Gert Steinbäcker

	Chart positions ; Explanation of the data
	Albums
	Once in a lifetime
	Rosegger (with Timischl , Schiffkowitz and Kolonovits )
	Stone baker
	Stations
	Best of
	pictures on the wall
	Yes eh

Gert Steinbäcker (2016)

Gert Steinbäcker at a concert in Fürth 2017

Gert Steinbäcker (born November 27, 1952 in Graz ) is an Austrian songwriter , musician and singer as well as a member of the Austropop trio STS (Steinbäcker, Timischl , Schiffkowitz ).

In addition to his band career, he produced seven solo albums (including two samplers), for which he was awarded a total of three golds.

Life

family

Gert Steinbäcker was born on November 27, 1952 in Graz and grew up next to his three years younger sister, who later became a music teacher, on the rural outskirts of Graz. His father Anton, a neurologist , suddenly died of an aneurysm at the age of 37 when Gert was just seven years old. As a result, the mother, a teacher, who was around five years younger than her at the time, had to raise the two children alone and support them with the widow's pension and her own low income. As a widow, the mother, who primarily worked as a housewife when the children were raised , then remained alone for life . After the death of his father, Steinbäcker had a good relationship with his grandfather, an accounting director at Grazer Finanz, with whom he also lived for some time, which he can sometimes see in the song Grandfather published by STS in 1985/86 . His father also gave him his first guitar, which he still has in his studio today.

School education and entry into the music scene

After primary school, Steinbäcker went to the Liebenau Federal Educational Institute in the seventh district of Graz, Liebenau . The authoritarian upbringing made him switch to the Pestalozzi-Gymnasium in Graz after the third grade. Thomas Spitzer , later founding member of the “ First General Uncertainty ” (EAV), was one of Gert Steinbäcker's circle of friends . When he was 14 at the time, he had founded a band called Mephisto , whose singer the stone baker, who was around a year older, became. After the 5th grade of the grammar school, he switched to a music-pedagogical grammar school, where he had to repeat the 6th grade three times. After failing music and guitar, Steinbäcker said goodbye to school and focused on the music. He moved out of home at the age of 16 and made a living for himself.

Steinbäcker, a fan of the Rolling Stones , trundled through various Styrian towns with Mephisto and gathered band experiences for four years. In 1971 the band played at the Popendorf 71 music festival, among others . In 1972 three bands broke up at the same time, including Mephisto , to ultimately create the rock group Mashuun . The occupation:

Gert Steinbäcker (singer)
Peter Szammer (drums)
Franz Posch (guitar)
Petrus Wippel (bass)
Josef Jandrisits (guitar)

The group came up with their own compositions with a wide range, ranging from (hard) rock and electronic elements to concert guitar pieces. After a successful premiere at a church festival in Fürstenfeld, the band became a well-known figure in Styria. In a tape competition organized by the German magazine Fono Forum and the tape manufacturer BASF , Mashuun took first place out of 35 participants.

Germany

After the successes in Austria, the band decided in the early 1970s - Steinbäcker was just 18 years old - to seek their fortune in Germany. A small house in the district of Idstein - Kröftel (near Frankfurt am Main ) was to become the band headquarters. But the transfer fee and deposit, the rent and a new minibus engine exceeded the budget of the musicians and the band project had to be suspended due to part-time jobs. Half a year later, Mashuun broke up. Parallel to his career as a musician, he worked at Frankfurt Airport .

Gert Steinbäcker stayed in Germany, lived for some time in Marburg an der Lahn , worked for a time in a toy wholesaler, a laundry and later as a salesman. Demo tapes, which he made over and over again, were rejected by six different record companies. Steinbäcker worked as an extra in a film studio and was seen in two Derrick episodes as a police officer. While on vacation in his hometown of Graz, he met the Styrian singer and composer Schiffkowitz (actually: Helmut Röhrling), who was just on the road with a few solo performances. They got together and made a few appearances. Since the collaboration seemed to be right, Günter Timischl was brought in, a musician from Fürstenfeld who was currently tapeless and who liked the style from the start.

Only with acoustic guitars did the trio perform in the later STS manner for a few concerts. But the loose formation split up after a short, regional mini-tour and the musicians initially went their own way.

