"Krone" interview

Nino from Vienna: electric boats instead of mountain hiking

"Wienerlieder at last": On his new album, Nino from Vienna and his band show how to pay homage to a city and its clichés without falling too deeply into the cliché pot.

(Bild: Medienmanufaktur, Ingo Pertramer, Krone KREATIV)

Nino from Vienna has christened his new album "Endlich Wienerlieder" and is going on tour with it. In the "Krone" interview, he revealed why he drinks less alcohol these days despite his surroundings, why Gerda Rogers wants to see him living by the water and what his fan moment with ÖFB team player Marko Arnautović felt like.

It is now 15 years since Nino from Vienna made a name for himself beyond the city limits via MySpace and later FM4. The singer-songwriter with a penchant for melancholy and humor has long since become an integral part of the local scene. He has christened his new album "Endlich Wienerlieder" (Viennese songs at last), which is of course ambiguously ironic. On it, he pays homage to his grandfather Rudolf, who once sang Heurigenlieder. Of course, there are no classic Viennese songs on the album, but that is also what makes up the artist's humorous meta-level.

The self-confessed Rapid Vienna and ÖFB national team fan likes to play with concepts that were thought to have been forgotten and tells stories from the tough pub as well as through partly romanticized love glasses. "Endlich Wienerlieder" is not only a reverent bow to the city and his own family, but also a timeless inventory of various tics and behaviors of the inhabitants of Austria's capital. As always, delivered with a twinkle in his eye and Nino's very special charm.

"Krone": Nino, you recently performed at the "125 years of SK Rapid Vienna" gala. For how much money would you play at Vienna's Austria?
 NinoMandl: I wouldn't play at an Austria gala, but I did play at the Jewish Museum at the opening of the "Superjuden" exhibition. It was mainly Austrians who were there. The whole coaching team and the presidium and I played "Unentschieden gegen Ried", in which Andi Ogris appears. But I wouldn't be asked to play at an Austria gala either.

You're a big fan of the Austrian national team. What are your hopes and expectations for Euro 2024 in Germany?
We've drawn a fantastic group with the Netherlands and France. Estonia could also theoretically be there, that's pretty tough, they were bottom of the group. Strange mode. I'm really looking forward to the European Championship because the summer is completely different. It's also something special because I haven't experienced anything like it for decades. The 1998 World Cup was the first tournament with Austria that I was aware of. I'll never forget that. We were pretty strong at the last European Championship and almost beat Italy. It's fun to watch the team at the moment-see the last match against Germany. I think a lot of Rangnick, he's doing a good job. I say we get four points and get to the round of 16. My dream would be to play against Germany in Germany, because we wouldn't be without a chance. But I don't want to be too arrogant.

Will you be watching an Austrian match live in Germany?
The ticket application process was too stressful for me. I hope I don't have too many concerts on match days, because I'd be in an inner conflict. I don't really want to miss an Austria match. It will all work out.

Are you as passionate about the national team as you are about your club Rapid Vienna?
My manager Charlie Bader is a declared Austria fan. I've never felt the love for the team as strongly as I do for Rapid. I was also very rarely in the stadium for Austrian international matches. We have a pretty strong team at the moment, maybe I'll become a bigger fan after this European Championship.

Do you have a particular favorite player? Perhaps more in terms of character than play?
I really like Marko Arnautović and I'm delighted that he's done so well at Inter Milan. He was already there as a young boy and won the Champions League without playing. Now he's about my age, he's matured and scores his goals as a joker. I once saw him on the street and took a photo with him. I also hope that more Rapid players come back into the team. Matthias Seidl is a great hope for the future.

In your opinion, is love for our national soccer team the healthiest form of patriotism?
I think so. But I wouldn't sit in front of the TV with a flag or paint myself red-white-red, even if there's nothing wrong with doing that. You have to have respect for other countries, and I would never insult one.

Can you maintain this respect at club level as a Rapid fan or is it more difficult there?
(laughs) There's a lot to insult - the referees, for example. The Hameter at Rapid against Lustenau was a disaster. Simply awful. But I'm more of a quiet soccer fan. My brother shouts more than I do. I'm more of a quiet observer and a lot has to happen for me to start shouting.

