Newcomer with album

Potato Beach: The sound of the 60s without misogyny

Potato Beach in Vienna is a wonderful place to dream and listen: Potato Beach with their debut album "Dip In".

(Bild: Siluh Records, Peter Mathis, Krone KREATIV)

Jannik Rieß has been collecting 60s-style songs for years and is now releasing them under the Potato Beach banner. The one-man project has now become a cohesive band that is fully committed to the French "Art de Vivre" and propagates the appropriate sound.

Music from the 60s. Almost infinite expanses of sound, imbued with a particularly romantic form of freedom and practiced with the greatest possible willingness to experiment. The surf rock of the Beach Boys, the versatile pop field of the Beatles, the snotty rock'n'roll attitude of the Rolling Stones and The Who or the gentle folklore that Simon & Garfunkel brought with them. As beautiful as the sounds may be, Jannik Rieß doesn't warm to the outdated lyrics of the time, as he reveals to the Krone in an interview. "Some of them are too sexist for me. This 'Girl I gotta have you on my mind' style is really bad. I like listening to bands like the Beach Boys or the Kinks. The music was so calm and pleasantly imperfect back then, but lyrically I often have to skip it." Rieß is 30, comes from Herrenberg in Baden-Württemberg in Germany and has been based in Vienna as a musician for some time now.

Solo with band
On his current project Potato Beach, he tries to mix the sound aesthetics of his favorite musical decade with contemporary lyrics drawn from the present without merely copying. "It is sometimes the greatest art to write positive and life-affirming lyrics that are not too bold. That's probably the reason why I stick to rather gloomy lyrics despite the not-so-gloomy songs. I try to avoid terms like 'baby' as much as possible. I prefer to use the word darling, which is gender-neutral," laughs Rieß. Potato Beach is actually the brainchild of the frontman, but the solo project has now expanded to band size, at least for the upcoming live concerts and the recording of songs.

The merger was as coincidental as it was unusually analog. "Anja and I got to know each other at the Maifield Derby in Germany. We were surprised that we both live in Vienna and met again at the Kurt Vile concert. I wrote my bachelor's thesis with Sven, I helped Peter with his project The Human Boy and I met Lilly when Anja was organizing a concert." The interesting thing about this colorful mix is that the individual musicians not only play in other, sometimes larger projects (Zinn, The Human Boy, Atom Womb), they also come from completely different musical scenes. "But we all find ourselves in the big umbrella term surf rock," says Rieß, "and it's a bit of a feel-good project for everyone involved." Rieß himself is responsible for the entire songwriting and conceptualization - a clearly stated fact.

Overview of taste
The songs on the recently released debut album "Dip In" are very eclectic and cannot be squeezed into a stringent stylistic framework. The cover artwork shows a good friend of Rieß, who is on vacation in the Calanques near Marseille, hesitantly considering whether he should jump or not. "It's about insecurities and also about breaking with social facades. These themes are very strong. We are also musically versatile, because I definitely don't want Potato Beach to become a scene band like AC/DC or the Hives. I can't form a band for every taste I have, so we mix the styles here." Songs like "Fever" or "Pandora" have been around for a few years, others are more recent. "The album gives a good overview of my current musical tastes and what has inspired me."

"Dip In" is first and foremost an invitation, cast in sound, to escape the stresses of everyday life and make more room for comfort in life. "I've been working in a new job since November, but 40 hours would destroy me," says Rieß, "I have a 4-day week and Friday is always reserved for music. I can concentrate fully on it and it doesn't always have to produce results. A result is not the intention of creativity. I like to take care of my well-being." In the lyrics, the frontman reflects on the experiences, adventures and observations of his life. However, the songs don't go too far down the personal route in terms of content, because Potato Beach don't want to take away the listener's own interpretation. A key song is "Meltdown", for example. "On the one hand, it's about being overwhelmed by work, and on the other, it's literally about the absurd heat we experience every summer. So it's about the personal and global 'meltdown'."

Example of cohesion
However, the album is also a companion against addictions and egotistical drives and repeatedly opposes the exploitative trend towards self-optimization. "It would be nice if the economy remained as stable and healthy as possible, but that's pretty utopian at the moment. I work in the mobility sector and automation is a big issue there. The fact that jobs such as bus drivers and ticket sellers are being cut is also a shame from a social perspective. These are jobs where you have contact with other people. There are already plenty of jobs where we're all stuck behind a screen and isolated." A good example of genuine friendship and cohesion is the band itself. "We really found each other," says Anja Pöttinger, "Bands are immensely important for young people. They have a space to be among themselves and try things out. That's what we stand for, of course."

Live in Vienna
Potato Beach (the name comes from their shared love of beaches and potatoes) will use this space for their album release show, which will take place on April 19 at Ottakringer DIY spot Kollektiv Kaorle. Also on board are the Laundromat Chicks and Gardens. All further information and tickets for the concert can be found at www.kollektiv-kaorle.at.