DESOLAT
PHOTO CREDIT: KATHARINA FRÜHWIRTH
1. Hello and welcome to All the Cores and More! Would you please introduce yourself and what you do in the band?
My name is Alfred and I’m the guitar player and vocalist.
2. Would you please provide some background basics for readers who may not be familiar with you yet—when and how you formed, where you’re from, previous projects, etc.?
We’re from Vienna, Austria. We formed in 2018. Bass player Klaus and I had this stoner/sludge band called “Cyruss” from 2004-2009, we released 2 albums, had a bit of local fame, played some shows and toured a bit. Bongzilla was a very influential band to us. It wasn’t heard from them in a long time and in 2017 they suddenly toured again and announced a new album. I really wanted to play with them for my “to-do-list” in life, so we reformed for this one show and did it and it felt great! We went on with another drummer then, changed the musical style a bit and the name. We were bored with this stoner rock thing and more attracted to 80s/90s noise rock and some Swedish death metal and some post metal and sludge like AmenRa, Neurosis, Lvmen, Iron Monkey, etc. – So yeah, that’s what we did then. We all have played in many many bands in the local DIY punk scene for many years. We are all in our 40s now.
3. What is the political philosophy of the band and how does it inform your sound?
Well, we all come from the radical left scene, the DIY anarcho punk world. We toured squats, autonomous centres, squatted alternative caravan sites with our bands, have been active in the local squat and infoshop, Antifa gatherings, people’s kitchen, DIY shows, fanzines and so on. We (or at least two of us) are the generation of those anti-globalization movements around the Millennium, protests against the International Monetary Fund, World Economic Forum, World Trade Organization, Seattle, Prague, Davos, Genua, the time of ATTAC, etc., you name it. That’s our background but meanwhile we’re not active any more as we are old, have jobs, me even kids and no time or other priorities in life. Also you get bored and annoyed from several aspects after such a long time. Anyway, that’s what is still very close to us and where our hearts beat. You find it in our music, the first releases had loads of anti-capitalist rants, anarchist slogans and class war content. As the lyrics are written by me, I would say that they show some resurgent interest and emotions about it at the time. But they included also just loads of misanthropic rants which fit the musical style of our heavy noise very much. All in all it was not too serious and deep. With the Get Sick… album, the political impact faded away and it was just misanthropic rants and more personal and emotional aspects, also some attempts at dark storytelling. The new album is about the rise of fascism and the decline of democracy and the new media landscape. I would say [the songs] are political but from a quite personal and emotional perspective and less analytic. The quality of the lyrics is better than it was on previous releases. But we don’t have “one political philosophy,” we are grown up people and know that there is not one truth, no black and white and are better aware of what we don’t know.
4. People as Idiots & Idiots as Leaders releases October 9th in the US. Talk to us about how the state of the world informed the record’s contents and how the record is structured.
The rise of authoritarians who got voted for in regular elections had a very depressing and aggression-inducing impact: Orbán, Erdoğan, Trump, Bolsonaro, Milei, Meloni, Kaczyński, Putin. Also in Austria and neighbouring Germany, authoritarian and right wing extremist parties became very strong, in Austria even number one. Seems like democracies de-vote their democratic system… Also culture war is a tool of enormous success. And here’s the second big topic: The new media landscape of social media and algorithms and AI with emotionally radicalizing dynamics and wannabe-oligarchs behind it with an antidemocratic agenda, Elon Musk, Peter Thiel and the like. And they are so ridiculously rich and powerful. Terrifying. The album’s chronology follows an initial assessment (“Idiots as Leaders,” “Pig Race To The Apocalypse”), followed by depression (“This Sadness Makes Me Rage,” “No Depression When Dead,” “Good People Keep Their Mouths Shut While The Assholes Believe The World Belongs To Them”) and ultimately culminates in cynicism and resignation (“Cyberdyne Employment Application,” “Humans Are Such Easy Prey”). Doesn’t sound very uplifting. Yet anger at the state of the world and one’s own condition is omnipresent in the energy of the music and lyrics.
5. What was the writing and recording process for this, your third LP, like?
It’s always the same with us: We don’t practice but have 2-3 band conclaves per year. For those occasions we play for a full weekend plus beer and barbeque. We are surprisingly productive and even wonder about ourselves. Also it might be worth mentioning that we do not take things too serious generally. For this record, time got a bit tight and we struggled to remember some riffs and structures or even songs in the recording studio. But in the end we managed to record those 9 songs and it turned out fine. Also we always record at the same studio with the same guy; we feel very comfortable and relaxed there, so this helps a lot.
6. Tell us about what you think the features of RBK, Jarboe, and Michael Masen add to the record and how those came about.
Michael Masen is “the guy” for freejazz improvisation saxophone playing in Vienna or maybe even Austria. He’s a friend, I’ve known him for years on a more loose basis and for some years he’s regularly played with our band, also at live shows, and we became closer. He is a very likeable and easy going person and a great player. We also did a song with him on our previous album and one more which didn’t get released yet. We love the freejazz saxophone madness, it’s a perfect fit to noise rock.
I adore Jarboe and her singing, of course also as a fan of The Swans and Neurosis. I got in contact with her some years ago and she did a remix for my other band Phal:Angst. So I asked her for a feature for Desolat and she was immediately in it. Also very easy going. Great person.
RBK was the bass player of my other band “Phal:Angst” at the time; she is the cover model from our last album Get Sick And Let Me Watch You Die and a friend. She’s the singer of local post-punk band “Rolltreppe” and they are a fantastic band I love. So I asked her for the feature. Her singing on the song is very much like “Rolltreppe.”
7. The album release show is slated for October 16th in Vienna. What details can you share with us about this show, and also about the Viennese—and maybe Austrian more largely—scene?
This club “Venster99” is the hotspot for a very vibrant underground / DIY punk and hardcore scene here in Vienna recently. After Corona I would say it exploded. It’s totally energetic and the shows are mostly full, tons of new bands all the time by young but also old people who develop recurring interest in the music. It’s crazy and you could call it an underground hype. I hope it lasts for a while. Venster99 is the absolute center of it, most of the touring DIY bands play there or want to play there. The scene is so vibrant that we really could use more venues in that spirit. Other places are: Einbaumöbel, Arena, Pankahyttn, Tüwi, for metal also Viper Room and Escape. So yeah, we’re still connected to this scene although we are not very much punk any more music-wise. For us it’s important to mention the only real squat or squat-like (because it got legalized some years ago) place in Vienna, the EKH, because that’s where we are coming from, the place we adored, the place we got mainly socialized, we were active, one from the band and many friends lived there, we did shows, infoshop, people’s kitchen, etc. – they don’t have many touring DIY bands any more as they used to have in the 90s and 2000s, but it’s still a fantastic space. The rest of Austria has an okay and as diverse underground/DIY scene as ever I guess but Vienna is the only real big city in this country.
Our release show at the Venster99 will be joined by two befriended bands, Z.U.A. and VOMITS, both also on my label “Bloodshed666 Records,” and the latter also just released their debut album. It’s a perfect fit. And all money will go to the preservation of old oxen—I’m an original country boy and also just love this little aspect.
8. Thanks so much for your time! Any shout-outs or last words for the readers?
Buy our records on vinyl, don’t be an asshole, respect the others and the world, question yourself, have fun in life. Did I mention to buy our records on vinyl?