Your new album "Endlich Wienerlieder" is being released these days, which of course plays a bit on the fact that the media and people have always attributed Viennese songs to you in the title, although of course that wasn't the case ...
You got it. It's a funny title and it's also on page 113 of my "Cookbook Take 16". You can see it as ambiguous: He's finally making Viennese songs. Or finally someone is making Viennese songs again. But are they Viennese songs at all? The real Wienerlieder scene is completely different and it was important to me not to try to make traditional Wienerlieder. Every song has something to do with my perception and my connection to Vienna - sometimes more, sometimes less obvious. I am very happy that I enjoy listening to this album voluntarily, which has been difficult for me in recent years. "Endlich Wienerlieder" was recorded in a total of four places, in four different studios, with different people, and I really like the production. It's more rounded than many other albums.

On this album you pay homage to your grandfather, who actually sang Viennese songs.
Unfortunately, I never got to meet my grandpa Rudolf. He died in 1962, when my father was two years old. I always heard that he sang Viennese songs at wine taverns, but there are no recordings. Maybe he even sang like me, I would find that funny. That's all I knew about my grandpa, even the cause of his untimely death is unclear. He used to sing every evening at wine taverns and I don't even know which ones. I thought it would be a nice gesture to dedicate a Wienerlied album to him. It was also time to make a Wienerlied album as Nino from Vienna. I don't have much information about him, but he originally comes from Gleisdorf in Styria. Maybe I'll do some more research with my two aunts, they might know more.

On the opener "Koarl" you can also hear your dad Günther, who, unlike you and your grandpa, isn't that much into music.
Since the grandpa is no longer around, I invited his son for one set and I think he does a good job. "Are you as? Ziag ma weiter?" he said nicely and the whole album has a family feel to it. A bit like sitting together with friends and making music. The Heurigen atmosphere was mainly in the studio with Walther Soyka. That's where the quieter numbers were written on two or three nice evenings with white wine, Liptauer and Soletti. Then my dad came over for a drink and this one sentence. I really enjoyed the recording sessions, it was cozy and pleasant. Maybe that's why I like listening to the album so much. On the previous album "Eis Zeit" there was a lot more tension in the air and there were a few minor arguments.

Do you become calmer and more relaxed as you get older?
Something happens as you get older, but I'm not sure what yet. Maybe I become more aware all round. I used to care less about everything and I just did it. An album here, another song there and I'm slowly realizing much more what I'm doing. Music and concerts are becoming more important to me. I used to stagger onto the stage and think nothing of it. The "fuck-me-nothing" time was also important, but it's good that it doesn't go on forever. I wouldn't think of going on stage drunk today-that happened a lot in the beginning.

You never intentionally write your albums conceptually, but weren't there two very clear guidelines this time with the family and Vienna?
The idea for such a Vienna album was already there three or four years ago, even before we recorded "Eis Zeit". I collected songs and we've now used some that are older and didn't fit anywhere back then. The song "Mehr von Wien" was a really conscious Vienna song that always had this intention. Perhaps "Endlich Wienerlieder" is a bit more conceptual than other albums - also because it was written at the same time as the book and there are cross-references. Many song lines and song titles appear in the book. I find that quite funny.

Will you mix readings and concerts in future?
No, there was only one reading at the Rabenhof Theater, I had Corona before that and it was very tedious. I read from the book for the first half and then sang a few songs. The concerts will focus more on the album. Maybe I'll hold up the book one day.

On the subject of "more of Vienna" - what would you like more of in Vienna and what would you like less of?
Definitely a little less wind. The Viennese wind can drive you crazy. This winter was particularly mild, but very stormy. But the wind also drives you on. There should be more hummus stores in Vienna. I was recently in Budapest and there were really good hummus bars there. We lack that here. Budapest has a few more vegan restaurants than Vienna, and I say that even though I'm not vegan myself. The café coffee is also slowly getting better here. I normally drink pure espresso, but in Vienna I mix it with milk because it's not as good. It's also getting more and more expensive. You can get better and cheaper coffees in Italy. At home in Favoriten, I buy Turkish coffee, which is a good change. But the atmosphere in Viennese cafés is nice and I like to sit around for hours with a big brown one.

