Maximilian Hecker
Maximilian Hecker (born July 26, 1977 in Heidenheim an der Brenz ) is a German musician from Berlin , known for ethereal pop music , similar to Radiohead , Sigur Rós , Tom Baxter and Nick Drake . He himself describes his style and his songs as “melancholy pop anthems”.
Life
Hecker grew up first in Bolheim in the Heidenheim district , in Rheda-Wiedenbrück in the Gütersloh district and finally in Bünde in the Herford district . He learned piano, drums and guitar and graduated from the Freiherr-vom-Stein-Gymnasium in Bünde in 1997 . After doing community service at the Schwabing Clinic in Munich, he began training as a nurse at the Berlin Charité in 1999 .
In addition to his work as a nursing student, Hecker pursued his hobby, street music, in the area around Hackescher Markt in Berlin-Mitte . As a result, he came into contact with the Berlin music and cultural scene over time. Around the year 2000 he briefly formed the Trio Maxi among people together with Almut Klotz and Jim Avignon . Also in 2000, the demo version of his song Cold Wind Blowing was used for the soundtrack of the Esther Gronenborn film alaska.de , whereupon the Berlin record company Kitty-yo , which published the soundtrack, offered him a recording contract.
The first three albums
In October 2001, Hecker released his internationally acclaimed debut album Infinite Love Songs , produced by himself and Tommi Eckart , which, among others, was named album of the month in their October issue by the German music magazine Spex and finally among the ten best albums of the year by the New York Times 2001 was elected. In Neil Strauss ' review says:
“ In a long list of precious, fragile, heartbroken artists to emerge in the last two years (Tom McRae, Ed Harcourt, the Kingsbury Manx), Mr. Hecker, by legend an often-disparaged Berlin street musician, whispers the most precious and fragile heartbreak of them all. "
From October 2001 to February 2002 Hecker embarked on his first European tour - at that time still solo, with electric guitar, keyboard and groove box - among other things as support for Bill Callahan and the Walkabouts . At the same time, his song Polyester became a hit on mainstream radio in Israel, where it was named something of a peace anthem. In April and May 2002 he finally accompanied Lloyd Cole on his tour of France.
In May 2003, Hecker released his second studio album, Rose , produced by Depeche Mode and Erasure producer Gareth Jones . It has received particular praise from the British trade press. Dan Martin of the New Musical Express writes:
" In the first three minutes, a lovelorn Hecker bemoans how he's spent seven days without a glance from Kate Moss. But if the former busker has something of the stalker about him, he's not one of those men who have bad fringes and still live with their mum. 'Rose', Hecker's second LP, is as beautiful and barbed as the flower itself and proves that sinister can also be suave and beautiful. While his sexless Germanic vocals threaten to get smothered in drippy melancholy, he's wise enough to ease off with the string quartets as things progress, transmuting his snail pace into the kind of pin-drop quiet electro Fischerspooner would make after a pint of heroin. Lovely. "
Even Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys was Rose attention to Hecker and started on his website to promote it. Immediately after the album was released, Hecker went on his second European tour from May to June 2003 and his third European tour in September and October of that year, including as support for Cat Power . This time he was accompanied by the live musicians Jens Friebe on keyboard, Hans Narva on bass and Chris Imler on drums.
In September 2003 the South Korean record company Pastel Music released Hecker's first two albums in South Korea, and from October 2003 to March 2004 he and the Berlin musician Barbara Morgenstern were sent on a world tour of 34 cities by the Goethe Institute .
In January 2005, Hecker released his third studio album, Lady Sleep , produced by Guy Sternberg, in Europe and a short time later in South Korea, and in January and February of that year he made his fourth European tour, accompanied by his new live musician Johannes Feige on the electric guitar, Philipp Neumann on bass and Snorre Schwarz or Nicolai Ziel on drums. Jim Butler of BBC Collective writes about Lady Sleep :
“ On 'Lady Sleep', his third album, the criminally underrated Maximilian Hecker returns to his recurring fascination with affairs of the heart. Although simpler (ie, less electronic) than his last album, 'Rose', 'Lady Sleep' is just as evocative: opulent orchestral symphonies sway with a shimmering elegance, the neo-Baroque chamber pop hints at stunning torch songs for the 21st Century and Hecker's softly spoken vocals are gently affecting. Less camp than Antony And The Johnsons, although just as grand, Berliner Hecker, in anyone's language, deserves to be a star. "
In July 2005, Hecker was invited to Seoul , South Korea, for two concerts , and Taipei , Taiwan, for two concerts in June 2006 , after the Taiwanese record company Avant Garden Records released his first three albums in Taiwan in August 2005.
