Stükenberg

BIOGRAPHY
David Stükenberg, usually referred to only by his bizarre-sounding, German surname (pronounced “stew-ken-burg”), is an aberrant songwriter/multi-instrumentalist.  Stükenberg was born the son of nomad missionaries and spent his childhood traveling according to the demands of his parents’ work, which he describes as “the type of work that doesn’t steal land, end lives, and dictate self-righteousness, but instead helps those in need the way the Bible would actually intend.”  Due to his dozen plus schools, combined with continual relocating, David gravitated towards the one consistent friend he had: music.

By age eighteen, Stükenberg had turned down various music scholarships in exchange for a number of music-related contracts in Nashville, TN, which he recalls, “sounded a lot cooler at the time.”  A few years later, he returned to Wisconsin to focus on writing his own music, and in early 2010 released The Silo Project.

THE SILO PROJECT
After returning to Wisconsin, David found himself well-intentioned, broke, and living on an idle farm.  Firmly convinced that “there is no legitimate excuse not to create something from what is already around you,” David sold most of his possessions, gutted a grain silo, retro-fitted it with recording equipment and began work on his next album.  Intrigued by the prospect of recording an album in a Wisconsin grain silo, New York-based filmmaker, Joel Hager, spent several months filming the documentary which follows the album’s formidable creation.

The Silo Project is decidedly “folkier” than its dark, pop predecessor, Mountain of Pieces.  With songs such as World Peace, The Waltz (Oneirtaxia), and Towers, Stükenberg has managed to capture the sound-scape of a silo and display yet again his command of written word.  Given the incongruity of David’s life-path and its apparent dramatic influence on his music and lyrical content, it will be difficult to predict the direction of his next album.