FABIAN VON WEGEN: -Emotional Lemon- Debut Album Release: 08.03.13

  
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Fabian von Wegen and his band belong to the generation of "somewhere-in-the-twenties." Many things are on their minds. The feeling of being lost in what one calls life, and at the same time the hunger for it. It's like breathing underwater. Up to this point, it might not be so bad, if it weren't for love – just to pick something out. Or time. The damn time that, no matter where it comes from, always gets lost in the someday and yet still seems to be there. To not completely lose one's mind over it and fall into shock, Fabian von Wegen turns it into songs.

First only black and white and then richly colorful

To do this, he has to go out into life. To ambush it before it ambushes Fabian von Wegen. But not alone: "First, there's my little black book," says Fabian, "that's always with me. I walk over a bridge and scribble something in it. I sit on the bus and write. I suddenly stop at a street corner and quickly jot down what’s racing through my mind. Consciously unconscious. When I open it again at home, there are sentences. Black on white, without color in between. And while I read it, look out the window, and the sounds from my guitar sneak out, the sentences suddenly reveal themselves as something entirely new," reflects Fabian, "the notes stretch their necks, build around it, and develop the written words into a sound. Melody, lyrics, and rhythm. Everything comes together. Everything explodes." At that moment, Fabian von Wegen transforms feelings into precise, impressionistically vivid images. Nothing is black and white anymore. Everything is richly colorful. Nothing is static. "Start living and let yourself back into your life," is his loud call in the song "Emotional Lemon." He takes on everything and everyone. With a guitar around his neck, one is allowed to do that.

Between Here and Happiness

Fabian von Wegen's writing has led to places that logical thinking would never have found. He first takes on time. And makes it an opponent in the song "It Comes." What does he do with it? "I beat it to death" and in the form of "the past," it has "no millimeter of relevance for the here and now." But ultimately, there is no escape; because time – even the one beaten to death – has this damn resurrection gift. "The simultaneous beating to death and yet remaining in it is called, I believe, dialectics," says Fabian von Wegen (and laughs). Thus, he continues to live the life of a person "Between Here and Happiness" (also a song title), who strolls, doubts, runs away, and encounters. And who masks melancholy with the lightness of his music. Such a setting of intoxication – both of happiness – and of the brutal popping in reality cannot and must not sound technically cold. It must be full of human warmth. "That was never a question for me, as a skeptic towards high-tech and computers," says Fabian von Wegen, who has only recently acquired a smartphone.

Full of Surprises

So it’s no surprise that Fabian and his band recorded everything live with producer Martin Englert, in a recording room packed with vintage equipment, tube amplifiers, and also an old Hammond organ with Leslie. Fabian von Wegen's sound is thus not only warmth, filled with a lot of life, but also given a sense of space. A wonderful brass riff from a muted trumpet hides in this room or a double bass instead of its electric brother. Heavenly light swing cascades fly through the song "Emotional Lemon," and the closeness of the voice in "Mrs. Meyer and Mr. Schulze" resembles a view through a microscope. "But just as life is packed with surprises, we couldn't help but give my songs surprising moments as well," explains Fabian. Thus, distorted, scratching sound worlds meet a crazily quirky sitar ("Keep Going"), or the backward played mini sound carpets in "Between Here and Happiness." Above all the pieces shines Fabian von Wegen's sensitive, yearning, strong voice, which tells his thoughts and stories, convincingly and enchantingly.

And so, Fabian von Wegen calls on his "somewhere-in-the-twenties" generation to scream at themselves and ask: "What do you actually want from this life?" Just as he does in the song "Someday Maybe." It doesn't matter whether one is currently floating on clouds or in free fall, it’s only about one thing: "Keep going, keep going, let’s give it a try." [Franz X.A. Zipperer]

Fabian von Wegen – Vocals and Guitar

Jan David – Drums and Percussion

Christian Plinke – Double Bass and Trumpet

Sebastian Wlodarczak – Hammond Organ & Wurlitzer

Videos:

FABIAN VON WEGEN Album Trailer

www.youtube.com/watch?v=izsaNUlWKyQ&feature=youtu.be

Live:

Fabian von Wegen LIVE 2013

Tour presented by Kulturnews, Westzeit & Acoustic Guitar

09.03.2013 Osnabrück – Glanz und Gloria (Release Show)

20.04.2013 Frankfurt – Nachtleben