LaBrassBanda
LaBrassBanda is a Bavarian brass band from Übersee, near Chiemsee, Germany. The band’s name combines the Italian “la banda” and the English “brass band.”
LaBrassBanda was founded in 2007 by Stefan Dettl, Andreas Hofmeir, Manuel Winbeck, Oliver Wrage, and Manuel da Coll, who met during their music studies. Inspired by the Youngblood Brass Band’s fusion of brass music with Hip-Hop and R&B, Dettl aimed to create a similar blend.
Their debut performance was in London. During the 2008 European football championship, they played impromptu concerts from a trailer, culminating in a major gig in Vienna. They also performed at the ‘Bavaria Open’ in Munich. In 2009, the Goethe-Institut invited them to the German Culture Festival in Siberia, with concerts in Omsk, Krasnoyarsk, and Moscow. They also appeared at the Harare International Festival of Arts in Zimbabwe and the Roskilde Festival.
Between 2010 and 2012, LaBrassBanda played over 500 concerts, including at the Hurricane and Southside Festivals, and toured Russia, Bosnia, and Denmark. Their goal was to make Volksmusik club-friendly.
In 2013, they competed in the national pre-selection for the Eurovision Song Contest, gaining popularity despite not winning. That summer, they opened for Die Ärzte on several dates.
LaBrassBanda’s style, “Neue Volksmusik,” mixes brass, reggae, punk, gipsy, jazz, and techno, with Bavarian lyrics about beer, girls, and partying. They are known for performing barefoot in Lederhosen and T-shirts.
In 2013, Oliver Wrage left the band for personal reasons. Andreas Hofmeir followed in 2014 after winning the ‘Classic-Echo’, now pursuing solo projects and teaching at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. Stefan Dettl released two solo albums, “Rockstar” (2011) and “Summer of Love” (2012), playing guitar instead of trumpet. New members Mario Schönhofer (bass), Jörg Hartl (trumpet), Korbinian Weber (trumpet), Tobias Weber (percussion), and Stefan Huber (tuba) joined in 2013 and 2014.