The Other Ones (Australian-German band)

The Other Ones^[1] was a band that consisted mainly of Australians, but was based in Berlin, Germany in the late 1980s. The band consisted of Alf Klimek (vocals), Jayney Klimek (vocals), Johnny Klimek (bass), Andreas Schwarz-Ruszczynski (guitars), Stephan Gottwald (keyboards) and Uwe Hoffmann (drums).

History

After travelling the world in the late 1970s as a puppeteer and then as a singer, Alf returned home to Melbourne, Australia to collaborate with his younger brother Johnny in a more musical direction. Together they returned to Berlin, West Germany in late 1983 and along with Johnny's twin sister Jayney (who had been in a band back in Australia as well) formed the musical group "The Other Ones", enlisting three local Berlin musicians, guitarist Andreas Schwarz-Ruszczynski, keyboardist Stephan Gottwald and drummer Uwe Hoffmann.

They signed to Virgin Records in 1984 and recorded an album of music in Sussex, England at Comfort's Place Studios. They shared the same management as the band Alphaville, and based themselves in Berlin.

The Other Ones

Their self-titled album was released in late 1986.^[2] Their first single "We Are What We Are" peaked at No. 53 on 30 May 1987 and their song "Holiday" peaked on the Billboard Hot 100 chart at No. 29 on 17 October 1987. Music videos for the two songs were also released.

(The song "Holiday" was remixed and re-released as "Another Holiday" in 1991.)

Learning to Walk

After touring worldwide for almost a year on the success of the album, they quickly began to put together a second album. In 1988 the album Learning to Walk was released by Virgin Records, but none of the singles released in support of the album charted worldwide.

In 1990, less than five years after beginning the group, Alf left, in essence dissolving the band.

After the break-up

Alf travelled back and forth for a while between Berlin and Melbourne, eventually opening his own music recording studio there called Birdland with producer Lindsay Gravina. In 1998 he was asked by Klaus Baumgart to create a series of musical and audiobook CD productions based on the successful Laura's Star series. Brother Johnny and sister Jayney helped out in part of the production. Currently Alf and Johnny often team up as partners for children's music and in writing concepts, scripts, and music for children's theatre, film, and television.

Jayney collaborated with many other musicians and bands and was a co-lead singer in the Tony Banks solo project Bankstatement in 1989. She was a vocalist on his 1991 solo album Still. She has also worked with such diverse groups as Tangerine Dream, Paul van Dyk, Alphaville, and the French band XII Alfonso. She also co-wrote and performed lead vocals on Digital Tenderness Terranova and in 2004 started a new band with former Other Ones bandmate Schwarz-Ruszczynski named You Pretty Thing, with backing vocals from Alf and Johnny. They released an album in March 2008 titled Tune In and their first single, titled "Push It," became the most played song on German radio group RadioEins history. The band is currently on hiatus.

Johnny Klimek collaborated with the German filmmaker Tom Tykwer and fellow composer Reinhold Heil on the soundtracks for Tykwer's films Run Lola Run, Winter Sleepers, The International, and Perfume: The Story of a Murderer. He has also composed music for the HBO television series Deadwood, John From Cincinnati and the motion picture One Hour Photo, starring Robin Williams. His credits also include Land of the Dead, One Missed Call and 6 Days on Earth.

Andreas went on to play with other bands and groups throughout the 1990s, collaborating with Boy George, Trevor Horn, Klaus Schulze, Pet Shop Boys, Steve Lipson, Julian Mendelsen, and Jack White and in 1999 re-entered the dance charts with a song titled "Hypnotic" with German techno band UKW., produced by German trance DJ–producer ATB. He also opened his own recording studio in Berlin named Bibest Studio and has co-produced, written, and recorded many projects there. In 2004 he and fellow ex-Other Ones bandmate Jayney Klimek created the band You Pretty Thing in the Bibest Studio and performed all over Europe in support of their completed album release in 2008.

Stephan Gottwald began producing in 1991 at the world-famous Hansa Tonstudio in Berlin and began collaborating with Ben Lauber and Moses Schneider to form a production team called Bauknex. He has produced and created his own music albums independently since.

Uwe Hoffmann also went on to produce many albums for Die Ärzte and other musicians such as Ulla Meinecke and Sportfreunde Stiller.

Charted songs

Notes

References

• The Other Ones discography at Discogs
• The Other Ones fan page
• Johnny Klimek at the Internet Movie Database
• Johnny Klimek at Tom Tykwer's official website
• Johnny Klimek at the Alphaville Fanclub
• You Pretty Thing (Jayney Klimek and Andreas Schwarz-Ruszczynski) official website
• The Other Ones at charts.org.nz