The Nürnberg Pop Festival is southern Germany’s largest club and showcase festival. Concerts are held as part of the festival in various cultural venues such as churches, museums, clothing stores, record stores, on rooftops, public squares and, of course, in clubs and cultural centers. This is where the music world and music fans come together to exchange ideas and quench their thirst for good humor and musical enjoyment. The accompanying Pop Conference offers a wide range of panel discussions, lectures and workshops on all aspects of the music industry and culture. This year 8 Austrian acts will be performing at the renowned festival! Plus, an Austrian & Bavarian Networking brunch will take place midday Saturday! Get all the delicious details below.
Schedule:
Friday, Oct. 11
Anda Morts: 11.10.24, 22:00, Neues Museum
Yukno: 11.10.24, 23:30, Neues Museum
Wallners: 11.10.24, 23:55, Festsaal im Künstlerhaus
Saturday, Oct. 12
Austrian & Bavarian Networking Brunch, 12.10.2024, 12:00-14:00, Kulturgarten
Edna Million: 12.10.24, 14:00, Kulturgarten
Lukas Oscar: 12.10.24, 16:00, Kulturgarten
Aze: 12.10.24, 19:30, Kunsthalle
Kleinabaoho: 12.10.24, 20:00, Kulturgarten
Endless Wellness: 12.10.24, 23:45, Heilig-Geist-Saal
ARTISTS:
Anda Morts
“I think it’s important to be authentic and not an asshole.” Musician Anda Morts comes from Linz and is an indie-punker with no artificial attitude. What the 26-year-old sings about gives his audience a feeling for his state of mind. In the middle of the phase between 20 and 30, it is often characterized by questioning, feeling trapped, sometimes a bit uninspired, angry, or even really disillusioned and of course sometimes just not feeling like it. Anda Morts always puts the assessment of his inner life in his mid-twenties directly on paper in a small book. He plays guitar, sings what’s on his mind, and the words find themselves. Beginning the songwriting process inwardly is very important to Anda Morts. “I mainly produce alone in my shared room. Every now and then friends join me and then something comes up, but I prefer to be alone.” The musician mainly draws inspiration from punk rock. The genre that brought him to music.
AZE
Apart from each other they are Beyza and Ezgi, together they form Aze. Since 2020, the duo provides us a nonchalant insight into their deepest inner selves with their sound mix between sad & sexy and the charming, yet playful lyrics. Aze combine all facets of RnB, Indie and Pop with sparks of oriental music.
Their debut “Hotline Aze” was finally released in June 2022 – the concept album is a psychopharmacological cocktail of RnB, indie pop and dream rock that’s easily activated with one quick phone call to Aze’s hotline +43 664 99 82 13 33. Hotline Aze sounds like pure escapism and makes use of a certain substance that we all probably need more than ever, these days: Humor. Generally, you could say that their nihilistic, fun-loving way of being seems to be hitting a nerve. Rarely has a musical act from the German-speaking world shown the guts to pour this much internet culture into handmade, silky sounds – besides the attention of the domestic scene, that of the international players is also not long in coming: Aze played at renowned festivals like popfest Wien, Acoustic Lakeside, Szene Openair or Reeperbahnfestival or Eurosonic Noorderslag. Their songs are played on radio stations all around the world, they even made waves in the UK and got played on BBC1 xtra, radio FIP in France loved them for their summer rotation (just to name a few highlights). In 2023, Aze continued to play on several festivals outside their home country, e.g. at MENT Ljublijana, Immergut Festival in Germany, Velvet and Ship Festival in Croatia.
EDNA MILLION
The deep voice and gloomy guitar of young songwriter Edna Million instantly beams you into a universe of lost places. The kind of smoke-filled bars, that Tom Waits might like. Or a lonely desert in Palm Springs. Dark and unique.
Lisa Schneider, Radio FM4: “Write this name at the top: Edna Million will be with us for a long time to come.”
ENDLESS WELLNESS
You hear a twangy, over-driven Western guitar, underlaid by an organ. Sometimes a gloomy synthesizer joins the mix. Call it ‘fuzz folk’, or just indie music. Call it “Big Thief in German,” “early Tocotronic, but later,” or “Isolation Berlin from Vienna” – comparisons are hard to come by. The obscurely poetic German lyrics are a high-decibel confrontation with depression that always connects to society in the end, from micro- to macro. A call to action against a dysfunctional system rife with failed climate policy and resurgent Fascism. Songs to listen to alone or to dance to in a group, shaking the weight from your shoulders. The band manages to capture our time and its spirit, transforming them into melancholic – but comforting – warmth. Alternative love songs for mindfulness, for positivity… for Endless Wellness.
LUKAS OSCAR
Lukas Oscar is a young talented, up-and-coming singer/songwriter and music producer with Filipino roots living in Vienna.
The gifted singer not only mesmerizes and hypnotizes with his soothing, melancholic voice, but is also a very talented songwriter and pianist. Inspired by his mother’s love for karaoke and Alicia Keys songs, the singer started playing the piano at a tender age of 6 and tried his hand at music production at the age of 14. Wishing for a fresh new approach on his musical endeavours, he started writing and producing for other artists at 17, commuting to Vienna after every school week to squeeze in as much music as possible in the weekends. After working as a label assistant, he quickly became part of a writing and production team. In 2020, he co-wrote the Eurovision Song Contest title `Tears Getting Sober` for Bulgarian singer Victoria. The song was praised and even had lucky quotes, however the contest was cancelled due to the Covid pandemic. This didn’t stop Lukas Oscar from continuing his musical path, however. In 2022 he released his debut EP “Colors of A VOID”, where he uses words and melodies as his candid thought process playground, describing his inner emotional world with shameless honesty and enabling the listener to have an uncensored look into his mind.
Kleinabaoho
The Vienna-based singer-songwriter makes German-language, queer love songs wrapped in haunting, embracing pop music. Her lyrics are like colourful images that arise in the mind and her voice goes straight to the heart.
‘Musically, kleinabaoho’s debut mini record oscillates between 2000s German pop à la Wir sind Helden and Gen-Z bedroom whisper pop à la Billie Eilish.’ (Tobias Ruhland, Bayern 2)
Their debut EP ‘bilder’ was released at the end of June and was played and recommended by 3sat, DIFFUS and FluxFM, among others.
WALLNERS
Four siblings from Vienna who produce fascinating songs somewhere between Rhye, James Blake, Lana Del Rey and Daughter. Wallners inspire above all with their nostalgic lyrics combined with the look and feel of a Cali Surf Gang. Not only as a family, but also as a band, they make a harmonious team.
YUKNO
One thing is unmistakable: Yukno has something completely different in mind than following the beaten path. Yukno – spoken like “you know” – is a band that approaches “discreetly electronic indie pop” from a slightly different perspective.
The brothers Georg and Nikolaus Nöhrer are not interested in creating a party mood – their songs adorned with thoughtful German-language lyrics reveal themselves as a musical invitation to let yourself go for a few moments and immerse yourself in the fine melodies, danceable beats, and the space-filling synths. In their songs, the two-man team from Styria develops a very special mood, one that draws some influences from the musical past of pop music, but also – without being ingratiating – hits the current Zeitgeist.
See you in Nürnberg! xx Austrian Music Heartbeats