Location: Vienna / Austria
Concert date: October 6, 2013
The international music and conference festival Waves Vienna 2013 wrapped up on Sunday, October 6, 2013. From October 3 to 6, the festival served up a wild mix of alternative, electronic, rock and club action at cool venues like FM Riverboat @ Clubschiff, Flex, Beatboxx, Fluck Wanne and plenty of others. Across its packed music program, artists, bands and solo acts who are, more or less, still breaking through got to show off their talent and potential. It was a chance to weave new networks of collaboration, promote their work and dig in deeper with Europe’s festival, gig and label scenes.
Nine Slovenian acts played the festival: Werefox, N’Toko, Kill Kenny, The Toronto Drug Bust, It’s Everyone Else, Ian Green, Coma Stereo, New Wave Syria and Milk Drinkers.
Our festival journey kicked off on the second day, on a sunny but chilly Thursday morning. We headed for the public education institute and observatory Urania, where some interesting press conferences, workshops and panel discussions were taking place.
With the support of the European Commission’s Directorate General for enlargement, representatives of southeastern European festivals took the stage. The speakers included Login Kochishk (Taksirat; Macedonia), Roman Filež (Metal Days; Slovenia), Vladimir Vodalov (Exit festival; Serbia) and Dijana Lakuš (PR Pozitivnog Ritma, Dimensions festival; Croatia). The conference was hosted by Haris Bilalović (Radio&Televizija; Bosnia). The talk mostly focused on what the festivals have to offer and how they’ve established themselves and grown over the past few years. Login Kochishk pointed out that Taksirat is the only winter festival in the Balkans. It’s also, among other things, the cheapest in Europe, since people can hardly afford tickets to this kind of event. Because of the economic situation, they can’t count on any quick, major leaps forward either, but they’re working hard to improve their standing and visibility in Europe. Vladimir Vodalov also admitted that if you have the money, you can afford to book a bigger-name act. Which, it seems to me, is not much of a problem for Exit festival, whose whole spirit is built around the motto of revolution, when it comes to attracting world-class names. Over the years, MetalDays (MetalCamp) has also made its way into the ranks of successful festivals, even with a limited number of visitors. Roman Fileš said they want to offer people a holiday. Tourists get to unwind and enjoy the nature around the festival site. All of this has definitely boosted the festival’s profile, which means economic growth, the ability to book bigger acts and, at the same time, more visibility in Europe.
The next conference to catch our attention was the presentation of the five best European showcase festivals. The reps were Ed Pearson (The Great Escape; UK), Maarten Quaghebeur (Rockoco / Glimps; BE), Philipp Schnyder von Wartensee (m4music; CH), Helena Sildna (Tallinn Music Week / Musiccase; EE) and Mirko Whitfield (South by Southwest festival,SXSW; US). The session was fairly short: a quick rundown of each festival, what they offer, a bit of stats. They stressed that the festivals don’t compete with each other, and their advice to up-and-coming musicians is to have a strategy for breaking onto the scene. Mainly, think about which market you want to crack, where you want your target audience to be, and pick the festival you want to play based on that. Because you obviously can’t do everything at once. But how can a musician who’s more or less known only in their home scene, or partly in neighboring countries, get to play such big festivals? Waves festival offered one option with this very conference, where musicians had a direct chance to hand a rep their CD and hope for an invitation to play, with travel and accommodation covered. To my surprise, some festivals act as sort of bare-bones middlemen between musicians and the audience, and the festival is the only one who makes money, purely off its name recognition. Meaning the band has to cover all its own travel and lodging costs. That’s a big financial hit, especially for those who are still finding their feet and trying to win over a new audience. On top of that, there’s the question of what unknown musicians actually get out of such huge festivals, apart from a hefty bill, when there’s a flood of acts. How do you stand out? I have no experience with this myself, but I’m convinced that taking the initiative, sticking with it and believing in your creativity and your music will definitely pay off.
Either way, these festivals do a great job promoting themselves, and they’ve made me want to check them out someday.
This year Waves festival put its focus on two special guest countries, Slovenia and Belgium, giving them a platform to promote contemporary popular music and dig deeper into Europe’s festival, gig and label networks. “Slovenia Introduces Itself” was the motto of the conference, which showcased Slovenia’s lively and rich music scene and the features of its promising music market. Foreign musicians also took the stage to share their experiences of breaking into the Slovenian scene. In a pleasant atmosphere, with Slovenian wines on offer, musicians, promoters, label people, critics, journalists and producers mingled, making contacts and laying the groundwork for what comes next.
On Slovenian Day, N’Toko got the chance to introduce himself live before his show at Beatboxx. With excellent tracks like “No Breaks”, “Mind Business” and “The Baddest”, plus a performance with an incredibly natural range of facial expressions, he wowed the crowd and caught the ear of quite a few important label people and bookers. After the festival, N’Toko gave RockLine an official statement: “The festival was great. I was lucky to be well placed in the program, so I ran into a good crowd, and quite a few important bookers and label people listened to me too. Whether anything comes out of all this is of course a question for later, but in the meantime I’ll probably have to write a whole lot more emails. The festival’s overall program maybe wasn’t totally my taste, and it also felt like it doesn’t really live with the local scene. I was blown away by Ice Age’s show, though, and I’d also give props to a few Slovenian acts I managed to catch, especially It’s Everyone Else. Next up for me is the release of the new album “Mind Business” on the Japanese label Call and Response, a quick trip to London, and then I’ll be working on organizing a tour of Europe and Japan.”
