In the eleventh episode of the Enchoris Podcast we talk to Thomas Venker — publisher and co-editor-in-chief of Kaput, a magazine whose subtitle has read ”for insolvency and pop” for ten years, and before that editor-in-chief of Intro, at the time Germany's largest music magazine.In May 2026 Kaput did something the industry had stopped doing: it published a printed issue. This is a conversation about why, and about what music journalism costs the people who make it. We talk about writing as a form of expression and how different people have different writing styles. Sometimes 30000 characters are need to tell the whole story.We discuss his latest book 'Talking to Americans' that was published by Edition Fieber. A journey through the United States with photographer and friend Jonathan Forsyte. They embarked on a road trip randomly interviewing people who shared their life-stories and views.

https://edition-fieber.com/

We talk about the Kapute Szene art space he runs in Cologne that tried to create a community space where art and music meet. Creating a setting for the art and music audiences to fuse and mingle. He was co-curator of the Monheim Triennale, the avant-garde music festival on the Rhine whose artistic director is Reiner Michalke. After a very successful run and the 2025 edition being a peaking point the Triennale was effectively terminated. The town's newly elected administration had no interest in that form of culture, so there was no longer room for a festival of avant-garde music. We discuss how a festival like that can change a small city and provide a worldview to the local youth while giving artists room to collaborate and evolve.

https://monheim-triennale.de/What does a magazine owe a scene? What disappears when the writing about music disappears? And how much unpaid administrative work now stands between a talented musician and the funding they need?

More from Thomas at Kaput Magazin https://kaput-mag.com/team