Jan Müller explains in his column why it’s not always fun to be a child prodigy.
“Six-year-old makes crazy pop.” My friend Rasmus sent me this message combined with a Bandcamp link a few days ago. And when Rasmus sends me a link, I always click on it immediately. Leo Lackritz is the name of the six-year-old. His album is titled CRAZY ENOUGH and is great from the music to the artwork. It consists of seventeen strange songs that Leo from Toronto single-handedly sang, programmed and played.
As I listened, however, I soon began to wonder whether his father’s claim that Leo really did it all on his own was really true. After all, the father, Ronnie Lackritz, is a music producer, and it would have been easy for him to take corrective action here or there. But: I believe in the good. And it’s crystal clear: If an adult had been involved in Leo’s album (in the truest sense of the word), the result wouldn’t have been nearly as great. Hats off, Leo!
In general, being a child prodigy isn’t always fun
In general, being a child prodigy isn’t always fun. What did Mozart, the prodigy of all prodigies, think about being put at the piano so early by his father and playing concerts at the age of six? We do not know it. Even today, child prodigies are usually cautious when it comes to evaluating externalized parental ambition. During the Reflexionr conversation with the great pianist Igor Levit, I was met with evasive answers when I asked him what it was like to start playing the piano at the age of three and to play his first concerts as a six-year-old.
There are undoubtedly numerous child prodigies, at least in the pop world, who suffered psychological damage as a result of their early careers. Just think of Michael Jackson or Britney Spears. Others have managed to slip into unremarkable adult lives. Hein Simons aka Heintje, for example (“Mama”). Today he runs a riding stable in Belgium.
It’s better to hear Heintje’s kitsch than the kitsch of some political rock combos
By the way: Did you actually know that Hans Jürgen Krahl, APO activist and chief ideologist of the Frankfurt SDS, was an ardent Heintje admirer? This earned him ridicule. But I think it’s better to hear Heintje’s kitsch than the kitsch of some political rock combos. Was Heintje a child prodigy? The term child star is probably more appropriate for him. And it was probably not the eight-year-old Heintje himself who came up with the idea of starting a career as a child star.
However, some child stars also have an independent urge to be on stage. For example, I own all the albums by the great Berlin band The Teens. And I was really impressed when Bill Kaulitz credibly explained to me in the Reflexionr interview that he already knew at the age of 11 that he was born for a life as a pop star. It’s obvious that both the teens and the Tokio Hotel adults didn’t get too involved. The Icelandic Björk also recorded her first album when she was twelve. However, it has always been musically anything but externally determined.
However, it wasn’t until I was an adult that I realized that as a child who listened to punk music, I had often listened to children’s music: Andreas Löhr, singer and guitarist of ChaosZ, founded his dark band at the age of 14. Also Sara Schär, singer of the legendary Swiss band Band TNT, whose “Züri brännt” is still unforgettable today, was only 14 at the time. And German W from a band called Oberste Heeresleitung (OHL), more of a speaker than a singer, who drew attention to himself with confusing but certainly snappy pamphlet lyrics (“Life in Germany, like shit on the wall”) was a 16-year-old boy at the time.
Truly unbelievable
But even if you open up the age horizon a little, you can’t help but be amazed. How did Peter Hein and the Fehlfarben manage to record such immortal hits with age-appropriate lyrics such as “Grey Veil” and “Paul is dead” at the age of 22? Ian Curtis was also only in his early 20s when he sang the super-anthem “Love Will Tear Us Apart”.
This list can be continued indefinitely: Georg Büchner created “Danton’s Death” at the age of 21, Mary Shelley wrote “Frankenstein” at the age of 20 and Françoise Sagan wrote “Bonjour Tristesse” at the age of 17. I would have the opportunity now, at the age of 52, and therefore infinitely jealous and to be depressed, or I’m just happy about how early people understand so much about life. And now I’m listening to “Age Of Dinosaurs” by Leo Lackritz again. Truly unbelievable!
On Jan Müller’s “ Reflexionr” podcast: www.steadyhq.com/de/reflektor
Jan Müller from Tocotronic meets interesting musicians for his “ Reflexionr” podcast. He reports on these encounters in Musikexpress and on Musikexpress.de. This column first appeared in Musikexpress issue 11/2023.