Volker Hinkel

University of Stuttgart — the place where Volker Hinkel met Peter Freudenthaler

Volker Hinkel was born on 21 June 1965 in the small town of Calw in Baden-Württemberg. Since childhood, he studied piano and guitar and began performing music in 1979. His musical tastes were influenced by The Beatles and The Who.[2] Volker's early bands were called Central Heat and Passion.[3] In 1987, Hinkel, together with Claus-Dieter Wissler, founded the music project called Magazine.[4]

In 1988, Volker took part in writing of the song "Building An Empire" by the German sophisti-pop duo Two of Us, which included Ulrich Herter and Thomas Dorr. The song was included in the album Inside Out, released the same year. Hinkel also played the piano during the recording of this song.[5] Acquaintance with Herter played a role in the future: he helped Volker in promoting Fool's Garden releases, for instance, For Sale and "Suzy".[6]

In 1991, Volker entered the University of Stuttgart to study multimedia technologies, where he met Peter Freudenthaler, who also had experience in playing in music groups. After listening to each other's demos and becoming sure their musical preferences matched, the musicians decided to combine their creative efforts, thus, Peter Freudenthaler joined the Magazine. Later, he would call his encounter with Volker "fateful".[7] After some time, the musicians released a promo album Fool's Garden - Man In a Cage and, having liked this name, renamed Magazine to Fool's Garden.[8]

Hinkel in 2012

Since 1991, Volker Hinkel, along with Peter Freudenthaler, has been one of the two permanent members of Fool's Garden. Together with Freudenthaler, Hinkel is the author of the music and lyrics of all the songs recorded since the release of Once in a Blue Moon, which mainly included songs written by the musicians separately before they met each other. Also on the albums Fool's Garden - Man In a Cage and Once in a Blue Moon, many songs were sung by Hinkel, however, starting from Dish of the Day, Freudenthaler became the main vocalist of the group, while Hinkel (with the exception of the fully sung "Pure", "Martha My Dear", "Here in Your Arms", the live recording of "Finally", and the partially sung "Wild Days" and "Noone's Song") took over the backing vocals.

Fame to Volker Hinkel and the whole band came in 1995 with the release of the album Dish of the Day and the single "Lemon Tree" in particular. Both the album and the single topped many charts around the world, were sold in huge numbers and received certifications in several countries. According to Volker, it "was the right sound at the right time".[9] However, as Hinkel mentioned, success came to the group very quickly, for which the musicians were not quite ready: they had to conduct frequent and long tours, give many interviews and participate in music shows.[9]

In 1993, the musician began his solo work.[10] The debut album In The Wake Of Thunder, which also featured bassist Thomas Mangold and drummer Ralph Vochele of Fool's Garden, was released in 1994 and later reissued in 1996 by Intercord.[10][11] Some songs from Volker's debut album were also played at the band's concerts.[12]

In 2001, Hinkel began work on a second solo album, which began recording in 2002 with bassist Dirk Blumlein and drummer Claus Müller.[10] They subsequently joined Fool's Garden in 2003 when, following the release of 25 Miles to Kissimmee, the group was on the verge of disbanding as a result of prolonged commercial failure.[13] The album Not A Life-Saving Device was released in August 2005. The song "House of Love" from this album was featured on the soundtrack to The Other Side of the Tracks directed by Alejandro Daniel Calvo. In 2008, together with the Italian indie rock band The Mirrors, an EP The Big Eye was released, which included two songs from The Mirrors and "Shine" and "Run" from Not A Life-Saving Device. The Italian magazine Rockit praised the release, noting that the two artists complement each other: Hinkel conveys an MTV-style pop vibe, combined with The Mirrors' rock sound.[14]

In 2009, the EP Heaven And Hell was released, the last Hinkel's solo release to date. On 2 April 2013, a cover version of Oasis' song "Wonderwall" played by Volker was posted in SoundCloud.[15]

