"Krone" interview

Son Of The Velvet Rat: Longing for the distance

(Bild: Elija Kulmer, Fluff And Gravy Records, Krone KREATIV)

Georg Altziebler and his partner Heike Binder-Altziebler are Austria's somewhat different musicians. They live in Graz every six months, in Joshua Tree every six months and have been creating deliberately rugged songs that focus on rural America for more than 20 years. This is also the case on their new album "Ghost Ranch", with which they are touring Austria and for which Georg Altziebler answered our questions.

"Krone": Georg, is it correct that you already played some of the songs from "Ghost Ranch" live in an acoustic version in the USA two years ago?
Georg Altziebler: About two thirds of the songs have been finished for a while, but we have now arranged them for the band context. Each song has to work in its pure form, then you can make it broader. What you're talking about was a very special acoustic concert where Heike only sang along. When we perform live, she has a wider range of instruments around her and the two of us also create a band atmosphere. This is the first time we've toured as a duo, which is why we rearranged our entire repertoire as a duo. That was exciting and artistically very rewarding.

Rewarding in what sense? That you realize that the tracks also work excellently when stripped down?
They sound interesting and exciting. You experience your own songs in a new way and fill them with new life and diversity.

On "Ghost Ranch" you also draw on older songs of yours. "Are The Angels Pretty?" and "The Waterlily And The Dragonfly". Did they fit so well into the new corset?
We tried to record the songs with a band, which didn't quite work out. So we recorded them acoustically beforehand and have now given them a new band outfit. Fortunately, it suits them quite well. I hope that I can break all my songs down and expand them.

Do you consciously compose with a purpose? For example, that a song should always work in different variations?
It's not an intention, but it comes from the way I work. I compose with the guitar and I shape the lyrics rhythmically with the chords. If a song sounds good to me, then I want to continue with it. If it doesn't work well, then it's down to the writing, the rhythm or the chord progression.

With Son Of The Velvet Rat, you can be sure that you'll definitely avoid any current trends. A term like timelessness was invented for a band like yours.
I wouldn't know what's trending right now. (laughs) I only follow everything very selectively and wouldn't be able to read a trend from it.

In your adopted country, the USA, there's an insane amount happening in the country and Americana sector. Even Beyoncé is now releasing a country album. Is it possible to resist these trends?
The Americana brand is good because people need a pigeonhole. But for me it's dangerous because I didn't grow up with steel guitars and cowboy hats. Most Americana music is very stereotypical. It's always the same sounds and harmonies and lyrically it often all goes in one direction. Even the alt-country scene is musically uninteresting to me. I don't want to sound like that. I still see us more as intercontinental chansonniers. (laughs) There's also a bit of Americana and garage punk.

Is the "Ghost Ranch" you mentioned a kind of utopia?
It's more of an undefined state of being on the road, although the place actually exists. It was the work and residence of a very famous American visual artist called Georgia O'Keeffe, but for me that wasn't the reason why I named the album that. The term leaves a lot open and can be interpreted in many different ways.

Even in the first song "Bewildering Black & White Moments Captured On Trail Cams" you have terms like the "Liar" or the "False Messiah". Doesn't that go in a political direction?
I wasn't thinking of any living personalities. (laughs) The point is that all certainties depend on only one perspective. If people looked at things from different angles, many things would look very different. Actually, the song is not a criticism of today's world, but more a basic principle of alert thinking. You have to realize that you can look at things from different angles. You can have several opinions. But I don't want to give any advice, because hopefully it's just a good song. If someone takes something from it, it's all the better.

