My life began one foggy November night – on November 7th 1972, to be precise. Scorpio with Scorpio rising – a powerful mix …

If I had to sum up my life in one sentence, my motto would be:
Have the courage to follow your gut instinct, and life will show you the way!
At least, that’s how it’s always been for me…

But let’s start from the beginning. My early musical education began at home with my parents. My mother is a music teacher (violin and piano) and my father plays the guitar. So I was in early contact with music, whether I liked it or not. People learning to play the violin aren’t always a joy to listen to …

My father would play Freddi Quinn and a selection of fishermen’s songs at various barbecues and bonfires, and the Menschenfressersong to entertain me, my brother and my 2 sisters.
If you’re thinking “ ah, so he learned to play the guitar from his father”, you’re wrong! My first instrument was the violin, but I never got on with the Lirum, larum, Löffelstiel tune. It just wasn’t MY instrument. Luckily…..

One fine afternoon, my parents mentioned that they had arranged for me to have guitar lessons. Hmm, guitar, we’ll have to see about that….Wham! Bull’s-eye! My guitar and I were inseparable from that moment on. I played in various youth guitar groups and school performances, and was the star of many a Boy Scout campfire.

But there’s a rocker in me somewhere, and my favourite songs (Gary Moore, Europe and that kind of thing…) sounded really awful on the classical guitar. I had one of those famous plastic tubes for saving 5 Mark coins in my bedroom, and it was actually full for once. So I went along to the music shop with 500 Marks in 5-Mark pieces and bought my first electric guitar.

Now all I needed were like-minded people, so I started up a really terrible punk rock band. I did my first few gigs and experiences, and a few guest spots in the school band, where I always had to step in if a song was too difficult for the band’s regular guitar player…

My second band, called “Dökkalfar”, did, I kid you not, a sum total of 14 gigs in 2 years, and I learnt the true meanings of “successful band” and ‘nightshift”. I thought the mad singer was brilliant right from the start, and we soon became friends. He was a funny, long-haired bloke, and he could play keyboards, too. You already know him (but without the long hair…) – Thomas Lindner!

When both our bands split up, we started a new one straight away, and so WETO was born, and it’s still going today with a few breaks and changes to the line-up (www.wetomusic.de). We had a our first big musical successes, and invited a diverse range of guest musicians to the concerts. A couple of the love songs needed a violin or something, and I knew that one of my mother’s piano pupils played the violin: Anna Kränzlein walked into our musical orbit as a fresh-faced 16 year-old …We played a few concerts with a band from Gernlinden called “Screewdup”, and the drummer was a mad bloke by the name of Stefan Brunner.

So we all knew each other from the local concert circuit, and came up with a plan to work together covering folk songs. I heard the bagpipes played live for the first time through Birgit, and loads of other weird instruments, too.

After one ground-breaking concert, the new band SCHANDMAUL was born, and the rest is history…

But what else happened, apart from music? I’d passed my A-levels in 1993, and then had to do my National Service. I opted for the civilian side of things and worked in nursing and care for the elderly. After that, I had to ask myself what job I was going to do. I couldn’t even think of being a professional musician, even in my wildest dreams, so I started teacher training. German, history and, yes, you guessed it, music – with classical guitar as my main subject.

And then came my first real gut decision: stick to teacher training, or go with Schandmaul? There was no competition – it had to be Schandmaul! But how are you supposed to earn a living from a band that’s still in its nappies, metaphorically speaking?! Anyway, it was a great time…

And then another decision dumped itself in my lap: my horse Moses had been suffering constant lameness for 2 years, and no vet or farrier had the answer. When it was finally decided that he had to be put down, a lifeline came in the form of hoof orthopaediatrics, which was a relatively new thing in those days. My horse has been healthy ever since, and it was then that a idea came to me:
I wanted to be able to do that myself, so I trained in hoof orthopaediatrics. At one point, I had so many horses, plus playing in the band, that it all got a bit too much. It was a tough time, and I did neglect the band quite a bit. I felt like a hamster in a wheel, not knowing how I would ever escape.
I was just about to throw in the music towel when help arrived from the most important person in my life:
My wife Danja. I’d met her at a Schandmaul concert (another thing that just fell into my lap…), and we were married just a year later… She was the one who finally showed me how you can get off the hamster wheel, and, with the support of my wonderful band mates, I finally found a way to manage it all.

Another break came in 2006, when my wife and I came across a little farm quite by chance in the middle of the Bavarian forest and only about 2 km from my parents’ cabin. This had always been my adopted home, so it wasn’t difficult to take the next step, tear down our “tent” in Munich and settle down here for good.

We’ve made our dream come true, and have filled this little farm, which lies in an unbelievably cute little village, with our 4 horses, 2 dogs, 4 cats and 4 hares.

In the meantime, Schandmaul got so big that the hoof orthopaediatrics had to go on the back burner, but it’s no less important to me. On the contrary: I really enjoy treating the horses I have time for now, and I put a lot of effort into it. It balances out perfectly with my music.

When I’m not on tour, I love to go walking, fiddle about with the house, the farm and the woods, and I’ve rediscovered my old passion for traditional archery, and enjoy the delights of nature on horseback, or meet up with my friends.

In this spirit:

Keep on rockin’

Ducky

Equipment:

Electric guitars:

2 Gibson Les Paul Custom (ebony)
1 Ritter Custom 7 String with Schandmaul design
1 Paul Reed Smith Custom 22
1 Carrer Les Paul Copy
1 Ibanez S 540

Acoustic guitars:

Lakewood Custom Steel String
Antonio Valderas Classic with A6 B bend
Kirkland Jumbo (great for low tuning)

Amps, speakers and sound effects:

Brunetti Mille 3 channel all-tube preamp
Brunetti Van Der Graaf 2×120 Watt all-tube preamp
Brunetti XL 120 Topteil
Brunetti 4×12 Cabinet

TC Electronics G Major
Dunlop Crybaby Rack Wah-Wah

ProStage foot controller (bomb-proof parts!)

Sennheiser transmission

Spares:
Brunetti Mille 3 channel all-tube preamp
Lexicon MPX G2 Multi-effect
Lexicon MIDI remote controller

If you have any questions, you can reach me at:

m.ducky[at]gmx.de
ducky[at]schandmaul.de