How did you get started in web design?

Volkher: For me, (web) design fulfills the same function as ego shooters [editor's note: first person computer/video games] do for other people. It might be an odd comparison, but instead of throwing virtual mines at groups of slimy aliens and enjoying the mayhem, I get a kick out of designing posters, CD covers, flyers and web pages for myself, to relieve the stress I have in my day job.

What's the concept behind livingwithmusic.com?

Volkher: "Living With Music is a site for music collectors who are looking for ways to add to, manage, store and display their sizeable collections."

Livingwithmusic.com is a beautiful site. What were your main design goals?

Volkher: To be quite honest, I'm not really happy with the design anymore, not for aesthetic reasons, but because an analyis of my visitor stats shows me that a different design is maybe called for. Most visitors today, at least my readers, access the site via feed readers (if at all) and then hit the front page. Most of them have been around for a while and know the rest, so after having read the new post, they leave again. Casual visitors usually end up on my site via Google, have a lightening-quick look around and off they go again. So, I've been working on (mostly thinking about) a redesign which is still very far off (end of the year, or later). Aside from that, I never want my sites to look all too boring, so I put in a little eye candy here and there.

How did ExpressionEngine help you meet those goals?

Volkher: The great thing about ExpressionEngine is that it offers what I wanted to do (and even what I want to do in the future), pretty much out-of-the-box. You put together your template, keeping in mind how the tags will flow content into it, and that's it. Populate the templates with any of the many, many tags, and ... bingo!

What's your favorite ExpressionEngine feature?

Volkher: The custom fields were the selling point for me. They make EE so totally flexible. I can't think of a project that can't be done because of that feature. If you look at livingwithmusic.com, the paths to the three images accompanying every post go into their own fields, the image title tags into three more fields, and so on. Theoretically, you could create a field for each HTML tag and populate it via custom fields. Just think about the possibilities this single feature opens up! Truly dynamic! There is a lot more to EE, like the flexibility in the SQL department, but I couldn't really tell you more because when people ask me about how I did this or that, I always have to tell them that I haven't even used 2% of the functions EE has to offer. My sites are all design and standard tags. What fascinates me about EE is that just reading the tag lists and the user guide usually gives me ideas for new projects, many of which just exist in my head.

What song or event made you fall in love with music?

Volkher: How many hours do you have? I'll try my best to keep it short. My mom was a pianist, my dad loved to whip up a boogie and beat around on the piano (often in frustration), so music was all around me as a kid. When others were listening to early Santana, CCR and what-not, I listened to Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller and Count Basie, especially Count Basie, and later to Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker and John Coltrane. That's how it started for me: crawling around in front of my dad's LP cabinet, sifting through his sizable collection. It's best described like this: When I came home today I listend to Glenn Gould playing a fascinating interpretation of Bach (Goldberg Variations), went on to the Jimmy Giuffre 3 and a great 60s Ben Webster session, only to end up with Audioslave and an old Judas Priest CD – and that's before I sat down at the PC. Just call me weird.

If ExpressionEngine were a song, what would it be?

Volkher: It wouldn't be a single tune. I would compare it to Count Basie's "One more time!" or "One more once!" reprises that usually whipped his various bands and the audience into a frenzy. He would just shout it out and the band would fall in again with a popular chorus, a brass-heavy three or four bars or a boiling boogie - again, and again, and again. Pure fun. EE is like that for me. I designed sites, buried them again, redesigned them, changed and tweaked them, but the fun factor always remained -- and I'm not kidding when I say -- that in times of unbelievable stress, EE contributed substantially to my staying sane. The best 200 bucks I ever spent. Period.