Marco Minnemann was born December 24th, 1970 in Hannover, Germany, had his first piano lessons at the age of five and was eleven when he switched to the drums. Marco took lessons for four years with Abbey Rader at the University Braunschweig, and played his first gigs in a jazz- trio at thirteen years old. He became a big fan of Frank Zappa´s music, notated and played along to all of Zappa´s material. Marco was also into jazz & fusion by that time, and had worked through several books including Gary Chester´s "New Breed 1 & 2" and material of Gary Chaffey, Jim Chapin etc.. Having had his first major contract (BMG/ Arista) at 19 years old, and released five CDs with a band called Freaky- Fukin´- Weirdoz. Marco also had been playing with various artists including "Nina Hagen", "Wolfgang Schmid´s Kick", and with his own group "Illegal Aliens", featuring his own music. Since 1997 he is with "H-Blockx"(award winning act in Europe) In 1998 Marco released his first Solowork "The Green Mindbomb", which was made the same time with the third Cd of Illegal Aliens called "Time", recorded at Principal Studios. Alex Merck Music will release "Time" in 1999. From 1997 to 1999 he was with "H-Blockx", a gold- selling act in Germany. During those two years, they made their third Cd "Fly", and had over 200 gigs worldwide. At the Frankfurt Musicfair, in March 1999 Marco played some gigs with Gary Willis and Andy Timmons. Gary Willis is handled as one of the best bassplayers in the world . Andy Timmons is a member of the Simon Phillips Band and Joe Satriani´s favourite guitarplayer. Marco´s Soloshows were surly one of the highlights on this Musicfair. Now he´s supposed to make clinic- tours through Japan and Europe. Marco´s working on his Solo career, writing down his first drumbook, and will be the first german drummer playing at the Modern Drummer Festival in New York in May 1999. Back from the United States, which was very successful, the Illegal Aliens are recording their 4th album called "International Telephone", and Marco his second Solo- cd called "Comfortably Homeless". Bassist T.M.Stevens will join the recordings for a few songs. The title and the release date of both CDs are unclear. But it sure will be in summer 2000. He´s going to play a workshops- power- trio tour together with Paul Gilbert and Doug Wimbish in the USA. In this moment Marco is mixing the two new cds at Principal Studios with Joerg Umbreit, who´s the guy, he worked with during the last productions. After this, he´s going to tour through Europe, Canada and the USA during the whole summer till at least November, so he´s supposed to play at the PASIC in Dallas/ Texas on the 18 th of November.
Marco is also finding time to work on a totally new project with his wife and Illegal Aliens- singer Artemis and the guitar player of Freaky- Fukin´- Weirdoz "Werner Ponikowski". This project is at its very beginning, has got no name.... but a few songs. The working -title of this band is called Braindead. Visit the site!! Or... listen to a few sound- clips.
Since July 2000 Marco is working with Paddy Kelly (Kelly Family) on Paddy´s new Soloalbum. In December 2000 , they are supposed to start their second preproductionpart. Fabio Trentini, who played bass on "Comfortably Homeless" und "International Telephone" is going to be part of this production.
In the beginning of 2001, a tour is planed with Udo Lindenberg and his Panicorchester, Marco had already several gigs with Udo Lindenberg, a real well-known artist in Germany since the seventies.
2001, Marco Minnemann's first drumbook was released. You can order it on his website
www.marcominnemann.com
