SOLAR FAKE is the electro act of multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Sven Friedrich, also known for his other projects Zeraphine and Dreadful Shadows. The first songs were written in 2006, and in 2007 Sven formed SOLAR FAKE, asking Frank to join as live keyboardist. In 2008, they released their debut album, “Broken Grid”, on the label “Synthetic Symphony / SPV”. Several concerts and festival performances followed (e.g. Blackfield Festival) and in 2009, the band supported VNV Nation in Germany and Europe.
In December 2009, along with their performance at Neuwerk Festival, the band released the strictly limited “Resigned” EP which included not only the title track, but several cover versions and a remix. This EP was available at SOLAR FAKE live shows only and therefore it was sold out very quickly.
In 2011, SOLAR FAKE’s second album, “Frontiers”, was released, and the band started to hit the dancefloors. This album was placed in the German Alternative Charts (DAC) for the maximum number of eight weeks. The band performed at several festivals (e.g. Amphi Festival, E-tropolis), most of their headlining shows were sold out and several support tours followed, e.g. with VNV Nation in the UK, Project Pitchfork, Covenant, and Peter Heppner.
In October 2013, the band’s third album, “Reasons to Kill”, was released and entered the official German album charts. This album was placed again all possible eight weeks in the top ten’s upper half of the German Alternative Charts (DAC).
In November 2013, SOLAR FAKE played in Tel Aviv for the first time, in December performances in Madrid and Barcelona followed, as well as a gig at Dark Storm Festival. In January 2014, their headliner tour named after the album “Reasons to Kill” started, taking the band through Germany, Russia and Switzerland.
In the first half of the year 2014, the live line-up changed. First, André Feller (former guitarist of Dreadful Shadows) joined SOLAR FAKE stepping in for Frank who had fallen ill. Soon, Sven asked him to stay as second keyboardist and for a short period, the band performed live as a trio. Only a few weeks later, Frank announced his exit.
In summer 2014, SOLAR FAKE performed at several festivals, e.g. Amphi Festival, M’era Luna Festival or Orus Fest in Mexico City.
As part of the Amphi Festival’s exclusive final party “CALL THE SHIP 2 NIGHT” on board of “MS RheinFantasie”, SOLAR FAKE performed their first acoustic show “One Step Closer” with a set especially arranged for vocals, piano, synths and acoustic guitar. SOLAR FAKE were supported by Dirk Riegner at the piano and Peter Heppner during the cover version of “Die Flut”.
In March 2015, SOLAR FAKE appeared as special guest during Camouflage’s “Greyscale” tour in Germany and played at several festivals such as E-Only Festival, E-tropolis Festival, Blackfield Festival and Nocturnal Culture Night. During the whole year, Sven worked hard on the material for the upcoming album.
In 2015, the band signed a new contract with the Berlin-based record label “OUT OF LINE”. On 25 September, the single “All the things you say” (limited to 777 copies) as well as the associated videoclip were released. On 30 October, the fourth album, “Another Manic Episode”, was released. For the first time, a SOLAR FAKE album was available in several versions, e.g. as a box set, a 2CD deluxe version, and even on vinyl. The deluxe version’s second CD offers two cover versions and many remixes, for example by Project Pitchfork, Aesthetic Perfection, Desireless and Operation of the sun, and many more. On the same day, the band played a sold-out release show in Berlin at Frannz Club with Peter Spilles (Project Pitchfork) having a guest appearance, performing with Sven the Project Pitchfork hit “The dividing line”. The album “Another Manic Episode” hit #31 of the official German album charts (billboard).
The by then most successful headliner tour, “Manic Episodes” tour, took place in February 2016 in Germany. Most shows were sold out. After that the band played at several festivals, such as Wave-Gotik-Treffen and Amphi Festival. More shows followed in 2016, e.g. in Helsinki, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Bremen and Vienna. And in November 2016, SOLAR FAKE participated in “Gothic Meets Klassik”, where their songs were performed by the orchestra of Zielna Gora at Gewandhaus Leipzig.
In January and February 2017, SOLAR FAKE went on an extended US tour over 6 weeks together with Aesthetic Perfection and Nyxx, and immediately after their return home the “Sedated Live Acoustic” tour at selected locations in Germany started, during which Sven and André were supported by Dirk Riegner (piano), Rico Schwibs (violin), Benni Cellini (cello) and Norman Selbig (acoustic guitar). After its completion several concerts followed, including E-tropolis Festival, Kasematten Festival, 2x Festung Koenigstein, together with Project Pitchfork, M’era Luna Festival, “Eine Nacht im Bergwerk” (One Night in the Mine) in Switzerland, and together with VNV Nation in Madrid and Barcelona.
On 8 December, the live double album, “Sedated Live Acoustic“, was released, a concert recording of the Hamburg show, including an additional bonus DVD.
On 25 December, at Dark Storm Festival in Chemnitz, SOLAR FAKE performed for the first time together with a live drummer: Jeans. As both band and fans were enthusiastic about the outcome, it was decided to have Jeans as an integral part during live performances. However, for some time Sven and André continued performing alone at some gigs abroad due to financial reasons.
Although the work on the new album had already started, SOLAR FAKE performed a lot of concerts in 2018, including gigs in Copenhagen, Gothenburg, Athens, and Mexico City, and took part in amazing festivals such as Plage Noire, Out Of Line Weekender, Amphi Festival, and Autumn Moon Festival.
On 31 August 2018, the fifth and by then most successful studio album was released, “You win. Who cares?”, which represents a musical continuation of “Another Manic Episode” showing that Sven is by no means content to make pleasant bar music but still puts an enormous amount of rage and emotion into his music and lyrics without ever losing sight of the sound of the times. “YWWC” is contemporary, sometimes extremely aggressive, sometimes inconceivably sad and gloomy, and gives an insight into the deepest abysses of Sven’s universe of emotions.
