Katharina Franck (born July 28, 1963) is a German singer, songwriter, and musician. She first achieved fame as singer, songwriter, and guitarist of
pop rock
Pop rock (also typeset as pop/rock) is a fusion genre with an emphasis on professional songwriting and recording craft, and less emphasis on attitude than rock music. Originating in the late 1950s as an alternative to normal rock and roll, earl ...
band the
Rainbirds
The Rainbirds are a German pop rock band established in 1986 around singer Katharina Franck. Their greatest hit is the song "Blueprint".
History
The band formed in 1986 and named themselves after an instrumental track by Tom Waits. When they won ...
in the late 1980s. Besides her work with Rainbirds, she was also a member of the band Stein, and has released several solo albums.
Biography
Katharina Franck was born in
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in th ...
, Germany, but spent her childhood in
Portugal
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...
because her father worked there as a
Thyssen AG
Thyssen was a major German steel producer founded by August Thyssen. The company merged with Friedrich Krupp AG Hoesch-Krupp to form ThyssenKrupp in 1999.
History
On 29 September 1891, August Thyssen and his brother Joseph Thyssen came to be i ...
representative. From 1974 to 1977 she lived in
São Paulo
São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the GaWC a ...
, Brazil, where she first started playing guitar and writing songs in English. She then moved back to Portugal, and formed her first band, having both her first stage and studio experiences.
In 1981, at the age of 18, she moved to
Cologne
Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...
, Germany. Her first attempts at the
cut-up technique
The cut-up technique (or ''découpé'' in French) is an aleatory literary technique in which a written text is cut up and rearranged to create a new text. The concept can be traced to the Dadaists of the 1920s, but it was developed and popularized ...
,
poetry
Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...
and
prose
Prose is a form of written or spoken language that follows the natural flow of speech, uses a language's ordinary grammatical structures, or follows the conventions of formal academic writing. It differs from most traditional poetry, where the f ...
in German followed. At the pop course at the Hamburg University of Music and Drama she took her first singing lessons. In 1983 she moved to
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
and initially kept herself afloat with part-time jobs. In 1985 she became a member of the band Les Black Carnations, where she operated under the name Justine Time.
In the spring of 1986 she founded the band
Rainbirds
The Rainbirds are a German pop rock band established in 1986 around singer Katharina Franck. Their greatest hit is the song "Blueprint".
History
The band formed in 1986 and named themselves after an instrumental track by Tom Waits. When they won ...
, with which she won the Berlin Senate Rock Competition and was then offered a
recording contract
A recording contract (commonly called a record contract or record deal) is a legal agreement between a record label and a recording artist (or group), where the artist makes a record (or series of records) for the label to sell and promote. Artists ...
by the record label
Mercury
Mercury commonly refers to:
* Mercury (planet), the nearest planet to the Sun
* Mercury (element), a metallic chemical element with the symbol Hg
* Mercury (mythology), a Roman god
Mercury or The Mercury may also refer to:
Companies
* Merc ...
. The single "Blueprint" became a European hit in 1988. They went through various line-ups over the years, and have released a total of six
studio album
An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...
s. ''Yonder'' their latest album was released in 2014.
From 1990 to 1994, while still with Rainbirds, she was also a member of the band Stein (which included her Rainbirds band member,
Ulrike Haage
Ulrike Haage (born in Kassel, lives and works in Berlin) is a German pianist and composer, producer for radio plays and a sound artist.
Biography
The jazz years
Ulrike Haage spent her childhood in Ruhr. She grew up listening to the big jazz r ...
), with which she released three albums.
With Haage, she has worked on two
radio plays
Radio drama (or audio drama, audio play, radio play, radio theatre, or audio theatre) is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine t ...
focusing on the life and work of
Jane Bowles
Jane Bowles (; born Jane Sydney Auer; February 22, 1917 – May 4, 1973) was an American writer and playwright.
Early life
Born into a Jewish family in New York City on February 22, 1917, to Sydney Auer (father) and Claire Stajer (mother), Jane ...
, 1999's "Bei unserer Lebensweise ist es sehr angenehm, lange im voraus zu einer Party eingeladen zu werden" ("Living the Way We Do, It Is Delightful to Be Invited to a Party a Long Way Off") and 2005's "Ich war fischen" ("I Was Fishing").
Franck has also released several solo albums: "Hunger" ("spoken pop songs" set to music by Haage) (in
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
and in
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
) in 1997; "Zeitlupenkino" (2002) (in German); "First Take Second Skin" (2006) (in English); and "On the Verge of an Autobiography" (2008) (in English).
Personal life
Franck has been living in
Neuruppin
Neuruppin (; North Brandenburgisch: ''Reppin'') is a town in Brandenburg, Germany, the administrative seat of Ostprignitz-Ruppin district. It is the birthplace of the novelist Theodor Fontane (1819–1898) and therefore also referred to as ''Fonta ...
since 2012, and her partner lives in
Neukölln
Neukölln () is one of the twelve boroughs of Berlin. It is located in the southeastern part from the city centre towards Berlin Schönefeld Airport. It was part of the former American sector under the Four-Power occupation of the city. It featu ...
, Berlin. Her mother lives in Portugal.
Discography
Rainbirds
* Rainbirds (1987)
* Call Me Easy, Say I'm Strong, Love Me My Way, It Ain't Wrong (1989)
* Two Faces (1991)
* In a Different Light (1993)
* The Mercury Years (1995)
* Making Memory(1996)
* Forever (1997)
* 3000.live(1999)
* Yonder (2014)
Katharina Franck (solo)
* Hunger (1997)
* Zeitlupenkino (2002),
Mute Records
Mute Records is a British independent record label owned and founded in 1978 by Daniel Miller. It has featured several prominent musical acts on its roster such as Depeche Mode, Erasure, Einstürzende Neubauten, Fad Gadget, Goldfrapp, Grinderm ...
* First Take Second Skin (2006)
* On the Verge of an Autobiography (2008)
* Musik! Musik! (2018)
Franck & Haage
* Bei unserer Lebensweise ist es sehr angenehm, lange im voraus zu einer Party eingeladen zu werden (1999)
Stein
* Stein (1990)
* Steinzeit (1992)
* König Zucker (1994)
Special appearances
* Members of the Ocean Club (1996/2004)
* Seven Dances of the Holy Ghost (1998)
* Coisário (1999)
* Edgar Allan Poe - Visonen (2006)
References
External links
Katharina Franck's official homepageLast.FM: Katharina Franck
{{DEFAULTSORT:Franck, Katharina
Musicians from Düsseldorf
Living people
1963 births
German singer-songwriters
German women singers
Mute Records artists