Spotlight ON! Sebastian Müller

This month we shine the Spotlight ON! Sebastian Müller.

Sebastian Müller (Mueller) hails from Berlin, Germany and has lived there for a long time. He grew up in a small village in Southern Germany.

Sebastian grew up in a musical family. Says Sebastian, "My father was a Church Choir leader and my mother a good singer, so I was immersed in music when I grew up." Sebastian's father also plays instruments.

"I started out with piano at the age of six without much success. Around 10 I started playing Tenor Horn in a brass section, when I was 15 I started on classical guitar," recalls Sebastian. Inspired by a player that he met at the Boy Scouts, he started out with Classical guitar and moved to playing electric, mostly Blues, Rock and Funk in local bands.

"After school I moved to Los Angeles to study guitar at the GIT. From there I moved back to Germany and selected Berlin, because I could already see the potential of that city. It became and still is one of the most interesting cities in Europe when it comes to music and art," says Sebastian.

Sebastian started out with Dobro using Cindy Cashdollar's DVD. "It was a perfect new challenge after playing guitar since I was 15, definitely some things in common with guitar but also pretty new and exciting," says Sebastian.

His many trips to Hawai‘i inspired his interest in the Hawaiian steel guitar. "Since my parents in law used to live in Hawai‘i we traveled there on a regular basis. My first touch point with Hawaiian Music was hearing Slack key master Ledward Kaapana performing at the Kona brewery. I was quite impressed and started to play a bit of slack key, just for myself and for fun. In Hawai‘i I bought a CD called Hawaiian Steel Guitar Classics which contained mostly tricone recordings from the 20s and 30s and I was totally hooked." He then made the hard switch to Hawaiian music only.

As far as his steel guitar training goes, Sebastian says he is mostly self-taught. " Besides taking a handful of lessons from Alan Akaka and John Ely I am basically self taught. I used the Stacy Phillips book to learn some arrangements but started to transcribe steel parts from records right from the start. This is where I learn the most, carefully listening to the old masters and figuring out what is going on, how they slide into notes, when they use what kind of vibrato, and so on."

When asked about his Hawaiian steel guitar influences, he remarked, "The list is long, but I am mostly influenced by the old greats like Sol Ho‘opi‘i, King Benny Nawahi and Sol K Bright. When it comes to the electric style I would add Dick McIntire and Andy Iona."

"I met Alan Akaka in Hawai‘i just after I started to play steel and it was just great. Not only he showed me some great things on the steel (he is such a great player) but also let me sit in on stage right from the start (I was so nervous!)

Alan introduced Sebastian to many great players in Hawai‘i. He remains in touch with Paul Kim, Jeff Au Hoy, Bobby Ingano, Ed Punua, Geri Valdriz, and Ken Emerson. Says Sebastian, "It is just amazing to be connected with all these awesome musicians and to jam with them at the birthplace of the steel guitar. I am very thankful for that."

Sebastian owns seven steel guitars and one pedal steel. "Living in Germany means that you will hardly have the chance to play a vintage American steel guitar at a dealer, so all the steels I play now I ordered without playing them before. It is always quite a thrill when the instrument arrives!"

"I love vintage instruments, always did, I have some really nice electric guitars and amps so if you are inspired by the old players it definitely makes sense to use similar gear, helps to get that tone. His favorite is a 1931 Tricone and his favorite electric is a Rickenbacher A-25 longscale Frypan postwar model.

In addition to the Hawaiian steel guitar, Sebastian also plays guitars, bass, ‘ukulele, and synthesizers.

Professionally, Sebastian works as a sound designer for a company called Native Instruments that produces music software.

Sebastian and his group Hula Hut have performed mostly in Europe. In addition to recording a CD as Hula Hut and the Seven Seas, he has a YouTube channel with many of his videos. He also sat in on several gigs in Hawai‘i.

His website contains some of his performance videos, tabs and backing tracks available for purchase, pictures of his steel guitars, and some tunings he uses.

Sebastian sums up his interest in music: "Music just continues to excite me! I love meeting and playing with other musicians and traveling the world while doing music is the best thing ever. And music, especially Hawaiian music is just so good for the soul? At least for mine!":

This video is of Sebastian playing "Hilo March."

The video can also be seen on YouTube.