Negative mood requires a positive impulse:
Against hatred and arrogance, for respect and tolerance
The general political weather situation in the world is tense:
Apart from CORONA and its economic and social burdens, military conflicts in the Middle East and a series of interstate tensions contribute to a general malaise.
As if that weren’t enough, hateful comments on the Internet and aggressive statements by politicians are fueling people’s concerns and fears.
The majority of our society around the world is not hateful and / or aggressive.
That is why I am of the opinion that this must also be clearly expressed: we want respect and tolerance!
Since this issue is very emotionally charged overall, I would also like to address it emotionally. Music is an effective means of conveying emotional statements. The genre of the protest song is ideal here.
About me:
Burkhard Jonczyk , born 1954,
– Senior teacher at the Hölty-Gymnasium Wunstorf from 1982 to 2001,
– Advisor for E U educational programs in the European department of the Lower Saxony State Chancellery from 2001 to 2004,
– again at the Hölty-Gymnasium Wunstorf from 2004 to 2007,
– at the Gymnasium Steinhude from 2007 to 2016,
– and again at the Hölty-Gymnasium Wunstorf from 2016 to 2018.
– Subjects: English and geography, from 2011 additionally politics and economics and a little later values and norms.
The making of the song
It’s actually not that difficult: You have a topic, you formulate statements and you start trying out something musically suitable on an instrument. That’s how I did it over 20 years ago.
Now my instrumental skills have become a bit rusty over the years, unfortunately!
Since the subject is so close to my heart, I didn’t just want to write and sing the song, but also wanted it to be implemented musically in an appealing way.
Then it is good when you have good, “old” acquaintances with whom you have worked successfully musically in the past and who you know are technically and factually “fit”.
Ansgar „Sir Frank Doe“ Freyberg, drummer of the band “The BossHoss ” and producer of my song
Ansgar Freyberg was a student at the Hölty-Gymnasium Wunstorf and took part with his band of the time“Soft groovin ‘grapefruit” in the Concert “Hölty-live”, launched by Friedrich Kampe and me as part of the 70th anniversary of our school in 1992.
After the concerts I asked Ansgar to teach my 6-year-old son Robert playing the drums.
In 1993 bands in the region had the opportunity to take part in a competition and, if they did succeed, record their own song in a recording studio. As a music-loving teacher, I saw this as an opportunity to give students the “recording studio” experience: I wrote a song and asked Ansgar Freyberg (drums), Stefan Arndt (bass) and Olaf Jensen (solo guitar) to play the song with me (lead voice and guitar) and my colleagues Friedrich Kampe (keyboard and vocals) and Karsten Rahlves (acoustic guitar). In fact, we all went to the recording studio together later and recorded the song.
It can still be played today on the homepage of the Hölty-Gymnasium Wunstorf on the page “Greetings from alumni”, Ansgar Freyberg.
In the meantime I had learned from my son Robert that his former drum teacher Ansgar Freyberg was now playing in the group “The BossHoss “. He had seen the band at the Wacken concert (WOA).
As I said, good “old” contacts are valuable! When I was looking for musicians for my song, it was clear to me: Ansgar Freyberg would be the first musician to ask! He wasn’t supposed to play the drums, because I had given the part to my 33-year-old son Robert, Ansgar’s former drum scholar who still likes to play drums in his free time.
… and Ansgar wanted to help me immediately! He has years of experience in the production of bands in the recording studio and … it couldn’t be better!
In my opinion, the theme of the song “ What Matters ” called for gospel elements, so a choir had to be integrated into the piece: Asgar Freyberg provided the female singers of the group “ Beatorg ”, who with their melodic voices created a fascinating ensemble, which they presented pointedly with their powerful individual contributions!
In addition, the song is supposed to “shake up” thematically, against hatred and intolerance – for respect and tolerance, so that for me as a historically and politically interested fanfare-like sounds to arouse attention were important. So we also needed horns:
“The Tijuana Wonderbrass ” accompany The BossHoss in live performances – and now me, too! What a sound experience to enjoy these outstanding experts with their creative efforts as the essential shaping forces of the overall musical character of this song in cooperation with the choir !
Lennart Jeschke, musician and owner of the Wunstorf studio “ studioexport ”, does the mix and mastering of the song
The prerequisite for the recording of the individual instrumental and vocal contributions was a rough version of the song, which all other participants could use for orientation. As mentioned before, my instrumental skills are not as such that I still could create a basis precisely timed on guitar. Ansgar Freyberg suggested my ex-student Lennart Jeschke for recording this. Lennart had already inspired us all as the guitarist of the group ” Backfish ” at the Hölty-live concert in 1992. Lennart was also there straight away and played a very convincing basic version of my song on the acoustic guitar.
On this basis I was able to sing my text on the program ‘ audacity ‘, my son Robert added a basic version of the drums and my son Christian added his piano accompaniment.
Lennart Jeschke then added gradually incoming soundtracks of the various singing and instrumental parts and tuned them precisely.
And Ansgar Freyberg ‘pulled the strings’ and produced the song!
The key experience for all of us was the day when Ansgar led the horns – and the choir, recorded and mixed: After that it was clear that the song would have a special quality overall ! The female members of the group “ Beatorg ” were reinforced vocally by Semjon Barias , Stefan Kapitzke and Christian Fischer (“ The Tijuana Wonderbrass ”) , Ansgar Freyberg and Lennart Jeschke .
After my son Christian unfortunately had to cancel the second required piano recording, Lucas Sehnert (intern at “ The BossHoss ” ) stepped in. Ansgar then suggested that we should record another organ playing (again Stefan Kapitzke , “The Tijuana Wonderbrass ”) to support the gospel elements of the song. Unfortunately, our friend Kolja (he originated the idea to replace “fakers ” by ” haters” in the text!) could not play the bass as intended before, this part then took Lennart Jeschke additionally . When Ansgar Freyberg had recorded the percussions himself, the e-guitar recording by Stefan “ Russ T. Rocket” Buehler (The BossHoss ) was added to the crowning glory .
But, whenever you think you’ve finished things, there are other good ideas: Lennart Jeschke put in the absolutely unique phone call from a little girl at the beginning of the song, which strengthened the cross-generational message of the song – Riiing ” Please , think about what matters ! ” and Ansgar Freyberg decided that we should also create a shortened single version of the song. And with that he and Lennart Jeschke completed the project!
Matthias Tischler and Sonja Frieler: My technology all-rounders put the song online and created my homepage
Ansgar Freyberg had given me the hint to make my song available on the various music platforms with the help of the ” distrokid ” service . Well, to be honest, I’m not quite fit in these things and then it would be a good idea to find top specialists who could do this and set up and edit my website. I am very grateful to Kolja in this regard, too , because he referred me to Sonja and Matthias, without whom we would not have put this song online in this appealing form. Thank you!
Here are some impressions of the making of the song:
