Biography

Founded in Klagenfurt, Austria in 1991, the band Naked Lunch (obviously named after the William S. Burroughs novel) originally consisted of vocalist/guitarist Oliver Welter, bassist Georg Timber-Trattnig, and drummer Peter Hornbogner, and Welter has remained a mainstay of the group throughout its various incarnations. Beginning as an alternative rock outfit, the group recorded an EP and full-length album for the German Big Store label but underwent its first personnel change with the departure of bassist Timber-Trattnig in 1993 (he died in 2000). Herwig Zamernik assumed bass duties with the group and Naked Lunch signed to the Mercury label, which released the band's second album, Superstardom, in 1997. Aligning themselves with the Weilheim, Germany music scene that also spawned the Notwist, Naked Lunch became a quartet with the addition of keyboardist and synthesizer player Stefan Deisenberger to the lineup, and issued the album Love Junkies in 1999. After a hiatus that saw the group coming close to dissolution, Naked Lunch -- now incorporating electronics more heavily in their sound -- entered the studio to record their fourth full-length, Songs for the Exhausted, but only after drummer Hornbogner departed, to be replaced by Thorsten Thonhauser. Finally released by Motor City Records in 2004, Songs for the Exhausted was favorably received, and a revitalized Naked Lunch went on to issue the Stay EP the following year. Thonhauser did not remain in the fold, however, and the band entered the studio to record its next album, 2007's This Atom Heart of Ours, with new drummer Alex Jezdinsky. Two years later, Universalove arrived on the Louisville Records label, followed by Amerika on Monkey in 2011 and All Is Fever on Tapete in 2013. ~ Dave Lynch, Rovi