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Born November, 24th 1976 in Langen (Hessen)/Germany I had a normal childhood in a normal family.
So far for my upcoming.
Some people find that I have some special ways of behaviour and whether they try to get into it or not makes them friends.
If you think very sharply about that sentence you may discover this fairly so with simply everyone ...
I am the one I am and once you know me good enough anyone can handle my “specialities” - you will have a friend you can count on and have fun with just as with everyone else.
At age 19 I graduated from highschool in Germany and went on to do my mandatory social services at our municipal youth institution, the “Jugendcafe”.
That time still receives high praise from me - I could practise drums three full hours daily as I had enough time at hand and was simply in the best position for everything musicwise.
This has been the perfect time to evolve my todays taste of music - I listened to the weirdest stuff and some things I see as part of my musical education today - mainly fusion music which still is my most beloved music today and keeps me (a bit .. or more likely quite a lot) out of the usual people´s music choice.
Of course, I got myself into playing these styles as well and made quite some improvements in my playing and musical thinking skills thanks to those pieces of musical art. Then, again - my music collection has everything in it apart from electronic music so it might well be that country crosses metal and then again jazz comes to rock or latin or pop or funk or classical music ... you name it.
An important lesson from my drum teacher was “be open to every style of music” and I would like to say I kept that broad understanding evolving out of it for music itself, general instrumentation, feel while playing any style, aso. ...
After civil service I found myself with the serious decision about how to move on in life. My friend (and an impressive bassplayer, god bless him) Till Sturm offered me an apprenticeship in the company he worked for - as a radio-television technician. I completed it and still appreciate handcraft skills so this was the right thing as is proven daily to me - a good base will never let you fall too deep, literally.
Well, as I said this quite was my interest back then and it still is today - I had one thing in mind - to repair music equipment, esp. amplifiers - I joined in and did the apprenticeship in two years - and I STILL repair some amps and equipment - but mostly amps - today .. then again work leaves not too much time to do it on a daily basis. Well, life catches up in the end as we all know ...
I made the best exam of the group and later became No.1 of my county in an official contest - I am officially the “Landessieger” (best-in-county, Hesse) in my profession (radio/television engineer) in 2000 - hear, hear ...
Then came the time when I moved out from safe home - aged 23 - and that was the turning point towards a regular grown up lifestyle.
I asked myself if I really want to do the dull technician job on the chain gang (an actual one with conveyor belt, imagine this ... I worked on it for 8 hours a day!!!) for the rest of my life and if I did the higher education for nothing - so I figured out a way to earn enough money to go on studying fulltime. This is how I got self employed and my own company was lifted out of the grounds.
At age 23 I worked as freelancer for bigger and even major (and, of course, smaller, too ..) event companies in event- & showbusiness. Fortunately with success for the rest of the nine years to come till I closed down my small business!
This includes setting up any kind of technical equipment for fairs, concerts, presentations - everything (and I STILL do that from time to time but strictly for private amusement and gigs I play ...) + we´re talking about events from two-men conferences up to 25,000 visitor concerts and huge hall filling fairs - strictly professional.
Having become professionally self-employed in 2006 I shifted up and made the extension into computer administration with 400+ clients such as the neighbours small network right over the street and telecommunication systems - it has been and will always be a story of success for me.
My own company GU-MO is now closed for good since I graduated from my studies with official diploma and I am employed as an engineer in a professional dayjob with already more than 10 year professional experience on the job.
And believe you me: there is no more time left for a side business today.
But let me say that without arrogance - I am really proud of GU-MO as it paid for my studies and all other expenses featuring ever-growing revenue until the end (making ends meet, that is, which I still think is great!) - and this was me doing actual professional work next to studying, no doubt.
As a professional electrical engineer my range is - not at least due to my experience on music road, the apprenticeship and my studies - computers, networks, audio, video, repair, set-up, building own circuits for special needs, microelectronics and a good portion of energy management since I hold both - the German (TÜV) and US (CEM) official certificate for being an energy consultant. On top I evolved into a professional project/program manager jobwise ...
I had a wonderful time at the US Army for two years right after studying, working in energy management and engineering being a proiect manager and technical advisor - but this time is gone and I made a swing towards the professional (micro)electronics industry as my interest in practical R&D is as alive as my skills are great in management.
Today I am officially a “Diplom-Ingenieur”€ (holding a Master of Science) in electronics/electrics/telecommunication, an accomplished radio/television engineer and above of that an official TÜV/CEM energy manager and, if course, professional project manager.
Let´s see what happens next ... I leave that open.
Since music is one of my serious loves in life - the other one being my lovely wife Tanja *kisskiss* - I am still searching for fellow-musicians in my musical direction/taste (i.e. funk, fusion, jazz).
We have lots of time here on earth so I am positive THE band is in reach, maybe not now, maybe not in five years or even in ten years from now - but in the end I will find the right thing for me., I am sure about that.
But - let me close with these words - even I myself have grown wise(r).
So it is no more unthinkable to just play with a regular cover band, as I do already, and just do some nice gigs.
In the end gigs give me the feeling of being an enabled musician and they are pure fun as 2016 has proven to me, once again.
Maybe this will expend a bit if not leads to find a band where I could finally play my beloved No. 1 instrument drums again with all spirit to put in ...
NILS MAIER, 30.12.2016
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