In Legend – Hand Hammered Piano Craft Bastian Emig – Vortex Generating Super Operator

Having grown up in the dusty fields of Burkina Faso, Bastian already discovers the drumset at a very young age via his playing of the djembe. Thus, one can hardly imagine a better rhythmic foster mother than the trembling pulse of Africa.

Being back in Germany at an age of six years, he also starts with piano lessons but cancels them after a few attempts, due to his “piano teacher’s” preference to convey graceful music with the use of the cane.

Nevertheless, this instrument gets him hooked – Bastian starts to approach the piano in his own special way and teaches himself how to play. Until today, he isn’t able to read music but this method has in fact bestowed him with an excellent sense of musical hearing. This talent already helps him in his first band JESTER’S FUNERAL and also in his subsequent band THE RAZORBLADES where he first takes over the drummer duties and then advances to the position of a full-fledged composer, particularly in the first band. At this point he also makes his first steps in adapting guitar riffs for the piano, resulting in 15 songs that are being eternalized on the demo Ballads ‘n Bullets. In this connection, the song “Prestinate” (now known for being an IN LEGEND song) turns out to be a ground-breaking song since it can already be heard on the demo in a quite different form.

After his studies of bio-informatics, Bastian spends a year in China where he becomes an active member of several different bands while studying the Chinese language at the same time. With NARAKAM, China’s most popular thrash metal band, he finds himself touring across China several times with the highlight being a performance at Midi Festival 2007 in the Haidian Park in front of several thousands of people. If that wasn’t enough, Bastian also joins the ranks of the TONING DRUMCIRCLE, which unites the most ambitious drummers from Beijing and which gives him the opportunity to perform as part of the biggest entertainment show of the Chinese state television on New Year’s Eve in front of approximately 800 million Chinese people at the famous Beijing Drum Tower.

Back in Germany, Bastian continues his drum duties and becomes a full-fledged member of the only heavy metal a-cappella band in the world – VAN CANTO. With VAN CANTO, Bastian not only has the chance to tour in faraway places such as South America, but also gets to fulfill the dream of almost every heavy metal musician in this world: To play at the renowned German Wacken Open Air. Further repercussions of his drumming qualities also result in attracting the attention of drum manufacturer MEINL which eventually accepts him among the ranks of their endorsed drummers.

During his time with VAN CANTO, Bastian is introduced to producer Charlie Bauerfeind who has a major impact on his musical development and who also significantly pushes forward the music of IN LEGEND. Along with him, Bastian records the drums for the first IN LEGEND songs that are later being refined by Jürgen Lusky at HOFA Studios. The first results of these sessions can be heard on the first IN LEGEND EP Pandemonium which is limited to 500 copies and sold during a Spring tour in support of VAN CANTO.

During this tour, Bastian continuously opens up a rocking night as singer and pianist of IN LEGEND, before immediately turning over to his familiar drum duties with VAN CANTO afterwards. Seemingly effortless he manages this double burden, which sparks the hope that this package of extraordinary metal music might go on conjoint tours again in the future.

Besides all that, Bastian currently resides in Berlin and creates music and sound design works for several different radio plays and movie productions.