Jenniffer Kae

Jennifer Kae could sing sooner than she could talk. A small concert stage, a rumbling backstage and a bus that drives you from A to B comprised a perfectly natural environment for the fetching little girl.  Mama and Papa made music and made a living doing so. Not always amply, but in sync with a family that managed to make ends meet. Jenniffer could already play instruments and hold the microphone with professional flair before she learned how to use knife and fork. She was born into an artist’s life and still today, now 20 years old, can’t imagine any other kind. When Mama began, she never had it as easy to get on stage, and we just have to tell her story briefly if we want to judge how self-confidently and determinedly Jenniffer later found her way to one of the hottest production teams out there.Teresa Maria grew up in a village in the Philippines. She had 13 sisters and brothers and went to a convent school to get a decent education, just like her siblings. The nuns there certainly didn’t have a career as a singer in mind. But Teresa did. She founded a girl band and, with school hardly over, she managed somehow to get to the States. Energy and ingenuity replaced the lack of hard cash. The attraction of soul, blues, Philly- and Motown-sound outweighed all difficulties. Once in the U.S. she grabbed her chance and lived the life of a professional musician. One proposal took her on a concert tour to Germany. She plunged into the current entertainment scene and not only maintained her public but also her newly founded family. Jennifer, and later her little sister Laura, were, on the one hand, not only genetically predestined, they also inhaled everything that had to do with music. Change of scene. From the musical parents’ home in Königsau to a recording studio in Vögelsen. There near Lüneburg, Peter Hoffmann has his studio, a dinosaur in the German producer scene.Up to now Tokio Hotel has been his greatest shot. If he is proud of this success he knows how to hide it with ease. He is a quiet, level-headed man, untypical for this line of work, who does not like to repeat himself and likes to try out new things. After the years spent building up Tokio Hotel, he wanted to work with a female singer and asked around. Jennifer Kae’s voice stuck in his mind. He invited her to audition, which ended with Jenniffer as part of the studio family. Hoffmann helped her find her own way. This experienced studio man is no friend of rush jobs. For four long years they experimented with different musical concepts. They tried working with German texts, but her musical feel for speech and rhythm had clearly been internationally formed. So Hoffmann sought a hands-on alliance with the English songwriter and producer team of Steve Chrisanthou and John Beck, who have worked with Corinne Bailey Rae, Michael Bolton and Tasmin Archer and took them on to success. They recognized the young singer’s vocal potential on the spot, and an intense collaboration began in which Jenniffer was not only meant to play the part of performer. From the beginning she was integrated into work on the lyrics, and her faith in her own ability to express herself grew. “There are things that build up till you almost burst—and they can then find their way out via my music and my voice.” The positive and the negative. Consciously or subconsciously. It’s about the soul, no question. As wide-ranging as every shade of inner life can be. And with a lightness of being that, between R&B, gospel and 60s nostalgia, very nonchalantly overturns all available tables. Jenniffer Kae can do it: make emotions into sounds, stories into songs. Stories that life writes new and dewy every day. “little white lies, for example, is a song about the tiny deceits we practice in a relationship that destroys trust and stifles the ‘we’.” The time has come for a complete break; you must be able to say ciao before the pain grows unbearable.  “little white lies” (release: 9 May 2008) is the first single uncoupled from the album “faithfully” (release: 16 May 2008); anyone who expects this to come on as a downhearted ballad doesn’t know Jenniffer very well. “Sure I sing about heavy themes—but I can’t let them weigh me down!” She sings the song with lots of energy—the soul can breathe again, the heart open.The family always followed the music trail. Jenniffer moved house 16 times, yet a little village not far from Mainz repeatedly became the hub of her activities.Here Jenniffer went to school, but followed her lessons with only one ear. In the other an earphone was plugged, hidden under her long hair. Despite this she was a good student and an active class president. She did what she could to fight injustices to her fellow students and defended herself when she was teased about her exotic looks. Just to pass the time after she finished, she enrolled in a secondary school.  And found it bored her to tears. Jenniffer didn’t even bother to formulate a conventional career wish—she had other plans.She was just 16 and free for a first adventure. Together with her sister, a smart cookie in her own right (and surely in the foreseeable future someone who will get written about), she set out to explore the world. Quite spontaneously. After a movie, simply head for Paris. A girlfriend had a car and a driving license, they all had the urge, money none had and yet they lived Paris to the fullest. They slept in youth hostels or on the lawn next to the Louvre. Or off to Frankurt to a Beyoncé concert. Tickets? Long ago sold out—and anyway much too expensive for their pocket-money budget. But wanna bet that the girls not only got in but even onto the stage and the backstage area? Jenniffer can make eyes that no security heavy can withstand. Especially when it’s a case of getting close to her idol.  Change of scene. From the musical parents’ home in Königsau to a recording studio in Vögelsen. There near Lüneburg, Peter Hoffmann has his studio, a dinosaur in the German producer scene.Up to now Tokio Hotel has been his greatest shot. If he is proud of this success he knows how to hide it with ease. He is a quiet, level-headed man, untypical for this line of work, who does not like to repeat himself and likes to try out new things. After the years spent building up Tokio Hotel, he wanted to work with a female singer and asked around. Jennifer Kae’s voice stuck in his mind. He invited her to audition, which ended with Jenniffer as part of the studio family. Hoffmann helped her find her own way. This experienced studio man is no friend of rush jobs. For four long years they experimented with different musical concepts. They tried working with German texts, but her musical feel for speech and rhythm had clearly been internationally formed. So Hoffmann sought a hands-on alliance with the English songwriter and producer team of Steve Chrisanthou and John Beck, who have worked with Corinne Bailey Rae, Michael Bolton and Tasmin Archer and took them on to success. They recognized the young singer’s vocal potential on the spot, and an intense collaboration began in which Jenniffer was not only meant to play the part of performer. From the beginning she was integrated into work on the lyrics, and her faith in her own ability to express herself grew. “There are things that build up till you almost burst—and they can then find their way out via my music and my voice.” The positive and the negative. Consciously or subconsciously. It’s about the soul, no question. As wide-ranging as every shade of inner life can be. And with a lightness of being that, between R&B, gospel and 60s nostalgia, very nonchalantly overturns all available tables. Jenniffer Kae can do it: make emotions into sounds, stories into songs. Stories that life writes new and dewy every day.“little white lies, for example, is a song about the tiny deceits we practice in a relationship that destroys trust and stifles the ‘we’.” The time has come for a complete break; you must be able to say ciao before the pain grows unbearable.  “little white lies” (release: 9 May 2008) is the first single uncoupled from the album “faithfully” (release: 16 May 2008); anyone who expects this to come on as a downhearted ballad doesn’t know Jenniffer very well. “Sure I sing about heavy themes—but I can’t let them weigh me down!” She sings the song with lots of energy—the soul can breathe again, the heart open.