Faderhead

Sami Mark Yahya, professionally known by his stage name Faderhead is a German electronic music producer from Hamburg, Germany. His music is usually described as EBM, Synthpop or Futurepop.

Faderhead
Background information
OriginHamburg, Germany
GenresElectronic, EBM, Synthpop
Years active2004–present
LabelsAccession Records, L-Tracks, Not A Robot Records
Associated actsShaolyn
Shawn Mierez
Websitewww.faderhead.com
MembersFaderhead

History

After releasing the track "The Protagonist" as a one-off compilation entry on the Advanced Electronics Vol. 3, Faderhead received a deal with Accession Records/Indigo to release his debut album FH1 in 2006. Positive reviews[1][2] made FH1 an instant debut-success with standout tracks like "The Protagonist", "Vanish" and "O/H Scavenger". The year progressed and saw Faderhead play shows alongside bands like Diary Of Dreams, SITD, Painbastard and others.[3][4]

2007 saw the release of the FH2 CD which featured the club hit "Dirtygrrrls/Dirtybois". Faderhead released a music video for the track "Girly Show" and played festivals like Wave-Gotik-Treffen (Germany) and Infest (UK) among other shows.

2008 started with the departure from Accession Records and the signing to L-Tracks Recordings. This decision led to serious speculation[5] regarding the future of Faderhead by press and fans, but the free song/video release of the piano ballad "Exit Ghost" revealed that the project would continue. Only a few months later the club anthem "TZDV" was released, and on October 10, the FH3 album was released and again gathered top reviews.[6][7][8]

In 2009, Faderhead played the M'era Luna Festival (Germany), the Exit Festival (Serbia) as well as shows in the Netherlands, Italy, Greece, Great Britain, Belgium and Mexico. In October 2009, Faderhead released the "Horizon Born" EP, which was well received.[9]

2010 saw the release of Trilogy. Since FH1, FH2 and FH3 had been sold out and were not reprinted, Faderhead decided to compile the most popular 18 tracks from that release onto one CD.

In October 2010, the fourth full-length album, Black Friday, was released. The concept album tells the story of a night gone wrong. It was accompanied by a 15-minute short movie and quickly garnered reviews as Faderhead's most mature album.[10] Faderhead played a European club tour as well as the Christmas Ball Festival tour with Laibach, Project Pitchfork, Fields Of The Nephilim and Agonoize.[11]

2011 began with a 15-show tour in the US with Aesthetic Perfection and Everything Goes Cold [12] and ended with a download-only EP release called “The Way To Fuck Clubs”, which showcased remixes of “The Way To Fuck God” as well as an acoustic version of “Hot Bath And A Cold Razor” and “The Moth And The Fire”. The biggest show of 2011 happened at Wave-Gotik-Treffen in Leipzig when the festival organizers had to close the venue to prevent overcrowding.[13]

In 2012, the fifth album, The World Of Faderhead, was released alongside three 360° panoramic images and 3 music videos.[14] The video to “Fistful Of Fuck You” became popular, due to its original style and content. Faderhead headlined a 14-show US tour and played all over Europe including a set at the M'era Luna Festival hangar stage. The European pressing of “The World Of Faderhead” was already almost sold out before the end of the year and Faderhead reached the no. 7 spot of MusicNonStop's best-selling releases of 2012 in the UK,[15] tying And One and coming in ahead of legacy-acts like Fields Of The Nephilim, De/Vision, Suicide Commando and Hocico. Because "The World Of Faderhead" sold out so quickly, Faderhead also released the double-CD-compilation "Two Sides To Every Story"[16] which features Faderhead's most popular clubtracks on CD 1 and the most popular pop-songs/ballads on CD 2.

2013 saw Faderhead releasing the "FH4" album, which spawned the single and video to "Dancers", a collaboration with Techno MC Shawn Mierez ("I Like It Loud") and Shaolyn ("Face Down"). Worldwide touring (including 14 shows in the US) followed and Faderhead returned to the Amphi Festival[17] in Köln/Germany.

In 2014 the “Atoms & Emptiness”-album was released in February. Faderhead went on a 4-week European co-headlining tour with Aesthetic Perfection and music videos to “Stand Up” and “When The Freaks Come Out” were released. After that Faderhead took a 1.5 year break from producing and performing.

2016 Faderhead released “FH-X” on February 12 and toured the UK and Germany. In October he also released the 10 song EP “Anima In Machina” which featured 8 reworked old songs and 2 new tracks. Then Faderhead supported Covenant on a 10-show-tour in Germany which sold-out venues in Hamburg, Hannover, Erfurt, Stuttgart, Krefeld and Frankfurt. The "Anima In Machina"-EP occupied the number 1 position in the German Alternative Charts (DAC)[18] for 6 weeks in a row.

