You may have noticed that it has been nearly five years since Wolfsheim’s most recent album, Casting Shadows, released in 2003. During that time, Wolfsheim’s founder Markus Reinhardt has been trying to move the band ahead with new work, but the band’s singer Peter Heppner has since announced his ambitions for an extensive solo career. In late 2005, he signed a multi-album contract with Warner Music for his own music. Upon hearing this, Markus considered it a breach of contract and a disregard for the basic interests of Wolfsheim because Peter’s new plans did not allow the production of a new Wolfsheim album until 2010. He filed a lawsuit against Peter at the Regional Court of Hamburg to have him excluded from the Wolfsheim partnership so that the band could continue without him. The court tried to negotiate a more peaceful arrangement, but it was just not possible. Their final decision for the lawsuit will be announced sometime this Spring.

It is always very unfortunate when such talented musicians who worked so well together in the past suddenly cannot resolve their differences without a court battle. Every musician’s career develops and changes over time, and all good things must come to an end eventually. Sometimes, you just have to quit what you’re doing and move on to a different project, but Peter Heppner seems not to understand this. His desire to stay with Wolfsheim during all of this was just unreasonable, he cannot expect his bandmate Markus to wait several more years before he makes some time for Wolfsheim again. Peter should have just accepted that his time with Wolfsheim was over and left peacefully when he signed such a major deal for his solo work. Markus may not have been happy about it, but at least Peter would have been more polite and considerate of someone he has worked closely with for so many years. That’s the way I see it.

There is a full press release (PDF file) that was released yesterday on Wolfsheim’s website that explains the entire situation in detail. I’ll keep you updated about the final court decision and the future of both bands in the coming months.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 17th, 2008 at 8:57 pm and is filed under Gothic, Other, Synthpop, Wolfsheim. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.