Wir sind Helden
Wir sind Helden is a German pop-rock group led by singer Judith Holofernes, which was founded in 2000 in Hamburg and was last resident in Berlin. After twelve successful years, the group announced in early April of 2012, to pause indefinitely.
- 3.1 texts
- 3.2 Music style
- 3.3 Importance of
- 3.4 Trivia
- 5.1 albums
- 5.2 Singles
- 5.3 Further productions
History
The lead singer of the group, Judith Holofernes, occurred before the foundation of Wir sind Helden as a solo artist in Berlin clubs and also released an album Kamikaze fly. Looking for musicians who were able to accompany their singing, met Holofernes, 2000 at Popkurs in Hamburg drummer Pola Roy and Jean -Michel Tourette, the guitar and keyboard playing.
At the beginning of the group occurred under the name of Judith Holofernes and published a few titles in the online music platform Besonic. The bassist Mark Tavassol was proposed later by Pola Roy as a band member and said after a few weeks willing to participate in the group now appearing under the name of heroes. Later they changed the name of hero we are heroes because the original name of heroes was already used by another band and they wanted to avoid legal conflicts with this band. The name should remind you of David Bowie's Heroes Single.
In 2002, the producer Patrik Majer became aware of the band for a newcomer evening. Together, they took on some of the tracks and released the EP good day. She appeared in an edition of 3,000 pieces and initially made the band known only within Berlin, where she played the radio station radioeins regularly. With the same song Good day We are heroes came down in 2002 without major label in the German single charts. The band uses tactics of guerrilla marketing. So even painted T-shirts were sold and given away stickers to fans that are so used to advertise the band. After Holofernes ' appearance on the Harald Schmidt Show, the popularity of enlarged We are heroes in addition.
In 2003, the publication of the first album followed the complaint. The album debuted in the first week at number six in the German album charts, reaching as high position No. 2 and was one of the best-selling albums of 2003 and 2004.
With the second album, published in 2005, From here on blind they reached the first place in the German and Austrian charts in the first week after publication. Also the debut Complaints rose again in 2005 in the album charts and reached 38th place temporarily total, more than 1.2 million copies of the first two albums sold in Germany.
As part of the worldwide Live 8 benefit concerts were Wir sind Helden on 2 July 2005 at the Live 8 concert in Berlin.
We are heroes tried to enter in music markets in other countries and have therefore arranged some of her songs in other languages . With Sā itte Miyo (Japaneseさあ 行っ て みよ う), the Group adopted in 2005 a Japanese version of From here on, blind in 2006 was followed by a compilation of songs from the complaint and from here to blindly for the French market, which also French versions of From here on blind (French Le vide ) good day (French: La réclamation ) and Aurélie (French Aurélie, c'est pas Paris) contains.
On May 25, 2007 she released her third album -so, which rose within a week in Germany and in Austria in second place on the charts. Finally a reason to panic was already available as pre-release single on April 27. The second single, the song -and-so was released along with some unplugged versions of the FM4 concert on July 6. On the version of the album for the French market, the bonus tracks are additionally Finally a reason to panic (French Panique ), So- (French comme ça T'es ) and Broken (French Ko).
In 2008, the band 's autobiography We are heroes appeared - Information about tours and other items. A Wir sind Helden diary, which was compiled on the basis of online diaries of the band and edited by the Music Express writers Josef Winkler and Albert Koch.
After a short break the band in 2010 went into the studio and recorded their fourth album, which was released under the title Bring me home 27 August 2010 and debuted at the top spot of the German and Austrian charts. A week before the album, the single release appeared all. On November 5, the second single was released with the title song Take me home. The song is also the official song for Lars Kraume film The coming days.
On the big demonstration against nuclear power "Fukushima warns: Shut off all nuclear power plants! " 26 March 2011, the band played in Berlin in front of 120,000 people, one of the largest demonstrations against the use of nuclear power, in which Germany involved more than 250,000 people.
One year after the release of the album Bring me home a fourth single was decoupled from: The Ballad of Wolfgang and Brigitte. On the CD, the song also appeared in a version in which Marianne Rosenberg took over the vocals.
Beginning of April 2012 gave the band on their website announced that it will pause indefinitely. Among the reasons the group gave to the spatial distance through the various residences of the band members, "diverse wear " and their own offspring, also you have as long as it went to the band as " more impossible expectant [s ] undertaking " detained.
Band Members
Judith Holofernes
Judith Holofernes ( born November 12, 1976 in Berlin; actually Judith Holfelder [NB 1] ) sings, plays guitar and writes lyrics for We are heroes. Holofernes lives in Berlin -Kreuzberg, is married to the drummer Pola and has with him a son, who was born in December 2006, and a daughter who has come into the world in August 2009.
As a solo artist ( singer-songwriter ) Holofernes was not very successful in commercial terms. Her solo album Kamikaze Pilot appeared in 1999 in a small edition of 500 pieces in -house production and developed only after the breakthrough of Wir sind Helden a coveted collector's item. Some songs from the repertoire of the band later ( Except for you, Aurélie, pop star ) are already included on Kamikaze fly.
Jean -Michel Tourette
Jean -Michel Tourette (* 10 July 1975 in Hanover; actually Jens -Michael Eckhoff ) is keyboard player for the band. While Holofernes is primarily responsible for the texts, Tourette contributes a large part of the music. He is married, has one child and lives with his family in Hanover.