Who is the "Koarl" in the first song? A mixture of several classic Viennese clichés?
That's the question of who the Koarl is. I don't actually know that many, the name has become quite rare. The album is a mixture of personal and distant or invented stories. The "Koarl" used to be a knifeman, pretty brutal. The question arises as to where the song takes place. It's probably in some pub in Favoriten, but in the end it's a song about drinking buddies and friendship - a love song. Everyone can decide for themselves who the Koarl is.

Drinking can still bring people together very well.
There is more alcohol on the album than on the other albums. I play on the Vienna cliché about boozing, but people really do drink a lot and there's a lot of truth to it. Fortunately, I don't drink that much, so I'm very happy about that.

The more sober you are at your live shows, the more alcohol gets into your lyrics?
(laughs) Apparently. I like to have a glass of wine from time to time, but really going out until 6 o'clock in the morning has become very rare. Maybe I'll process these times on the album, that's quite possible. For example, the "La Paloma" translation "Auf die Wienerinnen", which is very dark. It's about alcoholism and perhaps also about depression. "La Paloma" takes place on the high seas, but my version takes place in the subway and in a pub. I got to know the song in the 1940s film "Die große Freiheit Nr. 7" with Hans Albers. The movie was not approved by the Nazis, but was only broadcast later. I had an earworm for weeks and always hummed the song to myself. When I was clearing out the dishwasher, I wrote a Viennese lyric to it.

You sing more in dialect in some songs and not at all in others. Roughly speaking, did you divide it up thematically?
There are more dialect songs than on any of my other albums. That's also because there were still a few dialect songs lying around that didn't fit on "Eis Zeit". I wanted to get away from the idea that everything has to be based on a flow. I go from A to D to F to B. That's what I did with the book. You get pulled out and beamed somewhere else without there always being a stringent line. Nevertheless, it all seems very well-rounded, although some people told me it would have been a stupid idea to record the album in several places. With "Mond" I finally have a cell phone recording on the album. I record 70 percent of all my ideas via voice memo and this time I finally pressed the cell phone sound onto an album. The song is deliberately unfinished because I like it so much. It's a recording from 6 o'clock in the morning, when I was still awake from the night before.

You could release a whole album of cell phone recordings.
I've already thought about that. I'd save a lot of money on that too.

A nice number on the album is called "Urlaub" - is that a nice guide to tachinization?
The song is a bit older and comes from the first Corona summer, when you didn't go far away and were better off staying at home. I wrote it in Hirschstetten when I was visiting my parents. We went swimming in the Old Danube back then. It's a transdanubian Corona vacation song and very positive. Away with the cell phones, towards the realization of doing things with joy and enjoying life. You don't have to travel far to get that vacation feeling. Going on an electric boat trip on the Old Danube can rival a longer trip to Spain or Italy. I love it, for me electric boating or watching TV at home is more of a vacation than traveling. For me, traveling is more like work.

Do you sometimes still get homesick for Transdanubia as a favorite of choice like you?
Luckily there's the U1 for that. (laughs) As you get older, you want to go back home more. Sometimes I think about returning to Hirschstetten. I'd rather be there now than when I was growing up there. I used to want to leave, but that's also normal. So much is being built in Hirschstetten that it has a new skyline. There are high-rise buildings, apartments and new neighborhoods. How will this affect the Hirschstetten bathing pond, which was previously a quiet idyll? The many residents will certainly have an impact, but that's how a city develops.

You have to attract people who appreciate urban living somewhere.
Of course. My parents live in a house that my other grandfather built in the 1960s. That was the first house there, before that there were only fields. They live directly in the house by the lake. I grew up with a window overlooking the water and that had an impact on my love of the water and the sea. Gerda Rogers once read me a horoscope that said I would always have to live by the water. But now I no longer live directly on the water in Favoriten. Let's see if I move back again.

Is that why people who grow up by the water always long for the sea and not the mountains?
Mountains were never my thing, I don't understand them.

