He initially achieved success in Germany as a member of the post-punk and Neue Deutsche Welle groups Nina Hagen Band, Spliff and Nena, and later as a music producer.

At the time, West Berlin was an island of western culture isolated in the middle of communist East Germany and a fertile breeding ground for experimentation and artistic and political self-expression.

In 1977, Heil met a dissident artist from communist East Germany, the young Nina Hagen, who was electrifying Berlin's punk world with her powerful operatic voice and genre-defying musical style.

He is also known as the producer of German Neue Deutsche Welle band Nena's albums and singles, including the hit songs "99 Luftballons" (1983) and "Irgendwie, irgendwo, irgendwann" (1984).

[1] In 1994, Heil became friends with Australian expat and bass player Johnny Klimek, a producer of Berlin underground techno DJs.

Heil and Klimek continued their film scoring collaboration for a dozen years on such varied projects as One Hour Photo, The International, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, HBO’s Deadwood, CBS’s Without a Trace, NBC’s Awake and the epic adventure drama Cloud Atlas, based on a best selling novel by David Mitchell, directed by The Wachowskis and Tom Tykwer.