Focus plus49

Article by Severine

If you have found yourself in Cologne Bonn Airport in recent years, you may have heard its very own "Gong" sound. Without realizing it, you will have heard the first hit produced by plus49. This allowed them to launch the first of many albums which received heavy airplay in Germany, France, USA and China.

As they are now launching their new album, "Hymn without Country", and getting ready for their tour starting on the 26th of January, We7 thought it was the perfect opportunity to catch up with the band.

The interview

First of all, who is behind plus49?

plus49 consists mainly of Simon Hof and Schöneich but a lot of other people are involved. We have a great live band, friends who are filmmakers and designers and they all work closely with us. All together that makes a whole and genuine plus49 cosmos.

Who did choose the name plus49 and what does it stand for?

plus49 is the area code for Germany. We believe that what we do is quite untypical for German music. By the way, we're sorry for +44 since we got the copyright for an area-code-name much earlier, already in 2002.

You have been in the music industry for 5 years now. Which was your best moment?

What really blew our minds was that our songs are played on a regular basis on radio stations in Germany, the USA and China! The best are also invitations to radio concerts. The absolute highlight during the last 5 years was definitely our greatest hit which was heard by over 100 million people - the "Gong" at the Cologne Bonn Airport composed by plus49. Concerning the music industry: The best is probably that we are lucky enough to have a record label that believes in us and that we can trust them. We have all the freedom to determine where we want to go.

Could you describe to our users a day of recording?

We call the way we normally work the "ping-pong-principle": Simon invents a piano melody or a riff, and then sends it to Schöneich. He then usually builds a whole world of sound around during the night. Then that goes back to Simon until a song emerges. One of a hundred such tries makes it on the album.

Your next tour is starting on the 26th of January in Stuttgart. Excited?

This tour is going to be really special. First, we and our great new live band, will warm up ourselves with a few club gigs. After that, we will go on to give concerts in theatres and cinemas where the audience sits down and listens in an atmosphere what you could call excited contemplation. Coming summer our listeners don't even have to get out of their cars. We are having some crazy ideas...

Do you have any lucky charm before going on stage?

Definitely not. Besides tempered instruments maybe...

You have been touring a lot in Germany. Any gigs planned in UK?

Not yet, but we would be happy to be invited!

What are your favourite records? Which are the one's you're the most ashamed of?

When we recorded our last album we asked ourselves exactly that question: and we both came to the same conclusion: "The Joshua Tree". That is probably the best album ever and it will always work. On the other hand you could be ashamed of Bono's larger-than-life and self-absorbed gestures during the concerts. But we were 14 and loved it.

What did you want to be as a kid?

A rock star, of course!

Any message for our users?

The message is in our music. Just listen to it.