Faderhead

Sami Mark Yahya, professionally known by his stage name Faderhead is a German electronic music producer from Hamburg, Germany. His music is usually described as EBM, Synthpop or Futurepop.

History

After releasing the track "The Protagonist" as a one-off compilation entry on the Advanced Electronics Vol. 3, Faderhead received a deal with Accession Records/Indigo to release his debut album FH1 in 2006. Positive reviews made FH1 an instant debut-success with standout tracks like "The Protagonist", "Vanish" and "O/H Scavenger". The year progressed and saw Faderhead play shows alongside bands like Diary Of Dreams, SITD, Painbastard and others.

2007 saw the release of the FH2 CD which featured the club hit "Dirtygrrrls/Dirtybois". Faderhead released a music video for the track "Girly Show" and played festivals like Wave-Gotik-Treffen (Germany) and Infest (UK) among other shows.

2008 started with the departure from Accession Records and the signing to L-Tracks Recordings. This decision led to serious speculation regarding the future of Faderhead by press and fans, but the free song/video release of the piano ballad "Exit Ghost" revealed that the project would continue. Only a few months later the club anthem "TZDV" was released, and on October 10, the FH3 album was released and again gathered top reviews.

In 2009, Faderhead played the M'era Luna Festival (Germany), the Exit Festival (Serbia) as well as shows in the Netherlands, Italy, Greece, Great Britain, Belgium and Mexico. In October 2009, Faderhead released the "Horizon Born" EP, which was well received.

2010 saw the release of Trilogy. Since FH1, FH2 and FH3 had been sold out and were not reprinted, Faderhead decided to compile the most popular 18 tracks from that release onto one CD.

In October 2010, the fourth full-length album, Black Friday, was released. The concept album tells the story of a night gone wrong. It was accompanied by a 15-minute short movie and quickly garnered reviews as Faderhead’s most mature album. Faderhead played a European club tour as well as the Christmas Ball Festival tour with Laibach, Project Pitchfork, Fields Of The Nephilim and Agonoize.

2011 began with a 15-show tour in the USA with Aesthetic Perfection and Everything Goes Cold and ended with a download-only EP release called “The Way To Fuck Clubs”, which showcased remixes of “The Way To Fuck God” as well as an acoustic version of “Hot Bath And A Cold Razor” and “The Moth And The Fire”. The biggest show of 2011 happened at Wave-Gotik-Treffen in Leipzig when the festival organizers had to close the venue to prevent overcrowding.

In 2012, the fifth album, The World Of Faderhead, was released alongside three 360° panoramic images and 3 music videos. The video to “Fistful Of Fuck You” became popular, due to its original style and content. Faderhead headlined a 14-show US tour and played all over Europe including a set at the M'era Luna Festival hangar stage. The European pressing of “The World Of Faderhead” was already almost sold out before the end of the year and Faderhead reached the no. 7 spot of MusicNonStop’s best-selling releases of 2012 in the UK, tying And One and coming in ahead of legacy-acts like Fields Of The Nephilim, De/Vision, Suicide Commando and Hocico. Because "The World Of Faderhead" sold out so quickly, Faderhead also released the double-CD-compilation "Two Sides To Every Story" which features Faderhead's most popular clubtracks on CD 1 and the most popular pop-songs/ballads on CD 2.

Faderhead's live shows are currently supported by either Marco Visconti (XP8), Jörg Lütkemeier (Straftanz) or Daniel and Joe Meyer (Project SAM) on keyboards and backing vocals. The Hamburg producer/vocalist uses different musicians for live performances and so far has played with Alex Montana (drums/percussion) and Christine LaGivrée, Dr. T, Shaolyn, Chandler XL, Judith Dorn and Shawn Mierez.

Video game

A video game based on the music video for Fistful of Fuck You was created and released in 2014. The Beats of Rage game engine was used to program and run the game. Its design was based on images created by the music video's artists and programmed by Trev Nethers of the New York-based industrial band, Social Autopsy. The game pays strict attention to the music video's content, allowing players to relive the music video first hand. It also includes playable characters, enemies and levels not featured in the music video. The game can be downloaded via Faderhead's official website.

Discography

Studio albums

• 2006: FH1 (Accession Records)
• 2007: FH2 (Accession Records)
• 2008: FH3 (L-Tracks Recordings)
• 2010: Black Friday (L-Tracks Recordings)
• 2012: The World of Faderhead (L-Tracks Recordings)
• 2013: FH4 (L-Tracks Recordings)
• 2014: Atoms & Emptiness
• 2016: FH-X

Compilation albums

• 2010: Trilogy (L-Tracks Recordings)
• 2012: Two Sides To Every Story (2CD) (L-Tracks Recordings)

EPs

• 2009: Horizon Born (L-Tracks Recordings)
• 2011: The Way to Fuck Clubs (L-Tracks Recordings)
• 2013: Empires of the Northern Lights v2.42 (Bandcamp)
• 2015: The Tokyo Tapes

Singles

• 2004: "The Protagonist"
• 2006: "OH Scavenger vs. the Protagonist"
• 2006: "Bassgod"
• 2008: "Exit Ghost"
• 2010: "69 Freaks Per Minute"
• 2013: "Artificial Bullshit (Demo)"

Music videos

• Girly Show
• Exit Ghost
• Tanz Zwo Drei Vier
• Dirtygrrrls/Dirtybois (ft. Ultimate MC)
• Horizon Born (Electric Paradise Club Edit)
• Black Friday (Short Movie)
• Destroy Improve Rebuild
• The Way to Fuck God
• Fistful of Fuck You
• Older Now
• Inside of Me
• Dancers (ft.Shawn Mierez & Shaolyn)
• When the Freaks Come Out
• No Gods, No Flags, No Bullshit

Free download MP3 releases

• Dirtygrrrls/Dirtybois (N64 Remix)
• Going Home Alone (DDT Version)
• In Bloom (Remix of the Nirvana Song)
• Sexyback (Justin Timberlake Cover)
• The Protagonist (Doctor Retroid's B-Movie Ride of Doom Remix)
• White Wedding (Billy Idol Cover)
• White Room (Cream Cover)
• Living With Lions (Demo)
• Death By Sushi

Compilation releases

• 2006: Accession Records Volume Three (Bassgod)
• 2006: Bestie:Mensch (Dirtygrrrls Dirtybois (Remix By [:SITD:]) )
• 2007: Extreme Sündenfall 6 (Dirtygrrrls/Dirtybois (Modulate Remix) )
• 2007: Fxxk the Mainstream Vol. 1 (Dirtygrrrls/Dirtybois (Electro For the Masses Remix) )
• 2009: Extreme Sündenfall 8 (TZDV (Club Version) )
• 2009: Extreme Sündenfall 9 (Horizon Born (Electric Paradise Club Edit) )
• 2010: Kinetik Festival Volume Three (69 Freaks Per Minute )