Hello, how are you?

Very good thank you.

Where are you right now?

At the countryside village at my parents. I’ve been in Vienna the entire lockdown time and now it feels good to be out here in the open refilling the energy tank. Also helping my father renovating the old house of my grandparents. And i can shred the church organ anytime.

Which sounds surround you?

The natural sounds of a typical small farmer village. Various animals: cows, sheep, rooster crowing, all sorts of birds. Machinery: tractors, lawn mowers, cars, chainsaws. And the church bells ringing every 30min. once for every quarter and for every full hour. So 11:00am which is the time right now would be 4 high tones for the 4 quarters followed by eleven lower tones. It can by quite noisy in a village actually.

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

The first two weeks of lockdown I’ve been busy working in my new studio near Naschmarkt. I wanted to try out some installment ideas and it came quite natural. I ended up hosting an exhibition just for myself, which was really entertaining. Since one year or so I’m researching on and off about this idea of fictional rooms hosting sound entities. Various projects came out of this initial thought and im coming back to this idea ever since. The opening was a success. After that I fully submerged into an online mmorpg game for three weeks, which was a very intense and an interesting time in retrospective. I usually don’t play video games due to lack of time or computing power, but what better time than during a pandemic. It was a nice intermezzo being in contact with people all over the world, disconnected from the real world and realizing how each and everyone is more or less affected by this pandemic. Now I’m working on acoustic treatments for my studio and I’m slowly trying to get back to a routine when it comes to making music.

What inspires you right now?

Reading material you can recommend?

The two last books I’ve been reading:

“Sonic Agency: Sound and Emergent Forms of Resistance” – Brandon LaBelle
“Der Meister und Margarita” – Michail Bulgakow

Listening material?

I’ve enjoyed the latest Lorenzo Senni release, but I’m always coming back to Laurel Halo’s Quarantine at some point. It fits.

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

Its a good sign like “hey we are struggling real hard right now, please support us in any way”, but other than that I don’t think it is that enjoyable. Best support right now is buying music via Bandcamp and artists or labels directly. Also more and more artists join the Patreon platform to create specific content for their fans, which can sustain a stable income during this time. Haven’t tried myself though.

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

Going to concerts and socializing with people, getting inspired by interactions. I’m fearing for an even more twisted, dark world.

What will change you think?

I think there will be a lot of physical distancing, not so much social. People not shaking hands or hugging in public, being more aware of hygiene and passing by with more distance. A lot of people think that everything will get back to how it was and nothing will change, but I see it differently. Local communities are more in contact than ever, supporting each other. People working from home. Millennials witnessed two major crises now (finance crisis and covid) and receiving those effects. I’m not an expert on society or economy, but I think all these things will surely have an impact in the long run.

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

This month I would have been doing a residency in New York City, which I was really looking forward to, but Im actually quite happy I’m not there at the moment. In June there should have been a festival gig, which had to be canceled of course. And then there is a residency at EMS Stockholm in September, which isn’t canceled yet, but I am fearing for the worst.

Are you still able to pay your rent?

Right now yes, but it depends on the duration of the current situation. Hoping for jobs to come in.