2017 opened with the release of the single “Know Your Darkness”, a futurepop club song which debuted at number 1 in the German Alternative Charts (DAC).[18]

The ninth studio album "Night Physics" (including the single "Know Your Darkness") was releases in late 2017 and reached number 1 in the German Alternative Charts (DAC),[18] followed by a 10-show-tour of Germany and a concert at the sold out Agra-Halle at Wave-Gotik-Treffen 2018.[19] Faderhead then went on another tour of Germany with Project Pitchfork.

In 2019 Faderhead played the main stage at Amphi Festival in Cologne/Germany[20] as well as NCN Festival in Deutzen[21] briefly before the release of the tenth studio album "Asteria", which included the single "From His Broken Bones" that reached number 2 on the German Alternative Charts (DAC)).[18] The band played an album release show at Kulttempel in Oberhausen/Germany.[22]

In spring of 2020 Faderhead played only one show of the "Asteria"-Germany tour (on March 7, 2020 in Mannheim[23]) before the tour was cancelled due to the worldwide Coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic.

Faderhead's live shows are currently supported by either Jörg Lütkemeier (formerly Straftanz) or Joel Meyer (formerly Project SAM) on keyboards and backing vocals. He has also previously been supported live by Daniel Meyer. The Hamburg producer/vocalist uses different musicians for live performances and has collaborated on stage with musicians like Daniel Myer (Haujobb), Shawn "Ultimate MC" Mierez or with Marco Visconti (formerly XP8) - nicknamed “The Lord” - as the longest standing member.

Video game

A video game based on the music video for Fistful of Fuck You was created and released in 2014. The Beats of Rage game engine was used to program and run the game. Its design was based on images created by the music video's artists and programmed by Trev Nethers of the New York-based industrial band, Social Autopsy.[24] The game pays strict attention to the music video's content, allowing players to relive the music video first hand. It also includes playable characters, enemies and levels not featured in the music video. The game can be downloaded via Faderhead's official website.[25]

In 2018, the game was re-released as Faderhead 2.0. The new release addressed bugs, balance issues, and animation problems. All new content was also added including new modes, playable characters and the ability to play the game with two players. Survival Mode allows the player to play as Nethers from Social Autopsy in a challenge to regain health by defeating enemies and absorbing their lifeforce. Music Video Mode is a modified version of Story Mode that plays exactly like the Music Video with shorter levels, fewer enemies and a new move set for the Faderhead character. Revenge Mode gives access to the boss characters in a reversal of Story Mode where you must stop Faderhead from playing his concert. Playable bosses include Andy from Combichrist, Steve from And One, Chris from Blutengel, Graves from Aesthetic Perfection and Brian from The Gothsicles. Another new mode was also added, called Tournament Mode, which allows two to four players to compete against each other in a versus/fighting style of gameplay using all the playable characters from the game.[26]

Discography

Studio albums
  • 2006: FH1 (Accession Records)
  • 2007: FH2 (Accession Records)
  • 2008: FH3 (L-Tracks Recordings)
  • 2010: Black Friday (L-Tracks Recordings)
  • 2012: The World of Faderhead (L-Tracks Recordings)
  • 2013: FH4 (L-Tracks Recordings)
  • 2014: Atoms & Emptiness (L-Tracks Recordings)
  • 2016: FH-X (Not A Robot Records)
  • 2017: Night Physics (Not A Robot Records)
  • 2019: Asteria (Not A Robot Records)

Compilation albums
  • 2010: Trilogy (L-Tracks Recordings)
  • 2012: Two Sides To Every Story (2CD) (L-Tracks Recordings)

EPs
  • 2009: Horizon Born (L-Tracks Recordings)
  • 2011: The Way to Fuck Clubs (L-Tracks Recordings)
  • 2013: Empires of the Northern Lights v2.42 (Bandcamp)
  • 2015: The Tokyo Tapes (Bandcamp)
  • 2016: Anima In Machina (Not A Robot Records)
  • 2016: The Universe Has Spoken (Not A Robot Records)
  • 2017: No Signal (Not A Robot Records)
  • 2018: Time Physics (Not A Robot Records)
  • 2019: Starchaser (Not A Robot Records)
  • 2020: 2077 (Not A Robot Records)

Singles
  • 2004: "The Protagonist"
  • 2006: "OH Scavenger vs. the Protagonist"
  • 2006: "Bassgod"
  • 2008: "Exit Ghost"
  • 2010: "69 Freaks Per Minute"
  • 2013: "Artificial Bullshit (Demo)"
  • 2017: "Know Your Darkness"
  • 2020: "I Did Not Know" (feat. Solar Fake)
  • 2020: "Halloween Spooky Queens"