Gert Steinbäcker made it back to Germany ( Munich ), where for three years he hardly did anything other than keep himself afloat with part-time jobs. The result was a musical standstill, which moved him to return to his Styrian homeland. There he initially worked as a stage technician at the Schauspielhaus Graz and met a theater director in the canteen there who knew him from his appearances with Thomas Spitzer. He asked him to make the music for one of his pieces, whereupon Steinbäcker had made the jump back into the music scene. In the period after that he provided music for some youth theater pieces at the Graz Schauspielhaus and at the Salzburg State Theater and was already able to make a living from this and no longer had to earn anything on the side.

Finally in Austria

Through the mediation of a friend, Steinbäcker got a record that he produced under the pseudonym "Stony Becker". The single composed by Boris Bukowski was entitled "Matchless Woman"; the B-side came from the pen of the later Falco producer Robert Ponger and was called "Catherine". The single was produced in an edition of 100 and never got beyond zero sales.

The next station was again Timischl and Schiffkowitz. For the time being, it stayed with a few concerts, so that the three musicians were forced to work in a different way.

In 1978 the trio finally produced their first single, "Matter of Sex", which was a complete failure. Then came an offer from his friend Thomas Spitzer, who was looking for a new singer for his newly founded band, Erste Allgemeine Verunsicherung , or EAV for short . This became Gert Steinbäcker. They were also looking for employees for a tour of Austria, which is why Günter Timischl and Schiffkowitz were hired without further ado, the latter only for the duration of the tour.

Steinbäcker composed the single "Der geile Santa Claus" and in 1980 headed for the EAV's second long-playing record. “Café passé” included the song “Aberakadabera”. The guest performance lasted a total of three years before a record company became aware of demo tapes by Steinbäcker, Timischl and Schiffkowitz, which had been performing together as Steinbäcker - Timischl - Schiffkowitz since 1978 . According to his own statement, Gert Steinbäcker wanted to write his own, more serious songs.

STS

In 1980 the trio produced the first German-language single "Da kummt die Sunn", a Schiffkowitz adaptation of the Beatles classic " Here Comes the Sun ". Despite the moderate success, the record company decided to finance a long-playing record. Now the three did without English texts and wrote their songs in the Styrian dialect , which they based on catchy melodies. Even so, this record was only a respectable success. Regardless of this, Gert Steinbäcker and Günter Timischl finally said goodbye to the EAV in order to have their backs free for their own projects. But four singles never got beyond the minimum sales. Quitting was considered in 1984.

breakthrough

Steinbäcker (r.) With STS (2013)

The persistence of the musicians should be worth it, however, because one became aware of some demo tapes that helped STS , as the three finally called themselves, to a studio stay. As a result, the second LP "Überdose G'fühl" was produced, the single "Fürstenfeld" of which should make STS famous. The song, composed and rearranged by Josef Jandrisits and Schiffkowitz, sold 140,000 times within a year, the album 70,000 times.

Gert Steinbäcker immortalized himself on the LP with the songs “Überdose G'fühl”, “Everything in the world has its price”, “I hab di Leben g'sehn” and “Das neue Vaterland”.

The next LP “Grenzenlos” was not long in coming and was released in 1985. Overall, STS was to be awarded four times platinum for the album. Steinbäcker wrote "Cold and colder", "I'll stay there sometime", "As free as you can be" and "Grandfather". In the same year Steinbäcker was named the best Austrian copywriter.

After extensive and sold-out tours, the fourth LP, “Moments”, followed in mid-1987 with the Steinbäcker songs “Mach the Augen zu”, “The whole life of Rock'n'Roll”, “The children are on”, “So is life ”and“ I think when I think ”. This album also built on previous successes, although STS now took a creative break for several years. Steinbäcker used this time to buy a somewhat desolate but seaworthy wooden ship in Greece in 1988. The 20-meter-long, seven-meter-wide and 50-tonne ship was given the name "Irini" (Greek: peace ) after a general overhaul and shipped to Yugoslavia, where it was used for charter trips to the Aegean Sea.

The STS-free time of 1988 and 1989 was bridged with the live CD "On Tour" and two samplers ("Glanzlichter", "Gö, du stay ...").

