A musician goes to the doctor and is diagnosed with an above-average lung capacity. He then becomes a singer and forms a band. What sounds like the start of a weird joke is actually the story of the Munich band freak. The singer Benito Altmann, bourgeois Benedikt Höcherl, got Corona and consequently wanted to have his lungs examined. At the doctor’s he was first asked whether he was a singer or an extreme athlete – and if not, he should try one of the two. “But then it was clear that it would not be extreme sports, but singing,” says Benito.
Benito, pianist Nico Christ and drummer Alexander Petri are not new faces on the Munich music scene. But her vision is all the newer. Under almost every one of their social media posts is the slogan “Freak is vision”https://www.sueddeutsche.de/muenchen/.”The freak is a bit of the future, or the vision of the future,” says Benito . The band wants to show that there is much more to come.
Freak, that’s hard to ignore, it’s a concept. Beginning with the word and its long history, to the genre “future punk”, in which the band is classified. “The freak, as we imagine it, is a lot of what might be jarring, what’s irritating, what many don’t dare to show, because it can be a great relief to identify with a character like that,” says Nico.
The Munich-based company has already released three pre-singles, and the debut album is to follow in the summer. There are music videos for all singles, with one particularly striking. The video for the single “Europa”, for which the Spanish production company has already been nominated for two awards: dystopian images, connected minds, a gray world in which an elusive story takes place. Benito sings: “I don’t feel at home here anymore… I’m an alien.” The other two videos are more DIY-style and – just like the German lyrics of the songs – are reminiscent of the days of the Neue Deutsche Welle.
“We’re extremely lucky that we can create a world right from the start that’s not just a band and a sound, but also has a lot to offer visually,” says Benito.
FREAK
Genre/Style: future punk
Occupation: Benito Altmann, Nico Christ, and Alexander Petri
Since: 2022
Internet: www.instagram.com/freakisvision/