Do you approach your music from different perspectives? Or is the first idea for a composition usually the best one?
It often happens very spontaneously. If a line sounds interesting to me and leads to another one, then it's good. It's not usually the case that I think about what else could be there. I follow my instinct. You never know where a song is going to go because you only start with a few lines. I like to be surprised, that's the exciting thing about songwriting. At some point you're happy that a concept emerges from your own confusion. (laughs)

On "Are The Angels Are Pretty?" you can hear the great guitarist Marc Ribot. I assume that he doesn't spend a lot of time being told how to play the song, but simply plays his part?
Of course, he sent us various tracks to choose from, but they were all good. He can really let himself fall into a piece and we could have made different emotions out of it. Unfortunately I never met him in person, he sent the files over the internet.

How did you get together? His solo work or his band Ceramic Dog are not necessarily very close to Son Of The Velvet Rat.
I knew him as a sideman for all kinds of musicians. I recorded with Jay Bellerose, who worked with Ribot and is currently on tour with Robert Plant and Alison Krauss. He asked me who my favorite guitarist was. I said Marc Ribot. He typed the name into his cell phone and five minutes later we had Ribot on board. (laughs) It was a quick text message.

Will you perhaps play together with Ribot for individual gigs in the USA?
No, that's no use at all. I'm glad that he recorded the part. We would have to rehearse a lot and we wouldn't have time for that. Besides, he lives in New York and we live on the west coast in Joshua Tree. It was never the plan to perform live with him.

How quickly did you find the right Ribot part when he sent several, all of which were very good?
I even had the jitters at first. Imagine if someone like Ribot sent you tracks and they didn't fit your song? Do you turn him down or tell him to do it again? (laughs) Fortunately, everything worked out right away.

Did you know straight away which songs on the album you needed a female voice on?
You don't know, you try it out. Sometimes Heike sings along, on other numbers Jolie Holland. Where it fits, it's implemented. You almost never need this component, but sometimes the lyrics add a second dimension. It's often obvious, but just as often you have to avoid a second voice. Every additional voice reduces the intensity of the personal statement. Musically, however, it is usually beautiful. Jolie is playing at Vienna's Haus der Musik on April 19. We thought about going to see her, but we travel so much ourselves and have to be at home in Graz from time to time. She came out to us at the record presentation in the desert in America. She is very strange and reserved, but incredibly nice.

If organization emerges from the initial chaos in the end - what rough concept ultimately emerged for "Ghost Ranch"?
I was referring more to a single song, but you can also apply the principle to the album. You have individual parts and in the end you try to arrange the sequence in such a way that you have a common thread for yourself. First and foremost, it has to be coherent for me.

The song "Rosary" also features the "Shooting Range". For me, these are images of the original, rural, perhaps also republican and biblical America ...
The song is of course influenced by the extreme hypocrisy that many Americans like to live. So not our personal bubble, but a big part of the country. On the one hand, Jesus is their great savior, on the other hand, the gun is in the glove compartment everywhere. That goes together there. There's a "shooting range" near us and the song "Rosary" is actually something deeply Catholic. There are more evangelicals in our area than Catholics.

You've been at home in California every six months for more than ten years now. Do you get used to the double standards that many American citizens carry around with them over time?
We have that here in Austria too, but in a different form. There is a similar level of douchebaggery here and there. (laughs) In the USA, they just have their quirks when it comes to carrying weapons. The extreme Jesus patriotism is hard to bear for a European. But I haven't experienced it that way in music circles. Many come from an almost sectarian evangelical Christian world and they suffer from it all their lives. But some have also broken out of it and lead a comfortable life. They have totally absurd rules, such as not being allowed to play soccer on Saturdays. It always depends on the particular splinter group. You don't adapt, but you understand people over time. You get a feel for their background and their tics. They don't carry weapons out of a desire to kill others, but because it's customary. They think that you should also protect yourself against the state with weapons.

As Austrians and, in a broader sense, Europeans, have you also brought traits with you to California that seem strange to the Americans there?
Our acquaintances are very liberal people. I don't know how we look to hardcore evangelicals and Trump supporters - probably rather strange. But none of that is an issue in our circles.

