Alexander Wilke

Alec Empire (born May 2, 1972) is a German musician. Born in West Berlin as Alexander Wilke, Empire is most well known for his time as frontman of Atari Teenage Riot, but has also generated r

Alec Empire (born May 2, 1972) is a German musician. Born in West Berlin as Alexander Wilke, Empire is most well known for his time as frontman of Atari Teenage Riot, but has also generated respect for his solo work.

Empire started making punk music in the early 1980s. When he discovered techno, he immediately developed an affinity for it and abandoned punk at once. When he saw after a few years that most of his friends were only concerned with partying all night and did not care about events in the world (which is something that Empire expected his friends to do since they lived in a separated Berlin), he set up his own, new, anarchistic music style called digital hardcore.