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Forever and a Day

by The Nouve

The Nouve Band Logo


For Leonard Cohen, Felix Flaucher, Karl Liebknecht & Rosa Luxemburg…

So yes, I’m writing songs, producing songs, mixing songs, writing lyrics, novels, screenplays, essays, doing video clips, short films, sure… but you want to know WHY? Great Question, man! What makes us doing what we do? Is there a rational and catchy answer, maybe a citation (Where is Leonard Cohen when you really need him? Why did he had to go at all??) – Well, “Music was my first love”, eh right, that’s what they all say… but that never led to give up their normal lives: they never had the idea to look behind the curtain, sell themselves at the Crossroads and die on the dream to release just this one and only song that sounds like it did in their head once before they recorded it.

So why? It doesn’t make sense if you could have stayed on the safe and secure consumer site, does it?

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Electric Birds

by Nathan Plante

Nathan Plante
© by Beate Waetzel

My life as a musician started at a young age in the handbell choir of my family’s church near San Diego, California. I remember that I couldn’t yet read music, so one of the elderly ladies in the choir would take a highlighter and mark the notes in the music I was responsible for. A few years later, I picked up the trumpet in school and never looked back — no more handbells for me, and at some point, no more church.

Fast forward several decades later and I’m making a living as a professional musician. Despite many years of playing contemporary music and working extensively with living composers, it never occurred to me to write my own music. I wasn’t even sure what „my“ music would sound like. Even improvisation was something I shied away from – I was perfectly happy interpreting the music of others.

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34 years of DIY … and just getting started

by Tuffy Brazil of STROMBLE FIX

STROMBLE FIX


It all started in 1990 when five teenagers formed a new punk band. In fact, STROMBLE FIX was a merger of two bands that rehearsed door-to-door in the local youth center in the Ruhr area of Germany.

We played many shows in the early 90s and recorded our songs on 8-track or 16-track tape machines in a friend’s studio whenever we could afford to spend a weekend. The music was published on compact cassettes, and there was a culture of sharing tapes with other bands or even taping tapes to get the music heard. Mail orders these days worked so that you requested a printed catalog first and then ordered your vinyl or cassettes by writing a letter.

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Collecting And Enjoying Sonic Elements And Influences

by Camilo Palma a.k.a. Ap Ducal

Ap Ducal


Over the past year, I’ve been developing my new album, “U,” by my moniker Ap Ducal, which continues in the sonic sequence of previous records, but this time from a more personal perspective. The sound, the process, and the timing of this album are imbued with the idea of collecting and enjoying the sonic elements and influences that have had the most impact on me.

Perhaps it is a form of nostalgia or simply a tribute to music styles like post-punk, new wave, and even some compositional elements of jazz in a long-play format. I tried to incorporate these elements into the four tracks of the album. An example is the theme “UUUU,” based on The Cure’s song “A Forest.”

These four themes were recorded entirely in my home studio, using only four elements per song in a band-like format, essentially the format I’ve been most familiar with in my career. The challenge was doing this as a solo artist with unconventional instruments in my context.

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The New Year’s resolution in the catchy tune “Dance With Me”

by Ralphy Grey

Ralph Grey


Hello dear music lovers,

I’m Ralphy Grey, a Berlin-based music producer with a powerful retro electro-house pop style, creating a unique musical blend. Today, I’d like to tell you what makes me unique as a musician. And best of all, on 15 December, my brand new single, “Dance With Me,” will conquer the music scene.

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Neeels

by Nils Kruse a.k.a. Neeels

Nils Kruse aka Neeels


You’ve found me!

Not by coincidence.

Simply put, everything has led you here.

The time is right: Winter is coming to Europe, and I’ve just finished a hot EP to warm your heart and quench your thirst for handmade music.

Here is the EP “Snow Flies In Circles All Nite “. Three musical works that didn’t quite fit into the previous album, “Flawed Music For Bored Avatars,” and demanded their very own framework. The three pieces form a marvelous triangle for discovering and understanding myself as an artist.

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About a Musician

by Gerrit Walter a.k.a. The Song & Dance Brigade

Gerrit Walter


I am kindly asked to write something about my musical life, which has now spanned several decades. No one had ever asked me that before. Well, I have been making music since I was 13 years old. My mother taught me how to play the guitar, at least the rudimentary playing she mastered. That was when I was thirteen.

Since then, I’ve been playing the guitar. It’s the instrument I desire in terms of beauty, sound, and challenge. In school, they told me I couldn’t sing. I did it anyway.

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Into Overdrive

by Paul Taylor of Def Robot

Def Robot going Into Overdrive


Def Robot was formed in 2019 when David Hancox and I, Paul Taylor, reconnected after 20 years.

I was the singer and David was the bassist in 90’s Manchester U.K. grunge/rock/indie band Kerosene, who were signed to Dead Dead Good and then Sire records. We released an album “Arrythmia” along with various singles and toured the U.K., Europe and the USA supporting such bands as Green Day, The Flaming Lips, and Terrorvision amongst others.

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The Futile Project, with a Wink

by Hendrik Heuser

Hendrik Heuser of The Futile Project


When I read the advertisement for the contest, I had to chuckle. The Nassau cultural prize for contemporary composition 2003 sounded great to me. Yet I hardly believed in myself enough to think the effort to apply would be more than futile. So that’s what I called my non-existent band project: The Futile Project.

I had left all my former bands when I returned from six months abroad in Glasgow. There, for the first time, I had an opportunity to present my music to an audience of musicians I hardly knew. Therefore, the feedback I got was honest and not tainted by friendship or sympathy. I performed almost every Monday at Gerry Lyon’s open stage night in the Nice’n’Sleazy, a club on Sauchiehall Street.

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