Music videos

Free download MP3 releases

Compilation releases
  • 2006: Accession Records Volume Three (Bassgod)
  • 2006: Bestie:Mensch (Dirtygrrrls Dirtybois (Remix By [:SITD:]) )
  • 2007: Extreme Sündenfall 6 (Dirtygrrrls/Dirtybois (Modulate Remix) )
  • 2007: Fxxk the Mainstream Vol. 1 (Dirtygrrrls/Dirtybois (Electro For the Masses Remix) )
  • 2009: Extreme Sündenfall 8 (TZDV (Club Version) )
  • 2009: Extreme Sündenfall 9 (Horizon Born (Electric Paradise Club Edit) )
  • 2010: Kinetik Festival Volume Three (69 Freaks Per Minute )

References
  1. "Faderhead - FH1 (cd Accession Records) - review, free links at SIDE-LINE". Side-line.com. 2013-11-27. Retrieved 2014-07-22.
  2. https://web.archive.org/web/20090714135931/http://www.musicnonstop.co.uk/product-view.php?productid=11668. Archived from the original on July 14, 2009. Retrieved September 27, 2009. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  4. "{ Contribe | Booking & Promotion }". Contribe.de. Retrieved 2014-07-22.
  5. "Faderhead disillusioned by dark scene - calls it quits - Faderhead news at". Side-line.com. 2013-11-27. Retrieved 2014-07-22.
  6. https://web.archive.org/web/20110708034132/http://electrogothic.blogspot.com/2008/08/faderhead-fh3.html. Archived from the original on July 8, 2011. Retrieved September 27, 2009. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  7. https://web.archive.org/web/20110715170416/http://www.reflectionsofdarkness.com/index.php?option=com_content. Archived from the original on July 15, 2011. Retrieved September 27, 2009. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  8. "Путеводитель по миру шоппинга – скидки, распродажи, акции - В мире модных брендов 23". Gothtronic.com. 2013-11-21. Retrieved 2014-07-22.
  9. Archived July 15, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  11. https://web.archive.org/web/20100609143245/http://www.madgoth.de/4990/news/the-christmas-ball-festival-2010-and-one-headliner-in-hannover. Archived from the original on June 9, 2010. Retrieved March 7, 2013. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  12. "Faderhead - US Tour 2011 (Day 1 - Travel)". YouTube. 2011-04-21. Retrieved 2014-07-22.
  13. "Faderhead - 2011 Summer Festival Recap (Behind The Scenes)". YouTube. 2011-09-27. Retrieved 2014-07-22.
  14. "Faderhead - New Album! New Music Video! New Panoramic Image!". Theworldoffaderhead.com. Archived from the original on 2014-12-18. Retrieved 2014-07-22.
  15. "MusicNonStop Top Sellers 2012 —". Faderhead.com. 2013-01-03. Retrieved 2014-07-22.
  16. "Faderhead. Two Sides To Every Story. 2CD". Storming the Base. Retrieved 2014-07-22.
  17. GmbH, Amphi Festival. "Amphi Festival 2017 - Tanzbrunnen Köln". www.amphi-festival.de (in German). Retrieved 2017-07-20.
  18. "Deutsche Alternative Charts - DAC - www.deutsche-alternative-charts.de". www.deutsche-alternative-charts.de. Retrieved 2017-07-20.
  19. "~ Offizielle Seiten Wave-Gotik-Treffen Leipzig ~". www.wave-gotik-treffen.de. Retrieved 2020-01-21.
  20. GmbH, Amphi Festival. "Amphi Festival 2020 - Tanzbrunnen Köln". www.amphi-festival.de (in German). Retrieved 2020-01-21.
  21. Meyer, Marius (2019-06-21). "NCN - NOCTURNAL CULTURE NIGHT 2019 - alle Bands, alle Infos". Monkeypress.de (in German). Retrieved 2020-01-21.
  22. Faderhead - Asteria Album Release Concert (Live), retrieved 2020-01-21
  23. Iz, Nastja. "Live Review: Faderhead - Mannheim 2020". www.reflectionsofdarkness.com. Retrieved 2020-05-21.
  24. "Social Autopsy". facebook.com/socialautopsy. Retrieved 2018-03-07.
  25. "Fistful Of Fuck You – The Video Game". Faderhead.com. Retrieved 2015-10-12.
  26. "Faderhead 2.0". facebook.com/FaderheadGame. Retrieved 2018-03-07.
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