Paul Kalkbrenner

Paul Kalkbrenner became interested in music, especially techno music, at a young age and by the time he was 13 years old he was playing records at clubs around Berlin. At school he studied musical theory as well as learned how to play the trumpet. Right after school Kalkbrenner worked a job in the television industry so he could earn money to buy musical equipment. Once he was able to fund his basic equipment he started writing and performing his own music with one of his best friends, Sascha Funke.

When the electronic music producer Ellen Allien heard Kalkbrenner playing his music at a party she introduced herself to him and later signed him to her record label BPitch Control. Kalkbrenner released his first EP under the record label in 1999, which was labeled “Friedrichshain” and released it under his alias, Paul dB+. After releasing some singles under the Paul dB+ alias he released his first full length album, “Superimpose” under his real name. The same year he released his debut album he also released his second studio album “Zeit”. The album contained many of the thumping bass lines and punchy drum rhythms that techno music is known for, but it also contained instances of ethereal sounding synths that created a nice ambience.

After Kalkbrenner released his third studio album “Self” in 2004 he was approached by the film director, Hannes Stohr, who asked him to create the soundtrack for his film, “Berlin Calling”. Stohr later came to the conclusion that Kalkbrenner would also be perfect for the leading role in the film and Kalkbrenner accepted the opportunity for his first film role. The film was a success and demonstrated Kalkbrenner’s talent at acting. The soundtrack to “Berlin Calling” was also immensely successful partly due to the wildly popular single “Sky and Sand”, which ended up going platinum and reaching to the top of the charts.

After the success of “Berlin Calling”, Kalkbrenner decided to part ways with BPitch Control and create his own record label, Paul Kalkbrenner Musik, as a platform to release his music. “Icke Wieder”, which was released in 2011 was his first record to come out on the label and was highly successful reaching the No. 2 spot on the German music charts as well as reaching gold status. In 2012 Kalkbrenner released the album “Guten Tag”, which topped the charts in both Switzerland and Germany.

Kalkbrenner is considered to be a live musical act as opposed to a DJ because he breaks down his tracks as they are presented on stage. In 2010 Kalkbrenner embarked on a 12 city tour where he sold out most of the dates and he documented the experience in a film called “Paul Kalkbrenner 2010 – A Live Documentary”. Paul Kalkbrenner has also spoken at events like the International Music Summit, which is an EDM conference that takes place in Ibiza, Spain.