Roger Stein: Alles vor dem Aber... ist egal

In the organizer's words:

COLOGNE PREMIERE

With passionate songs and lyrics Roger Stein shows for one evening that everything before the word "But" doesn't matter. Quite cheeky, quite wicked, quite beautiful!

With powerful versatility, self-irony and charm, Roger Stein rushes multi-instrumentally and rhyme-laden through his third solo program. "Alles vor dem Aber ist egal" is full of longing and humor, is poetic and rich in imagery at the same time.

Roger Stein criticizes, coquettes and exercises social criticism from the hip - unpretentious and light, but nevertheless to the point. Stein is not a superficial revolutionary. His mischievousness never expresses itself through grand gestures, but it is always there, for example, when in the song "Gesichter aus gar nichts" he takes aim at the neoliberal McKinsey corporate consultants who wear ties out of indifference, while their responsibility has a lotus effect.

With songs like "Worauf willst du warten" (What are you waiting for), the charming entertainer reminds us not to let comfort win in life and settle comfortably in small waiting houses, but to go towards happiness. And the weirdest "wedding song" of the present shows that it is just the small and big questions of life that occupy him.

Roger Stein is a singer, songwriter, pianist and narrator at the same time - but above all he is a poet with a mischievous streak. He manages to wrap pain and melancholy in warmth and lightness, thus taking the coldness out of tragedy: Because every tragedy has its own humor.

His fans appreciate him as an eloquent entertainer who does not shy away from dialog with the audience and amazes his counterparts with his quick wit. The change from humor to seriousness is always unexpected, fast-paced and yet light-footed. An evening full of energy, power and romance.


Biographical sketch:

Zurich, Vienna and currently Berlin: these are the three home points of the young author and musician. Roger Stein grew up as an only child with his mother after the death of his father. He received classical piano training from the age of eight and studied at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. At the same time, he completed studies in both theater and musicology as well as German language and literature at the University of Vienna, earning a doctorate on "Das deutsche Dirnenlied."
In 2006, together with Sandra Kreisler, he founded the formation WORTFRONT, for which he writes all lyrics and music and with which he still tours diligently.
In 2013, his first solo album "Lieder ohne mich" was released on Konstantin Wecker's record label, with whom he has since toured frequently.
In 2018, his second solo album "Alles vor dem Aber" will be released on Konstantin Wecker's label "Sturm und Klang" (release date: 07.09.2018).

And what do others say?

Konstantin Wecker about Roger Stein:
"Roger Stein is simply great class. What lyrics. Always a special twist when you fear that now it could become banal. Clever and poetic, and highly musical. I'm looking forward to his new CD, which will soon be released on our label "Sturm und Klang".

"Stein is a lateral thinker, a visionary and an artist of the heart, and always
in search of realities away from mass stupidity" (Prinz).

"Singing poet with a free-range heart"(SZ Online).

"A man like this doesn't usually come their way."(Die Zeit)

Günther Wallraff on to Roger Stein's "Songs of a Postmodern Asshole":
"Roger Stein's sound hiphopt with poetry and resistance zugeich. His lyrics in the best
tradition of the Viennese abysmal: sensitive and brutally honest to themselves they ironize and explode the zeitgeist.