Nik P.

Nikolaus Presnik entered the world on April 6, 1962, in Friesach, Carinthia, Austria, carrying Russian ancestry because his parents had escaped their homeland in the wake of the Second World War and established themselves in that Austrian state. After losing his mother at an early age, the young Presnik grew up with a foster family in Straßburg—the Carinthian municipality rather than its French counterpart—finished Hauptschule, took work behind a bar, answered a summons to serve in the Austrian Bundesheer, and later earned his living first as a carpenter and then inside the paper industry.

A guitarist who developed his skills without formal instruction, he performed with regional groups until Stall Records extended a contract that yielded his first album, Gebrochenes Herz, in 1997. That release showcased the band Reflex, assembled in 1996 with Presnik handling vocals and guitar alongside Andreas Wilding (aka Andi) on guitar, Herwig Heitzer on keyboards, Franz Urschitz on bass, and Reinhard Krenn on drums; over time the lineup also featured Jürgen Zechner on guitar, Volker Neumann on bass, Josef Düregger on piano, Doris Woldan providing background vocals, Andreas Esterl on guitar, Willi Ganster on guitar, Christian Seiner on bass, and Bernd Schneidhofer on drums.

The opening single “Dream Lover” from Gebrochenes Herz reached number one on ORF Radio Steiermark’s schlager hit parade in 1997 and held the summit for nine weeks. Follow-up Mit Dir (1998) delivered another major regional success with “Flieg, Weißer Adler,” which won the Austrian section of the 1998 Grand Prix des Schlagers yet placed second overall behind Oliver Haidt’s “Ich Denk an Rhodos.” Subsequent albums Du Bist die Sonne (1999), Du und Ich (2000), Wie der Wind (2001), Superstar (2003), and Briefe an den Mond each added further hits, among them “Deine Spuren in Mir,” “Weil Wir Tief im Herzen Kinder Sind,” “Du und Ich,” “Du Bist für Mich das Leben,” “Ireen,” “Die Erste Nacht mit Dir,” “Holiday,” “Dann Lösch Ich das Licht,” “Undercover Lover,” “Süchtig Nach Dir,” “Briefe an den Mond,” and the duet “Lovin’ You” with Natascha Wright.

That last collaboration proved decisive: entering the Austrian Top 40 in December 2004, it lifted Briefe an den Mond into the Top Ten and gave Presnik his first nationwide hit. Momentum carried into the 2006 album Lebenslust & Leidenschaft, whose track list included “Summerwine & Coconut,” “Gloria II,” and, most prominently, “Ein Stern (Der Deinen Namen Trägt).” Issued in September 2006, the album opened at number four on the Austrian chart before slipping away, only to reappear after the February 2007 release of the duet with DJ Ötzi. The single dominated both Austrian and German charts for more than a year, logging thirteen weeks at number one in each territory. Its impact triggered an October 2007 reissue of Lebenslust & Leidenschaft containing revised versions of several tracks, among them a remix of “Ein Stern (Der Deinen Namen Trägt),” plus the 2007 compilations Best of Nik P. & Reflex, Hit auf Hit, and Best of Nik P. & Reflex, Vol. 2, and a joint single with Claudia Jung, “Sommerwein, Wie die Liebe Süss und Wild,” which reached number 45 in Austria and number 59 in Germany. Later projects comprised Freudentränen (2008), Ein Stern: Weihnachten mit Nik P. (2008), and Weißt du Noch (2009).