Michael Kiske was born in Hamburg (Germany) on January 24th, 1968.
His musical career began at age 16 when he was the vocalist for a band called Ill Prophecy. With this band he recorded a demo tape which had early versions of future Helloween songs "A Little Time" & "You Always Walk Alone" and also featured some Geoff Tate like vocals on the songs "Heroes", "Riding the Wind", and "The Way Of Life". The band was formed by Karsten Nagel (Drums), Uli Schulz (Guitar), Raico Ebel (Guitar), and Patrick Hampe (Bass). When they were ready to play live, Michael received an offer to join Helloween by Markus Grosskopf. They were seaching for a vocalist because the current vocalist and guitarist Kai Hansen was finding it difficult to sing and play guitar at the same time. Michael didn't accept the offer and Kai Hansen tried to add Tyran Pace vocalist Ralf Scheepers who also refused. After a second attempt, Michael accepted because Helloween's guitarist Michael Weikath promised him they would make more melodic sounding metal.With Helloween, he recorded the album "Keeper of the Seven Keys Part I" which was released in 1987. They wanted it to be a double CD but Noise Records refused. Michael wrote one song for this album called "A Little Time".After a successful tour in 1987, they released the second part of "Keeper Of The Seven Keys", one of the best Metal albums in history. It was the first album to be labeled "Power Metal" or "German Metal". With this album, they had their biggest success which enabled them to play in the biggest festival of the time Monsters Of Rock. There they played alongside bands like Iron Maiden, Kiss, Megadeth, & Skid Row. Michael wrote two songs for this album "You Always Walk Alone" & "We Got The Right" and two songs for singles called "Savage" & "Don't Run For Cover".During their first headling tour in 1988, which was dubbed the "Pumpkins Fly Free tour", the Scotland show was recorded for a live album. It was released under three different titles: "Live In UK" (Europe), "Keepers Live" (Japan), and "I Want Out Live" (USA). All had the same tracklist with the exception of the US release which didn't have the song "Rise And Fall".At the end of this tour, guitarist Kai Hansen decided to leave the band because he disliked long tours. Rampage guitarist Roland Grapow was asked to join the band to replace him.Three years passed without a new studio album from Helloween. Rumors saying that Michael Kiske had left the band began to grow. The band spoke about this in an interview bonus track from the "Kids Of The Century" single.The album "Pink Bubbles Go Ape" was released in 1991 through a record deal with EMI. On this album Michael wrote or co-wrote 8 of the 11 songs. These songs are: "Pink Bubbles Go Ape", "Kids of the Century", "Back on the Streets" (with Grapow), "Heavy Metal Hamsters" (with Weikath), "Goin' Home" & "Mankind" (with Grapow), "I'm Doin' Fine, Crazy Man" (with Markus) and finally the great ballad "Your Turn".In 1993 they released "Chameleon" which was the last Helloween album with Michael Kiske as the singer. The album was basically like a solo album for the three main songwriters (Kiske/Weikath/Grapow). The change in musical direction angered a lot of the die-hard Helloween fans. Michael wrote the following songs: "When the Sinner", "In the Night", "I Believe", and "Longing". This album didn't sell as good as the previous releases. During the Chameleon tour Ingo broke down and was asked to leave. Right before they entered the studio to record the next album, Michael was fired from the group.In 1994, Kai Hansen invited Michael to sing on the Gamma Ray album "Land of the Free". He sang lead on the track "Time to Breakfree" and the high choruses on "Land of the Free".Michael released his first solo album "Instant Clarity" in 1996. Kai Hansen and Adrian Smith (Iron Maiden) guested on the album. This album's musical style differs from his older work with Helloween. A few months later he released an EP entitled The Calling which features two previously unreleased tracks. The band members on the album are Ciriaco Taraxes (Guitar/Piano), Jens Mencl (Bass), and Kai Rudy Wolke (Drums). The productor was Charlie Bauerfeind.On this album, you can hear "The Calling" & "New Horizons" with the typical Helloween sound, "Somebody Somewhere" & "Hunted" are pure rock, and the melodic rock track "Burned Out". There are also two great