link:
https://www.facebook.com/ntokomc?fref=ts
Members of It’s Everyone Else, Lucijan Prelog and Pika Golob, were also at Slovenian Day. After the festival they were in great spirits. They were happy with the gig itself and with the crowd. But what they were happiest about was playing live on the morning show on Radio FM4, where they got a great response from listeners. The logistics were an interesting experience for them, and it’ll definitely come in handy for future challenges. We’ll get another chance to see them live on November 16 at the club Gromka, where they’ll share the bill with Bug and The Kojn.
link:
http://itseveryoneelse.bandcamp.com/ https://www.facebook.com/ItsEveryoneElse
The evening led us along a canal branching off the Danube, first to the ship MS Schlögen, which had a lovely atmosphere. Despite the unusual place for a gig, we caught the set from Dans Dans. The band is made up of guitarist Bert Dockx, who also played Waves festival as the lead singer of Flying Horseman, bassist Fred Lyenn and drummer Steven Cassier. A psychedelic garage-jazz band, they released their second album this year, Dans Dans “I/II”, and played a good chunk of it at the festival. The chemistry between these three virtuosos definitely doesn’t leave you cold when you walk away. At moments they even recall the alternative band Die Haut. Bert Dockx’s fingers on the guitar create effects in their own very specific way, carrying you off on waves into their world, so that not even the bumps from passersby in such a tiny space bother you. This band is definitely worth your attention.
links:
https://www.facebook.com/dans3dans
Dand Dans – setlist:
1. Yesterday is here (orig. Tom Waits)
2. Gazelle (orig. Fred Lyenn)
3. The Sicilian clan (orig. Ennio Morricone)
4. Freedom suite, 2nd movement (orig. Sonny Rollins)
5. River Man (orig. Nick Drake)
6. Au Hasard (orig. Bert Dockx) / Ancient Aiethopia (orig. Sun Ra)
We closed out Friday night with the young Danish post-punk band Iceage. The group, made up of Dan Kjær Nielsen, Elias Bender Rønnenfelt, Johan Wieth and Jakob Tvilling Pless, put out their first album, “New Brigade”, in 2011. This year they released their second, “You’re Nothing”, which they’re taking on an international tour that’ll even carry them across the pond to Mexico City and New York. The singer radiates his own kind of charisma with his melancholy, rebellious moves around the stage. And despite the lousy sound, you could tell he has a really interesting voice and an off-beat way of singing. Their Waves festival set left me with mixed feelings, but something about it still pulled me in enough that after the festival I watched their videos online. There, the singer’s voice comes through much better in the studio versions than it did live at the festival. They’re not exactly love at first listen for my taste, but if you ever come across the name Iceage from Copenhagen, I recommend checking them out.
link:
https://www.facebook.com/IceageCopenhagenhttp://iceagecopenhagen.blogspot.com/
Saturday brought fog and cold. Still, we weren’t freezing that night at FM4 Riverboat @ Clubschiff, where the Slovenian band Werefox played. They used Waves festival to promote their album and make new contacts that could bring them more visibility in Europe. It was the band’s first show together abroad, and they handled it very well. The lineup is Bekko (guitar), Melée (vocals), David (drums) and Manuel (bass). They started with an intriguing intro to the new track Radical C, which hooks you and leaves you wanting more. With the opening song “Beyond Mercy” they showed the crowd they’re a powerful, hard-hitting rock band with a lot of promise. With every song, the energy between the Werefox members fused more and more into one. The audience felt it too and started to dance along to the heavy sound of guitar, bass and drums. Singer Melée took over the stage like a real star with her charismatic moves, presence and voice. The crowd loved the show. The band themselves were delighted that the organizers had picked them as one of the best acts of the festival’s last concert day. Werefox also gave RockLine an official statement: “Waves Vienna was a fun experience. We never thought we’d be playing on a 19th-century ship on the Danube! Clubschiff is a really great gig venue. We hope we picked up some genuine contacts at the festival and, above all, that we did well at our first show in Austria.”
setlist:
1. Radical C (Intro)
2. Beyond Mercy
3. A Shitload of Love
4. Fun on the Moon
5. The Boy in Me, the Girl in You
6. March of the Finest
7. Killer Lesson
8. The Redneck Genius Story
9. Did I Kill the Devil in You?
links:
http://werefoxband.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/werefoxmusic?ref=br_tf
We wrapped up Waves Vienna with the Icelandic band Múm, who played one of the city’s well-known clubs, Flex. They drew a nice crowd of young people who got lost in the experimental, post-rock, dream pop sounds. This past September they released a new album, “Smilewound”, which they’re now presenting on their European tour. Múm have won plenty of hearts all over the world. The light vocals and graceful movements of the two singers and the simple melodies carry you off to a fairy-tale world where everything is possible and magical. If you’re a fan of this kind of music, catching them live is well worth it, since they deliver a lovely concert experience.
links:
https://www.facebook.com/mumtheband
http://mum.is/
Looking at it through the eyes of someone who loves good music and likes to explore and discover new bands, Waves Vienna is the right festival, and I recommend checking it out.
Even though there were clear shortcomings in the festival’s organization and in how it was promoted to people, it’s only the third year it’s been running. I definitely hope it keeps developing in a positive direction and settles in among Europe’s better-known festivals, continuing to offer a springboard for so-called »underground« bands to lift them into the »light«.
All photos by Nina Ferkolj, except the “ship” shots (photographer: Sašo Benko)
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