I'll Be a Virgin, I'll Be a Mountain
In the summer of 2006 he switched from Kitty-yo to V2 Records and in September of the same year released his fourth studio album, again produced by Guy Sternberg, I'll Be a Virgin, I'll Be a Mountain in Europe, South Korea and Taiwan. In contrast to its three predecessors, which Hecker had recorded largely single-handedly, the album was created with the help of a number of studio musicians, including his live drummer Snorre Schwarz. Sharon O'Connell of the British music magazine Uncut writes in the December 2006 issue of I'll Be A Virgin, I'll Be A Mountain :
“Comparing Hecker to Chris Martin may be something of a backhanded compliment, but it's an indication of the 29-year-old's potential reach, rather than an indictment of aesthetic weediness. That said, 'I'll Be A Virgin…' is a hushed introspective affair, its sweetly mournful melodies augmented by tasteful string arrangements and carrying somewhat poetically strained lyrics ("Wilted Flower" distinguishes itself on that count). Toward the album's close, a dreary sameness sets in; Simpler songs like the folky "Messed-up Girl" are Hecker's most effective. "
In October and November 2006 Hecker made his fifth European tour, followed by concerts in Taipei and Seoul in November and December of that year and finally the support of the Irish musician Duke Special on his European tour in March 2007. At the same time Hecker's song was Dying selected for the background music for a commercial broadcast by electronics company Samsung in South Korea and China .
Especially for the East Asian market, Hecker recorded the EP Once I Was , which only contains cover versions , in spring 2007 , which together with a best-of compilation in May and June of that year in Taiwan and South Korea and for the first time in China on Pocket Records (there under the title I Am Falling Now ), and which became the occasion for his now fifth Asia tour through Taiwan, South Korea and China in July of the same year.
In November 2007, Hecker's former record company Kitty-yo released the live album Live Radio Sessions as a digital release. The LP consists mainly of the recordings of a concert that Hecker gave on March 2, 2005 in the broadcasting hall of Radio Bremen .
One day
In May 2008 he made another flying visit to China and Hong Kong, and in the autumn of the same year he released his fifth studio album One Day , again in cooperation with Guy Sternberg and recorded with his live band, in South Korea, Taiwan, China and for the first time in Hong Kong , Malaysia and Singapore (on the Hong Kong label Love Da Records ), immediately followed by his seventh Asian tour of South Korea, China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
In the meantime, Hecker had started to write songs for other musicians, and his song Miss Underwater was chosen in April 2009 by the Taiwanese singer Faith Yang as the first single on her album Self-Selected . At the same time, the fast-food chain Dunkin 'Donuts chose Hecker's song Silly Lily, Funny Bunny for the background music for a commercial broadcast in South Korea.
In April and May 2009, One Day was released in Europe on the Berlin label Louisville Records and Roadrunner Records , followed by Hecker's seventh European tour in May and June 2009. Anja Rützel from German Rolling Stone writes about One Day :
“ 'One Day', finally, the brave, violin-wrinkled happily-ever-after chant about the fact that at some point even this troubled artist will break the chains from his heart, bring in the harvest, the angel will bring home, is pure Catholic Easter joy. "
In October and November 2009, Hecker went on tour again in Taiwan, South Korea and China. Inspired by a solo appearance in the concert series “ FM4 Radio Sessions” in the Vienna Radiokulturhaus on March 26, 2009, Hecker now played his concerts alone again, without a live musician, preferably on the piano.
