Jonas
How did you get involved in SOE?
I already knew guitarist "Church" through various other studio & live projects. One day he called me and told me about a new evolving project with a singer from the Würzburg area. Listening to the first demos it was clear to me that playing these songs live would have to be incredible fun. After my guitar skills, which were also evolving, were not enough of a deterrent during the first rehearsal with Thomas, Church and Schenky, I am now with SOE.
What else do you do at SOE?
Apart from bad jokes, beer consumption and hard riffs, I also took care of the pre-mixes of the songs for the first album and the following communication between the band and Sascha Paeth (mix) and Ludwig Maier (master). For the following album I will also contribute music & lyrics.
What were your musical activities before SOE?
My first band before studying music was called "Cursed". With friends from school we played covers from Alannah Myles to Porcupine Tree.
"Al Breeze" was formed after graduation and was my first "real" band with my own music. We mixed influences from all genres to a virtuosic-progressive EP and an album, both recorded in the band's own studio in Nuremberg. Thanks to Spotify and Co. you can still listen to it.
Until then I was strictly a keyboard player and singer. My first attempts at playing guitar were with the band "Rockheroes."
The idea behind the band was (or is - meanwhile only without me) "good buddies having with their favorite music". That was pretty much everything from 70s to current rock.
My keyboard career reached its zenith with the German symphonic metallers "Beyond the Black", where I played the keys from 2016-2018. We had a lot of fun at small and big festivals and tours through Europe. What remained of it is my passion for sushi - found in Tokyo 😉
How did you get into playing the guitar?
Actually I've been playing guitar in a very rudimentary way - power chords with lots of distortion - since I started writing my own songs at the age of 16. I started "serious" practicing after I left BTB, as a distraction or therapy from the sobering experience of how "relevant" keyboard players" or real live played keyboard parts still are in the metal scene nowadays.
Who are your idols?
My parents - for their patience, generosity and justice, and my children, for their perspective on the world and life in the now.
Which bands and musicians have influenced you?
The answer to this question is - at least partially - contained in the answer to the next question 🙂
Your three records for the ages?
Nightwish “Century Child”
Avantasia “Scarecrow”
Queensryche “Operation Mindcrime”