BMG Ariola 1992

Pop and gstanzl, blues and landler, rock and doubles - that doesn't exist? You must be kidding! Since 1984 Hubert von Goisern und die Original Alpinkatzen having been breaking just about every musical taboo. It's not easy to find a focal point in their creativity. If you must, then it is the area of folk music, which runs as the main thread through the Alpinkatzen story. And it exactly this which is a thorn in the side of the folk music purists. For the Austrian formation mix together whatever there is to be mixed. The Austrian troupe shy away from hard rock yodelling just as little as they shy away from a dancefloor landler.

There is simply no musical path that the four member band would not consider. And so arise astounding symbioses, like something in in the style of an alpine reggae, or a house-rock 'n' roll breather upon in Styrian style, or, or ... It could only come to this unique mixture because with the association of the interpreters, different musical pasts simply crossed over. Founder and head of the alpine tomcats is Hubert von Goisern.

He once played music in a brass band in his homeland. Afterwards, he concerned himself with the sound cultures of exotic countries and dedicated himself to various avant garde projects. His favourite instrument is the "Steirische", a special kind of accordion. Aside from that he handles the fife and the beefhorn. But Hubert is also perfect on the guitar and as singer. Reinhard Stranzinger (guitar), Stefan Engel (keyboards) and drummer Wolfgang Maier are also highly musical. And they can sing too.

At the same time, with the Alpinkatzen things don't depend so much on perfectionist vocal cord violation. The lyrics of their songs are much more important: here one can be totally confounded by the composed melange offered by the rocky band and then the really biting, ironic and distinct words go one step further.

When the alpine tomcats stand on the stage, then the audience doesn't know whether now, for example, it should swing to the call to a mountain-pasture-rap-metal-yodel, or rather remain sitting to let the lyrics melt in their ears, or both, or what? Well, it's all really quite strange, what the band around frontman Hubert von Goisern has to offer.

The motto is: "spreading odd folk music among the people". That's how it was with the previous vinyl pressings, it's how it is with the

newest LP, which is called Aufgeigen statt niederschiassen. One has seldom heard the fusion of folk music roots and rhythm 'n' blues elements in such authenticity. Furthermore the technical quality of the product convinces.

There is something for everybody. For all those who can't shed their Anglo-American listening habits, for all those who can't renounce folk music and for all those who can't lower their high quality standards. Only so much is guaranteed: Alpinkatzen stand for unashamed folk music, based on the motto "Ziehharmonika goes Rock 'n' Roll!"

www.kaindlstorfer.at 20th February 1993

Hubert von Goisern on the Kuhmelcher yodel, his relationship to the Beatles and Jörg Haider's family in Bad Goisern

Mr von Goisern, I gather from the News that you have just crossed the Alps with a portable igloo. Was it hard work?

This trip never took place. It was being planned, but a few days before we wanted to leave, it began to rain really hard. The people at News just wrote nonsense; they presented this trek as fact and in the course of this, we had to postpone the whole thing until March.

Will you cross the length or breadth of the Alps?

That's nonsense again. The talk was never of crossing the Alps, we want to the Dachstein massif and finally cross the Dead Mountains, that's all.

Who is "we"?

Lutz Högermoser and me.

Who is Lutz Högermoser?

A really good friend of mine. Lutz is an extreme mountain climber, a Goiserer, he's climbed one or another 8000m mountain before.

Do you find time for such a thing?

A week in the mountains builds me up more than a month in Greece. I must make time for myself for such a thing.

You grew up in Bad Goisern. What kind of world was that, the world of your childhood?

An unbelievably beautiful world; certainly a little close, but my God, I soon realised: if you want to win yourself a bigger horizon, then you must simply clamber up somewhere.

And down in the valley, with your parents, what was it like there?

I come from a working family. My father was a manager at Hoffman & Co., my mother a housewife.

Hoffman & Co.?

It was a factory for architectural graphite. I come from a real housebuilder family.

Did politics play a role at home?

