Max Mutzke und Band
Max Mutzke Biography
On closer inspection, there is more to Max Mutzke than just a single artist. Max Mutzke is many. It sounds strange at first, but it has to do with the incredible versatility and, not least, the insatiable creative curiosity of the charismatic singer and songwriter. With an unwavering desire to surprise and captivate his audience time and again. Whether it is pop, rock, soul, funk, or jazz – Max Mutzke possesses a thousand musical facets, which he can effortlessly put under one of those hats that have become his trademark over the past one and a half decades.
Max Mutzke has been making music since he was six years old. Growing up in an artistic household – with his mother being an actress, his father a doctor and jazz musician – he was able to experiment in all directions from a young age. Looking back, he describes his youth in the Black Forest as a picture-book "Bullerbü idyll," to which he has remained loyal to this day. A typical middle child among a total of six siblings, who, however, were not spared from harsh strokes of fate such as the early death of their mother and other disasters. A flight forward, into self-determination and creativity, which took him into the big spotlight for the first time in 2004: As the winner of Stefan Raab's "SSDSGPS" show, the preliminary round for the Eurovision Song Contest, where he later took a sensational 8th place. With his final song "Can’t Wait Until Tonight," he enters directly at number 1 on the German charts. He was 23 and was busy completing his Abitur in Cologne.
In 2005, his self-titled debut album is released, which also shoots to number 1 on the charts and lays the foundation of Max Mutzke's exceptional status within German pop music to this day. A status he further expands and solidifies with the longplay follow-ups "... aus dem Bauch" (2007) and "Black Forest" (2008). Often, artists find it difficult to provide a self-description of their work and their most significant influences. A task that Mutzke brilliantly accomplishes with his 2010 released work titled "Home Work Soul." Grounding, the constant desire for further development, and his instantly recognizable, soulful-soft velvet voice are characteristics that have established themselves as a fixed trademark in his music. The singer and musician loves the break, the greatest possible contrast. While continuously appearing on Stefan Raab's action shows like "Schlag den Raab" or "TV Total Stockcar Crash Challenge," he seeks balance in performances with various renowned big bands like the SWR Big Band or Klaus Doldinger's legendary Passport. He contributes to Peter Maffay's musical "Tabaluga" and stands in front of the microphone for children's music productions like "Giraffenaffen."
He collaborates with various artists such as Diane Weigmann, Jazzkantine, Klaus Doldinger, or Laith Al-Deen and repeatedly performs with his side project monoPunk. Everything, just no repetitions. In 2012, Max Mutzke releases "Durch Einander," a veritable jazz album for which he receives the Jazz Award in platinum. Following the autobiographical work "MAX" (2015), the live album "Experience" is released in the autumn of 2016, on which he performs selected pieces as classical orchestral versions with the NDR Radiophilharmonie under the baton of the world-renowned conductor Enrique Ugarte. The subsequent tour takes the large ensemble to the grand hall of the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, as well as to a jubilant performance at the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival. In September 2018, Mutzke surprises his fans once again: With the self-produced album "Colors," on which he presents handpicked hip-hop tracks as R&B and soul versions and is represented in the German charts for many weeks. No Sleep `til Waldshut-Tiengen.
After two successful tours for the "Colors" album, Max Mutzke is incognito for six weeks in the summer of 2019: As a disguised astronaut in the Pro7 hit show "The Masked Singer." It's a matter of honor that he also emerges as the casual winner of the first season with his heartfelt ballads. In 2020, Mutzke hits the artistic brakes hard. Thanks for nothing, Corona. But instead of letting the virus stop him, he records his new album "Wunschlos süchtig" under difficult conditions: An autobiographical singer/songwriter album with soul and pop influences, on which he is heard entirely in German for the first time. 13 songs with which Max Mutzke paints a snapshot of his current reality. In sometimes touching, sometimes uplifting songs, he addresses intimate themes such as happiness and love, comfort in difficult times, or wanderlust. The song Die beste Idee becomes the title track for ARD for the Olympic Summer Games. But also societal issues like lack of solidarity, appreciation for art and culture, or the question of what the future holds for this planet. And of course, his new life between the Black Forest and Cologne. The best of both worlds, as he describes it with a wink. Between rural idyll and cosmopolitan life in the Rhine metropolis, where the singer has even gotten used to carnival. Just in time for his 40th birthday.
In addition to music, Max Mutzke is active in the German Children's Association campaign against child abuse, in the women's and children's shelter in Waldshut, and as an ambassador for the aid organization Misereor. At the beginning of 2021, his first own TV format "Lebenslieder" began airing on ARD, which found its continuation in April 2022 on First. In between productions with Till Brönner and Bill Evans. Always enough on the agenda. But Max Mutzke is many. And they are insatiably eager, as he quite impressively demonstrates.
Admission: 6:30 PM
Hallo, ich bin Maya.
