Thanks for clicking in! What else should I do on a band member page than to tell something about me? So, if you want to know that, read on, if not, press the back button.
I will tell you much about music and perhaps something private...

Tobi as little "Master of Disaster"

You can read in the band history how it all began with VOYAGE, but why do I play guitar?

When I was five years old I developed a predilection for all kinds of instruments with keys on them. Actually I was interested in everything that was making noise. I was very loud all my life. Perhaps that's why we had to move so often. And when I was five, my parents tried to make the noise getting useful and gave me such a Bontempi thing. (For those who know what it is: driven by air but you hadn't to blow for yourself.) So I played and made noise making our neighbours used to some accoustic environment. In the age of seven came the piano including lessons. For seven years I was teasing my teacher by being extremely lazy. I think the only thing why she didn't kill me was that her son was a very good friend of mine (our ex-drummer David Schopper).

With fourteen I had my confirmation and to stimulate my passion for the piano, my parents wanted to give a keyboard to me. Yes, read on, it's really me.

When we stood in the music shop to buy the carefully selected instrument, the clerk warned us against that device and showed us one that was three times more expensive. I don't know if he thought he could make more money or whatever. But that expensive thing was so good (I tell you the name wenn I get for it), that we decided not to buy any keyboard, because we couldn't afford the expensive one and didn't want to buy rubbish.

I went to another instrument's dealer and thought of trying the guitar. The end of the story is that the clerk was clever enough first to find out how much money i had and THEN to sell me the poorest instrument he could find.

Then came the lessons. I could tell you something about practising 25 hours a day but too much of my colleagues do that. I was practising a little but I was playing a lot. I had to try all the tricks of my heroes. It's impossible to know all of them but much of them showed me (Van Halen for example) that it is not absolutely the practising that makes a good musician but
1. creativity, wit and fun
2. the passion for music and for the feelings and emotions it expresses.
Sometimes I like a simple AC/DC song much more than a 150NpS piece of music because it feels better.

To get to an end, I played a lot and learned to love the music.I tried to try everything that was stylisticly possible. My guitar instructor gave me much help. He teached me to play blues, swing, latin and rock in a similar manner. The most important thing was to get a bit of his feeling, I think. I took part in many projects. Sometimes I did that just for fun but I also played in bands to earn money. But making music to earn money is something I can't do yet. I hope I will be able to get money because I'm making music. You see the reversal?

The last creative highlight was writing, organizing and performing some kind of musical together with my best friend Philipp. That was one of the most intensive and best experiences I had. Ask the poeple who took part...

At the moment I don't know what will come. I don't know if we will make it, if these people we entrust ourselves to will give us the necessary support. We will see. I only know that music will always be the most important thing in my life.

The "Master of Disaster" as a member of VOYAGE

I don't know where I got that nickname from. But I wanted to tell you something about my band and me.

You will surely ask yourself if it isn't boring always to play with the same people. I will give you an absolutely clear answer:
No, never, not at all!
And there is a simple cause for that: In those ten years that I'm making music with these people I got to know them and learned to love them. Again and again we try new things and I think we have played every style possible. Of course we'll stick to the rock music because we are children of the 80s and our heroes come from there.

I think I'm a bit hard to handle in the band when I'm really taken with something but then my creativity is running like a racing car.

To make it short: There are no other people I can imagine being on tour with without getting me on my nerves.

Private Area

But what is Tobi doing when nobody looks at him? Is there a life besides rock 'n' roll?

Of course, there is. I am a student of theology. For those who don't know why anybody can decide to do that:
I'd like to be a Protestant priest. I worked a lot with the Protestant youth and received a lot. So I want to give back something, but it is a long way.

In my leisure time I like to ride my motorcycle (XBR 500), because it's unreasonable and the only possibility not to work.

Apropos of that I work in a small television shop in Munich. You have to work if you want to survive.

I'll come to an end now. If you are interested in something about me, just send me an email.

Greetings to our fans and friends,

hold your head up high!