So a fan hike in the mountains à la Hansi Hinterseer is rather unimaginable with Nino from Vienna?
Not really, but an electric boat tour on the Old Danube is. On the new album I even have the line "Das Meer ist herrlich, aber die Berg', die störn mi". In the song "Waschechter Weana".

Would you describe yourself as a true Viennese?
The song is a bit of a joke. I thought it was funny to say something like that, because anyone can be one if they want to be. I really wanted to record the song with Styrians. The tuba and the harmonica are from Styria so as not to make the song too Viennese. The name already says that I'm Viennese and I wanted to push the Viennese vibe a bit more with this number.

On the album, you mix a lot of ironic and humorous lyrics with very serious and dark ones. Do you find it equally easy to write lyrics and be creative in both worlds?
The funnier stuff sometimes comes easier to me. I like to write songs that make me laugh a little. That was the case with "Koarl", for example. You should never set out to write a funny song, it wouldn't work. Fortunately, I'm not a cabaret artist who depends on people laughing. I would absolutely fail at that. You do need a bit of humor in the songs, but always without intent. Many people don't share my sense of humor either. Even the sad songs can have a bit of humor in them, but that's my way of writing.

You also reanimate terms such as the so-called "Schnackerl" aka hiccups. The younger generation might not really be familiar with it anymore ...
I once had Schnackerl for hours and wondered who was thinking of me. That's what they say and I like this picture. When the Schnackerl went away, I had to process it artistically. I then turned it around and sang that you have the Schnackerl because I think of you. The word is so sweet and beautiful. You wouldn't even understand it in Germany. It has something poetic about it. Schnackerl can also be unpleasant if it doesn't go away. I read about people who had it for years. I hope that it never happens to anyone I know, including myself.

The song "Diamond Time" is about staying yourself and unwaveringly following your path. Who did you write this song for?
I wrote the song for a good old friend, it was meant to be a personal song of encouragement. Of course, you can feel addressed if you want. Just stay wild, free, good and strong. I quite liked the song and it's the only one I played with a gitalele, a little mixture of guitar and ukulele. You can also hear a small, absurd synthesizer. It sounds like nursery music. Like children trying out instruments for the very first time. The sound supposedly annoys some people, but that's how it is now. The whole album is almost a party album by my standards. There is much more positive verve than before. Even the negative stuff is packaged in a very humorous way, like on "Alles 1 Scheiss".

Where the video in particular is very successful. You in a frontal shot, constantly talking ...
I wanted to keep it very simple. I'm not a big fan of videos because I always think they distract from the song. At least that's the case for me. The whole process took ten minutes, which is how I like videos best.

And what about the cinematic side? You recently shone as an experienced musician in Goiginger's "Rickerl".
(laughs) That was a really nice shoot and I was delighted to be invited. I'm a big fan of Goiginger and like his films. It was a nice trip to the Küniglberg. The fur coat, the big glasses-the role of someone who made it was funny. I don't know whether I supported Rickerl in his role or unsettled him. Maybe I made him think that I had already made it with my fur coat.

Was that a real mink?
Absolutely, but I wouldn't normally wear something like that. We smoked a lot during the scene because we shot it about ten times and I always had to light up a new one. I hardly smoke during the day anymore and have it halfway under control. I got out of the habit of smoking all day long. It seemed absurd to me at times to be constantly hooked on the Chick. What's the point? It's very unhealthy.

Hardly any more alcohol, few cigarettes, the desire for hummus bars-what happened to you?
Well, it's not true that I only eat hummus now. I recently went to Figlmüller for the first time because I really wanted to experience Vienna's most famous schnitzel restaurant. There were almost only tourists there, but yes, the schnitzel was solid. Quite good. It was made from pork, which is the true schnitzel of the Viennese people. Of course, everyone talks about veal schnitzel, but if you go out to eat or make it yourself, it's usually pork. In recent years, chicken schnitzel has also become increasingly popular.

Nino live on stage
Together with his band, Nino from Vienna is presenting his new album "Endlich Wienerlieder" at several dates across Austria. These include March 21 at the Vienna Arena, March 30 at Treibhaus Innsbruck and April 3 and 4 at Cinema Paradiso in St. Pölten. You can find all the dates and tickets for the concerts at www.derninoauswien.at.