My parents are social democrats. That's in our family on my father's side. My uncle is the SPÖ borough councillor and sport official with ASKÖ. I would say that my father is the least political. He is naturally a party and union member, but he never wanted a proper, official function.

And your mother's family?

They're more from the Freedom Party corner, my grandfather above all. Since he is a Sudeten German, he tends strongly towards the FPÖ. My grandfather is a convinced Freedom supporter.

Jörg Haider comes from Goisern too ...

Yes, unfortunately!

... although he later became a Carinthian. Did you know him back then?

I only know Jörg by sight, there was never a proper acquaintance. But I know Jörg's father well, my grandfather is friends with him, the two are practically neighbours. When it was my grandfather's birthday or something, then the old Haider always came over and celebrated a little with him.

What sort of person is the old Haider?

An incorrigible Nazi, unbelievable what a Nazi he is. "You'll see" he once said to me two or three years ago, "history will finally show that National Socialism was right." And he doesn't say it careworn or bitter, but rather with a smile of conviction. He's still a firm believer in Hitler.

And Jörg?

Well I know exactly what kind of corner Jörg comes from. Jörg never broke with the political attitude of his father.

Hubert, what kind of music did you listen to as a boy?

Brass music and operettas. The radio was on all day at home, Ö-Regional. And I often heard Wunschkonzert and such programmes, that shaped me quite a lot. Lehar, Strauss, a few lighter opera things ...

Interpreted by Rudolf Schock!

Yes, exactly. We also listened to Fritz Wunderlich a lot at home.

What about the Stones, the Beatles?

They didn't come until later. The Beatles were a very incisive experience. I can remember a little scene at home: rock'n'roll music was playing on the radio and my father says: "It sounds as if the record's got stuck." Back then I was already really into it. I said: "Fantastic, a totally new sound!"

The people in Goisern weren't so keen on the Beatles?

No, not at all. And that strengthened my fascination. I thought to myself: that really must be something unusual if everyone grumbles so.

What came after the Beatles?

The Who, John Mayall, Pink Floyd.

When did you begin to play music yourself?

I start in the brass band when I was twelve. Trumpet.

I read that your brass career then came to a very abrupt end ...

Yes, that's right, I had great differences with the bandleader, I was too rebellious. You have to serve ten years in brass music before you are allowed to open your mouth. And I didn't like the drinking culture either.

The drinking after the rehearsal.

There was drinking all the time, after the rehearsal, during the rehearsal, before the rehearsal - and at the concerts too.

How do you judge the Goiserer brass music entity in hindsight?

I learned an unbelievable amount there. There are seven, I think only six now, bands in Goisern and after I was thrown out, I went to another band and there was a wonderfully nice bandleader, who said to me: "I heard that you've flown, if you want, you can have an instrument from us." He really sponsored me.

You then played with the other band?

No, not at all. They simply put the instrument at my disposal. The whole thing was intensified in that this bandleader was gay. Everyone in Goisern knew, but you would regret it if you said it, then all hell would have broken loose! In any case, everyone in Goisern thought I would also be gay.

Are you?

No. I just didn't get it back then.

You then lived abroad for eight years, in Africa, Asia, Canada. How should one imagine the Hubert of that time. As a hitchhiker with rucksack and guitar?

No, not at all. I packed together my luggage, a suitcase, a travel bag, a cooking pot, everything that I thought could use sometime and I knew that now I'm going to Johannesburg and get myself a job. I didn't want to travel as a tourist, but work completely normally and live with the people.

The apartheid in South Africa didn't bother you?

No, I was a naïve lad back then. I didn't even know that such a thing as apartheid existed. Later I was in Rhodesia, Mozambique, Swaziland, Botswana, Canada, Nepal and in the Philippines.

What jobs did you do there?

I was a chemistry laboratory assistant and travelling salesman, in Toronto I also then sold skis for a time, in a sports shop.

It's said that you had a certain weakness for esoteric subjects. Is that right?

Esoteric - that is such a fashion word, it has a taste of superficiality and I don't want to be that. I believe in God, but I am not a religious person, because I don't give two figs for religion. I am a spiritual person.

