Judith Holofernes

Judith Holofernes (2015)

Judith Holofernes [ ˈjuːdɪt ho.loˈfɛɐ̯.nəs ] (born November 12, 1976 as Judith Holfelder-von der Tann in West Berlin ), bourgeois Judith Holfelder-Roy , is a German musician, songwriter and author . She became known as the singer and guitarist of the band Wir sind Helden and is also active as a solo artist.

Life

She was born in Berlin-Kreuzberg and moved to Freiburg im Breisgau with her mother, the translator Cornelia Holfelder-von der Tann , at the age of six . From her she learned the first three chords on the guitar. At the age of 14 she made her first money with music as a street musician. After graduating from the Staudinger Comprehensive School, she moved back to Berlin, where she studied social and business communication at the University of the Arts (GWK). She dealt there with consumer criticism and got involved with Adbusters , u. a. by developing a German version of adbusters.org. After the presentation of the Adbuster project, she broke off her studies in order to devote herself more to music. Shortly thereafter, the band Wir sind Helden had their breakthrough on the radio with the single Guten Tag (Die Reclamation) .

In 2006 she married Pola Roy , the band's drummer. Their son was born in December 2006 and their daughter was born in August 2009. Both Holofernes and her husband are practicing Buddhists and are involved in the Tibet Initiative . In 2008 she met the Dalai Lama in Hamburg .

stage name

Her stage name , which she adopted at the age of 19, alludes to Judith and Holofernes : Holofernes appears in the deutero-canonical book Judit of the biblical Old Testament as the general of the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar . He is beheaded by the Hebrew Judit. About her stage name, Holofernes said: “We hide behind pseudonyms because we are gamers. Having stage names is in itself a quotation. With stage names you cite rock 'n' roll itself. "

Texts

Judith Holofernes (2008)

Holofernes' attitude towards consumption and media criticism is evident in many of her texts. She criticizes commerce (hello) , pressure to perform (you just have to want to), social constraints (is that so?) Or the music industry (pimps) . With the song Heldenzeit , she responded to the frequently asked question why the group had given itself the name We are Heroes , and in Angry Enough , she humorously dealt with the accusation that her reputation was too nice and too good.

Holofernes also addresses love in many songs, sometimes in a humorous (Aurélie), sometimes in a serious form (you don't recognize me, except you, guarantee for nothing, I'll practice all my life to love you as I love you want when you go) . In 2007 in the series course topics German in Cornelsen published textbook poetry - love from the Baroque to the present is Holofernes' lyrics Except you Sappho's ode to atthis opposite.

Especially on the third and fourth Wir-sind-Helden-records (So and so and Bring me home) she dealt more and more with philosophical topics and dealt with identity, perception, attachment, death, fear and loss. In doing so, she also alludes to key points of Buddhist philosophy (Stiller, Let's go, so and so, everything, nothing, what we could do) .

In addition to text work for Wir sind Helden , she regularly writes for her own blog, where she presents her own poetry, publishes humorous short essays and comments on social, political and cultural events. She is also a co-author of the band's autobiography Wir sind Helden, published in 2008, - information on tours and other individual parts. In October 2015 she published her animal poems in her first book You Bark Before the Wrong Tree .

Solo activities

As a solo artist, she recorded a solo EP with nine pieces in 1999 . She had this EP called Kamikazefliege pressed in a small edition of 500 in 1999 in order to sell it at concerts. After the breakthrough of Wir sind Helden , this became a collector's item. Some songs from the band's later repertoire (Except for you, Aurélie, Popstar and Peace, Joy, Campfire) are already included on Kamikazefliege.

Her solo album A Light Sword , which she recorded in the summer of 2013, was released in February 2014 . She developed the songs for this at home with GarageBand , before the demos were then produced in the studio by Ian Davenport with Jörg Holdinghausen (Tele, Per Anders) on bass and Pola Roy on drums .

In March 2017 she released her second solo album I c h bin das Chaos , this time on her own label. The songs included were created in collaboration with the Faroese singer-songwriter Teitur Lassen and were produced by Pola Roy.

We are Heroes

In Popkurs Hamburg Holofernes met in 2000 Pola Roy and Jean-Michel Tourette and decided to start with them a band. This initially appeared under Holofernes' stage name and later renamed itself. In addition to her role as singer and guitarist, Holofernes writes all of the lyrics for the band. She shares the songwriting with the other band members.

In 2002, the band placed their first single Guten Tag (Die Reklamation) on the radio. Shortly afterwards, the band signed with the independent label association labels . In the course of their band history, Wir sind Helden has won numerous music awards. Holofernes was awarded the German Music Author's Prize for her texts. In spring 2012, the band announced that they would put the collaboration on hold for an indefinite period.