The album entered #20 of the German album top 100 and remained for all 8 possible weeks in the German Alternative Charts where it climbed up to the #1. Just as the first single, “Sick of you”, which was released as a lyric video as well. Another lyric video followed for the song “The pain that kills you too” and for the song “Anything you want”, Sven produced a video with participation of the fans who sent in their own short clips.
The following “You Win. Who Cares?” tour meant many sold-out venues in Germany – it was by far the most successful tour of the band by then. Many gigs abroad took place as well, e.g. in the UK, Ukraine, Finland, Sweden, Poland, Peru, Belgium, Switzerland, Russia, Spain, and SOLAR FAKE appeared on huge festivals, like Wave-Gotik-Treffen, Castle Party, Call the ship to port, Subkult Festivalen, Free & Easy, W-Fest and Dark Storm Festival. The 2nd leg of the tour took SOLAR FAKE among other places to Täubchenthal, Leipzig, where a complete audio recording of the show could be realised.
The result of this recording was released on 26 June 2020 as a limited edition double album plus bonus DVD (containing excerpts of the show at Reithalle, Dresden) with the title “Who cares, it’s live”. It made it to #25 of the official German album charts. In cooperation with Black Movie, a live video clip to the song “Invisible” was produced as a teaser.
Since autumn 2019, Sven had been working on the material for a new studio album. On 13 November 2020, the single “This pretty life” was released together with a video clip as a first appetiser. Limited to 777 CDs, the single was sold out in no time. The second single, “It’s who you are”, was published as a video clip shortly after the turn of the year, on 28 January.
On 12 February 2021, “Enjoy Dystopia”, was released as a CD, 2CD deluxe version, 2LP vinyl version, and as a limited fan box including the bonus acoustic album, “Masked”, once again featuring Dirk Riegner as well as Norman Selbig, André Feller and Jens Halbauer.
“Enjoy Dystopia” entered the official German album charts on #4, climbed to #2 of the DAC (German Alternative Charts), and held the pole position of the GEWC (German Electronic Web Charts) for many weeks.
After a few open-air concerts compliant to COVID regulations in Friedrichshafen, Hanover and Munich, the band performed several double concerts playing two full shows with completely different sets in the same evening. Due to the pandemic, the “Enjoy Dystopia” tour had to take place throughout 2022. In addition, there were several festival appearences, including Dark Malta, WGT, Mechanismus Stronghold, Black Lower Castle and Amphi. In August, after playing one show in Bradford, the first US tour after five years and the first headliner tour ever in the US followed, supported by Whorticulture (USA) and Matte Blvck (USA). Back in Germany, they went straight to the E-tropolis Festival and continued with their tour shows.
2023 began the Winterwaves Festival in Gothenburg, and in March the second leg of the North America tour started. Further highlights were the headliner show on Festung Koenigstein and M’era Luna Festival with their headliner slot on the Club Stage. In October, SOLAR FAKE went on tour as a headliner in Great Britain for the very first time, supported by Auger (UK) and Astari Nite (USA). The year ended with an appearance at the Dark Storm Festival in Chemnitz.
Since 2022 Sven had been working on the songs for the 7th studio album, “Don’t Push This Button!”, released on 24 May 2024. For this, Sven has initiated a brand new label with the sarcastic name “Pointless Music”.
The album hit #6 in the German album charts and #1 in the DAC, AAC and GEWC. In addition to the regular versions, the double album includes so-called “Amplified” versions, presenting seven of the songs in an indie rock guise, as well as three completely new tracks. Moreover, the eleborately designed 3CD fan box and the 2LP fan set contain the by now must-have piano versions on the “Silenced EP”, created in proven collaboration with Dirk Riegner.
2 digital singles have been pre-released together with elaborate music videos, once again created in collaboration with JK. The video to “This generation ends” contains cameo appearances by Peter Spilles and Sue (Project Pitchfork), Chris Pohl (Blutengel, She Hates Emotions) and Damasius Venys (Future Lied To Us). The video clip to “Not so important” features Sven’s dog Phoebe and his rabbits Elijah and Molly. In addition, a third clip was released as a lyric video for the song "Disagree."
The album release shows took place at the legendary venue “SubKultur” in Hanover, primarily to support the club that has been struggling economically due to the pandemic. SOLAR FAKE only covered their costs and gave their fee to the club. The tickets for both shows were sold out within minutes.
SOLAR FAKE played some of the new songs even before the release. The first shows in 2024 took the band to places like Zurich and Hallig Langeness. In addition, they played as one of the headliners at “Unter Schwarzer Flagge”.
The band played more festivals, like Amphi Festival in 2024 and the tour for the album was the band's most successful to date, with nearly sold-out venues everywhere. Further concerts will take Solar Fake back to festivals in Germany and Europe.
Production, Artwork
Sven Friedrich is responsible for the music production as well as for all compositions, lyrics, arrangements and recordings, what makes SOLAR FAKE his “no-compromise-act”. The artwork of “Frontiers” was made in close cooperation with the Berlin artist Christian Ruhm. Since “Reasons to Kill”, Sven has been working closely with the artist JK, not only on the album artworks, but also on the videoclips.
From “Frontiers” on, the last booklet pages provide a listing of things and people that were necessary to finish the album or other thoughts that concern the musician in some way. All this is not meant seriously, but funny to read.
Podcast
During the COVID-19 lockdown SOLAR FAKE started a weekly podcast which quickly became very popular not only among SOLAR FAKE fans. Even though it’s no music podcast, fans can ask their questions and the band replies in the upcoming episodes, but always in a funny way. The band speaks about their everyday life and about their past as musicians. From time to time, guests are being invited to the show.