Joris – Herz über Kopf

Hopelessly hopeful - this isn’t just the title of the debut album for Joris Bucholz (in short: Joris), who with his band shook up the German music scene in 2015 like hardly anyone else ever has. These words stand for much more, namely the attitude towards life that this 25-year-old singer-songwriter from a small town in North Rhine Westphalia holds: “This play on words has always been in my head. Of course there are sad moments in my life, that’s part of it. But all in all, it has to be nice. We need to enjoy life.”

The beauty in Joris’ life can be attributed to one thing more than anything: music. At the age of five, his parents gave him his first drum set. At seven he got piano lessons added on. But Joris admits: “I was really lazy then. Even now I can’t really read music that well.” Nevertheless he kept playing piano, sang along and later taught himself guitar. By age eleven he was composing his first songs and when he went to the United States for an exchange year at age 16 he began to record his music. Back at home in Vlotho near Bielefeld he built his first small studio in the basement of his parents’ house.

After graduating from high school Joris moved to Berlin where he studied sound and music production for two semesters before moving to Mannheim to attend the Pop Academy. Here is where he met - bit by bit - those who ended up being his bandmates. He wrote songs and worked hard at his part-time job as a backliner on tours for larger bands. Joris said he learned a lot during this time, “but when you’re always on the sidelines bringing the guitars up, over time it becomes unbelievably frustrating.” Especially for a talented guy like Joris.

So in 2014 he went back to Berlin and began recording his first album that came out in April 2015 and climbed from 0 to 3 on the charts - a smash hit. In no small part this was due to how authentic Joris’ music and lyrics are. Joris wrote all thirteen songs on the album on his own and he sees himself as a storyteller and the music as a medium for the stories that either he experienced himself or that inspire him.

Whereas in the beginning he wrote his lyrics in English, for some time now he’s switched to writing his songs completely in German: “My album has quite an English sound to it, and it was important to me that when you lose yourself in the music the music offers an emotion and speaks for itself. But at the same time, I want for people to listen closely to me, to the very last detail. I want them to be able to listen that closely. I don’t want to be missing that ever again.”