BIOGRAPHIES

After his birth on January 15th, 1952, it took just 8 years until Joey Albrecht grabbed a string instrument for the first time. Early on, he was part of a mandolin orchestra. "Little Joey" was 10 years old when he founded his first band. "The Almights" gigged in countless clubs across the German state of Lower Saxony. Everybody was excited - with the exception of the headmaster of Joey's school. He wrote a letter to the Albrecht parents in which he demanded an end to what he called "the wrong influences" for their son. Joey never really followed that demand. 

At age 13 Joey recorded his first record. He hit the stages of the famous "Starclub" in Hamburg (yes, the same club The Beatles had gigged in extensively years before).

When asked about his musical influences, Joey names Latin American guitarists as well as Jimi Hendrix, John Lee Hooker, John McLaughlin, Ray Charles and Chick Corea.

In 1969, Joey moved to Berlin. After performing as a solo artist for a few months, he founded his life project Karthago.

A busy and wild period started at this stage. As opposed to his fellow Karthago members, Joey already had a lot of experience with record releases. The guitarist, vocalist, producer and composer today: "I had to teach everyone all the time. And my approach was different. So I put everyone under pressure. Back then, I was not interested in any political issues, but rather in success." The key to success was quality, which Joey stuck to eversince

After the preliminary end of Karthago in 1976, Joey invested a lot of energy into many projects. Those included "Bad Boy" as well as the "Joey Albrecht Band". In between, there were some temporary Karthago revivals with different line-ups. In addition, Joey worked as a pick-up musician.

"When Ingo asked me to think about a full-blown Karthago revival a few years ago, I did not want to do it at first", Joey says. But by now, he is glad and enjoys working on the DVD, which will be released soon, as well as on the next Karthago album. "We are trying to stick to the approach we followed back then. The difference: We do not have those image neurosis problems we used to have. And there is no lack of discipline anymore."

Joey is very happy about today's Karthago line-up. This of course applies also to the new band members Rolo and Chris. "Nowadays It is hard to find people like them", Joey says.