About Music

I am staying at a friend’s place at the moment. She has a piano so I get to play it from time to time. I have forgotten a lot of the tunes I used to play but I remember a few. I started learning instruments when I was 4. My mum and I had moved into a commune in the country side. The people there had a band and played a lot of shows at music festivals and local venues. My very first public performance was at one of those shows. Someone gave me a drum and told me to play along with the band – from that moment on, I was hooked.

The keyboard player in the band offered to give me piano lessons, which I happily accepted. A couple of years later, I started playing guitar. Later, I picked up bass guitar and also the drums. I would often switch between different instruments and go through long cycles of favouring one instrument over the others.

Over the years, I have played in a lot of different bands. I also love improvising and I would often get together with other musicians to play whatever came into our heads. One of our practise rooms was inside an old box van which we used to take out into the country side to play in a field or forest. There was a generator inside the van that powered the amplifiers and even a little cooker to make cups of tea during the breaks.

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The legendary rehearsal van outside my (then) home on Devenant Road in North Oxford.

 

Sadly, no recordings survive from the “van sessions” – at least none that I know of.

My first enduring band project was called “Camp Blackfoot“, which was a punk / jazz / rock band that existed between 1996 and 2001. We did one tour of France and Italy and released on album called “Critical Seed vs. the Spartan Society”. I played bass on all but one song but I also play lead and rhythm guitar on some of the tracks under the pseudonym “Lex Fontaine”. You can listen to the epic opening track “Exorcismo Di Paulo” here:

Between working on Camp Blackfoot and studying, I made a scarce living playing in different Jazz bands among which was a saxophone and guitar duo with the fabulously talented Alex Ward. We played pubs, cafes, hotel bars, golf clubs, shopping streets – you name it. Here is a track from our original demo – the beautiful “Goodbye Porkpie Hat”:

After Camp Blackfoot came a new band called “Vin Mariani”. We never progressed past the song-writing stage but our demo recordings survive. Below, you can listen to one of our tracks called “Art Rat” which I co-wrote with Nich Eglin and Luigi Cibrario. On this track, I play bass, lead guitar and keyboard.

The demise of Vin Mariani was followed by two years of musical inactivity during which I worked for Harley-Davidson, who had just opened their European headquarters in Oxford. Working for Harley-Davidson was an interesting experience which I might describe in a different post. Suffice it to say, that I was not cut out for a corporate career so I decided to start writing music for film. It all started with this demo:

In my next post I might entertain you with more stories from my career as a film composer.

“Professor S.” wins ‘Best Serious Game’ at DCP 2016

MUNICH, GERMANY - APRIL 07: Team members of 'Professor S.' receive their award from Nova Meierhenrich during the German Computer Games Award 2016 (Deutscher Computerspielpreis 2016) at BMW World on April 7, 2016 in Munich, Germany. (Photo by Gisela Schober/Getty Images for Quinke Networks)
(Photo by Gisela Schober/Getty Images)

It’s official: “Professor S.” won the German Computer Game Award in the category “Best Serious Game”. So last night, we celebrated together with our fellow nominees and game developers at the BMW Welt in Munich. Sadly, we had to leave the giant cheque behind because they wouldn’t let us take it on plane. I delivered the shortest acceptance speech of the evening with a simple “thank you” and I want to thank everyone again. Over the last seven years, many people have contributed to the success of “Professor S.” and have invested time, effort and money. To all of you, who have worked so hard and trusted us and believed in us (you know who you are) I want to say a big heartfelt “you rock and we love you and thank you so much and here is to the next seven years”!

 

Professor S. is nominated for the German Computer Game Award!

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I’m very happy because today, Professor S. was nominated for the German Computer Game Award! I was at the Arnold Zweig School when the news flickered by and took a moment to celebrate with our friends there; sadly my lovely business partner Roshi flew to Luxemburg for the EAVE workshop this morning so she couldn’t be there. However, here’s a toast to her and everyone who supported us over the years especially our lovely friends and funders at KUBI, Medienboard, IBB and all the schools playing Professor S. today … thank you all!

If you like, you can vote for Professor S. receiving the audience award by clicking this link and entering your name and email address.

Mind the Bridge

Last summer, “Professor S.” was nominated for the European Innovative Games Award. Because of that, we received a lot of attention most notably from ACE Creative, who invited me to present “Professor S.” to a group of investors and game developers at Gamelab in Barcelona. As a result, we were selected to come to San Francisco and present the project to an audience of high profile investors and industry experts in the bay area.

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When I got there, I joined a group of of entrepreneurs from all over Europe who had come to San Francisco to hone their pitching skills and explore opportunities in the Silicon Valley. I can tell you that there are many opportunities and the weather is also pretty good. On top of that, I managed to catch up with old friends in the area and met many new interesting people.

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Most days were taken up with talks and workshops to help us get our projects ready to pitch to US investors. One day, we were all taken on a tour of different companies around the bay area which was absolutely fascinating. Our visit at Google HQ in Mountain View was definitely a highlight and a great opportunity to have our picture taken with the old logo.

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The week passed very quickly and on the final day, I had a chance to present “Professor S.” at the European Innovation Day in the Computer History Museum in Mountain View. There were many people there and I had my hands full speaking to everyone that was interested in the project. Luckily, my friend Leonard Cetrangolo was also there. Leonard has been helping with “Professor S.” from the very start and I was especially grateful that he was around that day.

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I also managed to catch up with my friend Grant Hosfort, who was in San Francisco working on his very fine Codespark project at the time at Zynga HQ. In the picture, you can see Grant and me in the famous Zynga tunnel.

“Professor S.” captured imaginations in the short time I was there and I know it will not be my last visit to the beautiful Bay Area. The first steps toward the US have been taken and I look forward to my return.

If you would like to check out the other companies in my cohort, you can have a look at this short video:

 

Mind the Bridge Startup School 2015 – September Session from Jan von Meppen on Vimeo.