Hannes Bieger Says One of His Earliest Inspirations is... Keith Richards?
Nearly every electronic musician’s artist bio starts out more or less the same. “He grew up listening to his parents’ disco records, and he played the piano from the tender, young age of three.”
Not Hannes Bieger. The artist behind such serene deep/progressive soundscapes as “Burn Your Love” featuring Juan Henson and “A Million Souls” featuring Francesca Lombardo, set his sights on a much different target early on in life. He wanted to be a guitarist and Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones was his blueprint.
This was to the dismay of his guitarist teacher. "He was more of a jazz guy. And I was [one of his] younger students,” Bieger says during his Gray Area Spotlight interview. “I think his vision was to kind of lead me towards jazz at a very young age, which he didn't succeed with because I always just wanted to learn how to play the intro riff of ‘Honky Tonk Woman.’”
This early influence from his mentor nonetheless set Hannes Bieger up well for success. "What was great actually is that he never really directly showed me how to play these things, even though he could probably play them in his sleep, but taught me how to learn figuring [it] out myself,” he says. “For this I'm very grateful."
His ability to learn how to learn ended up steering Bieger toward a career in audio engineering. He tells Miloco Studios, “Even when I learned my first instrument, electric guitar, I was interested in how it sounded just as much as what I played.” He ended up opening his own studio, Bieger Sound, helping mix and master records for artists like Alex Niggemann, Tale of Us, Andrea Oliva and DJ Tennis.
But nowadays, the immersive music of Hannes Bieger has helped him emerge as a dance music star in his own right. Listen closely to the organic tones of his tracks, and maybe, juts maybe you can hear a hint of Keith Richards’ influence.
