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| © BMG Ariola |
When at the age of 14, Wolfgang laid aside the accordion - which he
had been learning for four years, as his parents had wished - to make
some
noise with a drum kit in his room, there was still some parental resistance
to be overcome.
Apart from his apprenticeship as a typesetter, he attended
the state music school in Braunau, after that, the Mozarteum: the first
term in
earnest, the second sporadically, and in the third and last he allowed
himself a self-approved term abroad: in Morocco, where he made music
with the natives in African sounds, reworked the Innviertler Roas into
an African Roas and performed native Gstanzln for the surprised Moroccans.
The way to the final destination had many corners. After his return he
lathed aluminium bars in Ranshofen, found himself a job as a farmhand
in the Mühlviertel (a childhood dream, even before the desire to
be a drummer), became a civil service Red Cross driver, stoked the blast
furnace in Ranshofen and finally became a professional musician in a
commercial band.
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Evert van der Waal and Wolfgang Maier
© BMG Ariola
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In Canada, Florida, France and Switzerland, he entertained people for
three years with most coherent songs between Oberkrainer and Kasatschok
from his repertoire of 500 songs. The fact that he, quite secretly, listened
to three cassettes with genuine folk music in the hotel room, remained
a secret. Then he was a salesman in an drum shop in Vienna, eventually
went back to the farm into the Mühlviertel, drummed for Ali, the
husband of Lisa Fitz, and for the Salzburg band Josh
& die Emotionen.
Wolfgang Spannberger, whom he knew from some of his musician jobs, put
him together with Hubert von Goisern. The band grew together in initial
rehearsals over several weeks on his farm.
In 1994, towards the end of the Alpinkatzen's last
tour, Wolfgang severed the tendon of his thumb, leaving him only able
to drum with one hand. Evert van der Waal joined him on stage with a
second set of drums.
Since the end of the Alpinkatzen, Wolfgang
has played for groups such as Seven Ages and
played drums on five tracks on Hubert von Goisern's 2002 CD Iwasig.
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Photo: www.sra.at
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In 1997, Wolfgang was part of a group called Seven
Ages. The instruments played ranges from the drums and the violin,
to the flute and the didgeridoo. Wolfgang later drummed on the Seven
Ages album, Otherland.
Fellow ex-Alpinkatzen, Stefan Engel, also contributed
to this album. Members:
| Bernd Bechtloff * |
Eckhard Mützner |
| Ines Bialonczyk |
Dieter Nemetz |
| Paul Hochrainer |
Otto Trapp |
| Gernot Lang |
Wolfgang Wackerlig |
| Wolfgang Maier |
Heinz Wolfsbauer |
* Bernd Bechtloff was the drummer for Hubert von Goisern between 2000
and 2004. Learn more about Bernd, Seven Ages and the connections with
Hubert von Goisern here: Bernd Bechtloff |
