Singer, songwriter, feted up-and-coming star of Austro-Pop: an interview with Austrian musician Voodoo Jürgens.
Voodoo Jürgens has a handlebar moustache, takes to the stage with an old guitar slung round his neck and sings uncomplicated, poetic songs in broad dialect. In Vienna he is already something of a sensation. Before his first album is released at the end of September, potentially bringing him global fame, he will be giving a concert at the SCHIRN summer festival, at which the exhibition “Art for all. The color woodcut in Vienna around 1900” will open. In an interview Voodoo Jürgens talks about one-line drawings, his friendship with Pete Doherty, and his love of dialect.
Schirn magazine: What should I call you – Voodoo or David?
Voodoo Jürgens: Voodoo.
SM: How did you actually get the name in the first place?
VJ: I used to play in a band called “Die Eternias”. For each album we gave the band members new names. And as a running gag we always put our own spin on celebrity names. At some point Voodoo Jürgens came up, and then it just stuck.
SM: Why did “Die Eternias” go their separate ways?
VJ: Laura (Landergott, ed.) went to Berlin and now plays guitar for the band “Ja, Panik”. Apart from that we had been together for ten years, and that felt like long enough.
SM: With “Die Eternias” you sang in English, but as Voodoo Jürgens you sing in old-style Viennese. Why the dialect?
VJ: It comes much more naturally to me to sing in dialect. It’s the language I speak, so I can just express myself better in it. Singing in dialect is something that interested me right from the beginning. With “Die Eternias” it became established that we’d sing in English. It clearly just took a bit of time before I was finally able to pursue the dialect thing. When I wrote lyrics for “Die Eternias”, I sometimes had to sit down with the dictionary – and even then it might not be entirely correct, like some kind of funny school English.
SM: As a dialect singer, have you ever been accused of being a little fixated with your homeland?
VJ: Fortunately not yet. I think it’s pretty clear from the lyrics that my music has nothing to do with a love of my homeland. Why shouldn’t I be able to sing in the language I speak? That has nothing to do with patriotism in the slightest. I think that’s been clear from the outset. But of course it may be that music sung in dialect also appeals to an audience that would not listen if the lyrics were in a different language.
SM: You’re not the only one who sings in dialect. For some time now, Austro-Pop has been back in vogue: “Wanda”, “Bilderbuch” and “Nino aus Wien” have become known well beyond Austria. You are considered the next great up-and-coming talent. The magazine “Musikexpress” described you as “the future of Austro-Pop”, whilst “Interview” magazine called you the “up-coming Austro-Pop high-flyer”. Are you honored by this?
VJ: That is praise indeed. Of course I’m delighted that the first single was so well received, but you shouldn’t take the whole thing too seriously. It’s certainly true that this is no bad time to be making Austro-Pop, but I didn’t decide to sing in dialect simply because it’s trendy.
SM: Do you know what you’ll do when you become super-famous?
VJ: (Laughs) I would probably look for a house. At the moment I’m still living in a room in a house-share.
SM: You live in Vienna but are originally from Tulln, which is a small town, and you wrote a song about it. Some of the lyrics translate as: “It’s there I came from / it’s there I ran from / where they talk behind your back / where everyone knows everyone / where the flowers are so sweet / where there’s a campsite”. On the Tulln website the town is described a little differently: “Tulln is a dynamic center with the social warmth of a small town”. Without ever having been there, your version sounds more realistic to me. Is your description of Tulln one of the “Voodoo Jürgens truths” you once talked about?
VJ: Well yes, in the song about my home town everything I sing about actually happened. But that’s not the case for every song. The idea behind Voodoo Jürgens is to interweave stories with truths so that everything becomes one truth. After all, not everything that is true must actually have happened. It wouldn’t be very interesting if the song lyrics were based only on facts.
SM: Tulln is also the home town of Egon Schiele. Do you like his art?
VJ: Yes, I do. I’ve always had a lot of time for Schiele.
SM: Are you interested in fine art?
VJ: Yes, it’s a field where I know a lot of people and which I also try my hand at a little bit.
SM: To what extent?
VJ: I draw. Two of my friends publish their own art magazine and they publish my work from time to time.
SM: How would you describe your own style of drawing?
VJ: I always call it “one-line drawing”, because I never put the pencil down until the drawing is finished. This creates its own dynamic. Once you’ve seen a couple of pictures by me then you’ll recognize my work.
SM: Back to the music: In Vienna you often give concerts in the Beisln, the traditional Viennese drinking houses. Are pub gigs like this common in Austria?
VJ: No, but it’s something that emerged from the Voodoo Jürgens project and it works well. The funny thing about the project is that it works well in numerous contexts – in an art gallery as much as in a rustic local pub.
SM: And on the stage of the Wiener Stadthalle. It was there that you were the support act for the “Libertines”, Pete Doherty’s band. How did that come about?
VJ: I met Pete years ago in Vienna, where he played a solo gig. Somehow we got chatting and hung out together the whole evening. At the end of the evening we exchanged e-mail addresses. Pete knew someone in Graz and whenever he has been there he’s gotten in touch with me. So we’ve met up four or five times. At some point I read that the “Libertines” were playing in the Stadthalle – and I thought: I’ll just ask, because we had already talked about playing together. He liked the idea right from the beginning.
SM: On July 5 you’ll appear on the stage of the SCHIRN summer festival. What can the public expect from your appearance?
VJ: I’m excited myself because it’s the first concert outside of Austria, so I can be pretty sure that people won’t understand me very well. I’ve thought about that and decided that it would be good to explain a little bit what each song is about before I sing it. I find it fun to revitalize this Viennese dialect. It’s starting to die out a bit, but it’s something I grew up with and the core of it is still within me. In Vienna it works pretty well; people still know the dialect even though it’s not really around anymore. But it can be equally interesting for people from elsewhere. On top of this, music can move people simply through its mood – the Eros Ramazzotti effect.
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