Hinkel touring with Camouflage in 2014

Volker played as a session guitarist during recordings of Sensor (2003) and Relocated (2006) by the German synth-pop band Camouflage,[16] which included Marcus Meyn, Heiko Maile and Oliver Kreyssig.[17] Since 2006, Volker began performing live with Camouflage as touring guitarist and keyboardist,[18][19] thus forming the band's final live line-up, which also included the drummer Jochen Schmalbach.[20] The participation of Hinkel and Schmalbach in concert performances made it possible to diversify Camouflage's live sound and bring new elements to the band's style beyond electronic music and synth-pop.[21] In 2009, Volker's performance was captured on Live in Dresden, released as a live album and DVD.[22]

By 2015, Marcus Meyn had composed enough material for solo work. At the same time, Heiko Maile and Oliver Kreyssig announced their desire to take a break from music activities after the release of the Greyscale album. As a result, in October 2015, Maile and Kreyssig took a vacation, and Meyn, together with Hinkel and Schmalbach, decided to start a separate project called M.I.N.E.[23]

Despite his participation in writing of the lyrics and music of some songs from the latest Camouflage album, Volker's role was mainly limited to concert shows.[24] In M.I.N.E he and Schmalbach had the opportunity to make a more tangible contribution to the creation of the material.[24] In 2017, M.I.N.E released the first single "Things We've Done"[25] and EP One.[26] The first and so far the only studio album Unexpected Truth Within was released in 2018.[27]

In the beginning of 1990s, Volker Hinkel founded his own record and audio distribution company, Hinkelstone Productions, at which a lot of releases by Fool's Garden and many other artists, including Camouflage, Dirk Blümlein Terzett, Brainstorm, Cae Gauntt, Yannic Guenther, Mira Kay, Daniele Groff, as well as compositions for Toyota and Mercedes Benz advertisements were recorded, mixed and mastered.[28]

In 1997, Volker Hinkel, together with Peter Freudenthaler, were invited to perform the song "Ordinary Man", included in the soundtrack to the musical "Pico (The Star Club)" (German: "Pico (Das Starclub-Musical)"),[29][30] by Joachim Gaiser. He also co-wrote the music and lyrics with Freudenthaler for "Engel Sterben Nie" by Hannah Schulz,[31] "Lonny Losseplads" by Bonbon's Bedste Backing Band,[32] "Zironenboom" by Queen Bae[33] and "Dörp-Reggae" and "Dörp-Disco" by Ina Müller.[34]

Volker Hinkel assisted in the experimental study by the German musicologist Hans-Joachim Maempel, the main purpose of which was to determine the extent to which sound design at different stages of music production, including recording, mixing and post-processing, affects the perception and quality evaluation of pop songs.[35] The results of the study were published as in 2001, the author expressed gratitude to Volker for assisting the research and noted the musician among the producers, without whom this work would never have been done.[36]

In 2008, Volker was invited to record the compilation album Beautiful Escape: The Songs of the Posies Revisited,[37] in the same year he participated in the recording of the third studio album Kennzeichen D by German rapper Thomas D.[38] In 2009, Hinkel was included in the jury of The Music Think Tank music competition along with many famous musicians such as Curt Smith, Morgan Fisher, Roger O'Donnell, Jimmy Destri, etc.[39]

In addition to the releases mentioned in the article, Volker participated as a session musician on the albums Der and Punk Gibt's Nicht Umsonst! (Teil III) by Wizo,[40][41] Catching Rays on Giant by Alphaville, and the single "Netzwerk (Falls Like Rain)" by Klangkarussell.[42] Hinkel also assisted as a sound engineer on the albums Malaria by Schweisser,[43] Don't Wanna Be Everybody's Darlin' by Silke Besa,[44] Annie by Partly Dave,[45] ToyZ by Cinema Bizarre[46] and Goldstadt by Thomas Glöncker.[47]

• Wildbihler, Hubert (1999). Das internationale Kursbuch Musicals: ein kritischer Begleiter durch 500 Werke : mit über 700 Musical-CD -Empfehlungen (in German). Musicalarchiv Wildbihler. p. 357. ISBN 9783928979405.
• Maempel, Hans-Joachim (2001). Klanggestaltung und Popmusik: Eine experimentelle Untersuchung (in German). Vol. 1. Berlin: Labor Synchron. pp. xii, 276. ISBN 9783935025232.