It sounds like a questionable self-care trend, but it’s actually the new hot indie thing from Austria: the Viennese band Endless Wellness. With scrappy fuzz-pop and obscure, poetic lyrics about erectile dysfunction, fears of the future, climate catastrophe or the lack of desire to have children, the group clearly stands out from the current ranks of generic indie formations. The debut album “Was für ein Glück” was released in January, and things have been going uphill for the band ever since. Now the quartet is coming to Leipzig for the first time. We spoke to singer Philipp Auer and keyboardist Hjörtur Hjörleifsson.
Endless Wellness is often referred to as Tocotronic of the 2020s or Isolation Berlin from Vienna. Can you identify with that?
AUER: Hard to say, but I definitely love Isolation Berlin very much. They also have the ability to sing or play things more easily when they are actually very difficult.
The band’s music doesn’t sound like wellness at all – what was the idea behind the name?
HJÖRLEIFSSON: Well, we would immediately say that we are big advocates of well-being. And hopefully our music also manages to contribute to well-being. But on the other hand, there is also the downside. There is also something compulsive about wellness and there are these social pressures for optimization and being the best possible version of yourself. And we’re trying to fight against that too.
Their debut album “Was für ein Glück” came out in January, and after that the band became relatively successful pretty quickly. Was this quick success a surprise?
HJÖRLEIFSSON: How quickly it happened was very surprising and definitely exceeded any expectations. It would have been megalomaniacal to have predicted something like that in advance. But there was already a basic belief in the material that it was good. So I was absolutely sure that beautiful music would come out of it and for me that is the real definition of success.
AUER: When we started, we all had our different ideas and dreams, but almost all of them have now come true. I think Milena, our bassist, still wants to get to know Judith Holofernes – then we’ve ticked all the boxes.
What’s it like now doing interviews, going on tour and the like?
HJÖRLEIFSSON: Luckily we are a very close group. So we’re friends first and foremost, that’s just the highest priority and we just try to look out for each other.
AUER: Tour life is quite a challenge. We also confirmed to each other again and again that we were really happy that we were doing this in our 30s and not in our early 20s. Because, I think, it’s very tempting to turn in such wrong directions. So, alcohol alone is simply an issue. If your job is to party every night, then at some point you just can’t cope with drinking every day.
HJÖRLEIFSSON: We are sometimes very, very good (laughs).
AUER: After every concert the question arises: Do we have another drink or do we go home and watch TV? (laughs).
What’s special about the band’s music are the very personal, diary-like lyrics, which often address political topics. How important is it that everyone in the band gets behind it?
HJÖRLEIFSSON: We all tick very differently, but ideologically and idealistically we have a lot in common. But it’s not the case that everyone has to be 100% behind everything. First, Philipp brings the texts with him and we try to give them space, then things are discussed and a dialogue arises.
AUER: I don’t even know if I would say that I identify with the songs. Of course, these are songs that I wrote. But it’s something strange, reading your own diary is like this: Who is this? What’s happening here? – These are just snapshots, and that’s what I love about the whole thing.
When do you feel like a lyric is good for a song?
AUER: When the others say that’s the case (laughs). Well, it definitely doesn’t happen often that I write things and think they’re great right from the start, rather the opposite.
HJÖRLEIFSSON: You usually have to follow Philipp for longer. Like at the beginning of this band, it was a very long process until it really arrived. I can’t say that I was 100% sure about everything at the beginning, but I knew that there was something about it that really, really interested me.
> October 13th, 8 p.m., Naumanns