I Am Nothing But Emotion, No Human Being, No Son, Never Again Son
In January 2010 Hecker founded his own record company Blue Soldier Records , on which he released his sixth studio album I Am Nothing But Emotion, No Human Being, No Son, Never Again Son in Europe in March of that year . This album represented a kind of return to the origins, since it without the help of a producer or studio musician and, as is already the debut Infinite Love Songs , mainly in home recording had been added method. I Am Nothing But Emotion, No Human Being, No Son, Never Again Son was released again in South Korea, Taiwan (now on Gold Typhoon Music ), China, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore. Marco Fuchs from the German music magazine Intro about the album:
“ The indie darling with all the demands from outside and inside was once upon a time, now Hecker is just himself. And you can hardly believe what you hear: a radically reduced album that stands before you innocently and vulnerable. And radiates a tremendous truthfulness. You walk the path spellbound through the songs, through which you are guided by a trembling and yet calm artist who radiates with every line that he has arrived at himself. Like a conversation partner who looks at you with almost painfully honest eyes and talks about himself. This fine art of pure and unadulterated feeling, celebrated by Liwa, Lennon, Van Morrison and Dylan, is now Hecker's profession. Even if he had to get buried first to clean up. "
In April and May 2010, Hecker played the first part of an extensive China tour through a total of 24 Chinese cities - the second part followed in the fall of the same year - and his song Kun Zai, which was written together with Sodagreen singer Wu Qingfeng for the Taiwanese singer Wei Ruxuan shortly afterwards appeared as the first single of their album Graceful Porcupine in Taiwan and China. In June of that year, Hecker went on tour in Germany as part of his current album.
In November 2010, he digitally published the two albums Favorite Demos and Rare And Unreleased , which contain demo versions of 27 songs from his first five albums and twelve songs or B-sides that were still unreleased at the time .
On January 23, 2011, Hecker gave a double concert with the American musician Rachael Yamagata at the Sejong Cultural Center in Seoul and in the autumn of the same year he played his eighth China tour, which took him to Shanghai, Shenyang, Beijing, Hangzhou and Foshan.
Mirage of Bliss and the Autobiography
In July, August and October 2012 he released his seventh studio album Mirage of Bliss in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Great Britain, Ireland, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, Italy, Japan and the USA again his own label Blue Soldier Records , and in the fall of the same year the album was released in China (now on Gold Typhoon Music ), Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and South Korea (now on Leeway ). On the album produced by the British producer Martin Glover, alias Youth, Hecker played all the instruments himself again, with the exception of the bass, which Glover had contributed.
Sascha Krüger from the German music magazine Visions about the album:
“ The result is a dense album full of timeless grandeur in the arrangement, which makes you think of the most beautiful Britpop moments as well as the orchestral size of old Scott Walker recordings. Hecker is doing himself a great favor. Because as touching as the predecessor was in its smoky minimalism: Only when he thoroughly designs his songs does all of his compositional grandeur come into play. Here a musician lives through every single note, in every line, with every chord. Deeply touching, maximally sincere. "
In August of the same year, the German publisher Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf Heckers published the autobiography The Rise and Fall of Maximilian Hecker , written in German, in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The text deals with Hecker's career and his life between Europe and Asia and is described by his publisher as an “intimate document of self-discovery”.
The first part of Hecker's Asian tour for the album Mirage of Bliss then took him to Taiwan and China in October and November 2012; Part two of the concert tour, during which he performed six concerts in Chinese concert halls as well as the “Seoul Jazz Festival”, followed in May 2013. From December 2012 to April 2013, Hecker then played an extensive tour through Central Europe, mostly as a duo with Arctic Circle 18 singer Felix Räuber, before returning to China (Shenzhen, Chengdu and Shanghai) for further concerts in September 2014.
Spellbound Scenes of My Cure
In January 2015 Maximilian Hecker released his eighth studio album Spellbound Scenes of My Cure in Europe via the German record company Eat The Beat Music , in China via Beijing Dragon Flying Culture Media , in Taiwan via Avant Garden Records and in South Korea again via Leeway . Spellbound Scenes of My Cure , produced by Johannes Feige and Hecker themselves and, like Infinite Love Songs , mixed by Tommi Eckart , can be viewed as a concept album, as it is thematically exclusively about places in the world that Hecker has traveled. The publication was accompanied by self-made, impressionistic video films that Hecker had recorded during his travels.