Stone baker solo

In addition to his extensive excursions to Greece, Steinbäcker did not remain idle, there was rather an “overpotential” of newly composed songs and those that did not all fit on the previous STS albums. So Steinbäcker decided to produce a solo LP, which got the title "once in a lifetime". Christian Kolonovits acted as producer , who also contributed the music for "Liebe ist es net". The album subsequently achieved gold status. The singles "Die Sunn über'n Meer" and "Die Zeit" were released from his debut album.

Half a year later, STS set about producing their fifth album "Every Day Counts" in the same recording studio. Gert Steinbäcker contributed the songs "Every day counts", "But never", "Again a summer" and "A tiny spark". After a large-scale tour, the expected break came until 1992. That year the LP “Auf A Wort” was released with the Steinbäcker songs “Das Meer”, “Das sind die Tag”, “So net”, “It starts the same way "And" Heart must always be trump card ". In 1993, STS caused a surprise when they set 13 poems by the Styrian writer Peter Rosegger to music.

In 1994 Steinbäcker's second solo LP was to follow, which he gave the simple title "Steinbäcker". It was recorded from November to December 1994 in Vienna and on Capri. Those involved included Konstantin Wecker , Wolfgang Ambros and Thomas Spitzer. Singles were: "From my skin" and "My friend". Steinbäcker also received gold for this production.

The music of the last number is thanks to Gert Steinbäcker's sister and Frido Hütter was hiding behind the pseudonym “Holiday” .

A year later, in 1995, the first "pure" STS CD was created in three years. The title: "Time". Steinbäcker wrote the songs "A old-fashioned dog", "Where to go", "Show me your heaven" and "So, Prince Charming". The album was followed by a tour of over 50 concerts and a short summer tour alongside Pur , Toto and Sting . The stadium-filling events accompanied the last STS studio production for two years. STS also stayed away from the country's stages up to and including 1998. During this break of several years, Gert Steinbäcker tinkered with his third pure studio album "Stations". This time, too, there was no lack of prominent participation. In addition to Wolfgang Ambros and Joesi Prokopetz , Udo Lindenberg also contributes a song.

In 1994 Steinbäcker made a guest appearance on Wolfgang Ambro's album Wasserfall. He can be heard on “Alt und Jung” together with Georg Danzer , Wolfgang Ambros and Ostbahn-Kurti .

In 1998 the last STS album was to be released for almost five years. It got the title “Volle Kraft” and contained the Steinbäcker songs “Ridiculous”, “The old man”, “You have to believe in something” and “Like a shooting star”. They fully concentrated on large-scale tours that also took the trio to Germany several times.

Steinbäcker no longer produced pure studio productions either. In 1998 his fourth solo album was released, which was purely a sampler and summarized Steinbäcker's ten-year musical solo career on one CD.

In 1999 a major tour of STS followed, which was followed by a live album. In the summer of 2002 they again played an extensive series of concerts and Gert Steinbäcker also released his last CD so far, a best-of sampler that contained the hitherto unreleased song “Vom Höchst Gipfel”.

In 2003 the STS album “Herzverbunden” was released, which Steinbäcker owes the titles “Lass flow the time”, “Wie a Sonnenstrahl”, “The Neighbor” and “A thousand times”. Current songs as well as other songs from over 25 years of band history could be heard live on the last summer tour in 2005.

In 2007 the last STS album "Neuer Morgen" was released, which Steinbäcker owes the titles "Ende nie", "Cool und so fesch", "Dankeschön" to. And he composed the music from “You should live”.

His last album so far, released on May 28, 2010, was again made with prominent support. Produced by Christian Kolonovits, among others: Wolfgang Ambros, Birgit Denk , Irene Fornaciari, Herwig Rüdisser from the band Opus , Thomas Spitzer as well as Günter Timischl and Schiffkowitz. On this album, Ambros returned the favor for Steinbäcker's contribution to the song "Alt und Jung" from 1994.

On the occasion of an interview, Steinbäcker once described himself as a “4/4 commuter”, which should express that he mainly divides his time between his native city Graz and his adopted home Greece.

In 2012 he received the Golden Decoration of Honor for Services to the Republic of Austria .