Paul Kalkbrenner facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Paul Kalkbrenner
Kalkbrenner in 2016
Background information
Also known as	PK Paul dB+ Kalkito Grenade DJ Ickarus Maestro Paulito
Born	(1977-06-11) 11 June 1977 (age 48) Leipzig, East Germany
Genres	Techno ambient techno house electronica
Occupation(s)	Musician producer
Instruments	Turntables keyboards Ableton Live
Years active	1999–present
Labels	Sony Paul Kalkbrenner Musik BPitch Control

Paul Kalkbrenner (born on June 11, 1977) is a German musician and producer who creates electronic music. Unlike a traditional DJ who plays other people's songs, Paul Kalkbrenner is known as a "live act." This means he takes his own music apart into different sounds and then puts them back together live on stage.

He is very famous for his song "Sky and Sand", which sold over 200,000 copies and was a big hit in countries like Belgium and Germany. Paul Kalkbrenner also acted in the movie Berlin Calling, where he played the main character, Ickarus. This movie was very popular and played in a Berlin cinema for many years.

Paul Kalkbrenner's Story

Paul Kalkbrenner grew up in Lichtenberg, a part of Berlin that was in East Germany before the Berlin Wall came down. He was 13 years old when the Wall fell and Germany became one country again. Around this time, he started playing records for his friends at youth clubs in Berlin, even though his mom had a strict bedtime for him.

Early Music Days

Paul Kalkbrenner started making music with his school friend, Sascha Funke. They both loved techno music. They spent years, from 1992 to 1997, searching for the best techno records and learning about the music. They also went to clubs like E-Werk and Planet, and listened to a radio show called Rave Satellite every Saturday. These experiences helped them get into the techno music scene. Paul also learned to play the trumpet and studied music in school.

In 1995, when he was 18, Paul Kalkbrenner worked in television for two years. He used the money he earned to buy equipment for making his own music. During this time, he and Sascha Funke lived together and started producing music using machines they bought or borrowed. After making his own music, Paul decided he only wanted to perform his own songs live.

Paul Kalkbrenner is also a big fan of soccer and supports the team FC Bayern Munich.

His Music Career

Starting with BPitch Control

Before Ellen Allien started her record label called BPitch Control, she hosted many parties in Berlin. Paul Kalkbrenner and Sascha Funke met Ellen Allien at one of these parties. She listened to their music and gave them some advice. In 1999, Paul Kalkbrenner released his first songs on BPitch Control under the name "Paul dB+."

He released two albums, Superimpose (2001) and Zeit (2001). Paul liked releasing full albums because he could tell a story with his music. His third album, Self (2004), was even more like a story. A song from a year later, "Gebrünn Gebrünn," became very popular. Paul Kalkbrenner released six albums and ten shorter music collections (EPs) with BPitch Control. He left the label in 2008, but they remained friends.

The Movie Berlin Calling

After his album Self in 2004, a film director from Berlin named Hannes Stöhr asked Paul Kalkbrenner to create the music for a movie. The movie was about a Berlin DJ in the 2000s. As they talked, Hannes Stöhr realized that Paul Kalkbrenner would be perfect to star in the movie! Paul agreed, and they named the film Berlin Calling.

In late 2006, Paul moved to France for six months with Sascha Funke to work on the movie's music. The most famous song from the movie, "Sky and Sand," featured his brother, Fritz Kalkbrenner, singing. In 2007, Paul returned to Berlin to film the movie. Even though the movie was a made-up story, Paul felt a connection to his character, Ickarus. Ickarus was a DJ who was struggling but still had amazing musical ideas. Paul's acting was very good, maybe because he understood the character so well. Ickarus also showed Paul what he didn't want to become in his own life.

When the movie came out in October 2008, the music album became very successful, selling over 200,000 copies. The song "Sky and Sand" was at the top of the music charts for many weeks. The movie was shown at a film festival in Switzerland and became a "cult classic" in Europe. It even broke a record in Germany for being shown continuously for over 145 weeks at a cinema in Berlin. The movie was released on DVD in 2009.

