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Today in the known!


Announced Revolution is a ska band that has been making a name for themselves in Austria over the past few years. They brought out a new album recently and played at the famous Donauinselfest a few weeks ago! I had a chance to have a beer with the guys and talk about music, politics, and wookies among other things!

By: Sean Brennan

With whom is it my pleasure to conduct this interview today?

Andi: We are announced revolution: aRevo. Gregor the trumpet player, Dorian the drummer, and I’m Andi the bassist.
Dorian: And a founding member!

So, the most common question.. Where does your band name come from?

Andi: The point behind it is that announced revolutions never really take place and we play a very unique style of music, which probably won’t do anything for us.
Gregor: I would say that our style has no real definition and in the end we just play music that’s fun for us. We have many different influences. Gernot, our guitar player kinda brings the rock into it, Peter brings many other influences like Die Aerzte, Farin Urlaub. Dorian brings more of the trad ska, that people can dance to. And that’s how everything gets mixed and jumbled and I don’t think it’s possible to define us in one genre.

You’ve touched upon this already, but where in the SKA scene do you see yourself?

Dorian: Well we don’t really fall into any of the waves. We definitely have SKA influences cause we always try to incorporate the offbeat into our songs. But as we said, we’ll add all other kinds of genres to that.

What’s it like to play in a band with so many people?

Gregor: Andi better answer this one cause he organizes most things.
Andi: It’s almost impossible for all members to be present at a given practice. Some people in particular have trouble making it, but we don’t wanna name any names here. (laughter) What works pretty well for us is when we split it up and have “rhythm practices”and “horns practices.” It’s much easier to organize a practice for only 4 people. However, we usually have a practice before our shows where everyone is present.

And how long have you had your current lineup?

Andi: The lineup has been like this for about a year. (everyone agrees)

So I saw you’re releasing an album soon?

Dorian: Yeah, we’ll be bringing it out on May 15. We’ll be playing lots of new songs off the album and lots of old songs too! Speaking of the new album, we came up with most of the material over the past year. And a lot of our search for our “personal style” came together during this time. I think our new songs/style is maybe a bit poppier and more accessible, but also more danceable. But we also put some more distorted guitars into it and it’s a bit speedier.
Gregor: This might sound funny, but we can really feel how our sound keeps evolving, which can probably be heard on the album. So you can kinda see how we’ve changed in a very compact way.
Andi: So please come to our shows to see for yourself!
(laughter and Dorian starts talking in “wookieish”)

And how was the process of recording it? Did you encounter any difficulties?

Dorian: Well it was very split up, with different people in the studio at different times. And it took about a year to wrap it all up.
Andi: Also, we were sharing the studio with different bands so we could only record at certain time.
Gregor: And we’d like to give many, many thanks to Konrad, a good friend of ours who studies audio engineering, who volunteered to help us out with the recording. He really busted his butt for us, and did a lot of work. He really brought our sound to a whole new level, so many thanks to him. The recording took a long time, but it definitely paid off!

Is aRevo a political band?

Dorian: Hm, that’s a difficult one.. We’re a [political] party!
(laughter)
Andi: Well we definitely don’t endorse any political parties as a band.
Dorian: We write some political lyrics but we’re a “band political party!”
(more laughter from everyone)

And what does that mean?

Dorian: Cut!
Gregor: Nah, I’d say we have several songs where I guess you could say they’re political, but we’re definitely not a purely political band, and that’s also not our goal. But as I said, of course we have some political songs, and there are some groups and political parties here in Austria, that MUST be criticized, and as a band/artist it gives you a platform to express that. But I’d say we’re a good mixture.

So, thoughts on the last [Austrian] presidential election?

Andi: Well first off, we all voted! I think the total number of voters is not something to be pleased about.
Gregor: Yeah, you can’t give good grades for “democracy” when only about half the eligible population voted. Although it’s hard to say for this one, cause the (un)availability of candidates surely affected that.
Dorian: It was also pretty funny to watch what happened inside the FPÖ, that they seemed to have internal problems, and I think that’s a sign that their popularity might be fading. I mean they gave us a candidate whom you cannot vote for in a first world country. And I think the low voter participation was somewhat predictable and maybe even irrelevant. You could argue about this in terms of “democracy”, and it’s a fact that voter participation has been sinking for the past 30 years, but no one is really doing anything against it. And I don’t know if anything will change in the forthcoming elections or if people will think it’s just the same thing all over again.
Gregor: One point I wanna make is about the ÖVP who likes to see themselves as the leading party/ party in charge, yet they were encouraging people to cast blank votes, which is ridiculous. And then also, back to what Dorian mentioned, with the FPÖ. I mean, it’s hard to imagine but there are some more liberal people in that party, who raised their voices after this past election, but they were shut up immediately by the people who fit the common perception of an FPÖ politician. It’s quite scary that most of the people in charge there have all come from right wing student fraternities.

So, back to the band, what do you think about being a part of the local ska scene here? And also just the “general music scene?”

Andi: Well I have to say that we’re very lucky in Vienna, since there’s a pretty good music scene here. This can be disadvantageous at times, since that also means there are many bands, and it’s hard to get your name out. We’ve played with some ska bands from more rural parts of Austria, and it’s easy for them to get shows out there. On an international level, of course the Austrian scene is relatively small.
Gregor: Especially the ska scene here is easy to overlook I think.
Dorian: And I think it’s easy to “get stuck.” That you play shows in the same places and it’s hard to get out of Vienna or the country.
Andi: We’re trying to set some stuff up in Bavaria in Germany at the moment, where the ska scene is bigger and several bands are internationally known.
Gregor: I’d like to give a shout out to The Baboonz btw, who we were fortunate enough to play 2 shows with.

Any final statements?

(everyone points at Dorian)
Dorian: He who makes a bratwurst for someone, has a bratwurst maker*.. Good luck translating that into English! (laughter)
*Wer anderen eine Bratwurst brät, hat ein Bratwurst brat Gerät!

Thanks for your time guys!










Hear this cool band here: http://www.myspace.com/announcedrevolution