Über mich

I grew up in two worlds. I was born in Munich in 1961, the year the Wall was built. My second home is in Sydney/Australia. Maybe this is why I always see things from at least two sides.

My schooling was correspondingly mixed, somewhere between German stiffness with an attempt at modern pedagogy, and British-style school uniforms, singing „God Save The Queen“ paired with hedonistic Australian nonchalance. I liked the latter best.

The first guitar came to me in Australia. A badly damaged Spanish guitar that was no longer for sale was given to me by a Jewish German woman who had fled the Nazis with her husband to Sydney in the 1930s. She had a music store and the guitar was delivered to her damaged. She liked me. I was 15 and already knew very well about this very specific part of German history. But I wasn’t aware at the time of how special this sympathy was towards me.

I practiced as hard as I could and, like so many other things, taught myself to play the guitar. Basically, I learned to read and write at school. That was enough to further educate myself. I became a die-hard autodidact. This has advantages and disadvantages. I prefer to keep the benefits in mind. Think positive.

I discovered the blues. Muddy Waters, Fred McDowell, Lightnin‘ Hopkins, B.B.King. I didn’t need contemporary pop music anymore. No trends, no self-expression in the peer group. That’s why I’m not a “Do-you-remember-the good-old-days” nostalgic either. Every era has its good and bad. I’ve never kept up with the times, often lagging behind and often way ahead. I don’t like words that end in -ism. Almost none. Especially no dogmatism. I have a heart for tradition and I think humanity must finally develop further and leave traditions behind. I’m not either-or, I’m as well as. Inconsistency is an opportunity. Endure tension. Like in the blues. The blues is full of tensions that some people find difficult to bear and therefore inharmonious. But they tell of all sides of life. Blues is life.

I became a musician but found it difficult to find like-minded people. That’s what you get for living between worlds. Life is blues.
I play guitar, write songs, keep learning. For example the art of linocut. At some point it started out of curiosity. Then it became my second passion. Portraits of blues musicians and songwriters who accompanied me. I deliberately do not say „influenced“.
I especially like the wrinkled, life-scarred faces of old people. Ideal for linocuts because there are more lines and contrasts.
Today I play the guitar, write songs and do linocuts.  What’s next?