Roberto Kien

I was born in a tiny town in Germany, which is not on any LH-map. So you can say, it doesn´t exist.
After studying in Osnabrück I live and work now in Hamburg for more than ten years. I started playing the piano in the age of nine. With 13 I discovered the faszination of drums and got my first kit. I was always amazed when a drummer had style, like Stewart Copeland or Carmine Appice. Later when I got more into jazz it was Billy Cobham, who influenced me for a long time. And even nowadays I still love his playing and irresistible grooving. One day I became acquainted with the song "Cosmic Slop" and P-Funk began to raise. This music hit my soul and opened my mind for a lot of funky stuff. It didn´t took long and my ass followed. When I saw Prince the first time on TV I nearly was disorientated.
In my tiny hometown I mentioned above living can become a torture for young people. You have only three chances: making music, doing sports oder taking drugs. I used to play the drums in a band. In the 90s homerecording came up. I had a lot of fun with some friends of mine checking the possibilities of new equipment. We programmed songs on Atari Mega ST2 and synchronized via midi an analog 4-Track-Recorder. The music was typical machine sound combined with natural bass and sometimes guitar or even a turkish saz. We spend a lot of time and had oceans of ideas. Nevertheless in the end the explizit lyrics of "Lemoncurry Gangsta" made the songs unplayable in public spots. One of the tunes is "Fitzcarraldo" a Kinski sample based track.
Together with DJ Hawkeye I founded the band Imperial Breed in 2004. I play the drums and do most of the recordings. DJ Hawkeye is Producer and mixer. The band is located in Hamburg. The first 45 of Imperial Breed is out since july 2006 on Melting Pot Music. Check the player above for the Imperial Breed tunes "On the run" and "Horny pipin bats".