ItaloBrothers

ItaloBrothers
Background information
Origin	Nordhorn, Germany
Genres	Italo dance, techno, hands up, slager, electronica, eurodance, jumpstyle eurotrance
Instruments	Vocals
Years active	2005 (2005)–present
Labels	Zooland, Kontor
Associated acts	Manian, Yanou, Tune Up!, Carlprit
Website	www.italobrothers.de
Members	Matthias Metten Zacharias Adrian Kristian Sandberg

ItaloBrothers is a German dance project from Nordhorn, Germany. The band consists of: vocalist Matthias Metten, who works in the studio with Zacharias Adrian (also known as Zac McCrack) and Christian Müller (also known as Kristian Sandberg). They are most successful in Scandinavia and Central Europe, but also go on tour in Eastern Europe.^[1] They release all their songs on Zooland Records.

Music style

The general musical style of ItaloBrothers (except "My Life Is a Party" and "This Is Nightlife") is comparable with dance bands or artists, mostly from Italy, like Bloom 06, Prezioso, Floorfilla, Gigi D'Agostino, Gabry Ponte or some releases of DJ Manian and has influences of Italo dance, hands up and jumpstyle. They were also compared to Scooter.^[2]

In contrast to this, the music style of their singles "Cryin' In The Rain", "My Life Is a Party" and "This Is Nightlife" is mostly influenced by commercial European dance music like house and electro. This style can be compared to artists like R.I.O., 2010s releases of Manian and Cascada, and Mike Candys.

Musical career

2005-2008: Musical beginnings

Matthias Metten from ItaloBrothers live in Italy at Reggio nell'Emilia (March 2012). The tattoo on his arm contains the geographical coordinates of the house where he has grown up near the German town Nordhorn.^[3]

The band was founded in November 2005, after the three band members having already made music together since 2003.^[4] Their first official release was "The Moon", an italo-dance track released in July 2006 on an EP by their label Zooland called Zooland Italo EP.^[5] In 2007, they gained growing popularity with the release of "Moonlight Shadow", a cover version of the 1980 release of the same name by Mike Oldfield^[6] and a cooperation with German dance group Tune Up! called "Colours of the Rainbow".^[7] In 2006 and 2007, they also released various remixes of songs by other musicians for which they re-recorded the vocals and published them as "Italobrothers New Voc Rmx". Their next two releases, "Counting Down the Days"^[8] and "Where Are You Now?",^[9] established a fanbase throughout Europe.

2009-2010: Commercial success in Scandinavia

A new single, "So Small", which is a cover of the Carrie Underwood song of the same name, was published in November 2009.^[10] It is the only single that was directly available on CD.^[11] Another release, the digital Love is on Fire EP, was released in March 2010.^[12]

The song "Stamp on the Ground", which was originally released in September 2009,^[13] was selected as official song for the Norwegian Russefeiring event 2010.^[14] The song was therefore re-released in Scandinavia and became a huge success, reaching the Top 20 in Norway^[15] and Denmark.^[16] The song also gained a chart position in Sweden^[17] and in the dance charts of Switzerland^[18] and Austria.^[19] The song was certified gold for 15,000 sold units in Denmark.^[20][21]

Following the success of "Stamp on the Ground", an album called Stamp! was released in December 2010^[22] which contains all to this point released singles and five new tracks. One of this tracks with the title "Upside Down" was said to be a copy of the Russian singer Reda's track "Ja budu s Taboj". Her label DaTa Music took proceedings against the further release of the track, but the end of this lawsuit is unknown.^[23]

A follow-up-single called "Radio Hardcore" was released in December 2010^[24] and was able to recreate the success of "Stamp on the Ground" in Denmark.^[16]

2011-2013: Change of music style and commercial success in Central Europe

In May 2011, a new track named "Cryin' in the Rain" was published,^[25] that differs very much from the common music style as it is a ballad with House elements. However, there was also released an "IB HandsUp! Remix" featuring the common style. This release was seen as an experiment. For their next release, "Boom", they worked together with the rapper Carlprit.^[26] This track is again in their old style, but features dubstep parts while Carlprit is rapping.

For the second time ItaloBrothers have produced the official Russ anthem, this time called "Pandora 2012"^[27] which was released on 13 April 2012.^[28]

On 27 July 2012 the band released a new single called "My Life Is a Party"^[29] which is a cover of the track "Dragostea din tei" by O-Zone from 2004. The radio edit of the song is still in typical ItaloBrothers style but the video features a remix by German dance band R.I.O., and was released on Kontor Records thus gaining a huge amount on YouTube views. The song entered the Top 20 in Austria,^[30] and managed to reach the first chart positions for the band in their home country, Germany,^[31] and in Switzerland, too.^[32] The song also charted in France^[33] and Belgium.^[34]

Another new track named "This Is Nightlife", which contains elements of the song "Ecuador" by Sash! from 1997, was uploaded to YouTube on 13 March 2013^[35] and was released as single two days later.^[36] The band changed their music style similar to the style of the video remix of their last single because it was much more successful than their old style. The song was able to recreate the success of the last single in Germany^[31] and Austria^[30] and additionally entered the Top 30 in Switzerland.^[32]

The band announced that they again produced a song for a Norwegian Russefeiring event, this time called "Luminous Intensity"^[37] which was officially released on 19 April 2013.^[38]

The band released the single "Up 'N Away" on 28 March 2014. On 28 November 2014, the band released another single "P.O.D." (People of DreamHack).

Discography

Albums

• 2010: Stamp!^[22]

Singles

• A ^ The song "My Life Is a Party" did not enter the Ultratop 50, but peaked at number 34 on the Ultratip chart, which acts as an extension to the Ultratop 50.

Remixes

• Young London - Let Me Go (ItaloBrothers Radio Edit) (2013)
• Manian - Saturday Night (ItaloBrothers Radio Edit) (2013)
• Floorfilla - Italodancer (ItaloBrothers New Vocal Remix) (2007)
• Manian - Turn The Tide (ItaloBrothers New Voc Rmx) (2007)
• Dan Winter & Rob Mayth - Dare Me (ItaloBrothers New Voc Rmx) (2007)
• Manian feat. Aila - Heaven (ItaloBrothers New Voc Rmx) (2007)
• Cascada - Ready For Love (ItaloBrothers New Voc Rmx) (2006)
• Cerla vs. Manian - Jump (ItaloBrothers New Voc Rmx) (2006)

References

External links

• Official Homepage