Blixa Bargeld Biography

Fast Facts

• Won a Bronze Lion at Cannes Advertising Festival in 2004
• Originally started using nontraditional instruments in his music because he couldn't afford anything else
• Would experiment with tape recorders when he was 13, putting a pickup on kitchen equipment and recording it on tape
• The first album he ever bought was a Pink Floyd album, but he quickly moved on to German progressive rock
• Quote: "I didn't start being a musician to provoke anything, or to be intentionally different․"
• Quote: "The archeological thing is how much of the 23-year-old Blixa is still in the 51-year-old Blixa, how many of the ideals that I was following, or the goals or artistic targets I was aiming at, are still there․"
• Quote: "The humor in Neubauten is usually completely forgotten․ After all, we are Germans--we are not supposed to be funny․"
• Was the lead vocalist of Einstürzende Neubauten, which he formed in 1980
• Known as a composer, author, actor, singer, musician, performer and lecturer on the interpretive arts
• Was the guitarist for Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds from 1984 to 2003