Brand new album

Lucas Fendrich: Prescription-free pop emancipation

Out of the safety cocoon and into the compositional truth: Lucas Fendrich dares to recalibrate.

(Bild: Krone KREATIV/Sony Music, Fabian Holoubek)

Lucas Fendrich made it to the top with his band Hunger, followed by upheavals and a musical recalibration after the coronavirus pandemic. With his Lucas Fendrich debut "Rezeptfrei", he brings a new, international color to the German-language pop landscape - and once again dares to attack the top.

It's the year of the Fendrichs, that much is certain. While father Rainhard celebrates his 70th and 45th stage anniversary with an extensive tour and the album "Wimpernschlag", which went to number one, son Lucas is also recalibrating. At the beginning of 2020, the Viennese alternative rock band Hunger is at the top of its game. "Amused" makes it into the Netflix series "Dead Girls Don't Lie", and shortly afterwards the song ends up on Taylor Swift's Spotify playlist. The single "Gravity" climbs to number two in the Ö3 charts and, after an extensive European tour, a first tour in the USA is also booked. After two gigs in the musical melting pot that is New York, the coronavirus pandemic hits. Instead of jetting off to the renowned "SXSW Music Festival" in Austin, frontman Lucas Fendrich and his two bandmates have to return home and are forced into inactivity.

Finally singing in German
The band is on ice for the time being and Fendrich begins a crucial process of reflection. Suddenly, two previously unthinkable things are within his grasp. In 2023, he shines as a crowd favourite on the hotly contested "Dancing Stars" stage, while channeling his feelings and emotions into German-language songs. Initially just for himself and with a very close-knit team, this new approach marks a turning point in the 40-year-old artist's career. "My mindset as a 17- and 18-year-old was always that I didn't want to compete with my father. German-language songs were never an option for me. I grew up bilingual and consciously expressed myself in English for years and in various musical projects."

After the first lockdowns and several phases of pausing and reflecting, Fendrich felt a thirst for adventure. His new songwriting is like jumping in at the deep end. He doesn't have to overcome his inner bastard, it suddenly comes naturally. "I've grown up and am no longer afraid of comparisons. I jumped into this world at some point and it was a lot of fun." In spring 2023, Fendrich put out feelers for external songwriters and producers; the experimental field knows no bounds. No particular musical direction was deliberately chosen for the first songs, because whatever was fun was allowed. Fendrich quickly realizes that the songs are a reflection of his own discovery phase.

Newly conceived pop
After the convincing and appropriately titled EP "Fendi 2.0", the debut album now follows under his own name: "Rezeptfrei". With his current sound, he has finally emancipated himself from his past and embarked on a new musical path. A few beats here, a little more US pop there, a small dash of Austropop or psychedelic ingredients. He takes his cue from the contemporary sounds of Justin Timberlake or Justin Bieber, the versatility of Clueso and the boundary-pushing excess of Australian sound fetishist Kevin Parker aka Tame Impala. Pop rethought and realized, with German lyrics that go deep and always go straight to the core instead of wandering somewhere in the orbit of the nebulous. Fendrich's songs are about the hurdles of everyday life, mental health, social pressure situations, the excess of escapism or love in all its bright highs and painful lows.

The Vienna native's already well-known singles hit a nerve. "Du und ich gegen alle" is a summery pop hit that tells of the common struggle against external expectations and the beauty of being together. "Angst vor der Angst" puts the all too often taboo subject of panic attacks at the center of the action and propagates the usefulness of therapy. In "Feuer über Wien" (Fire over Vienna), they waltz into the end of the world with a lot of casual humor and "Runaway Train" deals melancholically and yet hopefully with the inevitable topic of farewells. Lucas Fendrich's album is called "Rezeptfrei" ("Prescription-free"), but is nevertheless urgently in need of a prescription. It confronts you with the most diverse situations in life and inevitably reminds you of your own.