Paul Kalkbrenner Music Label

Kalkbrenner playing music live

In 2009, after the huge success of the Berlin Calling – The Soundtrack album, Paul Kalkbrenner decided it was time to start his own record label. He felt that BPitch Control could no longer help him grow as an artist. So, he created Paul Kalkbrenner Musik to release his own music.

In 2010, Paul went on a sold-out tour to 12 cities. The team who made Berlin Calling filmed the tour, and it was released as a movie called Paul Kalkbrenner 2010 – A Live Documentary. Since starting his label, he has released two albums. Icke Wieder (released June 3, 2011) was very popular with other DJs and reached number two on the German music charts. It sold over 100,000 CDs, earning a "gold status." The tour for this album brought together more than 125,000 fans.

That same summer, Paul visited Ibiza for the first time to speak at a music event and play at a famous club called Amnesia. On August 25, 2012, Paul Kalkbrenner married Simina Grigoriu, who is also a DJ and producer. On November 30, 2012, he released the album Guten Tag. In February 2013, he started a tour in Europe and the U.S. to support this new album. Guten Tag reached number one on the music charts in Switzerland.

The Florian Trilogy

In 2015, Paul Kalkbrenner announced a series of three related music videos called the "Florian Trilogy." These videos were a preview for his album 7, which came out on August 7, 2015. The first video, "Cloud Rider," was released on May 18, 2015. The second, "Mothertrucker," came out on June 12, 2015. The last video, "Feed your Head," was released on July 17, 2015.

Paul explained that the Florian episodes are set in America, where techno music first started. The videos tell the story of how a character named Florian brings techno music back to America.

Back to the Future

In July 2016, Paul Kalkbrenner released a three-part music mix series called Back To the Future. This project showed how techno music arrived in Berlin in the early 1990s. It was a personal journey for Paul and also a look at the history of music that changed Berlin and dance music forever.

To create this series, Paul looked through more than 5,000 songs from 1987 to 1993 on YouTube. He then chose and edited the best parts of these songs, sometimes using just small pieces, to fit his mixes. With over 65 songs across three parts, Paul took listeners back to the music he heard as a young boy on an East Berlin radio station called DT64.

These mixes were available for free online and were downloaded over 1.5 million times. They received great reviews from music magazines. Rolling Stone called it a "Viral, techno history lesson," and Billboard magazine described BACK TO THE FUTURE as a "work of historical excavation."

Starting in April 2017, Paul performed a series of "BACK TO THE FUTURE" shows in smaller places across Europe. These shows marked Paul's return to DJing, which is how he started performing as a teenager in Berlin youth clubs. All the tickets for this European tour sold out in just one week.

Parts of Life

On May 18, 2018, Paul Kalkbrenner released his newest album, Parts of Life. This was his eighth album overall. Parts of Life has 15 songs, named with the file numbers Paul used when he was making them. The album cover is a painting by his uncle, Paul Eisel, showing a collection of "unique personal objects." Paul released three songs ("Part Three," "Part Six," and "Part Eight") early to give fans a special preview of the album.

How He Makes Music Live

Kalkbrenner performing at SonneMondSterne Festival 2018

For his live shows, Paul Kalkbrenner uses computer programs that create sounds (software synthesizers), a music arranging program (Ableton Live), and special controllers that connect to his computer (MIDI controllers). He also uses physical music machines like hardware synthesizers and drum machines. He feels very comfortable with this setup and doesn't plan to change it.

In his early days of making music, Paul used different equipment like a Roland sampler, Amiga computers, and other machines. However, since 2001, he sold all that old equipment and now uses only Ableton Live to create his music.

Family Connections

Paul Kalkbrenner's grandfather was the East German artist Fritz Eisel. Paul is also the older brother of another music producer, Fritz Kalkbrenner.