Tourette plays since the age of nine piano since the age of 13 he also plays guitar. He was also a member of the heavy metal band Shiftless, the pop band Picasso's Parents and the electro-pop band branch Lotus. With the latter he played for a year in Berlin, but learned in the spring of 2000 Holofernes and Roy know in Hamburg, which establishing Wir sind Helden led. He played at Wir sind Helden initially only guitar. Since he brought a synthesizer to a sample, it is primarily keyboardist. On the album From here on blind he played but again mainly guitar.
From the beginning, supervised Tourette home studio recording of We are Heroes as a producer. He now operates in Hanover, the recording studio tanning salon. There he produced pre-production songs for the group, which serve as the basis for finished pieces. He is also a producer of the bands The Amber Light ( since 2006) and Tanner ( since 2008). He was awarded the Praetorius Prize 2005.
Pola Roy
Pola Roy ( born October 18, 1975 in Karlsruhe; actually Sebastian Roy ) is the drummer of the band. Since 2006, he is married to Judith and has with her a son and a daughter.
Roy is Buddhist, became involved with the band for the Tibet Initiative and accompanied with this the Dalai Lama in 2008 on his trip to Germany.
Roy, who grew up in the Karlsruhe district Rüppurr, visited the music school in Ettlingen, where he originally wanted to learn bagpipes. After he had been given by his father, a drum set, but he moved to this instrument. After graduating from the Max-Planck -Gymnasium, he moved to Dinkelsbühl, there to undergo training to become a certified director of popular music with educational supplementary examination. In addition to drums Roy also plays cajón.
Prior to his membership We are heroes Roy played with the bands Lunatics, The Purple Rose of Cairo, Flowers in Chains and Dew, who left no lasting impression. In November 2010, the first album of his band Per Anders appeared.
As part of the wedding with Holofernes and the birth of her son, there were numerous reports of the couple, especially since they took their son with her band on the tour.
Mark Tavassol
Mark Tavassol ( born February 18, 1974 in Bremen) is the bassist of the band, writes songs and is a producer. He currently lives in Hamburg. He came as the last member to Wir sind Helden and is the only band member who has not adopted a stage name.
Tavassol spent his childhood in Tehran, his father is Iranian. In autumn 2001, he passed his medical exams. For Wir sind Helden came Tavassol by his friend Pola Roy, who persuaded him to become the bassist of the group. Even after the great success of the group, he continued to work part-time as a doctor.
In addition, we are heroes Tavassol works as a musician and songwriter with artists such as Olli Schulz, Jessica McIntyre ( Sam Ragga Band) or Ingo Pohlmann. Together with the TV presenter Klaas Heufer circulation, he founded the band Gloria. Tavassol also involved politically: It supports Benny Adrions organization Viva con Agua, for which he traveled with Pohlmann to Africa, and published an essay on the development opportunities in Europe in the star.
Creation
Texts
Holofernes ' consumerist and media-critical attitude can be seen in many texts. She criticizes the " commercialism " ( good day ) to useless diligence (Must only want ), rigid rules ( Is that so? ) Or on the music industry ( pimp ). Even singers who rather than with visual stimuli with their musical talent success ( drawing you something to ) they criticized. The theme love theme Holofernes in many songs, sometimes in a humorous ( Aurélie ), sometimes in serious shape (except you). With the song hero time she answers the frequently asked question as to why the group We have baptized heroes, and in Angry enough to deal with the accusation that their reputation was too nice and too nice.
Music style
The debut album from We are Heroes, The complaint contained mainly elements of electropop and remembered musically to the German New Wave. Influences of the Hamburg School are also present, especially since the band's history in the Hanseatic city began. Some songs date back to the time of his solo career by Judith Holofernes. The second album From here to blind a whole guitar driven arranged. At its creation had all four musicians uniform proportion than its predecessor.
Importance
We are heroes be regarded as a pioneer of a movement that spawned other young German music groups such as silver moon and July in 2004. In particular, the latter is accused of occasionally in terms of a linguistically similar imagery, we are going to have copied heroes. The groups are now often classified under the style of the New German New Wave.
The rock groups Astra Kid, Madsen, Olli Schulz and the dog Marie, Arctic Circle 18 and the singer Clueso won with their performances as opening acts Wir sind Helden additional popularity.
Trivia
Before the start of a new tour, the band went back and again under the name Where are Helmet in smaller clubs to test new songs in front of a live audience.
Political commitment
The band tried often in the past to use their musical awareness, to bring the people closer social issues. Thus, members get involved in projects that seek to tackle the politics in the population and occurred in the context of this at various concerts. In addition, the lead singer Judith Holofernes in politics talk show Maybrit Illner was in December 2010 as a guest, when it came to the thesis " Ruled the policy past the people? ".
For all the political commitment it rejected We are heroes from but to get involved for a party. In an interview Pola Roy said the question to operate for a specific political party campaigns: "No, absolutely not. Maybe we start so times our own party, then already. "Even an offer to take part in an advertising campaign for the image, was clearly rejected in February 2011. Holofernes has said in this regard that the image is a "dangerous political instrument " and that the campaign " with stupidity" games. The request to the personnel involved with the campaign company Jung von Matt and Holofernes ' response is published on the website of the band. Jung von Matt published the answer too, but against the obvious will of Holofernes as a display in the taz.Daraufhin was publicly discussed the legality of the publication in picture.
Discography
Albums
Singles
Other productions
Awards
ECHO Pop
- 2004: Best national radio offspring
- 2004: Best Newcomer National
- 2004: Best German Newcomer Video
- 2006: Best national rock / pop group
1Live crown
- 2003: Best Newcomer
- 2004: Best Live Act
- 2005: Best Album ( From here on, blind)
European Border Breakers Award
- 2005: The Complaints
German Grammy
- 2009: text rock / pop ( Judith Holofernes )