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Wedekind

helmut hutterer: drums
eduard lehrner: keyboards, synthesizer
rainer prokop: guitars, vocals

Biography

It wouldn't make any difference if Wedekind didn't exist. Not to the world of music as we know it or to the political status quo - but in their native Austria they are, for damn sure, leaving a lasting impact on people´s lives and points of view, and promise to do the same as they reach wider audiences with the release of their first full length album.

Wedekind have put in more into their music than they could ever hope to get back again and they have done it with all their hearts. A combination of total honesty, sincere dedication and of course the ability to write some super catchy pop songs, has lifted Wedekind from the stagnant emo tide into a new wave of their own. They have created a space where the political meets the sexy, where determination meets teen angst and where bombastic beats meet haunting melodies.

Wedekind’s mixture of drums, guitars and keyboards (no bass to be found here!) draws beautifully melancholic pictures. Yes, they are dark but true beauty often lies in the shadows. But don´t confuse their dark imagery with negativity. That is one thing Wedekind is not - negative. Some of their songs have enough pop, they could easily find their way to a dance floor. Singer/ guitarist Rainer Prokop disagrees, "I don't think that this is going to happen. We tried to party with Radiohead records once and it just doesn't work. And I'd feel really uncomfortable handing out blueprints on how to listen to our music - people should get out of it what they can." Still their music is sexy as fuck! There were bands before that had that certain dark, yet erotic undertone. Iggy Pop. Television. Joy Division. The Cure. Wedekind follows in that tradition. Fucked up and sexy.

Wedekind’s distinctive sound combines elements of Post-Hardcore, Bitpop, New Wave and Emo. If able to take a peek into the band members’ private record collections you probably would find the likes of INTERPOL, MUSE, JIMMY EAT WORLD, PLACEBO, ... TRAIL OF DEAD, VUE, LAST DAYS OF APRIL or THE FAINT amongst the recently played discs.

In Wedekind´s native Austria, the band has attained a level of notoriaty reached by few of their peers, yet they remain unfazed by thier success and refuse to kiss anyone's ass. Hailing from a humble hardcore background, the band caught the attention of the mainstream media when one song off their demo received airplay on FM4/ORF Sound Park - a platform for Austrian bands to present their music to a larger audience. And even though the quality is just horrible most of the time, even though greasy haired A&R people are fishing for the "next big thing," and even though it's all become just a load of music business bullshit by now, the idea and the concept behind is good. So the radio people liked the song and the people in front of their radios liked it even more, and before anyone really knew what was going on, they were playing big festivals and were nominated as best Austrian alternative act of the year, still without an official release.

Rainer Prokop has his own point of view: "Yes, it was weird, we'll have to admit that. We are just not used to things like that. It's a very shady business thing, but that alternative act award was something different. It wasn't any music industry lobby bullshit, it was all just votings by the FM4 community. Maybe it's a coolness thing for the industry, but what it comes down to is that we haven't changed for anyone. We still do what we do and what sets us apart from most of the other bands at those awards was our way of doing things. We have entirely different perspectives and backgrounds." “It wasn't anything we had planned. People just came up to us, offered us bigger shows and we agreed. And we aren't really interested in doing anything beside playing music," ads Drummer Helmut Hutterer.

While the name Wedekind was very obviously taken from German dramatist Frank Wedekind, who glorified a permissive society and questioned the morality of the Bourgeois and the Philistines, also the lyrics of the band Wedekind are a surreal reflexion of social, cultural, political and economical realities and prove that this band has much more to offer then sharp outfits and stylish haircuts. Still they don’t consider themselves as a political band: “There is a certain political aesthetic, but we don't have a full on political message and we don't use slogans. That's not the basis that Wedekind was founded on. We are not going to save the world and we are not going to let the band be used as someone else's political billboard."

Still... inspiration is where you find it and to a lot of people Wedekind is inspiration – even on entirely different levels.