I don't understand. You're not religious, but you believe in God. What does that mean?

I can't believe in the Christian God, because it is masculine. But God can't have a penis. My concept of God is not definable. I meditate a lot and there I tune into a certain level that can't be expressed.

You returned to Vienna in the mid eighties, you played in the Rote Engel. What was this time like?

The audience in the Rote Engel is unbelievably exhausting, there's no audience more exhausting than the one in the Rote Engel.

Why?

Most people there are self-promoters. They're not interested in what's happening on the stage, they just want to chatter and pick someone up. It's a hard school to get these people to listen.

You also played as a street musician.

I played on Kärntner Straße because it was fun. I played what I wanted there, there was no boss who talked me into it, or, for example, said, play more blues or something. And it brought me a great deal. I also closed my record deal on Kärntner Straße: one day, Willi Schlager from CBS came over and pressed his business card into my hand and said: "Call me, we'll do something!"

What kind of music did you offer?

I played the button accordion, traditional songs, mind you, in the manner of someone who had never been taught the button accordion. I refused to go to an accordion teacher.

Why?

Because I didn't want to play like everybody else.

You taught yourself the accordion autodidactically?

I taught myself everything. I took hold of the instrument in a way that nobody had ever done.

Folk music has a taste of conservatism in our neck of the woods. In countries like Greece or Italy, it's different, there folk music stands in a rebellious tradition.

There was also this rebellious tradition here. Only in the Nazi time, when folk music was really whorish, did it change. Since then, yodelling and playing the button accordion has been out of favour with the youth. The fifties also did their thing to blight folk music: that's when the folksy schlager appeared.

Mariandl, andl, andl.

Exactly, through such kitschiness, folk music became totally discredited. I just think that today nobody needs to steer clear of folk music any more. Folk music has nothing reactionary, it has something traditional, that's the different. I myself am someone connected to tradition, I like this kind of music. I just bring a shot of anarchy into it. In this way, something new develops.

You once said: "You mustn't leave folk music to the right wing."

Exactly.

What do the people from the Goiserer Viergesang say to your music?

They like it.

I don't understand that. I mean, you bring rap into yodelling!

Well, of course it's not totally their taste. But you must also imagine: their whole life long, the people from the Goiserer Viergesang have appeared in front of older people, there was barely a youngster in the audience. And today they must experience how their tradition is dying away, literally dying out, Simon-Geigenmusi, for example, are never around. Of course they're pleased that someone is taking up their tradition.

Do you also know the people from the Goiserer Viergesang personally?

Yes certainly, I once asked Neuper from the Viergesang, whether he would teach me the Kuamöcha yodel...

The what?

The Kuh-mel-cher (cow milker) yodel. The way they sing it. Because the Viergesang sing it wonderfully. When you hear it, it's pure alpine mysticism.

Can you do the Kuamöcha yodel now?

No, Neuper said: "That doesn't make any sense, Hubert. You must sing it the way you sing it. I can't teach you, there's no right or wrong in yodelling." So, they take me seriously. I lately have the feeling that the Goiserer Viergesang are very grateful to me.

Günter Kaindlstorfer

FF Südtiroler Illustrierte 11th November 1993

Interview with the Austrian alpine rocker Hubert von Goisern

Hubert von Goisern, born 1952, is currently the most successful Austrian rock musician. With his CD Aufgeigen statt niederschiassen and the catchy tune of Hiatamadl, he's sold more than 100,000 records. Folk music in linen complexion: an astonishing mixture of alpine reggae, blues, gstanzl, and rap metal yodels. Last week, the alpine rocker appeared in Meran.

Hubert von Goisern, in Meran, in the middle of the Alps, are you a fan of alpenglow, or is that just kitsch?

No, I really like the Alps, and I think that kitsch can only be something man-made.

With your music between blues and rock, country dance and gstanzl, don't you ever have the feeling that you are violating tradition?

The people who charge me with violation and condemn a change in folk music, and be it only with a new instrument, are those who would never forgo their cars and their fridges.

