About Me

Joachim Uerschels is a musician, journalist and teacher who lives in Cologne/Germany with his wife and two daughters. When he was 14 years old and still dwelling in his hometown Krefeld, he fell in love with pop music, especially the songs of the American Motown label and the British band The Specials. In 1984  he was one of the founding members of The Braces,  a school band  which became an integral part of the third wave of the Ska movement. After extensive touring and releasing two albumsThe Braces went their separate ways in 1991. In the next years Joachim started writing for music magazines and television and after eight years in Bonn for some studies moved to Cologne to become a full-time writer. With several musical projects in between he reformed The Braces in 2000, Martin Stoerkmann being the only other remaining original member of the band. An album and more touring followed until in 2006 Joachim took some time off music making to concentrate on his family and proper jobs like teaching music at high schools in Cologne.
In 2009 he replaced Karsten Riedel as the singer, songwriter and guitarist of Alpha Boy School. With him joining the band was renamed Alphaboys feat. Joe Scholes. He is currently writing songs for the next album and blogging about it at http://joescholes.com
email: joe.scholes@gmail.com