Stephan Scheuss

I´m a Singer/Songwriter/Guitar Player from Köln,Germany. It all began (music,my life) when a couple of friends and myself started posing and playing "air guitar" to the "red" and the "blue" album by the Beatles.Actually before that,when I was five years old,I did my own little Karaoke performance to the sounds of "Poor Boy" by the german beat band "The Lords".Their english was´nt any better than mine! At age 15 I got my first guitar. Me and two friends of mine met to play each and every song we knew that could be played with E,A and B7.We played for almost a day straight through.Nils Schuhmacher (a friend from school and fellow bluesfreak)taught me how to play a C9 chord-Is´nt it fascinating how one sonic sensation can turn ones life around? In those days there was no Gameboy or Internet so there were many bands in my high school.Within two years I developed from playing boogie or blues in E to soft wanna be jazz bossa using Cmaj7 and D-7.After High School graduation I wanted to study at Cologne´s Conservatory of music but then I found out I did´nt want to enter another school.I was learning by doing on the streets,basically. Eventually I took private lessons instead.After a couple of years I got my first professional jobs,first with "Kingsize Dick"(LoL my angloamerican friends..)and then with the band "Trio Rio".We had a smash hit in Germany,Europe,South America and Asia:"New York,Rio,Tokio".After the group disbanded in ´89 I did a lot of studio work in the Cologne area.I also did my first demos as a leader/singer/songwriter.from 1990-95 I was a member of the hugely successful german pop group "Purple Schulz".During my time with Purple the urge of doing original music of my own again grew more and more.So I founded or co-founded two bands:"Vocaleros",an acapella group and "The Brilliant Mistake".Each band released a CD and especially Vocaleros was very well received.We worked with Jon Lord and Sam Brown (Of "You better Stop" fame),worked and toured in Taiwan and had a lot of TV exposure.Unfortunately Vocaleros called it quits in 2000.Around that time I started to teach Songwriting at the Cologne Conservatory of music (I took some sideways to get in:-)).Always a searcher and learner myself I took guitar lessons from John Abercrombie and Wayne Krantz in NYC. In ´04 I was the voice of a huge hit in Germany entitled "Everytime".At first it was a commercial for a german soft drink company by the name of "Afri Cola".Then they produced a whole song that had lots of airplay-but only a couple of people knew it was me.It was like Milli Vanilli:they casted a young band(or faces) for the video...that´s life.At the moment I´m doing Solo and Duo Concerts(with Cap B. Gier on bass) performing songs like the two I posted here("Just Go and "Reason To Move").They are from an upcoming CD called "One Pure Soul".This CD also contains Cover Versions of some of my favorite Soul and Jazz Tunes like..."Maniac"(it´s a Jazz tune now:-)),"The Tears of a Clown","What´s going on" and "My one and only Love".These tunes are played and performed in a way you probably never heard them before!In 2003 I won 2nd price at the "Open Strings" international Guitar Festival in Osnabrück. My other Projects include the bands "Cosmic Space Drift",an Electro Funk/Whatever happens Improvisation and Groove Collective and "DreiZack",a Guitar/Bass/Drums Trio that improvises mainly over german TV Themes like "Löwenzahn". Right now I´m working on my original german songs (like "Genug")and I enjoy working/woodshedding on my Hanika nylon string guitar..