In the Mecca of Berlin’s techno clubs Berghain the 10-year history of a band begins in 2007, which will stir up the German music scene with its mix of electro, pop and indie throughout its career.
Surrounded by loud beats and basses, the then still new Berliners Pierre Bee, Simon Wangemann and Georg Steinmaier meet. Three young men from three different countries realizing that they are musically on the same wavelength and decide to form a band. They want to make music that reflects the influences of the techno metropole Berlin. Music that stimulates dancing but also at the same time makes you think. They collect ideas and start rehearsing in the wet cold cellars of East Berlin. From „One English Boy, One German Boy, One Lost Boy.“ The trio with the name “I Heart Sharks” is created.
“We like the mystifying danger emanating from sharks. We like all the excitement that is being made about this animal. Even if we are not so dangerous ourselves, we want to create a similar ecstatic feeling when we enter the stage.“
Pierre Bee
For the next two years the trio will play wherever you want to hear them: in squatted houses as an act of a “classic” indie concert or the DJ break in the club. With Simon on guitar, Georg on drums and Pierre on mic, they enchant the audience with their weird electropop, so that no dance leg stands still.
In 2010 “I Heart Sharks” is part of the Immergut Festival line-up and on stage next to big city sharks like “An Horse”, “Two Door Cinema Club” or “FM Belfast”. With their fresh combination of Britpop and big-city electro, the newcomers inspire the festival visitors and their first EP won’t be long in coming. In July the same year the EP “Wolves” is released. The German music press is impressed, comparisons to bands like “Friendly Fires” and „Does It Offend You, Yeah?” are quickly made.
“Danceable music with clever lyrics sometimes seems as impossible as licking your own elbow. I Heart Sharks proves that it is possible.“
AHOI Magazin
Next their debut single “Neuzeit” released in October of the following year. Together with the indie label AdP-Records “I Heart Sharks” are writing new history. The single appears both digitally and as a handmade limited special edition and marks the first time that the band, even if only in the chorus, is tinkering with German lyrics.
A week later the first album “Summer” released. For Georg it is the first and the last album.The drummer leaves the band in December.
“With their debut album Summer, the band skillfully fuses different genres and plays cat and mouse with the emotions of their audience. Their vibes seduce to dreamlike dance, while lyrics and melody seem to move in a state of space and timelessness. With their interpretation of Indietronic, the three musicians create a distance that still gets close to you. And when the concert is over, you find yourself among people who just now seem not to have existed.“
Rolling Stone
In 2012 Martin Wolf from Leipzig joins the band as the new drummer. The three of them gather their first experiences abroad as tour support for “Friendly Fires” and “Natalia Kills”. They’re expecting a summer of gigs, playing the Melt! Festival, they support Kraftklub on stage of Dortmund’s Westfalenhalle and deliver the faux-German anthem for 2012 to the Berlin Festival with their song “Neuzeit.“
“Anthems” released in 2014 together with the label Polydor. The band’s second album was produced with the support of Hurt producer Joe Cross and Ultravox singer Midge Ure in the former GDR Funkhaus in Köpernick and an old textile factory in Manchester. Among many danceable numbers, in contrast to their debut, there are also melancholic songs.
“In the two years we made the record, some friends of ours died. Furthermore, a relationship breakdown has made many songs sadder. We’ve generally become more mature, which has made the sound more complex overall. “
Pierre Bee
Nine years after their foundation, the boys are now four. They are completed by the bassist Craig Miller. In 2016 the band returns to their roots, back to the indie label AdP-Records and the DIY concept. They change studio for rehearsal room and release the EP “Hey Kid” in March. In addition to the song of the same name “Hey Kid”, the single also includes the song “Dancing On Your Own”, whose music video deals with the taboo surrounding the topic of masturbation of women.
In November the third and last album of the boys follows. In “Hideaway” they want to talk about Generation Y, who was promised the world and in the end received only empty words. Together with the urban musician Sway Clarke, an album is created that radiates hope. The optimistic message of the songs is accompanied by the insight that change is inevitable.
„The worlds not what it used to be, but neither are we.“
I Heart Sharks
“After 10 years as I Heart Sharks, we’ve decided it’s time to say goodbye.“
I Heart Sharks
After 10 years, the German-British band has decided in 2018: It’s time for you to say goodbye. With an emotional message to their fans, the four say goodbye on their social media platforms.
After all they have experienced together over the years the four of them part as friends. As a final thank you to their fans the quartet gave four final concerts. The “Goodbye Tour” started on 07. September 2019 in Munich and ends where it all began: Berlin. There two Englishmen, a New Yorker and a German making history for the very last time. Filmed by Laura Böhm and Eileen Sophie Hirsch, a wonderful documentary is created about the boys and their last concerts as a common band, about the last moments as “I Heart Sharks”.
“I Heart Sharks prove that it doesn’t take radical end-of-the-world slogans to make music with a message.”
AHOI Magazin