“And all the dreams you had, they turned into rust.”
Nicola Nora had left my band Geronimoe´s Perception, and we played a last concert as a two-piece, on an evening together with our friend from Barnsley, Emotive Bronze.
Ronald Harmstein – The Road Ronald Harmstein – Violets From China Ronald Harmstein – State Of The Art
Just about the same time, Schmabreux had also come to an end. We lost our rehearsal room and studio, and all of us were looking for a possibility to keep on playing and recording our music.
So I decided to start my own project. The world gave birth to Ronald Harmstein as a solo artist. I recorded a first EP, called “The Road”.
With the first longplayer “Violets From China”, I started to develop my own sound. Fresh beats, my dark voice and a certain kind of melancholy marked up these recordings and the following ones.
With “State Of The Art” I took a journey through the German folklore, beside older tunes of mine which I recorded anew.
Ronald Harmstein – Zombies & Selfies Ronald Harmstein – Die Gedanken sind frei
The single “Die Gedanken sind frei” turned out to become a kind of worldwide hit, unexpectedly. On the cover you see a street musician I photographed once in Helsinki.
“Zombies & Selfies”, the next EP I recorded and produced, got elements of German “Liedermaching” as well as some Soul and Blues feelings.
The song “Ein Zombie auf dem Flur” tells the real story of a person who escaped from a psychiatric hospital. But – Thank God! – he got stopped in an Intercity train short before Hamburg. Then he was brought back to the clinic by the fire brigade – Djooom! There they set him under drugs massively. The effect was a walking zombie.
Ronald Harmstein – Westlich von Eden Ronald Harmstein – Think Big!
A record I still love very much is the following album “Westlich von Eden”. Here we find the theme “Bittersüßer Nachtschatten, which I made also a video for – as an acoustic track with my nylon string guitar only.
With the help of a new distributor, it was possible for me to release an album with cover songs. “Think Big!” It is an hommage to artists I liked and still like. Hallelujah.