Hubert Stytz, born in May 1952, is a profiled guitarist, singer, composer and songwriter. Influenced by his brothers, he started playing guitar at a very young age and by the age of twelve he had his own band, “Little Birds”, who played cover versions by instrumental bands such as The Shadows and Spotnicks. Two years later he was playing with local bands in American clubs in South Germany. With his unique style on the guitar, he joined 1965 Klaus Zinner, Wolfgang Mathias, Lutz Baumann and Manfred Gärtner, who were already playing in a band called R&B Corporation. They were mainly playing cover versions of rhythm’n’blues songs. Stytz changed the musical direction of the band to blues rock and the line-up was reduced to a trio – Stytz on guitars, Wolfgang Mathias on drums and new member Walter Laible on bass. With a more progressive sound they gained more fans and were soon quite well known in South Germany. More band members like Rolf Schiegl (drums), Sam Drake (flute, piano), Romi Schickle (Hammond organ) and Dieter Seelow (saxophone) joined. They played with Brian Auger, Steamhammer,  Taste, Alexis Korner, Climax Blues Band and many others.

Playing an increasing number of gigs, the band was managed by Walter Holzbaur (Wintrup Verlage), and under his influence they changed the band name to Erna Schmidt in 1969. At the same time, they began to concentrate on writing and performing more original songs.

Erna Schmidt had their first appearance on TV in the show "Studio für Talente" in 1971, played gigs all over Germany, and were recording for "Pop Shop", a show on public TV station Südwestfunk. After playing several dates at the "Quartier Latin" in Berlin, they were offered a record deal by German label OHR, which, however, was not realized due to internal band differences. The band split up in 1972.

In the 1970's Stytz did recording sessions with Michael Bundt and toured with several bands, such as Hellmut Hattler’s BASSBALL. After this tour, Stytz connected with Roland Schäffer (guitar/saxophone; Guru Guru) and Udo Dahmen (drums; former Artistic Director of Popakademie); together with Peter Kühmstedt (bass) and Bernd Weber (piano) they recorded "Dossenheim Tapes". Stytz recorded an album with his own band Wild Performance in 1979, "Big City". The LP, however, was eventually not released by the label.

In the early 1980‘s recording sessions followed for EMI Electrola at Conny Plank’s studio in Wolperath near Cologne. In 1981 Stytz met Jack Bruce and together they played a one-off special concert. The following year Stytz met lyricist Peter Graf - a friendship and cooperation which continues until the present day.

In 1985 Stytz toured with his new band Stytz Syndicate (Michael Roth - harmonica, Claus Wengenmayr – keyboards, Günther Reger – saxophone, Benno Richter – bass, Jörg Schäfer - drums) and released the Live-EP "Still Hungry" in 1986. Via Christian "Che" Eckert, Stytz was invited in 1988 by singer/songwriter Konstantin Wecker to play and record some songs for Ariola in the legendary "Kaffee Giesing" in Munich, a unique combination of café, stage and recording studio.

Finally, in 1991, the studio album "Best Before" was released, featuring Josef Piek  and Paul Harriman (both Purple Schulz), Peter Kumpf and Matthias Ulmer (both Anyone's Daughter). Two songs, "This Must Be Everything" and "Traces Of Lovers", were used as a movie soundtrack ("Manta, Manta") and received radio airplays and TV appearances by Stytz Syndicate. The same year, public TV station Südwestfunk produced a feature on Stytz, directed by Dieter Zimmermann. In August 1991 Stytz Syndicate played "A Wonderful Rock ’n‘ Blues Evening" with Blues Company and Stan Webb’s Chicken Shack and in 1992 they played the "Blues & Boogie Night" with Canned Heat and Dr. Feelgood.

In August 1991 Stytz met Willy DeVille during the latter’s "Southern Comfort Tour" and in August 1992 Stytz Syndicate played the "New Orleans Revue" with Dr. John, Johnny Adams, Eddie Bo, Zachary Richard and others.

Occasionally he was booked by his former band member and composer Mick Baumeister as studio guitarist for playing film themes and scores, such as TV-series "Anderland" (1985) and the film "Krücke" (1993).

In summer 2000 Stytz played at the "Jamboree Festival" which featured Van Morrison, and was special guest at the Bob Dylan Open Air in Schwäbisch Gmünd in 2001. Stytz released the CD "Flame Of Love" (Reeno Records), featuring a new song and selected tracks from the Live-EP "Still Hungry" as well as the unreleased album "Big City". While supporting Mink DeVille on their "The Crow Jane Alley Tour" (2005), a live recording from this tour was released as "Live In Munich". In 2006 Stytz was invited to play several more gigs in The Netherlands.

With house project Deep-Dive-Corp. he recorded in 2011 "If My Friends Could See Me Now", a unique and one-time cooperation, which was released by Scuba Music.

Together with Günther Reger (saxophone and percussion) and Jens-Peter Abele (guitar), Stytz went on a mini tour through Germany and was the main act with the same line-up at "Bassano Open Air" 2011 in Schwäbisch Gmünd. A projected new album, with production by Freddy Koella (Bob Dylan band), was eventually not realized for financial reasons.

Since 2012, Stytz has been mainly teaching guitar for a living. However, he never lost sight of writing and arranging new songs.

Finally, after more than a decade, Stytz is ready and back with previously unreleased songs, lost tracks and new music, exclusively released by Fuego Music in digital format.

The first one, „See Me Now“, is a selection of songs, recorded in his home studio since the year 2000. The songs were initially intended as demos for various projects that were not realized.

More to follow…

(biography written by Volker Regner; final correction by Phil  Shoenfelt)