He drummed on detergent packets and made the leap to America when he was 21. Today Andreas Keller sits behind the drums of a German rock'n'roll institution. When the Bavarian cult band Spider Murphy Gang ("Scandal in the Restricted Area") brings the halls to a boil, it is the 59-year-old from Rhineland-Palatinate who sets the pace.
“I listen to music every day, I can’t live without music,” says Keller in an interview with the German Press Agency. The center of his life is now Landshut. But the southwest won't let him go. He always returns to the Electoral Palatinate. Maybe that's why her soft dialect has stuck with him.
The special year 2027
2027 is likely to be particularly loud for Keller: The “Spiders” are celebrating their 50th anniversary. His career doesn't start with a guitar, a drum kit or a stage. But with stamps in Rodalben.
As a child, Keller collected the jagged little works of art in the Palatinate. Until one day he sees Keith Moon, the legendary drummer of The Who, on TV. Wild, explosive, completely out of control. “That energy was great,” he remembers. The stamps suddenly have competition.
Keller builds his first drum set out of detergent drums and carves himself sticks. The problem: His parents' house is on a hill, and the noise carries throughout Rodalben. “There was a signature campaign against me,” says Keller and laughs.
From Koblenz to California
His father, the well-known painter Klaus Heinrich Keller (1938-2018), wants his son to continue drumming. Andreas moves into the basement, lines the room with foam - and plays and plays and plays.
First bands follow. Before his premiere concert, Keller is “incredibly nervous”. He wants to have that feeling again after the performance - over and over again. “When you’re on stage with good musicians, it’s like flying.” Somehow playing “like a meditation”.
At 14, Keller came fourth in a youth competition in Koblenz. He wants to study music, but Cologne and Hamburg don't work out. Then comes the confirmation of a music school in Los Angeles. He earns the money for this in factories. Finally he takes off with two suitcases. 21 years old. Destination: California.
Rock for Thomas Gottschalk
There he experiences a different world of music. Teachers like Jeff Porcaro, later one of the most famous studio drummers, carried him along. “It’s like a tsunami.” After a good year, Keller returns. But musically he stays on the road.
Jazz, rock, African, Brazilian and Turkish music: Keller plays whatever comes to his attention. Studio, stage, television - the main thing is that it grooves. “I think there were more than 500 bands where I played or tried out.” Not all of it fills the fridge. Nor should it. “Not everything has to be lucrative for it to be worth it.”
Through film music and studio jobs, his path led to the Thomas Gottschalk Late Night Band and the Munich music scene. On the sidelines of a gala he meets Barny Murphy and Günther Sigl from the already famous Spider Murphy Gang. “It clicked straight away.” Two weeks later the call comes: “Do you want to play?” Keller says yes. That was ten years ago now.
The view from the car window
To get started, he learned 50 songs and 30 made it into the repertoire. Keller doesn't want to make any cuts, but instead wants to preserve the sound. “Out of respect, I didn’t want to have a break between my predecessor and the band.”
The boy from Rodalben, who once played detergent drums, has long been part of a band's history that will span half a century of rock'n'roll in the coming year. Nevertheless, one look out of the car window is enough to turn the long, wild road back to its beginning. “When I see the Palatinate Forest on the A8,” says Keller, “I know: I’m home now.”
