THE INCREDIBLE HAZE

1990: ...and Metal for all

2011-10-30T06:50:00.000-07:00

Finally the 80s lost it's grip and I slipped into the 90s. After having survived the neon light, the hair spray and elevator music of the 1980s, 1990 felt new, real and fresh. It was the last year of the cold war, the Berlin wall was falling and it was the year the Leaning Tower of Pisa was closed as the authorities were worried that it would become the tumbling tower of Pisa.

The tower never fell. But the 80s did and the crowd was ready for real, man made music, blood, sweat and tears, big guitar solos, double base drums and screaming singers in tight black leather trousers. There was exactly one year (90 - 91) when heavy metal was everything I knew. And it felt good because it was evil. The hair on my head was growing, my jeans jacket got covered by a growing number of band patches and I learned that the right thing to do at a concert was to lift your right arm and extend the index and little finger while holding the middle and ring finger down with the tumb (sign of the horns). And there was a harder, rougher, darker wind blowing on my stereo.

Two heavy metal giants were ruling the empire of rock: the eminent Iron Maiden and the founders of traditional, and modern metal: Metallica. I can vividly remember listening to Kirk Hammetts solo in Metallicas epic rock ballad One, and was totally shocked by the unimaginal speed and virtuosity of his guitar playing. Nobody had ever been playing guitar this rapidly before! And it was clear to me that this was something new that would change rock music forever.

One was the first Metallica song for which a music video was created. The video and lyrics are inspired by Dalton Trumbo´s novel Johnny Got His Gun from 1939. It is a tale of a soldier who got severely injured by a artillery shell. Joe awakens at the hospital and realizes that he has lost his arms, legs and face including eyes, ears, teeth and toungue. He is unable to speak, see, smell or hear, but his mind functions perfectly. As Joe is trapped in his own body he initially tries to commit suicide by suffocation but decides then that he deserves to be shown around in a glass box as a victim of war. He finds a way to communicate using morse code but the doctors deny his wish. As Joe drifts between reality and fantasy he remembers his wife, family and friends.

The Iron Maiden was originally a 19th century torture device, pretty bad stuff actually and unfortunately the most famous Iron Maiden was built in, guess what - yes of cause, Germany. So well, this terrible thing is a iron cabinet of the size of a man and the person to be tortured got prisoned inside, forcing the poor guy to stand upright for hours or days. As a little gimmick they put little sharp spikes inside so that leaning in any direction was made highly unpleasant.

In contrast, hearing Iron Maiden was like pouring oil on my musical fire. There was something, a drive, an anger in their songs that was magnetic. And it was death skulls, satan, warfare, evil and good, death, life, hell, fire, explosions, blood, true heroes, true villains, and much more that made me hypnotized - and scared my parents to death. The combination was perfect and the number was the number of the beast.

1989: Dance like Collins

2011-10-23T09:51:00.000-07:00

The year was 1989, I was 11 years old and rock ´n roll hadn´t poisened my soul yet. Still quite unaware of the devils soundtrack (means: heavy metal) I thought that I had found IT. The music that could change the world, the magic of the radio, the man of all men: Phil Collins.

I admit, there was a time when I had willingly given my right arm to keep this secret. I mean, imagine being 15 and playing guitar in a german hardcore metal band - its pretty impossible get away with liking Phil without loosing your face. But yes it´s true, Phil Collins was my big idol once. And now, some years later I realize that, man, this guy is a bad ass musician, one of the best - ever. There are few that combine his qualities as a top notch songwriter slash multiinstrumentalist slash performer slash entertainer slash actor. And nowadays I am proud to say, yes I love this guys music. So here you go, one of my favorites from the late, late 80s:

1983: 99 balloons: The New German Wave

2011-09-08T10:11:00.000-07:00

The year was 1983, the world was occupied with the last decade of the cold war between the nuclear nations, Ronald Reagan was US president and the Commodore 64 was amazing youngsters all over the planet with its never before seen, mind-blowing game graphics. I was fantastic, you could almost figure out that the three moving pixels in the game Indiana Jones where representing Indiana Jones himself.

By that time, the biggest things in life for me was building Lego and riding my bike up and down the road. Musically I was moderately unaware of what was happening at that time. But there was a vibe that was surrounding everything and everyone at that time in Germany, whether you were interested in music or not, a phenomenon called the new german wave. While the US had Michael Jacksons Thriller and Sweden had ABBA, Germany had the new german wave.

Having its roots in late '70s UK punk, the NDW (= Neue Deutsche Welle) was a fusion of minimalistic New Wave and underground punk-pop bands coming from the major german cities like Hamburg, Berlin, Düsseldorf and Frankfurt am Main. The genre was idiosyncratic and initially rebellious in it´s nature, but turned into a neon light hit machinery that collapsed on itself and was facing an early end in the mid '80s.

However besides it´s short lived appearance in world history, NDW gave birth to two of my absolute all time favorites, still: the one and only 99 balloons of Nena and Major Tom, a character originally created by Dave Bowie, but here adapted by Peter Schilling, telling the story of the astronaut Tom who gets lost in space.

1978: In the beginning there was sound

2011-09-04T02:34:00.000-07:00

Ok, this is how it began, my life of music. I was born in '78. Just seconds after my birth there it was, the auditive world was entering my mind, the sounds of the people around me, the doctor talking to me in a soothing voice in words that I did not understand yet, I heard my mother somewhere, heard her relief and tired happiness, heard my fathers cheerful voice, the nurses soft humming while laying me down in my mothers arms. While the visual world I was seeing through my baby eyes still was some kind of diffuse, blurry sphere, I was already exitedly absorbed by all these different and distinct shapes and forms of sound, and had I had words I would have said: "Shit man, all these amazing sounds! Awesome!". Instead I uttered: "Gah..." But I guess mother understood somehow at that moment that I would become a singer/songwrither later in life.

So my life started and I ate and slept and dreamt and music became my first best friend. Initially the only music I knew was coming out of my moms mouth, but then I recognized what would become the single most important source of music in the first years of my life: TV.

Or to be more exact: children's television series. I loved them, and still as a grown up I have to admit that from time to time they pop up in my mind, the opening themes of The Fraggles, dr Snuggles, Bugs Bunny, Pippi Langstrumpf, Senor Rossi, and, entering the mid 80s, captain future and saber rider.