…and their story
… german songs …
An einem Regentag (2024)
Another rainy day in November. Looking out the window of my studio, the scene I described in the song unfolded before my eyes. I sat down with my guitar, and that's how this song came about.
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Alles ist still (2022)
"What are you thinking about right now?" Answer: "Nothing!" This answer from my wife always irritated me. "Thinking about nothing" is something that doesn't exist for me! There are always several screens running in my head, each showing a different film. The program: "Ideas and repetitions of the day's experiences/dialogues." When I bought a 12-string guitar and went to my bench in the garden to play it, I realized that everything around me was quiet, but inside me it was incredibly loud. I put the thoughts swirling around in my head down on paper and transformed them into music. The result: the song "Everything Is Still."
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Glasperlenspiel (2018)
Sometimes a person's focus shifts to the things in life that they don't like. And when that's compounded by the feeling of being at the mercy of these things, of being powerless to change anything, a sense of meaninglessness sets in. The result: a downward spiral of emotions, accompanied by negative thoughts! Nothing works, nothing wants to work anymore: This happened to a very good friend of mine. This song is meant to remind us how important it is to perceive the colorful diversity of the world around us: and that includes the positive, beautiful moments. Even if it means leaving your comfort zone, climbing a ladder, or going outside. Then you'll feel the positive energy that sustains our lives.
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Komm Pinguin, tanz‘ mit mir! (2017)
2017 was a year that gave my life a completely new direction. It all started with a serious health setback in January that sidelined me for a while. From this silence began a long and arduous journey of discovery. Eventually, the pieces of the puzzle I found along the way were enough to form a coherent picture: insightful and actually quite simple. The physician and comedian Dr. Eckart von Hirschhausen identified the cause of what happened to me in a story about a penguin, which he observed at the zoo, depicted in a vivid way. In light of this upcoming new beginning, I wrote this song in which I accept the "penguin" within me and invite it to dance with me!
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So wie ich bin (2017)“
Creative, always searching, pushing boundaries, curious, enthusiastic, solution-oriented, spirited, empathetic, fair-minded, and uncompromisingly logical: these are adjectives others have used to describe me in a professional context, especially in performance reviews. That's actually a good thing, yet it's difficult to find a suitable place in hierarchical systems with such qualities. As an employee with all these quirks and idiosyncrasies, life is simply harder than a squirrel's nest. And if you also possess genetic traits that make it almost impossible to break free from the mold, then things get ugly. Frequent job changes, music, and lots of coffee: it works for a while, but then: Boom! Diagnosis, realization, new beginning. For those who want to know what genetic traits I have, here's a hint: Many celebrities in the spotlight share the same characteristics as me! I mention some of these celebrities in the middle of the song.
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Geschenkte Zeit (2015)
The title song of my 2019 concert series was written on the tracks of Karlsruhe's main train station. A two-hour delay. Initially, I felt annoyed and frustrated, but then my perspective shifted: I decided to see the time spent on the platform as a gift and make something positive out of it. I sat down on a bench by the platform and wrote this song.
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Schenk‘ mir noch mehr Momente (2015)
When I'm happy, time loses its meaning for me: a timeless eternity seems to spread. As I looked back on 2015 at the end of the year, on the many moments when I encountered eternity, I made the following resolution: 'Enjoy and capture a moment when you are happy: in pictures, words, in your memory, or in your heart. However I do it, then I have a place I can always return to, a place with a view of eternity.' And I wrote this song!
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Das Haus der Erinnerung (2010)
When I spent Christmas 2010 with my family in Berlin, we visited our friend Hansa Czypionka. We played music on the numerous instruments he kept in his loft and had a lot of fun. Hansa had a performance at WDR the next day, and he asked me if I would accompany him on a song he was going to perform. 'All right,' Hamburg, here we come! After a train ride through a snowy landscape, I arrived late at the studio, but just in time for the show. Makeup, soundcheck, and off we went. During the show, Hansa told stories from his life and his dreams. Our live musical performance went well (#video of the performance) great. The return trip to Berlin was delayed due to the weather, and the train journey also took much longer than planned. Time to reflect on what I had heard, Hansa's childhood experiences, and… then I was suddenly back to my childhood, my youth, my past. I realized that when you're in the thick of life, you're almost exclusively focused on the "here and now" and the future: you're living. There's little time to pause and look back. But it's worth taking the time for that now and then, because 'The house of memory in today's shadow stands hidden at the foot of the tree of life. The faces at the window, the cracks in the walls, are friends of silence, friends of dreams.' And a new song was born!
