Alfred 'Koffl' Koffler

Alfred and Andi Deris got knew each other from their childhood. Guys used to play in a different rock bands, but their rehearsal rooms were next to each other and they met from time to me. Alfred also knew Kosta Zafiriou, with whom he played in the band called Redline. Very first Alfred's song was published in 1984: LP "Karlsruher Rockszene '84" contains Koffler's song for his band Rough Enough. When Kosta decided to create own band, he invited Andi to take Alfred as their guitarist. Deris auditioned Koffler and agreed to this choice: besides being an excellent guitar player, Alfred had his own individual style of playing.
In 2001, while recording the album "Endangered", Alfred suffered from Focal Dystonia, a serious disease that affected his left hand. For a while doctors could not make a correct diagnosis, and only specialists in Hannover began treatment of this rare disease. Alfred described his condition: "This disease is almost incurable. Actually, this is not a disease but rather a delay, so as to slow down the hand. Did I think to leave my job? Very often! First, there was a period when I did not know what happened to me because it is a relatively unknown disease. I did not like what was happened to me. I tried to play as usual - and the convulsions began. I tried to play again - and could not at all, nothing worked. Once I realized that I need to learn another style of playing. My friends' support helped me a lot, but I felt more and more disappointment and wanted to give up everything. I said to myself then: "I have to learn to live with it, and take it easy." Since then it got much better. I also realized that my quit will mean the end of PC69". By early 2003, Alfred's condition had slightly improved, and The Pinkies started to think about their comeback. Kosta described the situation: "Studio and live work are different things. You don't need to hurry up while studio recordings, but at the show it requires full impact from you as a guitar player. Besides that, Alfred is a perfectionist by his nature, and if he is not sure he could give 100%, then he will not not go on stage. We were hoping that he will be able to completely restore his abilities in 1,5-2 years, but that unfortunately did not happen... " The solution has been found in recruiting the second guitarist as a support for Alfred - Uwe Reitenauer. Guitars parts were divided: all the material that was too difficult for Alfred was played by Uwe, and thus both guitarists play solo and rhythm guitars. PC69 sound had only benefited from this. During "Thunderdome" album recordings Alfred played all the guitar parts, and during "In10sity" sessions he played together with Uwe, what brought the best guitar work ever, and made The Pinkies to refuse from using the keyboards almost completely.
By now, Alfred's hand did not recover completely, but he put up with this: "My condition, is in fact, consistent. It's not getting better, but, thanks to God, not getting worse too. I have changed my way of playing accordingly and it works very well. Actually, we sorted out the situation as a band and me personally too. "
In addition to his work with PC69 Alfred was involved in several projects. He composed the music for the songs from the first album of Place Vendome and played on several tracks of it. Alfred also wrote music for "Missa Mercuria" and solo album of D.C. Cooper. In addition, Alfred helped one of his friends to compose music for meditation, which was a very good break from hard rock.
Alfred is the main composer of PC69. He also performs backing vocals.

Article written by Tanya 'ivanna' Valchishena