Tell us about your childhood – how did it all begin?
I come from an art and advertising family. Both of my parents were visual artists, painters, and at the same time active in the advertising world. Since the 1970s my mother worked with major figures in the industry, including David Ogilvy or the Ferrero family, and set several benchmarks in advertising. As a young art student, she even met Salvador Dalí in his workshop in Spain during a study trip with her group. Around that time, she also met my father, who later moved between painting and advertising as well. This natural overlap of art and commerce shaped me from the very beginning. As a child, I was fascinated by Roy Lichtenstein and Jean-Michel Basquiat – and in SoHo, we even met Basquiat in person at a vernissage. So from early on, I was moving between art exhibitions and advertising agencies in what felt like a very international world.
How international was your world?
We moved frequently between the US and Germany – sometimes living in Miami, sometimes spending months in New York’s SoHo art district, or being back in Frankfurt. For me, it was a colorful mix of my mother’s exhibitions, visits to MoMA, countless galleries, behind-the-scenes insights into advertising agencies, but also block parties, graffiti crews, and the emerging pop culture that later became known as hip-hop. It was an open world between music, art, and advertising that left a strong mark on me.
How did you discover hip-hop culture?
In 1982 I watched kids from the Bronx dancing in the streets of New York – and from the very first second, I was hooked. The sound, the moves – I wanted to be part of it right away. Since I had already been into floor exercises at age six or seven, the entry into breakdance moves came naturally to me. Many of these moves were just being invented back then – and I experienced it live. All of this happened without parental supervision, pure freedom on the streets. Graffiti was part of it too, and of course I picked up a spray can myself. Once, our crew of 10–15 kids even got caught red-handed and arrested – I wasn’t even 14 yet. Because I was so young, they let me go. That period left a deep imprint on me: loud music, dancing, and street art weren’t hobbies – they were a way of life.
And how did DJing come into play?
Back then everything was still brand new. You had to hunt down records one by one, and in the early 80s only a few rap records came out each month. I wanted to scratch and mix like Grandmaster Flash, so in 1984 I started with two turntables. My first public DJ gig was in 1985 on a school campus. A year later, I was already spinning in GI clubs and at hip-hop jams – often while still underage. Nobody asked for an ID back then. I quickly developed a feel for spotting new sounds early, testing them, and placing them with audiences – a talent that later opened the door to the music business. My childhood was on the streets, my youth in the clubs.
What did you achieve musically?
After various band projects and recording sessions, I co-founded the label Overdose with friends in 1993. The sound shifted more toward club music and trance – at a time when the world was craving more fuel for its techno and house parties. And we delivered that fuel. With Overdose, my goal was always to balance underground coolness with mainstream appeal – while never being afraid to experiment, influenced by my hip-hop background. A chart entry in Spain in 1995 with Scot Project was our first commercial success. More labels followed, along with collaborations with artists such as Nina Hagen, Afrika Islam, Tyree Cooper, Vanessa-Mae, and Malcolm McLaren. Many productions received Gold and Platinum awards, with high chart placements in England, Germany, Scandinavia, and other countries – something we’re still proud of today. I shared concert lineups with Whigfield, Eric Morillo, and Emmanuel Top – life couldn’t have been more colorful.
After music, you returned more to the world of your family – how did that happen?
The connection between art and advertising was always present in my family. After the end of my intense music phase around the turn of the millennium, when Napster popularized the MP3 and almost overnight reshuffled the entire music industry, I gradually gravitated back toward that world: first with photography, then increasingly with traditional media work. With the digital transformation of media and advertising, that field became incredibly exciting too – and step by step, it developed into my own artistic practice, with more elaborate portrait photography, retouching, compositions, and everything that comes with it.
How did you eventually return to art?
I don’t like to look back too much – of course I remember those times fondly, but for me, the present always means moving forward. As the music industry shifted after 2010, I focused more on photography and advertising. It was almost like a challenge to reinvent myself without relying on old connections. My family background, my experience as an art director for cover designs, the photography I had already been involved with, worldwide music video shoots – all of this, combined with memories of my childhood in an art-centered family, gradually led to my own artistic practice. I’ve realized that I feel most fulfilled when I can express myself creatively – that has become very clear to me.
How would you describe your art?
My works move between digital reality and surreal dreamscapes. I call it hyperreality or post-digital surrealism. I’m interested in where reality ends and illusion begins – and how our consumer culture and aesthetics are reflected in that space. What in our world is still real – and what isn’t anymore? What does our contemporary existence look like? Have beauty, aesthetics, body image, and health today perhaps become the opposite of what they once were? “It looks cool. But what exactly am I looking at?” – those are the kinds of questions running through my work.
What’s next?
I’m working on several series of images that are stylistically connected. For me, art is a game between reality and fiction – and I’m looking forward to hopefully sharing these worlds with audiences soon.
This interview was conducted by Sophia Blake in Summer 2025.