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Taliesin (2009)
A nighttime walk through the woods in early December. The snow-covered paths and trees reflected the moonlight. I felt free, solitary, yet not alone. With every step, the snow crunched beneath my feet: I was leaving tracks in the snow. Behind me lay the visible past, before me an unwritten future, and I found myself right in the middle of it, in the here and now! Inspired by the magic of this scene, I had the idea for this song. The beginning and end of the song are inspired by the story of Taliesin, a figure from the realm of Celtic legends: "Secrets of yesterday, moments of verity, dreams of tomorrow."
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Wo bist Du? (2005)
A sleepless night: somehow I couldn't find peace. I lay in bed, images swirling in my head, thoughts racing. Eventually, I gave up trying to fall asleep, went to my studio, and sat down at the piano. Suddenly, everything happened quickly: my thoughts and feelings wove a melody and lyrics. The song was originally in English and was called "Where are you?"
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Staub im Wind (2008)
"Lying on the terrace one summer night, gazing at the sky: thoughts come and go, but some linger and become a line in a new song. The infinite expanse of the universe has once again literally shown me how vast the significance of an individual, their possessions, and their problems is compared to the greater whole. My conclusion from this perspective: not to take everything so seriously, to lean back and live life with a certain lightness. This requires a lot of trust and the courage to let go – it's worth a try!"
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Es ist an der Zeit (2020)
Some things take a long time, but eventually the time is right and it's time to take the next step!
So „Row, row your boat gently down the stream! Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream!“
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Farbspiel im Wind (2002)
I was booked to provide musical accompaniment for an art opening. I wondered how a painter's creative process unfolds. "Preparation, a tentative start, then getting into the flow and working until exhaustion, then stepping back and contemplating the finished work?"
Yes, that's how it should work. In the song "Farbspiel im Wind", I tried to musically represent this process on the guitar.
Ich bin hier (2011)
"One sunny afternoon, I was in a café in Offenburg with Monika, a good friend. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a couple sitting at a table some distance away. They were both staring intently at their smartphones, sipping lattes almost without taking their eyes off their phones. What would I do if the person opposite me acted like that? I think I would get up and sing loudly, 'I'm here!' And there it was again, the idea for a new song."
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Die Segel sind gesetzt (2012)
"This year, I went sailing on the Baltic Sea with Sibylle, Rebecca, Christine, and Andreas, our skipper. A week of wind, sun, and sea, and... a great sense of community! When it mattered, every move had to be perfect, and otherwise, you could daydream, let your thoughts wander, and watch the passing ships and scenery. During this sailing trip, I realized that it was time once again to change my professional course and set a new one. I just hadn't reached the right port yet."
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In dem Garten vor meinem Haus (2015)
"This song was written on the same day that the song 'Geschenkte Zeit' (Gifted Time) happened. When I finally got home, my family had left. I sat down on the steps in the garden and enjoyed the feeling of having arrived. The last rays of sunshine reflected in the blue glass dolphins hanging on the banister, the crickets chirped, the cat patrolled its territory in the garden: A magical moment!"
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… english songs …
…and their story
So long (2024)
In our time/our society, there's often an attempt to make everything the same, even when things are different. In a world of diversity—to embrace the core idea of diversity—differences are not only allowed, but even desirable. Uniformity doesn't work: if you're a fish, you won't be able to climb trees, no matter how hard you try, even if the other monkeys say, "Look, it's easy!" In extreme cases, you end up living a life that isn't truly yours. With this defiant song, I say to everyone who tries to mold me into a fish stick: "Just stop! I've tried for far too long to see life through your eyes and haven't understood it. Look at me and see who I really am: a rainbow fish!"
Only six feet tall (2024)
Created during a walk in a "winter wonderland," a snow-covered landscape! And right in the middle of this idyllic scene: trash simply dumped in the woods. I was annoyed by this and started thinking about the consequences of such actions: simply getting rid of what I no longer want to see, out of sight, out of mind? My conclusion: Everything we do in this globalized world has consequences: and these consequences affect us too! And this is reflected in everything, in the leaf of a tree, in the sunbeam, in the rain… even though I'm only 1.87 m (6 feet) tall.
