An unrealistic issue in the glory days of the majors, but now a widespread practice: considerable successes in music are possible and achievable with the Do-It-Yourself principle. Based on this DIY-ethos, presenter Franz Hergovich, Franz Adrian Wenzl (a.k.a. Austrofred) and Texta members Skero and Flip organized a workshop at the Popfest Sessions in Vienna.
“You can’t just sit back and wait for success to come knocking on your door,” says Skero, signaling that a musical career primarily means a lot of dedication and work. This work has little to do with music itself, but seeks to build structures, to maintain contacts and to keep things going in general. Skero is currently a prime example of these ethics. With the unexpected chart hit “Kabinenparty”, the Upper Austrian outran his regular band Texta in terms of commercial success, while at the same time resigning to professional promotional practices. “I made an effort to do as much as possible myself. The only contact on the website is my private email address. I wanted to see for myself what kind of requests come in and how many bookings there are. I chose the download platform for the songs myself and often use it for promotional activities.”
A lot also happened thanks to a fan-based Facebook initiative. Within a short time the fun song climbed up the local charts. At first it was nothing world-shaking in terms of money, but the fees of the live performances did sum up and eventually paid off. “You can’t live off YouTube clicks,” remarks Skero on the contradictory fact that he may be world famous on YouTube with 5.5 million clicks, and yet has to primarily earn his money with live concerts. His band Texta has also always been a model example of the DIY mentality: for years the local hip-hop pioneers have been operating their own record label, which matters are primarily entrusted with Flip.
But by no means does Flip want to be called the label boss: “I see myself as a rap unionist” says Flip, who sees his work rather as a mission, quite in the spirit of DIY, “I see myself as a representative of things worth being released.” Texta’s label can be understood as an “information catalyst” – a matter of helping people help themselves in terms of pressing, sales, media relations and all other structures behind the music. After 20 years of a very vital career, it still shows that Texta are doing very well with their DIY principles. Skero: “The most important factor is the ability to communicate with people. Arrogance is completely inappropriate for a DIY career. And you have to lower your expectations right from the start, try to win recognition and work with continuity. But there is no panacea.”
Franz Adrian Wenzl, also known as Austrofred and singer of the band Kreisky, can also tell a tale about these matters. From the very beginning, he always did everything himself. The conclusion of his long standing career: what applies to Austrofred in terms of promo and booking, does not necessarily work for Kreisky. “With Kreisky we never had plans to conquer the world. We took everything step by step and for us it was just insane to be able to record our first album,” says Wenzl in all modesty.
Franz Adrian Wenzl already had an unusual approach in self-marketing in 2002, when The Money Tapes album was not commercially available but could only be traded. In this manner, the band distributed at least 200 units.”Of course a lot of things were sent to me at the time and I had to throw away a lot. Who would have thought that I would ever possess albums by Jason Donovan and Alan Parsons Project,” says Wenzl grinning and signaling that you can also receive attention with unusual and crazy approaches. Nevertheless, Facebook is currently Wenzl’s most important tool to communicate and to create publicity. In addition, one should never neglect the motivation and the music.Another important factor resonates for Wenzl with DIY: “Once you start your own recording, mixing, mastering and conducting of your own label, you realize what is possible and what is not – if you thus get a realistic view of the music industry, it definitely helps to remain very down-to-earth.”
Johannes Luxner