As artists, do you sense any changes in the cultural sphere now that the mood in the USA has been more heated and diametrically opposed than ever before?
It probably means little in my everyday life, but the state of affairs is a symbol of a mood that I wish would not be realized. Unfortunately, there is a good chance that Trump will be re-elected. We will see. I myself am not afraid of him winning the election, but it won't make the mood any better. And the fact that almost everyone carries a gun doesn't necessarily help to calm things down. In any case, we never have a problem when we need weapons for the video shoot. We are supplied with them from all sides. (laughs)

You don't own any yourselves?
We still don't. That probably makes us oddballs even in our own American circles. (laughs)

Is the cultural and interpersonal leap sometimes difficult when you move back and forth between Central Europe and rural California every six months?
They are simply two types of home and not a problem at all.

Traveling is also a fundamental part of the album. That's quite clear from songs like "The Golden Gate" or "Deeper Shade Of Blue".
"The Golden Gate" has nothing to do with the famous Golden Gate Bridge. It's more about the gate to heaven that you knock on at some point. The view from behind or from the front of this door, which opens for everyone at some point and then closes again. In truth, you look at this world through a crack, but you don't know exactly from which side.

Do you always get to know yourself from a different position when writing songs?
The best way to get to know yourself is through your own thoughts and when a new thought about songwriting comes up, it's always exciting. But the songs don't reflect my real life. The music is a platform made for my own brain creations. Of course the songs have to do with me, because they come from me, but I don't consciously process personal experiences. Unconsciously, I probably do.

Is "Deeper Shade Of Blue" supposed to encourage you to follow your own wishes and desires and not give in?
The song is not meant to encourage that, but it is about pursuing something tangible and going after it. It's also okay if you fail. It's a bit like songwriting for a musician. The search for the perfect number that you inevitably fail at. A song is written and performed over and over again in a certain structure, but each song is always just a snapshot.

Achieving perfectionism is an impossibility. Except sometimes temporarily for yourself, when you feel a moment of absolute satisfaction.
There is a nice saying: "Perfection is the death of art". I don't know if that's true, but it's definitely difficult to create something perfect. I don't know any artist who has been happy with a work for decades. You always want to change something or do things differently.

Perfection is equated with polished, high-gloss productions. You've always been far removed from that. Son Of The Velvet Rat sound warm, analog and scratchy. 
I don't listen to music like that myself. It's important that music is exciting and triggers something in me. It can be edgy or soft, it doesn't matter. I'm more likely to come out with music that's harsh. I'm not interested in telling stories either. It's about associations that everyone can use for themselves.

Are the lyrics a necessary evil to the music for you?
"Deeper Shade Of Blue" has developed over the years. You leave some songs lying around because you can't make any progress or because they're not what you want them to be. But the lyrics are also the basis of the song. It's the starting point, at least in two thirds of cases. I then build the music from there. I need a lot of peace and quiet to write because I get distracted far too easily. For example, when I turn on the computer and stream the GAK on Laola. In America, I watched every game that way.

If GAK is promoted to the Bundesliga this year, it will be more difficult for you, because Laola will no longer broadcast any games.
Really? I don't think I can get the Sky package over there. Then I'll probably have to stay in Graz. (laughs) But I would be the wrong person for a GAK anthem. There's already a good one by Kurt Gaulhofer, I'm sure you can still find it on the internet.

Tour through Austria
Son Of The Velvet Rat will be on the road live with "Ghost Ranch" during their months in Austria. The dates: April 5 KIK Ried, April 12 Kammerlichtspiele Klagenfurt, April 20 Kino Ebensee, April 26 Porgy & Bess Vienna, April 27 PPC Graz, May 23 Kulturkeller Straden, May 24 Kunsthaus Öblarn, June 7 Csello-Cselley Mühle Oslip, June 8 Strandgut Linz, June 28 Spielboden Dornbirn and June 29 Komma Wörgl. You can find all the dates and tickets for the individual concerts at www.sonofthevelvetrat.com.