Media presence

Holofernes has appeared three times on the Harald Schmidt Show since 2003 . In 2004 she was a guest at Zimmer frei! and in 2006 she appeared in an episode of the ZDF production Durch die Nacht mit ... with the French comic artist Lewis Trondheim , whom she - by her own admission, a comics collector herself - describes as her favorite illustrator .

From July 2011, Holofernes presented the Summer of Girls series on the German-French television channel Arte . With her dedicated socio-political statements, Holofernes is a popular interviewee for the features section, and she is also often invited to talk shows. For example, she was a guest on the ZDF talk show Maybrit Illner in December 2010 . There she expressed herself (program title: Governs politics past the people ) u. a. on the subject of Stuttgart 21 .

In the spring of 2018, Holofernes took part in the fifth season of the television show Sing my song - The exchange concert . As part of the program, she interpreted songs by the artists Rea Garvey , Mary Roos , Leslie Clio and Mark Forster , as well as the groups Alphaville and Revolverheld . The episode of the show dedicated to Holofernes as well as the subsequently broadcast documentary highlighted the work of her band Wir sind Helden .

After the birth of her children, she defended herself several times against the image of the “multifunctional super mom”, who did everything with her left hand. She also commented on the fact that she grew up with a lesbian mother in several interviews. Via her blog she also got involved in the campaign “We are family - marriage and family for homosexual couples too”.

Discussion with the Bildzeitung

In February 2011, Holofernes dealt in a public letter with a request from the advertising agency Jung von Matt for Bild , which she introduces with the sentence: "I think it hacks". In it she answers in a critical form the agency's request to win her and the band Wir sind Helden as protagonists for the new edition of a well-known advertising campaign for the tabloid . Various media sites and blogs reported on the letter. Due to the large number of hits, the band's website was temporarily no longer accessible. Bild printed the letter without permission as a paid advertisement in the taz and thanked for the "honest and free opinion."

In the following year, the agency received the ADC's bronze nail for the unauthorized use of its letter as an advertisement (Prize of the German-speaking creative industry: Art Directors Club für Deutschland e.V.). In her blog in 2012, Holofernes thanked the satirical magazine Titanic , which satirically reported on this renewed turn of the dispute.

Guest Posts

Holofernes' voice can be heard on piece X on the first Supporters album by Einstürzende Neubauten (2003). As a background singer, she sang in two songs by the German band Tele in 2004 . In the same year she was also involved in the song We do not move from the spot from the stars . On the album Waiting for the Boomerang by Olli Schulz and the dog Marie , she contributed the background vocals to the song Poor Father in 2006 . 2007 was Tele singer Francesco Wilking with the duet for not guarantee anything on the album So- of Wir sind Helden to find. In 2007 she also recorded Magic Moments with Swedish singer Moneybrother for his album Mount Pleasure .

In 2012 she was a guest of the group Die Höchste Eisenbahn on the song The Past . The stanza she sings comes from her pen. In the same year she wrote the song My Soldiers with Maxim , which reached number 18 in the German charts the following year. Maxim and Judith recorded the song together in a living room version. Holofernes and the band Erdmöbel recorded the song Hope Machine in 2017 and released a music video to go with it.

Discography

→ Main articles : Judith Holofernes / discography  and Wir sind Helden / discography

Studio albums

year	Title music label	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, music label , placements, weeks, awards, notes)			Remarks
		DE	AT	CH
1999	Kamikaze fly self-distribution	-	-	-	First published: 1999
2014	A light sword Four Music	DE7 (6 weeks) DE	AT9 (4 weeks) AT	CH87 (1 week) CH	First published: February 7, 2014
2017	I am the chaos Därängdängdäng	DE13 (2 weeks) DE	AT26 (1 week) AT	-	First published: March 17, 2017

Publications

• You bark in front of the wrong tree . Tropen Verlag, Stuttgart 2015, ISBN 978-3-608-50152-0 (poems).

Awards

• German music author award
  • 2009: Text Rock / Pop

Web links

Commons : Judith Holofernes  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Wikiquote: Judith Holofernes  - Quotes

• Judith Holofernes' blog
• Am i heroine - Interview on UMag
• Jörg Armbruster : Judith Holofernes, musician and author , SWR2 - “Contemporaries” from December 11, 2015
• Judith Holofernes in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Works by and about Judith Holofernes in the catalog of the German National Library

