Ralf Hütter

Ralf Hütter
Ralf Hütter by Ueli Frey, 1976
Background information
Birth name	Ralf Hütter
Born	(1946-08-20) 20 August 1946 Krefeld, Rhine Province, Germany
Genres	Electronic, pop, synthpop, krautrock
Occupation(s)	Musician, singer
Instruments	Synthesizer, keyboards, vocoder, guitar, bass guitar, drums, percussion, vocals
Years active	1965–present
Associated acts	Kraftwerk Organisation The Phantoms[1] The Quartermasters[2][3]
Website	http://www.kraftwerk.com

Ralf Hütter (born 20 August 1946) is the lead singer, keyboardist, founding member and leader of the electronic music and pop band Kraftwerk. Since the departure of Florian Schneider in 2008, he is the group's sole remaining founding member.

Biography

Hütter was born in Krefeld, Germany. He now lives near Düsseldorf but does not like to talk about his personal life.^[4] He met Florian Schneider while studying improvisation at the conservatory in Düsseldorf.^[5]

Cycling interests

Ralf Hütter is an enthusiastic cycling fan, a fact reflected in some of the band's work. It was widely claimed that, when he was on tour, the group's bus would drop off Hütter 100 miles away from the next venue and he would cycle the rest of the way, a story that Hütter later confirmed.^[6] The band members took up cycling when recording the album The Man-Machine in the late 1970s. Ralf Hütter had been looking for a new form of exercise. The single "Tour de France" includes sounds that follow this theme, including bicycle chains, gear mechanisms and the breathing of the cyclist. At the time of the single's release Ralf Hütter tried to persuade the rest of the band that they should record a whole album based around cycling. At the time this did not happen, but the project eventually was released as Tour de France Soundtracks in 2003.

Hütter was involved in a serious cycling accident in 1983, during the initial period of recording of the since-abandoned album Techno Pop.^[7] Only the single "Tour de France" and demos of "Techno Pop" and "Sex Object", would find their way into bootleg releases after this accident. He was put in a coma as a result of it. Karl Bartos stated the first thing he said when he awoke from his coma was "Where is my bicycle?", a story Hütter later disputed in a June 2009 interview in The Guardian.^[7]

References

External links

• Article in the London Independent about Hütter's love of cycling
• Interview in The Guardian