Meeting Giorgio Moroder

The first time I met Giorgio was in Berlin. It was the summer of 1964. I had just finished high school, and not yet started to my studies. A publisher who had heard some of my very first songs had invited me to spend two weeks in his offices. There, Giorgio was sitting in a small walk-in cupboard, huge head phones on his head, an electric guitar on his lap and a ReVox A77 in front of him. His job was to prepare cheap backing tracks for demos of songs that were written by the publisher's staff writers. Although he was neatly ensconced in a closet and I was only kind of a guest student peeping in, we were both underdogs, and that made us natural companions. As we ate our burgers in a near-by gasthaus, he told me he intended to become an international star. My goal was more modest. I just wanted one of my songs to be recorded. At that time I wrote the music to my lyrics myself. Giorgio made a backing track for me, probably out of pity. It was the beginning of a life long friendship.