Hello, how are you?

Hi! I’m fine. Exhausted from processing and still confused, I guess. Turns out that temporarily submitting to total isolation was easier than finding my way towards a more nuanced, but still responsible degree of physical distancing that I’ll be able to hold up in the long run.

Where are you right now?

Vienna, my apartment, glued to my desk. I got a research grant by the FWF this year and need to get my post doc thesis on track. And yes, I can pay my rent, and this is where the money comes from.

Which sounds surround you?

Construction. My building’s on top of where loads of the new Vienna subway extension will be. This week it’s mostly bricks being dumped; into wheelbarrows, down the stairs of the basement, onto the streets in front. Last week it was drilling. I’m happy to be with the bricks.

Have you been productive so far?

No. If anything, I am trying to unwork my frenzied desire to put myself on the map by coming up with output. I am working, and slowly. Mostly on my thesis, reading and writing, as these are modes that have always required some form of withdrawal from me, and thus are still relatively accessible now. Music, though: no. Nothing. I don’t see the point in making anything new right now, when I can’t share it by performing in person, in assembly with an audience that is physically present. Even listening to music can be a drag, because I realize how much of me enjoying music comes from being with music with others, especially when watching or playing a show.

What inspires you right now?

Slowness and structure. Moving through routines. Fermenting stuff.

Reading material you can recommend?

I’m having the Donna Haraway moment that I’ve been anticipating for ages. I am re-reading Staying With The Trouble. Making Kin in the Chthulucene (Duke University Press 2016) and finally enjoy it.

To listen?

As I said, not much listening happening here, but this is great, and it only takes 17 minutes anyways:

Also, if you are tired of “Team Österreich” rhetorics, still have some disposable income and want to put a bunch of euros towards dealing with the shit that’s going on at the European borders while you’re sitting this out on your privileged ass (like me), check out this compilation:

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

Personally, I get nothing out of them. And no, unfortunately.

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

I wonder if I’ll ever casually watch a show at V99 again.

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

Tintifucks, a new punk band that Markus Gönitzer (of Red Gaze, Imposition Man, and Falle) and I started in the fall, were supposed to play a couple of tape release shows in April. The tape’s on the Internet now. I’m still sad though.