Sources and Notes

1. ↑ Between science fiction and heroes. Retrieved September 11, 2019 . 
2. ↑ Judith Holofernes, dropout from university, Will you be a pop star, child! . Der Spiegel, December 16, 2008
3. ^ Badische Zeitung: Judith Holofernes: Every summer on the meadow. July 24, 2014, accessed October 3, 2015 . 
4. ↑ Hello, we are heroes! In: Berliner Zeitung , November 26, 2002
5. ↑ Judith and the Kokser Elite . In: Unicum , quoted in Spiegel Online
6. ↑ We are heroes - and the Dalai Lama too In: sueddeutsche.de , May 11, 2010.
7. ↑ "No thanks, I already have". Retrieved September 11, 2019 . 
8. ↑ Holofernes Interview , Welt am Sonntag, November 27, 2011, last accessed January 29, 2014.
9. ↑ Patrick Bauer: Creative out of exhaustion. In: Stern.de . August 27, 2010, accessed January 25, 2014 . 
10. ↑ Document: Buddhismus aktuell, issue 1/2011 - Buddhism saved our asses. Current interview, pop-rock group "We are heroes", Buddhist practice by pop stars, conversation about rock star life, children and transience (p. 26–31)
11. ↑ Paperback: 416 pages, Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag (March 12, 2008), ISBN 978-3-596-17754-7
12. ^ Deutsche Welle: Singer Judith Holofernes at the Frankfurt Book Fair: "As in the land of plenty". October 16, 2015, accessed October 24, 2015 . 
13. ^ Judith Holofernes at www.indiepedia.de
14. ↑ Anke Myrrhe: New album by the Wir-sind-Helden singer. Judith Holofernes is now doing it solo. In: tagesspiegel.de . October 19, 2013, accessed December 15, 2013.
15. ↑ Judith Holofernes announces second album "ICH BIN DAS CHAOS" . In: Musikexpress . December 8, 2016 ( musikexpress.de [accessed February 16, 2018]).
16. ^ Andi Kuhn: Limited impossibilities .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. neuemusikzeitung.de  
17. ^ Band info ( memento from February 19, 2001 in the Internet Archive ) on judith-holofernes.de in the Wayback Archive
18. ↑ Labels Germany accessed on www.indiepedia.de on February 8, 2014
19. ↑ We are heroes get gold with Sony debut, accessed on www.mediabiz.de on February 8, 2014
20. ↑ rooms available! -September 19, 2004 episode on imdb.com
21. ↑ Through the night with… Lewis Trondheim and Judith Holofernes in Montpellier ( Memento of the original of October 24, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on theaterkanal.de  
22. ↑ Come on, I'll show you my kangaroo belly! in the online edition of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung .
23. ↑ Heldin mit Herz by Verena Reygers, accessed on www.freitag.de on February 8, 2014
24. ↑ Citizens' uprising 2010 - does this policy bypass the people? Retrieved from www.youtube.com on February 8, 2014.
25. ↑ Mark Forster invites you to the fifth season . In: vox.de . ( vox.de [accessed on June 9, 2018]).
26. ↑ Sing my song: Rea Garvey irons Judith down - laut.de - News . In: laut.de . ( laut.de [accessed on June 9, 2018]).
27. ↑ Pop band We are heroes: breastfeeding or encore? Retrieved from www.spiegel.de on February 8, 2014
28. ↑ Where love falls, grass no longer grows accessed on www.taz.de on February 8, 2014.
29. ↑ Blog entry on "We are family" .
30. ↑ Judith Holofernes: Why you might be here too . February 24, 2011, title changed on February 26, 2011;
    first version: Judith Holofernes: Open letter. (No longer available online.) February 24, 2011, archived from the original on March 6, 2011 ; Retrieved February 25, 2011 . 
31. ↑ Olaf Kolbrück: “I think it hacks” “We are heroes” count with “Bild” and Jung von Matt. February 25, 2011, accessed August 3, 2014 . 
32. ↑ Marc Bartl: We are heroes mess with the "image": "I think it hacks". February 25, 2011, accessed February 25, 2011 . 
33. ↑ Focus Online: We are heroes: "Image"? “I think it's hacking!” February 25, 2011, accessed February 25, 2011 . 
34. ↑ Judith Holofernes: Dumm Die Die Dumm Revisited Part 2 Reloaded Now Even More. December 10, 2012, accessed December 19, 2015 . 
35. ↑ Höchst Eisenbahn as EP accessed on www.judithholofernes.com on February 8, 2014
36. ^ "My soldiers": From 0 to 18 in the charts, accessed on www.warnermusic.de on February 8, 2014
37. ↑ Maxim & Judith Holofernes - My soldiers (living room cut) accessed on www.youtube.com on February 8, 2014
38. ↑ New video: Erdmöbel together with Judith Holofernes in the "Hope Machine" . In: Musikexpress . November 24, 2017 ( musikexpress.de [accessed January 20, 2018]).