Career
Schmidt was born in Frankfurt am Main, West Germany. During the early 1990s, he produced dance music under a number of monikers including Atom Heart. In 1994, Schmidt started his own label, Rather Interesting, with the aim of developing music that doesn't follow the "traditional paths of electronic music".
In 1996 he invented the Señor Coconut moniker, and released the album El Gran Baile in 1997, right after he had moved to Santiago, Chile, in order to detach from the European music scene.
His next release, in 2000, was El Baile Alemán, which featured several Kraftwerk classics reworked with Latin instrumentation and rhythms.
He has often stated Latin American, and particularly Brazilian, music as a big influence.
The album was credited to Señor Coconut y Su Conjunto, but the album was entirely the work of Schmidt on synthesizers and samplers, with the aid of three vocalists. It received just enough critical acclaim in the U.S. for Schmidt to put together a short headlining tour. In March 2001, Señor Coconut, complete with a seven-piece backing band, set off for North America, but visa problems with some of the Chilean musicians forced Schmidt to cancel the tour.
Read more about this topic: Uwe Schmidt
Famous quotes containing the word career:
“A black boxer’s career is the perfect metaphor for the career of a black male. Every day is like being in the gym, sparring with impersonal opponents as one faces the rudeness and hostility that a black male must confront in the United States, where he is the object of both fear and fascination.”
—Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)
“I seemed intent on making it as difficult for myself as possible to pursue my “male” career goal. I not only procrastinated endlessly, submitting my medical school application at the very last minute, but continued to crave a conventional female role even as I moved ahead with my “male” pursuits.”
—Margaret S. Mahler (1897–1985)
“Whether lawyer, politician or executive, the American who knows what’s good for his career seeks an institutional rather than an individual identity. He becomes the man from NBC or IBM. The institutional imprint furnishes him with pension, meaning, proofs of existence. A man without a company name is a man without a country.”
—Lewis H. Lapham (b. 1935)