passionate about making music
.who
I’m a musician, singer, guitarist, and writer of songs who loves performing both my own songs and putting my spin on covers.
.how
Whether I’m performing with a full band, playing in a more stripped-down acoustic setup, or going solo, I aim to create a vibe that connects with people. My music is a mix of honest lyrics and soulful harmonics, and I enjoy blending original tracks with familiar tunes that listeners can connect with.
.what
’57 Varieties’… as the Heinz Ketchup bottles say. I love music and love to perform different styles – ok .. there are some, I like more than others. If it’s Rock, Jazz, Fusion, Swing, Punk, Grunge, Indie, Pop, (Rhythm ‘n) Blues, Rap, Hamburger Schule, House/Techno, … you name it … if it tells a good story or just grooves enough … then I’m in!
.passion
No matter the setting, I bring my heart and soul to every performance, hoping to leave people with something meaningful to take home.
.projects
Currently I work on several projects. Probably there is one you are interested in?
Rockband
StraightTones
I’m the lead singer of this fantastic band, where we bring a fresh energy to both classic and modern covers – with some of our own songs woven into the mix.
It’s gotta groove! If it doesn’t do that on its own, the StraightTones will make it groove. Timeless, yes – but also modern. The pearls from the last few decades! In addition to well-known “second-tier classics” (No smoke on the water, sorry guys!), there are also current songs on the playlist – it has to rock.
Our own stuff was created as a collaboration between Joachim Ruoff and me, who first came up with the idea for the band in 2011. As an example: Together, we created the music for the song “Cold as Stone”, while I wrote the lyrics, adding a personal touch to our original pieces.
Acoustic
Not So … Straight Tones
Calmer, less noisy but catchy. We “acoustified” some of our songs in our Straighttone setup – but also added a whole lot of new covers.
The focus in this project lies more on the vocal performance and acoustic instrumentation – decorated with some percussive elements.
Jochen and I startet out with that additional acoustic setup experiment. We could win Nina as additional female voice to make it even more interesting. She’s a wonderful singer with a strong voice when it’s needed – a perfect match for our concept.
We hope to develop that setup further to get a strong alternative for more quiet locations.
Lyrical Performance
You’d better listen
Another acoustic project is about to come – it will be all covers. Covers of Songs, that you’d better really know the lyrics of before you start dancing and hopping around to them in joy!
Have you listend closely to the stories “Pumped up kicks”, “Polly”, “Creep”, “Every breath you take” tell you?
They’re brilliant and really worth listening to – and about stalkers, weirdos, the end of the world or even worse.
Solo Project
Beyond 51
During the last decades I composed many songs. Most of them not recorded – some of them even unfinished.
Now, whenever I find the time, I record some of those non-lost ideas. I started during the corona shutdown. Out came a collection of records of my original songs for which I now had the time to finish and polish them.
“busy busy” -“train to rainsilvania” -“stay out of my shoes”- “wonderful morning”
Solo Acoustic Covers
The shutdown chronicles
Corona pinned us in! During the Corona shutdown I recorded some covers and pimped them my way.
Among them some classics like “Ain’t no sunshine”, “Can’t stop”, “I wish”,”Overkill”, “Chasing cars” and “Crossroads”.
Mixed
Historical
I created and composed songs since I was about eight years old.
I have some very old recordings with good ideas but very badly done.
Probably I will publish them here one day.