The group of Funker Vogt was created 1995 by Gerrit Thomas and Jens Kästel as a side project of Gerrit’s synth-pop project Ravenous. Very soon after the release of the first album and limited single Funker Vogt became the main focus of Gerrit, though he is still involved in his many other musical endevours.
Funker Vogt Funker VogtThe name “Funker Vogt” is a friend of the band, who actually served in the German Federal Armed Forces. The name was to illustrate the main focus of the band – military / war.
The core band members each have distinct responsibilities: Gerrit composes the music, Jens sings. The lyrics are written mostly by Kai Schmidt, with some by Gerrit and Jens. Live members of the band include Gerrit, Jens, Björn Böttcher (keyboard) and Franc Schweigert (guitar), whom replaced Thomas Kroll in the year 2004 .
Funker Vogt released 4 albums, 4 EPs, 5 singles, 1 remix-cd and 1 video (VHS) on the ledgendary label Zoth Ommog (a division of Music Research) and the label Bloodline (a division of net-hit.com GmbH). In December 2001 the first four albums were re-released with bonus tracks on the label REPORecords. In 2002, the band joined to SPV with the 5th album as well as 2 remix CDs and 2 MCDs. In 2004 REPORecords released the first out-of-print singles / rarities collection titled “Always and Forever Vol. 1” in the form of a double CD in a digi-pack. In 2005 the 6th album was released on SPV and in 2006 the second volume of the Always and Forever series was released on REPORecords. Also in 2006, a MCD of a song from the 6th album was released as part of a german-languge PC game. Now in 2007 the new album Aviator is released as a CD/DVD combination, the first DVD release for Funker Vogt.
Funker Vogt is not limited to Germany: live performances have been made in Spain, Portugal, Russia, Poland. Denmark, France, Belgium, Holland, Italy, South Africa, Israel, South America, England and the United States. Moreover, Funker Vogt is well established in the US market with a strong distribution through Metropolis Records. In Russia, Funker Vogt is available through Soyuz.
Appart from the constant production of music from Funker Vogt and the many side projects (Ravenous, Fusspils 11, Fictional), the band is infamous for thier intense live shows. Initalaly a two-man show the performances have evolved into a power-house of Electro-anthems blasted from the four members on stage.