ballads: "Always" which was dedicated to Ingo Schwichtenberg who commited suicide a few months before and "Do I Remember A Life?".Michael also decided to release a book called "Kunst und Materialismus" in German which showed us his point of view about the art.The next solo album "Readiness to Sacrifice" was released in 1998. On this album you can find a ballad like "Where Wishes Fly" which is where the name of this website comes from, rocker songs like "Ban'em" & "It", the funny "Watch You Blue", two symphonic songs "Shadowfights" & "Easy", and perhaps the best Kiske song "Philistine City". This album is very difficult to obtain since it was only released in Japan.In 2001, Edguy singer Tobias Sammet wanted to make a Metal Opera called Avantasia. He needed 10 singers for the roles on the album. Michael was given the role of the druid Lugaid Vandroiy. Michael didn't want to have his real name on the first part so he went under the pseudonym of Ernie. The name Ernie was taken from a toy doll he use to bring out during Helloween shows.2002 was a great year for Michael as it featured the release of "Tobias Sammet's Avantasia Part II" where he sings on the songs "The Seven Angels" and "No Return". He also guested on Timo Tolkki's 2nd solo album "Hymn To Life"singing on the ballad "Key to the Universe". Former Helloween members Roland Grapow & Uli Kursch asked Michael to guest on Masterplan's debut album. Michael sings a duet with lead singer Jorn Lande on the song "Heroes".Finally, Michael released the only album with SupaRed. It's a great rock album where you can hear songs like "Ride On" (very reminiscent of the song "We Got the Right"), mid-tempos like "Freak-Away" & "Let's Be Heroes", and hard-rock songs like "Hey", "Turn it", and "Boiling Points Of No Return". This album was under promoted and it didn't have much success. They had opportunities to tour but Michael had problems with his stomach which eventually had to be operated on.In 2003 Sascha Paeth asked Michael to work on the Metal Opera: AINA. Michael sings on 4 songs: "Silver Maiden" & "Serendipity" by himself and a bit in "Revelations" and "Restoration". Most of the tracks are symphonic like the Helloween song "Longing". They could be included in a "Walt Disney" Soundtrack. In that same year Michael guests on the song "Encounter" by the Brasilian band Thalion on this first album "Another Sun". Michael sings a ballad duet with the lead singer Alexandra.In 2005 there were two more projects. The first was with Renato Tribuzy (ex-Thoten) on a album called Execution. This album was thought up in 2000 but was put off because Renato wanted Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden) on the album. Bruce, at the time, was busy finishing the tour with Iron Maiden. Other guests on it are: Ralf Scheepers (Primal Fear, ex-Gamma Ray), Kiko Loureiro (Angra), Roy Z (Bruce Dickinson), and Roland Grapow (Masterplan, ex-Helloween). Michael sang on the song "Absolution" with Renato.The second project was Place Vendome where Michael sings on all tracks. This album was suggested by Serafino (owner Frontiers Records) with the great work of Dennis Ward (Pink Cream 69) who play the bass and produced the album. The other musicians include Kosta Zafiriou (Axxis, Pink Cream 69) on drums, Uwe Reitenauer (Pink Cream 69) on guitars, and Gunther Werno (Vandenplas) ..boards. This album has 11 songs: 9 in AOR style and 2 Hard Rock. The whole album is a vocal exhibition. You can listen again to Michael's voice at 100%. This year Kiske also sings with Tobias Sammet on a Queenish song Judas At The Opera which appears on the Edguy EP "Superheroes".In 2006, Michael signed a contract for three albums with the Italian record label Frontiers Records. He recorded his third solo album titled Kiske and re-released his debut solo album "Instant Clarity" with four bonus tracks.In 2007, Michael appears on a few projects. He sings one song on the new ep "Lost In Space Part 2" from Tobias Sammet's Avantasia and then again in January 2008 on the whole album "The Scarecrow". He also appears on Indigo Dying's self-titled debut album where he sings a duet with their female vocalist Gisa Vatchy.Michael is now finishing up his new album "Past In Different Ways" where he's remaking his old Helloween songs acoustically. This album is scheduled to be released at the end of 2007 or early 2008.(BIO by www.michaelkiske.net)
