Botany Bay (band)
| Botany Bay | |
|---|---|
 Botany Bay (2012) |
|
| General information | |
| Genre (s) | Indie rock |
| founding | 1995 |
| Website | botanybay.cc |
| Current occupation | |
| Stephan Kleinert (since 1997) | |
| Felix Klöckner (since 2009) | |
| Stefanie Mühr (since 2010) | |
electric and acoustic guitar
|
Marius Beylebens (since 2011) |
| former members | |
| Katrin Schmidt (1997–1999) | |
| Laura Dietrich (2000, 2004-2009) | |
| Alexander Henn (2003-2004) | |
| Ana Fieres (2003-2005) | |
| Reinhard Mayr (2005-2006) | |
| Wolfgang Springob (2008-2010) | |
Botany Bay is a German band founded in 1995. It currently consists of four band members, but there have been several changes in the line-up since its inception and the band has been supplemented by guest musicians and choirs at many concerts . They describe bands such as Pink Floyd , Coldplay and Massive Attack as musical influences on their music . The band publishes their music under Creative Commons licenses and is an important part of the free music scene .
history
In the summer of 1995, Stephan Kleinert founded the band Botany Bay as a side project of the Ubik Paint group , where he played and produced keyboards at the time. With Botany Bay he wanted to realize more of his own idea of music. In those early days, Botany Bay only consisted of Kleinert, who played almost all of the instruments himself, and a lead singer, with whom he had made music since 1992 and also recorded four songs. But when this had changed more and more through the influence of Scientology , the contact between the two broke off.
The following year, an advertisement in a local newspaper with Katrin Schmidt found a replacement for the lead vocals. In this new line-up, they re-recorded the four songs that had already been recorded and others. From this collection of recordings a concept album slowly developed , which was released in the summer of 1997 under the title Tales of the Bitter Seed on Ubisonic. The album is a mixture of deeper pop songs, classic arrangements and elements from dark wave and electronic music, all of which were thematically and musically coordinated. The pieces dealt strongly with psychological addiction, religion, sects and the human need to believe in something and were thus also a manifesto against Scientology. Unusual instruments such as harmonium and melodica were also used.
Unsatisfied with the little success of the album, Kleinert spent the following years recording with Ubik Paint. When he met the singer Laura Dietrich in 1998 and had recorded some demos with her, the idea of a second Botany Bay album was floating in the room, but there was no time for that, as Ubik Paint was still his main project.
In 2003 he began to write songs for a second album under the working title "Sweetness of being yourself". Ana Kovatcheva (guitar, bass and backing vocals) and Alexander Henn (lead vocals) were found as new band members.
Laura Dietrich returned to the band as lead singer in September 2005. At that time, however, she was in Berlin while Kleinert lived in Heidelberg, so there were hardly any opportunities for joint recordings. However, they soon released new songs. Reinhard Mayr also joined the band as a new member as bassist and guitarist. In November 2006, their first video was released for the song Feel . In May 2007 the album Grounded was finally completed after five years of work. To shorten the time to the official release, they recorded another single, Voices , which was released in August 2007 along with a video clip. Voices was Kleinert and Dietrich's first duet. The album was finally released on October 6, 2007 and by July 2009 it was downloaded more than 20,000 times from Jamendo and archive.org . In 2008 they began to record new songs again and in the same year the two singles Inhale and The Real World were released.
In 2009 the EP I'll Send a Postcard When I'm There was released, which in addition to Inhale , Voices and The Real World also includes two new songs and a remix of the title Moon Child from the album Grounded . In March 2009 Botany Bay started a live tour in the Cologne / Bonn / Aachen area. For these live performances Wolfgang Springob joined the band as guitarist in July 2009. Laura Dietrich left the band in December 2009, and Kleinert continued to work with Springob and some new guest musicians on the titles that had already been recorded for the planned third album. This was finally published in March 2010 under the title Stupid Summer Dreams and in many songs it reflects the problems that had developed between Dietrich and Kleinert.
In May 2010, Stefanie Mühr, a new lead singer, was introduced; at the same time a new single, How Much Can You Take , was released. The title on the B-side of the single, Oh, Robbie , is an uncut live demo . The piece was used in the casting for the new lead singer, and the recording comes from that casting, only half an hour after Mühr first heard the piano accompaniment.
In 2011 another EP was released under the title No Excuse , followed in 2012 by the singles Fly and Some Moments .
Fly was also Botany Bay's contribution to the “Free! Music! Contest "2012 of the Musikpiraten , on whose" Free! Music! Sampler “ Freedom & Free Beer the song Piracy was recorded by Botany Bay.
Discography
- 2007: Grounded (album)
- 2009: I'll Send a Postcard When I'm There (EP)
- 2010: Stupid Summer Dreams (album)
- 2011: No Excuse (EP)
- 2012: Fly (single)
- 2012: Some Moments (single)
- 2012: Piracy as part of the Free! Music! Samplers Freedom & Free Beer
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ All good things. ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Band blog. Retrieved March 30, 2013.
- ↑ You made me fly. ( Memento of the original from April 12, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Band blog. Retrieved March 30, 2013.
- ↑ Musikpiraten eV Free! Music! Sampler - Freedom & Free Beer in bandcamp. Retrieved March 30, 2013.
- ↑ Botany Bay: Piracy , May 5, 2012. Retrieved March 30, 2013.
