Thomas grew up in a very musical family. His mother was a singer in different choirs and her passion was and is still the classical music. Unfortunately, his father, a big jazz fan and good piano player, passed away when Thomas was 3 years old.
At the age of 8 Thomas got organ lessons (on a Philips Philicorda…). After some time he started to interpret the boring pieces of music in his own way… his teacher was very displeased about that and so Thomas closed the chapter organ playing for some years.
Thomas now was only music consumer, recorded radio or television shows with his Grundig TK 5 tape recorder (with a microphone in front of the speakers… - “high quality recording”).
Then, at age of 15, he heard a sound which should change his further musical life! A friend lent him the LP “24 Carat Purple”!
Never before Thomas had heard such a sound. Pure energy. On one side the classical parts in this music on the other side powerful strength of an ingenious rock band.
At the first time Thomas heard an organ sound which blew him away. Jon Lord played the Hammond in such a powerful way that Thomas couldn’t sleep, couldn’t eat could only listen to the songs 24 hours a day…
Inspired from this magic he opened the chapter organ again and started with his first own compositions on a Dr. Böhm organ (an assembly kit) which he has built for the family and recorded the songs with a cassette tape deck.
Some years later in 1979, Thomas had saved enough money to buy his first synthesizer: a Yamaha CS-15 (monophon, no presets, no memory but very expensive…). With a second tape deck he could now make his first tracks with overdub recording. What a fantastic new world… o.k., the sound wasn’t professional…, o.k. there where many tuning problems due to the different speeds of the tape decks… but the first time he could realize more complex sound/song structures.
Short time later he joined his first band! Thomas became the keyboarder of „BoTanik“, a Deutschrock band of the guitarist Burkhard "Bo" Wigger. Bo had written very good songs and after some months in the rehearsal room they played the first gigs. However the sound of the band was good but Thomas wanted to make music with more hard rock influences.
So he left BoTanik and he became the keyboarder of “Russel Square” a well known band in the local area. There Thomas also met the guitarist Klaus Walther, who was one of the founder of Russel Square and his later partner with MAPULA.
Thomas was not only the keyboarder he also became more and more the songwriter
of the Band.
After publication of the first singles, a LP and a CD as well as numerous gigs, e.g., together with successful acts like Purple Schulz, Trio Rio, The Lords, Silent Circle or The Bangles (Zeche Bochum) as well as some TV - and radio appearances, and bigger festivals the band stood before the decision to change to the professional side.
The band decided against it.
Also Thomas who stood in the middle of his study on the university as an engineer wanted to go a safe way and Russel Square was history.
Thomas now spent more time to his study, occupation and his family but the music was still in his heart. He built up a small homerecording studio and composed new songs.
Years later after return to his hometown he met again his old friend Klaus Walther. In the meantime Thomas’ homerecording studio has grown and it was now possible to produce professional sounds. So Thomas and Klaus decided to make further steps in the music business. They met every Friday in the studio (“our Friday”) and recorded the CD “Satisfied…” (2003) which contained remakes of Russel Square songs in a new sound and arrangement, with different singers and contained also some new compositions.
Now there was the big question: what the hell do we now? The answer was easy: they wanted to write and record now some hard rock songs with an individual modern touch and heavy metal influences – their old passion. No mainstream, no top 10 stuff, just pure power rock!
Thomas who had in the meantime quit his job as production manager in an international company started a study as a multimedia-producer and founded a multimedia agency (tronicarts) with the main focus graphics, 3D-animation and internet design. He made a lot of recordings for friendly bands and musicians and expanded his studio. Now they could work without limitations on songs for the new project.
To sniff again a little bit “live feeling” Thomas joined the band “Drop Out” and played some gigs with them. Drop Out also recorded the CD “Rock Bytez” in Thomas’ studio. In this band Thomas met Oliver Strasser! Olli has an extraordinary voice and is without doubt one of the best heavy metal singers in Germany.
Olli listened to the first compositions of the new project from Thomas and Klaus and liked the songs very much. So they started to record the vocals and the result was amazing! Now the songs had got their soul!
MAPULA was born!
The first MAPULA album “Different Faces” was born!
Thomas about the MAPULA project: “Even if nobody wants to hear our music… it has to be done! There are absolutely no compulsions to earn a lot of money with the songs. Our aim is to give some good vibrations to the fans of good hard ‘n’ heavy music! Hope you like it!”.
