Werner Nieke alias wesbound was born in Krumbach, Bavaria, Germany in 1965. He teamed up with miscellaneous local cover bands at age 13 as guitarist and vocalist and continued to play that circuit until his High School days. He then became part of a Jazz-Rock oriented act, who went on to win a regional battle of the bands and recorded a vinyl SP record, sporting one tune written by wesbound (music and lyrics). The band received offers by major labels, but remained divided over which general musical course to take, whereupon wesbound saw no better alternative but to leave the band for good and pursue his ideas on his own.
In 1986 he moved to Munich and enrolled at Munich Guitar Institute, whose tutors had adopted the Berklee Music College agenda by and large. He also sat in with Munich-based bands and was occasionally booked as a studio vocalist singing background vocals.
1987 saw him teaming up with a Swiss band and touring the music entertainment circuit for about 1.5 years. He returned to Munich in 1989 and continued to work as a semi-professional musician. In the fall of 1990 wesbound started pursuing a college degree, which he obtained in 1998, graduating on Semantics as part of a German Linguistics M.A. This was followed by a career in Information Technology.
In 2008 wesbound made music a more prominent part of his life again. On occasion, he performs live with the André Marselous Group featuring vocalist André Marselous. Previous and more recent live appearances took place with the band Chessboard featuring musical director, vocalist, keyboardist Melvin Canady.
He also began writing his own material and currently has four single instrumental tracks available for purchase on iTunes, Amazon and other online stores.
About the name
wesbound fell in love with the American music genres of R&B, Funk, Jazz at the age of 15. Being a native of Germany, this music preference was sometimes looked upon as an eccentric oddity by his peers. Hence the dream of “going West” abounded. The name wesbound is label and personal ambition alike. The slightly altered spelling could be taken as a reference to Wes Montgomery, which is a welcome, however unintended side effect. The need for a different spelling arose from finding that the name “Westbound” had been taken on MySpace by an Italian act (they are listed among my friends on this site).
George Benson, Norman Brown, Chuck Loeb, Lee Ritenour, Larry Carlton, Paul Jackson Jr., Steve Lukather, R&B of the late 80-ies, early 90-ies, and all the American acts emerging from that era. Personal Motto: “Groove first”.