Music Releases

Albums

EPs (Extended Plays)

Soundtracks

Singles

Albums

• Superimpose (BPitch Control, 2001)
• Zeit (BPitch Control, 2001)
• Self (BPitch Control, 2004)
• Icke Wieder (Paul Kalkbrenner Musik, 2011)
• Guten Tag (Paul Kalkbrenner Musik, 2012)
• 7 (Sony Music, 2015)
• Parts of Life (Columbia Records / Sony Music, 2018)

Compilation

• X (Paul Kalkbrenner Musik, 2014)

Soundtrack albums

• Berlin Calling: The Soundtrack (BPitch Control, 2008)
• Global Player Soundtrack (with Fritz Kalkbrenner et Florian Appl, Suol, 2013)

Mix album

• Maximalive (Minimaxa, 2005)

Remix album

• Reworks (BPitch Control, 2006)

EPs and singles

• Friedrichshain [as Paul dB+] (BPitch Control, 1999)
• Largesse [as Paul dB+] (Synaptic Waves, 1999)
• Gigahertz [as Paul dB+] (Cadeaux, 2000)
• dB+ (BPitch Control 2000)
• Performance Mode [as Grenade] (Cadeaux, 2001)
• Chromo (BPitch Control, 2001)
• Brennt (BPitch Control, 2002)
• Steinbesser (BPitch Control, 2003)
• F.FWD (BPitch Control, 2003)
• Press On (BPitch Control, 2004)
• Tatü-Tata (BPitch Control, 2005)
• Keule EP (BPitch Control, 2006)
• Altes Kamuffel (BPitch Control, 2007)
• Bingo Bongo (BPitch Control, 2008)
• Sky and Sand (with Fritz Kalkbrenner, BPitch Control, 2009)
• Das Gezabel (Paul Kalkbrenner Musik 2012)
• Der Stabsvörnern (Paul Kalkbrenner Musik, 2012)
• Der Buhold (Paul Kalkbrenner Musik, 2013)
• Cloud Rider (Sony Music, 2015)
• Mothertrucker (Sony Music, 2015)
• Feed Your Head (Sony Music, 2015)
• Part Eleven (Sony Music, 2018)
• Part Three (Sony Music, 2018)
• Part Fourteen (Sony Music, 2018)
• Part Seven (Sony Music, 2018)
• Part Four (Sony Music, 2018)
• Part Twelve (Sony Music, 2018)
• Part Two (Sony Music, 2018)
• Part Ten (Sony Music, 2018)
• Part Five (Sony Music, 2018)
• Part Fifteen (Sony Music, 2018)
• Part One (Sony Music, 2018)
• Part Nine (Sony Music, 2018)
• Part Thirteen (Sony Music, 2018)
• Part Six (Sony Music, 2018)
• Part Eight (Sony Music, 2018)
• No Goodbye (B1 Recordings, 2019)
• Parachute (B1 Recordings, 2020)
• Graf Zahl (B1 Recordings, 2021)

Remixes

• Ellen Allien "Dataromance" (BPitch Control 2001)
• Lexy / Autotune "Shibuya Love" (Jakuza / Low Spirit 2001)
• Die Raketen "The Sound für Zwischendurch" (Freundschaft Musik 2003)
• Sasche Funke "Forms & Shapes" (BPitch Control 2003)
• Agoria "Stereolove" (Different / PIAS 2004)
• Lexy & K-Paul "Happy Zombies" (Low Spirit Recordings 2005)
• Michel de Hey "Snert" (Hey! Records 2006)
• Error Error "Your Everlasting Breath" (Italic 2006)
• Ellen Allien & Apparat "Jet" (BPitch Control 2006)
• Chordian "Closed Eyes" (Soniculture 2007)
• Undo & Vicknoise "Submarino" (Factor City Records 2009)
• Modeselektor "200007" (BPitch Control 2009)
• Michel Cleis ft. Totó La Momposina "La Mezcla" (Strictly Rhythm 2009)
• 2raumwohnung "Wir Werden Sehen" (EMI 2009)
• Stromae "Te Quiero" (Polystar Records 2010)
• Fritz Kalkbrenner "Facing the Sun" (Suol 2010)
• Moby "Wait for Me" (Little Idiot 2010)
• Depeche Mode "Should Be Higher" (Miami Ad School Europe 2013)
• Jefferson Airplane "White Rabbit" (Sony Music 2015)
• Leonard Cohen "You Want It Darker" (Columbia Records 2016)
• NTO "Invisible" (Chapau under exclusive licence to AllPoints 2021)

Movies

• Berlin Calling (2008)
• Paul Kalkbrenner 2010 – A Live Documentary (2010)

Awards and Recognition

DJ Magazine Top 100 DJ

See also

In Spanish: Paul Kalkbrenner para niños