Born on 18 May 1954, Reinhold Heil studied for tone master at the HDK in Berlin and played besides in a Fusion Jazz Band. In 1976 he became acquainted with the guitarist Bernhard Potschka, who introduced him a year later to Nina Hagen, Herwig Mitteregger and Manfred Praeker. They formed the Nina Hagen Band together, which had a lot of success with their debut album.
Nina Hagen went solo in 1979, whereas the band continued themselves under the name Spliff. After one album in English, ‘Spliff Radio Show’, they decided to sing in German again and had a lot of success in Germany with the hits ‘Carbonara’ and ‘Das Blech’, both written by Reinhold. In the end, Spliff consisted of four producers, who made it possible for newcomers to have success in the music business. Out of these four men, Reinhold was probably the most successful, as he produced Nena, who enjoyed European success with the song ’99 Luftballons’ (or ’99 Red Balloons’, in the English version).
In 1986, Reinhold briefly worked with Kim Wilde, producing the song Schoolgirl together with Ricky Wilde.
Reinhold then went on to work with artists like Annette Humpe and the Rainbirds. In 1996 he started a new career as a composer of film music together with Johnny Klimek. They composed music for films like ‘Winterschläfer’ (1997) and ‘Lola rennt’ (1998).
Since the end of the 1990’s Reinhold lives in Santa Barbara, California (USA), where he has built his own studio.
Kim about Reinhold Heil
Initially it came about because Ricky was going to be working with Nena’s band, except that he couldn’t work with them in Berlin, because his wife was having a baby. So he had to postpone that project. But through Nena he met Reinhold and I met him too. They came over to England. He’s a wizard on the Fairlight and we just bought the new Fairlight, and it made a lot of sense that he came over and worked with Ricky and myself. And he was a lovely person. He produced two of the tracks and couldn’t finish it off because he had a commitment to his girlfriend who he also produces. Rosa. (1)
Interview source
(1) Europa Countdown, Europa TV (Netherlands), 8 July 1986