Kerstin Petermann from the German music magazine Intro about the album:
" Yeah. Finally winter. Finally someone switches off the sun again and does minor. "Spellbound Scenes of My Cure" is an album with ten winter evenings set to music. And not the good winter evenings with pure white snow and mulled wine, but those with broken heating and loneliness. Accompanied by the saddest of all instruments - a slowly played piano - Maximilian Hecker sings about missing, leaving and getting lost. Not singing - he sighs, sobs and languishes. Syncopations pull the melodies like waiting for a new season of "Walking Dead". Fortunately, there is always a grateful customer base for this type of high-profile melancholy - heartbreak fetishists, professional melancholics and love bulimics (Hecker quote). But it is also difficult to escape the indulgent melodies and the gently struck staccato of the piano. It gets less cheesy, but rather surrealistic and oppressive when you see the film for the album: slushy dream sequences in negative black and white. They are not the images of the laissez-faire that the piano celebrates. Rather, they show what can haunt you when you think about why you are sitting here alone in a cold room. No good thoughts on good music. "
The best of Maximilian Hecker
After a solo tour through Germany in January 2015 and an Asia tour through China, Taiwan and South Korea in the spring of the same year, this time as a duo together with Johannes Feige as electric guitarist and background singer, Hecker released the in spring 2016 in view of his fifteen-year stage anniversary 30-song retrospective The Best of Maximilian Hecker , which was published again in Europe via Eat The Beat Music , in China via Want U Music , in Taiwan via Hinote and in South Korea via Leeway . Between April and August of the same year, Hecker did the Best of Maximilian Hecker tour through thirteen Chinese cities, followed by two concerts in Seoul, South Korea and a performance in Taipei, Taiwan. In April 2017 he and his live musicians played an eleven concert tour of China entitled Fancy April and between September 2017 and July 2018 took part as a live musician in a total of 16 performances of the play How can I find you, written by Anja Hilling and staged by Friederike Heller , Move in with me and persuade me to stay at the Mannheim National Theater , for which he had also composed the music performed live.
Wretched love songs
In April and May 2018 Hecker finally released his ninth studio album Wretched Love Songs in Europe via his own record company Blue Soldier Records , in China via Want U Music , in Taiwan via Hinote and in South Korea via Leeway . Like its predecessor Spellbound Scenes of My Cure , Wretched Love Songs was created in collaboration with Johannes Feige (arrangement and production) and Tommi Eckart (mix).
Kristof Beuthner of Intro .com Album:
“ Unable to love romantically, and then this music: how does that fit together? Maximilian Hecker suffers from his own wretchedness (this is the best way to translate the eponymous »wretched«) with a deeply cathartic album and relentlessly reveals everything that doesn't work for him: trauma, a lack of basic trust and ever-failing love relationships are a deep longing for support and security towards. Both sides pull together, and in between Hecker sits at the piano and sings all the confused words from his soul, which have now accumulated after many years of inner conflict. On his ninth album, Hecker makes an impression with himself with wonderful singing that is always close to falsetto: With all the intimacy in these many wonderful pop moments, it is really hard to believe that this man cannot really love. The fact that Hecker also manages, despite the languishing romance in "Wretched Love Songs", not to present a kitsch-oozing Rote-Rosen work, is perhaps his greatest achievement. "
The Asian tour for Wretched Love Songs (17 concerts in China and two in Seoul, South Korea) took place in April and May of the same year, the Germany tour for the album followed in January 2019.
Discography
Albums:
- 2001: Infinite Love Songs (CD / LP) - Kitty-yo
- 2003: Rose (CD / LP) - Kitty-yo
- 2005: Lady Sleep (CD / LP) - Kitty-yo
- 2006: I'll Be a Virgin, I'll Be a Mountain (CD / LP) - V2 Records
- 2007: Once I Was (CD) - Pastel Music / Avant Garden Records
- 2007: I Am Falling Now (CD) - Pocket Records
- 2007: Live Radio Sessions (digital) - Kitty-yo
- 2009: One Day (CD / LP) - Louisville Records
- 2010: I Am Nothing But Emotion, No Human Being, No Son, Never Again Son (CD / LP) - Blue Soldier Records
