particular person, inside topics, old anecdotes, family stories that were never resolved. Ten to twenty good questions is a realistic number.
Tell the person you are interviewing what to expect: no test, no examination, no pressure. It is a conversation in a relaxed atmosphere. For surprise interviews at a birthday it is often enough to explain shortly beforehand on the day that this is a loving interview as a gift.
An old photo, a letter or a keepsake can help during the interview, so that the person answering remembers details they would otherwise have forgotten. Bring four or five such prompts, they can be used between the themes.
A 75 minute session is a lot for many people, especially in old age or during illness. Plan two or three shorter dates instead of one marathon session. The quality of the answers is often better in the second sitting, because the person has got used to the situation.
The best answers often come after a pause. A silence is not awkward, it is valuable. Tears do not have to be wiped away. If you settle that with yourself beforehand, and signal to the person being interviewed that there is room for everything, the interview goes deeper than any talk show.
So that you know exactly what happens between the enquiry and the finished interview, here are the four calm steps of every interview production.
You send me a short enquiry: the occasion (birthday, anniversary, witness account), the format you want, the number of people, the time frame. I get back to you with an honest assessment and a suitable package.
You get the tried and tested list of questions for your format. You add your own questions. After that I book the studio date with you, or several dates for interviews in more than one part. The person being interviewed gets a short briefing, unless it is meant to be a surprise.
At the session I welcome both people, show you the studio and do a short microphone test. You lead the interview, I take care of the recording, the levels and the atmosphere. Breaks where they are needed, water is ready, there is time.
After the recording: editing out pauses and slips, sound optimisation, mix. Delivered as a digital file by cloud link or as a CD with an individual cover for handing over as a gift. Confidential, never passed on.
My studio is centrally located in the south of Leipzig, five minutes from Bayerischer Bahnhof. Easy to reach by tram, S-Bahn and car, which matters when older family members come in their own car or arrive by train.
Bernhard-Göring-Straße 17, five minutes on foot from Bayerischer Bahnhof. Reachable by tram, S-Bahn and car, with parking nearby. That matters when older family members arrive in their own car or bring someone with them.
Halle is around 35 minutes away by S-Bahn, and about half an hour by car depending on the time of day. Many families from Halle combine the interview with lunch together, a perfect opportunity for a family get-together.
From the area around Leipzig you reach the studio in 15 to 25 minutes. Markkleeberg, Schkeuditz, Taucha, Markranstädt, Borna, Grimma, typical when family from several surrounding towns comes together for the interview.
From Chemnitz, Dresden, Jena, Weimar, Erfurt or Magdeburg, Leipzig is under two hours away. A day trip for an interview with grandparents or parents works well, often combined with a family meal afterwards.
For witness interviews and conversations across generations, family members often come together at the studio from different cities. Leipzig is easy to reach as a meeting point in central Germany. I can set the date so that everyone can travel in comfortably.
Some families turn the interview into a small weekend: arriving on Friday, staying overnight in the centre of Leipzig, the studio session on Saturday morning, lunch together with the whole family. That way the recording becomes a small family reunion.
Here you find the most important answers before you enquire about your interview project. If your question is not here, a short message is enough. I answer in confidence and without sales pressure.
In an interview there is one person asking and one person answering. The structure comes from the questions, not from a script.
That is what makes interviews so valuable: the person answering remembers things that would never have come to mind if they were simply telling a story. The questions give support, and the answers have depth.
It is exactly that depth that turns a recording into a family legacy.
Five main areas are the ones I record most often:
1. A birthday interview for a milestone birthday of someone you love.
2. A witness interview about the war, the GDR, reunification or other significant historical experiences.
3. A couple's interview for a wedding anniversary or another anniversary.
4. A conversation across generations between parents and children or between grandparents and grandchildren.
5. A life interview recorded ahead of a serious illness or in old age.
Yes, and it is one of the most important parts of the service.
Many families know who they want to interview, but not which questions actually produce good answers. I provide you with a tried and tested list of questions for your format, which you adapt and add your own questions to.
That way you walk into the session prepared and give the person being interviewed a sense of security.
Yes, both with their own microphones. A mother and daughter, a granddaughter and grandfather, a couple facing each other, siblings together.
Up to three people can sit in the setup at the same time.
For interviews across generations with several family members I plan staggered recordings with breaks in between.
A witness interview is a recording with someone who lived through historical events , the war, the GDR, reunification, the fall of the Wall, major social change.
The generation that experienced it first hand is getting smaller. Recording an interview like this with your grandmother or grandfather today gives your own family a piece of contemporary history at first hand.
In twenty years there will be no second chance.
Yes, that is what the life interview recorded in advance.
is for. When someone you love has a serious diagnosis or is reaching old age and the family wants to preserve their voice, their stories and their words for those who come after, this format is exactly right.
I record at a relaxed pace , with breaks where they are needed and with short sessions when a long one would be too tiring. Spread across several dates on request.
It is an interview between two family members from different generations.
A daughter interviews her mother. A grandchild interviews a grandfather. A son interviews his father.
What makes it special: conversations come up that rarely happen in everyday life, about values, memories, lessons from life, unspoken questions. One of the most moving formats, because both sides gain just as much.
A typical interview of 45 to 75 minutes of final audio takes about 90 to 150 minutes in the studio, including the welcome, the microphone test, the recording itself and short breaks.
For life interviews with older people I plan shorter sessions across several dates, so that nobody is overstretched.
Both are possible. The finished recording comes to you as a digital file by cloud link.
On request there is also a CD with an individually designed cover , for example with a photo of the person interviewed, their dates and a line that says something about them.
Especially moving as a present for a milestone birthday or as a keepsake after a witness interview.
Interviews are priced individually, because the formats vary so much.
The factors are: the format, whether birthday, witness account, couple, generations or life interview, the number of people, the length, the number of dates, how much editing is involved and whether you want a CD with a cover.
When you get in touch you receive an honest estimate the same day. A short first assessment is bookable online in the studio shop.
Completely. Everything recorded in the studio is stored on a privacy-conscious server and permanently deleted after the project on request.
Content is never passed on or published. Family interviews stay entirely with you and your family.
This page is written for private family interviews and personal occasions without a commercial background.
If you work for a a content creator, an influencer, a company or for commercial purposes and want to record an interview, have a look at the separate business site of Tonstudio Leipzig for companies and freelancers.
Write me a short note about who you have in mind and which format might fit: a birthday interview, a witness recording with your grandparents, a couple's interview for your anniversary, a conversation across generations or a life interview recorded in advance. I answer with an honest assessment and the right next step. A short first assessment is confidential and part of the initial consultation.