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Peter Wiegand
(vocal and narration)
Peter was born in Freiburg, Germany in 1953 the son of Austrian
and German parents. At the age of 30 he started to get itchy feet.
He needed a way to open up the valve and let the pressure out, to
express his turbulent experiences through his art. And what experiences
they were, at the age of 10 he was convicted of truancy and vagrancy
and sentenced to juvenile detention, and later placed in a foster
home for troubled youth. As a young man he drifted from country
to country, finding shelter in sub-standard housing, taking on odd
jobs as a house painter, a hardware salesman, a coach driver and
in an insurance office. A life like Jack Kerouacs "On
the Road, his travels took him to Sweden, Holland, France,
Greece, India and Israel where he lived on a Kibbutz. He marries,
and lives with his wife in a self-sufficient commune in Bavaria.
Kids are born. The family travels around the U.S. in a camper. Back
in Europe, Peter opens the first German Tofu business which goes
bankrupt, and ends not only in a financial disaster, but also in
a family break-up. Alone again, and back on the streets he ends
up in the U.S. again where he finds his way to the medium he was
originally trained in, the theatre. Doors begin to open for him
musically as well with projects with Mongolian singer Nan Chi Lac,
Nick McCarthy and his band "Franz Ferdinand and "Mahogony,
but the big breakthrough doesnt happen. He discovers the music
of Tom Waits relating deeply to the parallels between Waits
songs and his own history. Finally he leaves the Waits image
behind him in search of his own style. His mini-drama "Wien
ist nicht Chicago ("Vienna is not Chicago) is a
success. His quest to make his music as deeply layered and as full
of contrast as real life is realized in his encounter with "Die
Konferenz and "Catch Him if You Dream.
(Thomas Kraus / Paul Stowe)
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