Biography
Sandro Giampietro was born in Bremen in 1968, the son of a jazz singer and an Italo-American drummer. He began singing and playing guitar at the age of five and formed a heavy metal band as a teenager. In 1995, he was discovered by Helge Schneider — a German comedian, musician, author, and filmmaker known for his absurdist humor, musical virtuosity, and cult status in German-speaking countries — and joined Schneider’s regular jazz band until 1997. Starting in 1998, Giampietro also worked at venues such as Hamburg’s Thalia Theater, both on stage and as a composer. Over the years, he released several CDs with his band Sandro and one album with the band Zillion (2003).
As a guitarist and songwriter, Giampietro contributed to an album by Michael Kiske’s band SupaRed (2003) and played guitar on Kiske’s solo albums "Kiske" (2006) and "Past in Different Ways" (2008). In 2012, he founded the metal band Starchild. Most notably, however, he rejoined Helge Schneider’s regular jazz band in 2006 and has performed with him countless times over the decades.
In 2020, Giampietro presented his first film, the low-budget crime comedy "Boot un Dood," for which he was responsible not only for directing but also for production, screenplay, cinematography, editing, and music. Together with Helge Schneider, he created "The Klimperclown" (DE/UK 2025), a documentary about Schneider, released in cinemas in August 2025 to coincide with Schneider’s 70th birthday.