Biography
Born 1978 in Berne, Switzerland. Living in Berlin. Father of two daughters.
Lecturing at ZHDK University Of The Arts since 2007. When I teach students one-on-one, I am mainly interested in your own personal journey as an alter ego, helping you find your proper voice as a songwriter, producer or overall as a performing artist. At the core of that are always the music and the words - but it really expands quickly to all other areas of your artistic vision… the look, the feel, the sound, the production, the philosophy, the team, the “dos and don’ts”, the “why am I doing this?”, the nerdy little details between the lines, the music business, the technical aspects, the big dream vs. the feasibility,…
Decided to become a Songwriter & Producer at the tender age of 6. Took some classes at Swiss Jazz School and a scholarship to Berklee College Of Music in the 90ies but really pretty much self taught. Still loving every bit of the journey. Still pushing forward. Still thinking that my best songs will yet have to be written.
When teaching, I am really more interested in your songs than mine. But because you asked, below you'll find the hard facts and the name dropping.
Anything else, just ask. Thank you for attending my TED talk.
Publication
Wrote & produced all existing music of BONAPARTE and played over 800 shows in 27 countries under that name (Hurricane, Southside, Rock Am Ring, Rock Im Park, Exit, Roskilde, SXSW, Melt, Lollapalooza, St. Gallen, Gurten, Montreux, etc). Released many albums of original music as an artist ( on Labels such as Rough Trade, Columbia, Sony Music, Universal Music, Warner Music, BMG, Staatsakt, Believe,…)
Studio-Collaborations with a.o Sophie Hunger, Acid Pauli, Siriusmo, Modeselektor (Moderat), Deichkind, Fatoumata Diawara, Tim Fite, Bela B,…
If you care about those kind of numbers, generated around 300 Million Spotify streams with songs written/co-written/co-produced as ghostwriter under several pseudonyms for many different artists a.o. Ofenbach, Bars & Melody, Alle Farben, Alli Neumann, Quarterhead, Timmy Trumpet, Michael Patrick Kelly, Yves V, Skynd, Marc Sway,… Also writing and producing music for Film & Series a.o. JERKS Season 3 - 5 (Joyn), Viktor Bringt’s (Amazon Originals), Divine (Warner Bros), Becks Letzter Sommer (CWP), 13 Semester (CWP), Schwarze Schafe, Wagner Brothers,… and Songs in Series like Dark (Netflix), How To Sell Drugs Online Fast (Netflix), etc.
Operating two recording studios in Berlin. One more “in the box”/mixing, the other one full of analog gear and synthesizers, more suited for live band recordings and exploration.
Founded a publishing company Minski & Stravinsky Publishing (SUISA), administrated by Kobalt Music (GEMA) in 1998.
Nominated for a Swiss Music Price 2016 by the Federal Office of Culture of Switzerland.