Hello, how are you?

Quite fine!

Where are you right now?

Most of the lockdown I spent in my flat in Vienna, this week I escaped to Wörthersee to breathe some air and to not freak out banging my head against the wall at some point I guess.

Which sounds surround you?

Right now im lying next to a small garden lake, I hear frogs, some bragger of a drake showing off, his feather moves in the water, scattered caws of crows, and luckily from afar the humming of freeway traffic, to not feel completely off habitual noise pollution.

Have you been productive so far? What are you working on?

I’ve started to work on my master thesis these days, therefore I’m researching on potentials of sociopolitical empowerment within noise music as a broad immersive spectrum. The approach is still very open and I don’t know how to narrow it down yet, but it excites me, especially where noise blends with club culture. Also I’ve been spending time readjusting my studio setup, so I can record my solo album at home autonomously, whenever it hits me, or I wanna hit it. There’s a new demo track I released on Soundcloud, some rough taste of what’s coming.

Next thing moving closer is the release of our freshly mastered DVRST debut (shout-outs to Dino Spiluttini!), so I’m preparing press material and promo stuff, when I’m not just looking around trying hard to embrace the nothing.

What inspires you right now?

This unavoidable calm mess is actually doing some good also. Sometimes I’m embracing moments of social boredom as gifts to be rediscovered. That’s adding up well to usual mental disasters as inspiration!

Reading material you can recommend?

„The Body keeps the Score“ by Bessel Van der Kolk.

I’m interested in trauma as a societal issue. Van der Kolk’s broad and detailed analysis reveals the topic as an underlying cause of many mental and physical health problems developing from traumatic experiences and compensating what’s stuck in the body. Often not recognized as such these symptoms are rather to be targeted than the core experience that gets lost in the survivors’ speechless terror. This term, used in psychology, describes the inability to talk about traumatic experiences. As a proven common symptom, I agree for it to be an important point for a collective healing process to begin with.

Otherwise I enjoy Miranda July for her quirky lightness and ease.

To watch?

Recently seen: „In My Room“, documentary by Ayelet Albenda (2017)

Timeless meds: „The Mighty Boosh“, comedy series created by Noel Fielding and Julian Barrat (2004 – 2007)

What’s your opinion on live-streams? You see any alternative ways to support the music community?

At this point I only enjoy a live stream when the artists „on air“ are people I know, faces I miss meeting out there, or where I really do feel an intimate connect or specific interest in their work. I like the @sadsad_plant streams for example, which have become some kind of community chat meetings twice a week which is fun also as a collective experience. But that’s pretty much it. Streamed concerts without any social or interactive layer mostly remain material for media consumption or documentation as we know it, so I’m just not specifically interested in that approach. I really appreciate exchange via visually receivable forms of sharing, be it text or imagery, as a considerable way of expression, also or even especially amongst musicians and performers these days (btw., here is the Open Call for our KLANGFESTIVAL ZINE 2020).

What are you missing most? What are you afraid of?

I really miss performing live and djing. I miss the contact and shared experiences with audiences in concert/club environments or art spaces. Screaming the shit out over some PA. Loud, crowded and smelly sociotopes to jump inside and out whenever you feel like. Just having the possibility to do so. Seeing all the cuties out there, the hugs, the dancing, the exchange within late night talks at the bar. I definitely miss money to pay my bills. But mostly I’m afraid of being afraid, so I’m simply trying to do stuff I care about, and I’m glad to have neighbors who never complain about loudness.

What will change you think?

I hope that politics & institutions also take the chance to readjust and work out concepts that stabilize cultural workers and artists in the long run. It can not all be up to us as individuals or small organizations. I wish for all precarious and marginalized to get through this without giving up on themselves or their professions. Maybe the situation will bring us together in a way of appreciating your close ones, a good conversation and most importantly health as a collective aim. Also I refuse to give up on my hope of people realizing that a screen doesn’t touch back, as a live performance does.

What is the gig or occasion you were most looking for, that was cancelled in this period?

I’m super sad about postponing the DVRST (Vinzenz Landl & me) release shows, as well as some sound & performance workshops I was supposed to run at art universities this spring.

Are you still able to pay your rent?

Phew. As I usually earn a big part of my living with playing or organizing shows and I’m just about to slowly move more into writing and lecturing for money, it’s not so easy.