Bela B.


Dirk Felsenheimer, better known under his stage name Bela B, is a German musician and songwriter. He is best known for being the drummer and one of the singers of punk rock band Die Ärzte. In 2006, he released his first solo album entitled Bingo. Bela B is also an actor and has done several voice-overs for television and film.

Early life

Dirk Albert Felsenheimer was born in Spandau, the westernmost borough of Berlin. He has a twin sister named Diana and his parents separated when he was five years old. Felsenheimer graduated from the Carlo-Schmid-Oberschule. Afterwards he joined the police force, partly due to boredom and partly because of the influence of his uncle, who was also a police officer. However, shortly before joining the force Bela became punk, which seemed at odds with the conformity required of him in the police. Despite his reservations, he began police training, as he could think of no other viable option and he did not want his mother to worry about him. However, he quit the force soon after joining because he felt that he did not belong there and he began being harassed by the other recruits. He then worked in a warehouse for a short time before beginning a 3-year apprenticeship as a window-dresser for the department store Hertie.
Felsenheimer took his stage name from Dracula actor Béla Lugosi, whom he has admired since childhood. The B stands for Barney, as the German name of the fictional The Flintstones character Barney Rubble is "Barney Geröllheimer" and he was nicknamed after him because of the similarity to "Felsenheimer". Felsenheimer is actually registered with the German performing rights society GEMA as 'Bela Barney Felsenheimer'.
Bela B. lives with his girlfriend Konstanze Habermann and their son in Hamburg.

Musical career

Die Ärzte

Bela B first played in the short-lived Soilent Grün before co-founding Die Ärzte in 1982 with singer/guitarist Farin Urlaub and bassist Hans Runge. The group soon appeared on the 20 Überschäumende Stimmungshits compilation, and after winning an amateur band contest they spent their winnings on their 1983 debut EP, Uns geht's prima.... They signed a record deal with Columbia Records, which issued the band's debut LP, Debil, in 1984. After releasing several albums, the band broke up in 1988 and reunited in 1993.

Depp Jones

After Die Ärzte split up, he soon formed a new band, S.U.M.P, with friend Rodrigo González and the band released an EP entitled Get Wise, Get Ugly, Get S.U.M.P. featuring cover versions of popular songs. The band was later renamed Depp Jones, named after a character in the German version of the comic book series Lucky Luke. Their 1990 debut LP, Return to Caramba!, failed to capitalise on the popularity of Die Ärzte, and its follow-ups Welcome to Hell and At 2012 A.D. did even worse. Farin Urlaub's new band, King Køng, also struggled, and in 1993 he and Bela B. agreed to reform Die Ärzte, with former Depp Jones guitarist Rodrigo González joining them on bass.

Solo

In 2006, Bela released his first solo album Bingo, which was produced by Wayne Jackson and Olsen Involtini. The record combined many different music styles such as country, rockabilly, beat music and traditional rock elements. Bela's love for horror can be heard in many of the songs on the album. He worked with country legend Lee Hazlewood and in return guested on his album Cake or Death. Charlotte Roche and Bela's close friend, singer Lula, also feature on Bingo. Bela's record reached number two at the German Top 100 and number five in Austria. Following the album release, Bela toured with his band Bela B. y Los Helmstedt, including appearances at several German festivals including Rock im Park, Rock am Ring, MTV Campus Invasion and Gurtenfestival. A follow-up record, Code B was released on 2 October 2009.

Musical Style

Bela is a fan of horror, which is reflected in many of his songs, such as Dein Vampyr, Mysteryland, Der Graf, Die Nacht, Wir werden schön, Der Vampir mit dem Colt, Licht am Ende des Sarges and Monsterparty.
One of Bela's particular features is that he usually plays drums standing up during performances. He has done this since he saw the Stray Cats perform in 1983. Up to that point he had performed sitting down for the first Die Ärzte concerts. However, he generally plays sitting down in the studio, and also performed seated during the "Rock'n'Roll Realschule" concert and in the unplugged sections of the "Jenseits der Grenze des Zumutbaren" and "Unrockstar" tours.

Hobbies and other projects

Bela was the owner of the Leipzig comic book publisher Extrem Erfolgreich Enterprises, which published horror comic books, including German versions of independent series such as "Faust" and "Satanika". Their titles also included their own publications such as "Schweinevogel" and a comic about Die Ärzte. In an interview with the Berlin magazine Zitty in September 2006, Bela B. announced that he was giving up his publishing project, "In recent years the publishing house has just slowly petered out. In 2005 we published the book "Zehn kleine Grufties" and three other books. That isn't much for a publishing house and that's why we have now decided to close down EEE.
As an author he has written for the vampire anthology Liber Vampirorum: Last Blood and for comic books published by his publishing house. Bela's other hobbies include acting and he has appeared in many German television productions, including episodes of Alarm für Cobra 11 and Tatort, as well as in Gonger for the German television channel ProSieben in 2008 and in the film Ein Göttlicher Job. In 1985 Bela portrayed one of the main characters in Richy Guitar, a film about an aspiring rock band which also starred his Die Ärzte bandmates Farin Urlaub and Hans Runge. More recently, Bela played the lead role of concentration camp prisoner Hans Steinbrück in the 2004 film Edelweißpiraten. In 2005 Bela's acting roles included a role in the short film Kingz, which was produced by the Film Academy Baden-Württemberg, as well as the role of Ronnie in Barbara Gebler's crime parody, Salamander. In 2007 Bela interviewed his favourite director, Quentin Tarantino, about the film Death Proof for the German newspaper Die Welt and later had a cameo role as a cinema usher in Tarantino's 2009 film Inglourious Basterds.
His voice-over work includes the voice of Clay in the German version of the MTV cartoon television series Free for All. He also recorded the voices of various characters in the German version of the Danish film Terkel in Trouble. Bela's work includes several audio dramas, such as Faust vs. Mephisto alongside Thomas D from the German band Fantastischen Vier and the audiobook Venus in Furs with German actress Catherine Flemming. Bela also recorded the audio version of a biography of Elvis Presley in 2007.
In early 2011, Bela recorded another audio book, Exit Mundi, a popular scientific book by the Dutch science journalist Maarten Keulemans discussing many possible and absurd end-of-world scenarios. The promotion tour took Bela on fifteen venues, reading on stage in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The tour also includes nice gimmicks, such as Bela reading from the book to the tune of R.E.M.'s hit single The End of the World as We Know It.
Bela is a fan of the German football team FC St. Pauli. He is also a keen runner, having completed marathons in Hamburg and New York. In 2004 he also completed the 20 km event in the 26th Ahrensburg Lümmellauf and the Dracula Transylvania Marathon from Sighişoara to Mediaş, Romania.
He has also supported many anti-fascist projects, including the initiative "Kein Bock auf Nazis", which was started by the Berlin punk band ZSK. His anti-fascist stance has also been shown in songs such as Schrei Nach Liebe and also Deutsche, Kauft Nicht Bei Nazis''. Bela made the latter available to download for free from his website. Bela has been a member of the anti-globalisation movement Attac since 2007. He has also supported PETA, appearing in their 'Ink, Not Mink' poster campaign with Franka Potente in 2004 and in a further campaign with Catherine Flemming in 2005.
Bela is also a big fan of The Simpsons and has expressed a wish to appear in the series.

Discography

Die Ärzte

Solo artist

Albums

Charting singles
Other singles