Days and nights of music

Actual members of The Morning Comes. From left to right: Jörg Tinnes (guitar), Tom Paatsch (bass) and Oliver Batz (lead vocals and guitar). Behind them, Bernie Meizinger (drums).

The presence of music in the current life of our society is as neccesary as the air that we breath. It has remained with the human being in many ways and genres. This report shows a little bit about this topic, throught a group of people from overseas who live and work like us, but that –at the same time- is abbocated to another hobbie that , is more than that. The rock music. Here is the surprising revelations of two of its members.

This is the story of four men who lives thousand of kilometers from here, in a place, in the other side od the Atlantic called Velbert-Langenberg, town located 35 km from Düsseldorf (in the State of Nordrhein-Westfalen), Germany. All of them dedicated to different professions and interests , but sometimes they meet to come true some projets that are really interestings and with good quality.

The trajectory of the rock music in Germany is hardly known excepting some cases that have reached the international recognizement like the music and stunning lyrics of Udo Lindenberg or the rising of the rock pop way called "deutsche welle" (german wave) in the 80's, but the interest and the permanent dedication to this genre has been always alive. And this is the case of The Morning Comes rock group which these boys belong to.

From up to down: Oliver Batz, leading voice and founder of the band and Jörg Tinnes (guitar)

This rock band was created in 1993 by Oliver Batz almost like a game, but now its a hole serious work and passion. From that time to now, they haven’t stop making music and going on in a short and long term – projects. They perform ocassionaly in local bars and pubs and some of their albums have been sold in the music stores of their town. All of this is made, aside of the musical industry –cannons and/or the charts of the radio media.

And we say that because the majority of rock bands from here, from Germany or the India, can't sleep because of the idea of hearing some of their songs in the top hours of the radio station –shows, and, with it, the fame and the succes that allows them to fill their pockets and live of music. However the members of this bands are not interested in that.

The Morning Comes in a rehearsal

Living of what they know to do

“Singing and playing what you want, is actually the great thing about being a musician. No restrictions from producers and so on. Comment Jörg Tinnes, guitar man of the band. “So you got to decide: being a professional, or being yourself” And no doubt that, they have chosen the first option” .

Jörg joined the band a year ago and, with Oliver, nowadays is involved in new projects and, most important, reformulate the stylistic part, now that the keyboarder Gunnar Köllmann, one of the oldest members has left the band.

“Gunnar left us a month ago (to do some personal projects) and now we are involved in working more intensively on the tracks nowadays” says Oliver, who is not only the voice and first guitar, but the composer of The Morning Comes songs like Dayly blues Angelina, Electrocuted and Hold on.

(Who writes this lines had the chance of hear a good repertoire of its production and verify the quality and beauty of its works).

Jörg adds to this that “i think that depends mainly on who is joining your band and what is possible with these people not only from the technical point of view” . And it has been many times that The Morning Comes has changed of members, for one or another reason, and with it, the spirit and style of the band.

Nowadays in the group, besides Oliver and Jörg, Thomas Paatsch (bass) y Bernhard Meinzinger (drums), participate on in, but the idea of making music remained always there. And more, since they remember, they have loved music.

"i think that depends mainly on who is joining your band and what is possible with these people not only from the technical point of view”

Born to the music
For that reason, we can say that the story of each one of the actual members of this band can be written easily in ruled staffs.

Oliver tell us his story: “I began to play guitar with a schoolfriend in 1990, we created the band three years later as a "school-mates-joking-party-band. But all became into serious project in 1996. I remember singing since I was three years of age. I wrote my first songs when I was about 11 years”. And in his very early ages, he already used to hear and sing The Beatles and other classic bands .

In these days, Oliver spend time in this passion and working as a computing supporter in a telephone company.

In Jörg’s home, music was like the bread of each morning. “I grew up with my father being a free time tenor in a classical choir and my elder brother being a professional musician. So i heard a lot of classical music at my parents house” tells who is also violoncellist in a loca l orchrest 25 years ago, and a criminal inspector of a ressort in his city. But, beside this, Jörg plays also in a cover band called Big Deal. And, in this point of our report an obvious question appears ¿how Jörg does to have time, being part of so many musical bands? “I play with The Morning comes on tuesdays, with the orchrest on thursdays and with Big Deal on fridays.


Bernhard (Bernie) Meizinger played in several progressive rock bands in the 70’s and now, while he is teacher for mentally handicapped children, he takes the drumsticks giving life to Oliver’s creations. And Tom Paatsch is the bassman of the band. He is an inspector in a buiding company and played before in a hardrock band called “Exkremtor”. Both of them now have the responsability of build the rytmical basis and orientation of the band.

Rock in english or german?

Since its foundation, The Morning Comes has produced four albums: Live (1999), Never what it seems (2000), Jesus & me (2001) y Already there (2003).

All of them made carefully and with a surprising quality in vocals and instrumentation. The first one with tracks from a presentation in an open air summer-festival. Jesus & Me was a mainly acoustic due-project with Gunnar, and the last one, more compact and with deep and vibrating lyrics.

However, curiously these ones have titles and lyrics written in english. In fact, the band’s name is in this language also, why?

“Well, i've started out with German songs of course but then I switched without thinking to much about it. It was just "normal" to me to compose in English. Another reason maybe was, that I've learned a lot of music of the 80's / 90's that was in English” express Oliver who adds also that the rock as a genre, due to comes from the tradition and roots of America, is more instinctive in English than in any other language. The lead voice of The Morning Comes, even says that “it would be a step back to compose in German” .

¿But this fact would implies a divorce between the German language and rock? ¿why the German language, which has the same origin as English, seems not to get along with this kind of music? Jörg explain us : “when you are used to listen to English and American rock music, you can hardly imagine to compose in German “Both musicians admit that in this last decades it have appeared very good composers and musicians in Germany, however, the essence is in the language of Shakespeare.

Bernie Meinzinger, with the drumsticks in hands

And the opinions of this two partners of music is coincident: Oliver sets that maybe “English/American rockmusic is one step ahead and there's a reason” . Jörg also says “the people who are twenty years old now might think different, but not those of our generation".

In Germany most of its population dominate the English language in an advanced level. And its good to add, after this surprising revelation made by this rock fans, that the closest influences of them are The Beatles, The Velvet Undergraund, Bob Dylan, Pink Floyd, among other masters of the rock. From their country Oliver listens to Niels Frievert whose songs, of course, are not in the charts and they dont need to be on it, like is the case of his band .

Present and future

¿Any project besides The Morning Comes? Oliver answers: I'm doin' some kind of stuff with the Ex-Hölderlin (very known German band in the 80's) singer Bernd König” and Jörg only doing music in his three ways and with new ideas under the sleeve.

Both of them see the future of the band with optimism, without desperate for catching the music industry attention or for filling stadiums, they only think in who wants to enjoy –like them- of what they do and have fun doing that. After all ¿how would be the life without music?

Oliver: I can’t think about . No matter what other people think about the quality. It's best thing to do. And its a lot of fun to share this with other people, band-members and audience”
Jörg: “I rather cut my eyes off than losing my ears”.

Related Links:

In Spanish

The Morning Comes. Official website with discography, lyrics , info, gallery and demo tracks to hear.

Rock in German language (spanish) (article by the DW)

Some foreign rock bands are interested in playin in German language (spanish) (article by the DW)