- 2010: Favorite Demos (digital) - Blue Soldier Records
- 2010: Rare and Unreleased (digital) - Blue Soldier Records
- 2012: Mirage of Bliss (CD) - Blue Soldier Records
- 2015: Spellbound Scenes of My Cure (CD) - Eat The Beat Music
- 2016: The Best of Maximilian Hecker (digital) - Eat The Beat Music
- 2018: Wretched Love Songs (digital) - Blue Soldier Records
Singles:
- 2001: Infinite Love Song (CDM) - Kitty-yo
- 2001: Polyester (CDM) - Kitty-yo
- 2003: Fool (CDM) - Kitty-yo
- 2003: Daylight (CDM) - Kitty-yo
- 2004: Help Me (CDM) - Kitty-yo
- 2006: Silly Lily, Funny Bunny (CDM) - V2 Records
- 2009: Misery (digital) - Louisville Records
- 2009: The Space That You're In (digital) - Louisville Records
- 2012: It's All Over Now, Baby Blue (digital) - Blue Soldier Records
- 2012: The Whereabouts of Love (digital) - Blue Soldier Records
- 2012: Summerwaste (digital) - Blue Soldier Records
- 2014: To Liu Wen, The Opposite House, 3 am (digital) - Eat The Beat Music
- 2015: Kastrup (digital) - Eat The Beat Music
- 2015: Gangnam Misery (digital) - Eat The Beat Music
- 2016: Hennigsdorf (digital) - Eat The Beat Music
- 2016: Battery Park (digital) - Eat The Beat Music
- 2018: My Wretched Love (digital) - Blue Soldier Records
- 2018: Paradise on Earth (digital) - Blue Soldier Records
- 2018: Into the Ocean (digital) - Blue Soldier Records
Videos
- 2001: Infinite Love Song (Magnus Winter)
- 2001: Polyester (Jana Oberdörffer)
- 2003: Fool ( Miriam Yung Min Stein )
- 2003: Daylight (Miriam Yung Min Stein)
- 2004: Help Me (Liisa Lounila & Henri Tani)
- 2006: Silly Lily, Funny Bunny (Christopher Weser)
- 2009: The Space That You're In (Til Obladen)
- 2010: Nana (Til Obladen)
- 2010: No One's Child (Nuflicks)
- 2010: Court My Eyes Alone (Ken-Tonio Yamamoto & Daniela Haitzler)
- 2012: The Whereabouts of Love (Sonja Gutschera & Leif Henrik Osthoff)
- 2014: To Liu Wen, The Opposite House, 3 am (The Sorrows of Young Werther)
- 2015: Kastrup (The Sorrows of Young Werther)
- 2015: Gangnam Misery (The Sorrows of Young Werther)
- 2016: Hennigsdorf (The Sorrows of Young Werther)
- 2016: Battery Park (The Sorrows of Young Werther)
- 2018: My Wretched Love (Julija Goyd)
- 2018: Paradise on Earth (The Sorrows of Young Werther)
- 2018: Into the Ocean (The Sorrows of Young Werther)
Songwriting for other artists
- 2008: The Space That You're In (music and text) - Artist: Wei Ruxuan, Album: La Dolce Vita
- 2009: Miss Underwater (Music and Text) - Artist: Faith Yang, Album: Self-Selected
- 2010: Kun Zai (Music) - Artist: Wei Ruxuan, Album: Graceful Porcupine
- 2019 "with Jung Taek-woon (VIXX Leo)", "the flower"
Autobiography
- The Rise and Fall of Maximilian Hecker . Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2012. ISBN 978-3-86265-176-4 .
Web links
- official homepage
- Music player
- Interview with Noisey.vice.com
- Interview with the Berliner Zeitung
Individual evidence
- ^ Again and again Liebeslieder taz , May 29, 2001
- ↑ Maximilian Hecker's biography on laut.de.
- ^ The New York Times, December 23, 2001, Neil Strauss, Best Albums of 2001
- ↑ Nigel Williamson from the English music magazine Uncut in July 2003 about Rose : “ Given the romantic movement began in Germany, it's odd that the country is today known for electronic experimentalism rather than emotional warmth. Maximilian Hecker's name may not belong in the same breath as Beethoven or Goëthe. But he seeks to readjust the balance with his second album of frail, elegiac hymns of unrequited love. That the opening track is called "Kate Moss" is unpromising. Yet even that turns out to be another exquisite paean to heartbreak. Not as dark or deep as Ed Harcourt. But fans of From Every Sphere should definitely give Max a listen. " [1]
- ^ New Musical Express, May 3, 2003, Dan Martin
- ^ BBC Collective, April 1, 2005, Jim Butler
- ↑ Anja Rützel : Maximillian Hecker “One Day”, Rolling Stone, May 2009.
- ↑ Intro, March 2010, Marco Fuchs ( Memento of the original from March 24, 2012 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.
- ↑ Visions, August 2012, Sascha Krüger
- ↑ Laut.de, January 2015, Artur Schulz
- ^ Homepage Maximilian Hecker
- ↑ Intro, January 2015, Kerstin Petermann ( 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.
- ↑ Love is a strange game, September 2017
- ↑ Love and Let Love, September 2017
- ↑ Intro, May 2018, Kristof Beuthner
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Hecker, Maximilian |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German singer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 26, 1977 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Heidenheim an der Brenz |