How does your music develop, where do you draw from?

I grew up with folk music, then I came to blues and jazz and funk and avant-garde. Aside from that, I travelled a lot and in doing so simply opened my eyes. All that comes to me when I write my lyrics and melodies.

It is said that you eloped and lived for a long time in the Philippines. Did you return to your own roots and to folk music through that?

That's right, because I experienced there what folk music means. There was neither a radio nor a television there. When a celebration took place, everyone simply sang along and nobody thought, oh dear, the old numbers again, it was just music, no matter if the songs were a hundred years old. It impressed me a great deal, how life, lyrics and melodies were interconnected and I thought to myself, the remainder of that must have been detectable at home too. When I then returned, I began to get into folk music, which I had actually broken with.

Are there models towards whom you orient yourself?

There are many people I highly regard. From Mozart, Verdi, Puccini and Wagner to Miles Davis, Fellini and André Heller.

It's said that there will soon be an alpine opera from you.

At the moment there is the concrete plan to make a film, and we'll see if the same story can be translated to an opera.

It's Marika Rökk's birthday. Do you like the music of the 30s?

Each era has their good, creative people and their cultural dwarves who have nevertheless managed to make it into the spotlight. Generally, I don't like musical and opera especially, but I know that my grandmother really liked Rökk, and since I really liked Grandma, I then really liked her too.

You had your first Styrian accordion from your grandfather. Were your grandparents the very first fans from the beginning?

Yes and, for a long time, the only ones. My grandfather is more than ninety years old now, he gave me his Styrian because he said, I'm too old and can't press the keys any more. For me, this instrument was always connected with dusty melodies and I didn't touch it for five years.

Jörg Haider also comes from Bad Goisern. What do you think of him, and where would you put yourself politically?

I'm ashamed of Haider and I can only hope that God's ways are mysterious and winding and that he also has a function in society.

Do you see folk music as a rebellion against power and control?

It must be. Folk music simply can't be whitewashing of the facts, it has to express what the people feel.

You made the absolute breakthrough with Hiatamadl. Do you have a calf complex, do you especially like girls with fat calves?

I didn't write the refrain, it's an old folk song from a time when the people of the countryside squinted in the direction of the town and imagined that life is more comfortable there. And because the grass is always greener on the other side, the girls were also imagined to be better, more buxom and more beautiful.

What do you think the reason is for your success?

I think it's the contrast of the songs. That people are so exhausted after numbers like Sepp bleib do or the Wildschützrap, that they are really open for something that would ordinarily make their ears close with a snap.

What relationship do you have personally to yodelling?

Certainly an erotic one, and yodelling is a form of singing where you can't hold anything back. You can't yodel with half strength, it only works when you open up just like that and give it, it's like breathing.

When and where did you learn to yodel?

It was about five years ago, I got hold of a cassette, because I was fascinated by this singing technique and everyone maintained that you can't learn to yodel, you're born to it. Then I wrote down the notes and the phonetics of the syllables of a yodel, found my vocal pitch in which I could yodel and practised non-stop.

Are you a religious person, do you believe in God?

For me, God is not a man with a beard and penis, God, for me, is an idea. I left the church because I couldn't abide this masculine image of God.

Hubert von Goisern, a Luis Trenker for the 90s?

The comparison flatters me a great deal. I always liked the Luis trenker films, although he was always suspect to me, he didn't just play someone from the mountains, but he was one too. I'm totally convinced.

What do you think of the Tracht look?

I do like clothes where you can well identify a regional identity, I most like to wear linen clothes, but since this Tracht boom broke out, I hung up my leathers.

Do you go to discotheques and how do you bear computer-controlled rhythms?

There was a time when I went to the disco a lot and danced away to the general booming. I still ike to dance, but it must simply be music that's man-made if possible.

Your very personal wish for the future?

That I will never become a copy or caricature of myself and that I remain human and don't dash from stage to stage, from hotel room to hotel room, out of touch with the real world.

Beatrix Unterhofer