Bourbon Street (2024/1987)
I love going for walks at night! Everything is quiet and peaceful then. On one of these walks, the moon shone very pale, dark, and mysterious. I imagined it suddenly beginning to smile and shine brightly, guiding me on my way. My spontaneous impulse was to dance through the streets with the moon. A melody I had written in 1987 came to mind. A jazzy, upbeat tune called "Bourbon Street."
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All my love (2023/2006)
In 2006, I read the book "Don Quixote." I was fascinated by the images Miguel de Cervantes painted in his novel: the battle with the windmills and a love that gave him the strength to survive his adventures. Inspired by this, I wrote a little melody that expressed the waiting before the windmills, the focus on the battle, the initial charge, and the crushing impact with the sails. In 2023, I saw posters for a theatrical production of Don Quixote on the street. The melody came back to me, and I set to work: I wrote lyrics and orchestrated everything with strings, several guitars, and a choir.
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Cry for love (1995)
“At the time this song was written, I was exploring a new guitar technique called ‘sweeping.’ While practicing the technique, this melody suddenly appeared out of nowhere. I simply let it happen, allowing my inspiration to flow freely, and… there it was, the harmonic structure of the song. But what lyrics and vocal melody would fit this emotional guitar intro? A few days later, I saw a film about a couple whose relationship—not just from an outsider’s perspective—was quite ‘magnetic’: repulsive and attractive, hateful and loving at the same time. I think it was the film ‘The War of the Roses’ with Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas. When I tried to put myself in the shoes of the two protagonists and understand their feelings, I immediately realized that this emotional turmoil would be the theme of my new song, because ‘tears mean pleasure sometimes.’”
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That’s me (1995)
The film and a book about Nostradamus inspired this song. It's somehow "magical" to imagine being able to transcend the boundaries of space and time with one's thoughts, to move in another dimension, to be somewhere even though one is already gone or not yet there, invisible to others. 'The river runs free like me.'
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My heart belongs to you (1993)
The song – a classic love song – was written in 1993. The melody and some fragments of lyrics came to me on my way home by bike. I just thought: 'I need to get home and sketch out this song.' These are those magical moments when something happens out of nowhere, without any expectations: inspiration!
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My love (2002)
A special song was needed for the wedding ceremony of a friend's church. Helmut Dold was also booked as a guest musician. So I decided to write a song that suited the musicians and the bride and groom. That's how the pop-jazz song "My Love" came about.
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When I will close my eyes forever (1995)
Many of my songs deal with the theme of "being different and its impact on life/my life," or simply put: How does it feel to be different? How do I cope with it? This is the subject matter of songs like "So Long," "Clever Boy," "If This Is the Way," "Everything Is Still," "Come, Penguin, Dance with Me," and "Just the Way I Am." This song also fits thematically. It expresses the hope of one day being accepted by society for who you are.
The two of us (1995)
The song is based on the following premise: Differences in a friendship/relationship are an opportunity, enrich life and lead to something new, something special!
As long as fireballs fly (1994)
At that time, I was working with the topic of refugees. The daily encounters with these people, their stories, touched me deeply. This gave rise to the image of
– People fleeing on the wings of the peace dove high in the air from the flying fireballs,
– People who, despite different cultures, discover many things in common and want to live together in peace,
– People who, despite different languages, can read the names on the war graves.
Clever boy (2024)
> „When I will close my eyes forever“
> „So long“
A defiant/snotty version!
The turn
Life is change! That's why it's important for me to pause and reflect often on whether the life I'm currently living still aligns with my values, goals, and resources. The consequence: occasional course corrections, sometimes even a complete change of direction!
Incarnation of a dream
What if a dream suddenly became reality? After a very intense dream, I woke up in a cold sweat and was completely thrown off balance all day. What did the dream mean? This question preoccupied me. In this emotional state, I grabbed my Gibson Les Paul and wrote this instrumental song.
Just a love song
As the title suggests: "Just a love song" but with lots of pictures!
If this is the way
> „When I will close my eyes forever“
A survival strategy!
Colours of your dream
In my view, pursuing a goal is easiest when you have a concrete picture of the end result in mind: a picture of your own house, the desired state, the garden… whatever it may be. It makes it measurable whether I've already reached my goal and serves as my GPS. So start drawing and trust yourself, trust your imagination!