After a long, serious illness, Andreas Herbig died this Monday in Hamburg at the age of only 55. The Boogieman, as he was nicknamed, was a high priest of pop music. A man with magic hands on the controls of his mixer, who produced the comeback album “Stark wie Zwei” (2008) for Udo Lindenberg.
In his legendary mixing room at the Boogie Park Studios in Hamburg’s Ottensen district, German pop stars in particular have frequented the doorstep over the years. In addition to Ich & Ich and Adel Tawil, Juli, Cassandra Steen, Deichkind, Reamonn, Jochen Distelmeyer, Peter Heppner, Culcha Candela, Andreas Bourani, Sasha and Till Brönner also trusted Herbig’s sound arts.
But the charismatic Hanseat was also on the road internationally. He has produced for Bootsy Collins, Brandy, Lil’ Kim and worked on two albums with Norwegian high-end poppers A-ha. On the side, he ran a music publishing company and the production company Tonofen.
Udo Lindenberg spontaneously condoled via Instagram with a rhymed farewell: “I’m walking down the street, strong as two – and you’re always there.. yes, you’re always a pioneer: you’re traveling ahead and at some point we’ll follow you. andreas decided in his life for a higher trajectory, the life of the ‘normal’ was never his thing; like icarus – greet the sun that fuels your beautiful explosive madness and great genius!! deepest thanks and connected forever.”
After the studio time for “Stark wie Zwei” Lindenberg kept the direct line to the Boogieman. In a team of three, Herbig took over the musical direction, arrangements and production for the Lindenberg album “MTV Unplugged – Live from the Hotel Atlantic”. In the same production team, Herbig took care of Lindenberg’s 2016 studio album, “Stronger Than Time”.
Jan Delay, who often worked in the Boogie Park Studio, also said goodbye via Instagram to the “crastest producer”, who also decisively advanced the Hamburg hip-hop scene and discovered the band Deichkind. “In the noughties he felt his fingers on the controller for every third radio hit from Germany and got several echoes. But no matter how trendy the production, you could still hear the Bergedorf kiddie with the ‘SP-12’,” the hip-hop soulman recalls.