When Axel met Sally: music to show the magical side of the U8

Berlin’s public transport is both loved and hated by residents of the city, and the U8 line pretty much embodies this public sentiment. The line connects the north to the south, running through the heart of Berlin, and it connected an American from San Francisco with a Berliner for a musical homage of sorts.

Journalist Sally McGrane and musician Axel Scheele both live on the U8. “The whole song just came to me between Schönleinstraße and Weinmeisterstraße,” says McGrane. Their band “Lou Electric and the Gold Kimono Band” just released “U8 U8” as a single, with more Berlin-inspired songs to come. Scheele says, “I didn’t plan this but [the song] came out that it’s the exact right tempo that the train is.”

Produced by Monika Müller-Kroll