There are so many songs I love that it would be difficult to say which ones I love the most. Instead I chose five songs that somehow illustrate my own musical development.
‘Blitzkrieg Bop’ by The Ramones
I started making music by founding a Punk Rock band, following Punk’s motto “get a guitar, learn three chords, get on stage”. That’s a very empowering approach, which made me write simple songs and perform them at the early age of fifteen, although my musical skills were quite limited. The Ramones are the godfathers of punk rock and ‘Blitzkrieg Bop’ is probably their most iconic song. That’s why I start this list with it, in order to symbolise my punk roots and attitude, which I will never lose.
‘Telefon’ by Palais Schaumburg
Musically Punk Rock became a bit too restricted for me, bands with a more experimental approach began to fascinate me more. I especially liked German New Wave pioneers Palais Schaumburg with their minimalist style and Dada-inspired lyrics. Their singer and main songwriter Holger Hiller produced the first EP of my band ‘Fähnlein Fieselschweif’, and we became a support act on their tour. ‘Telefon’ is a great example of Schaumburg’s early sound, which inspired me very much. I stopped playing chords but rather made weird atonal noises with my guitar.
‘Taschenrechner’ by Kraftwerk
The other German band that I loved a lot since I first heard ‘Autobahn’ as a child was Kraftwerk, the founding fathers of electronic music. I saw them live for the first time in a classical music concert hall in Hamburg on my seventeenth birthday. The best part was when they came close to the audience and played their song ‘Taschenrechner’ on small electronic devices. Suddenly the ”robots” became human and made the crowd stand up and dance! Actually Kraftwerk are very groovy and quite popular among old school hip hop artists.
‘Desafinado’ by Tom Jobim, performed by João Gilberto
In my twenties I lived for a year in Brazil which made me become a better musician. Instead of making noise on my guitar, I learned classical Bossa Nova songs with complicated Jazz chords. I remember how proud I was to finally master ‘Desafinado’, the Bossa Nova classic by Tom Jobim, which has many complicated chords that made my fingers cramp. It is best interpreted by the inimitable João Gilberto, who invented the typical Bossa Nova guitar and singing style. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6w3a2v_50U
‘Sex Machine’ by James Brown
Punk and new wave music is rather stiff in the hips, so discovering Funk and Soul was a revelation to me. It has become my favourite kind of music. James Brown is the undisputed king of Funk - and my all-time hero. Whenever one of his classic hits like ‘Sex Machine’ is played, you will surely find me going crazy on the dance floor. And I love to play the famous “James Brown Chord”, which sounds sooo funky.
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