Sofa Surfers feat. Dev1 & Dälek
Album: Encounters
Release Date: 2002
Austria
I would like to start with one of our loop champions, Elusive Scripts. I know it’s been almost 20 years since you released the song, but will you please tell us the making of the song as far as you can recall?
I remember us meeting the “Daelek” guys at our favourite club at that time the “Flex”.
We were meeting them backstage to listen to some of our music, so they could pick a layout they could work on. They were obviously more resonating towards the more “heavy” side of things, so we ended up on working on what turned out to become “Elusive Scripts”.
There was not really a communication via the internet going on at that time, so as far as I remember we got sent their contributed vocals on a CD-Rom, or something. It took ages to arrive, but I also remember it felt really exciting for us to collaborate with someone from abroad. That applies to most collaborators on that particular album.
You might say ‘Go ask Daelek!’, but what would you say the song is about?
From the musical approach, we felt like we wanted to achieve a sort of “Rap” meets “Rock Drums” kind of feel. There was not so much rock-orientated electronic music around at that time, especially not in Vienna. In fact, it was actually great to get away from rock aesthetics towards a more “open” style of music. But in this case, we wanted to find out how to merge these two styles together and still be “electronic”, but still keep it “driving” in a way.
On the ferry to Catania.
2006
Playing chess on tour – Wolfgang Frisch in deep thought or deep trouble.
Leipzig, 2002
First Sofa Surfers show at Flex, Vienna.
1997
Joyce Carol Oates once said, ‘Art should provoke, disturb, arouse our emotions, expand our sympathies in directions we may not anticipate and may not even wish.’ Why does this song shake you as soon as it starts?
That seems to be a great quote and I think we can relate to that in almost every way. I am not sure if it is a goal of ours to shock, but more to open doors with our art instead. This mainly applies to ourselves in the first place – if people seem to resonate with it, we are more than happy to have possibly conveyed something!
I am sure you don’t have such worries or priorities, but, do you think it’s a little bit underrated?
“Elusive Scripts” is still a permanent part of our live – shows and we also chose the track to be reworked on our latest release “20”. Some people seem to like it as well and most of the time we are quite content with it, too.
You have been in the music scene since the ’90s. Do you think ‘the club culture’ is still at a good place under the influence of the internet, fast-consuming lives, pandemics, and so?
When we were starting out with our band in the late 1990s, the Viennese club scene used to be some sort of reference to us. We never much felt part of a “musical” scene, nor part of a distinct “club” scene – but we would hang out at our favourite clubs at that time, just absorbing the music that got played there. So that was how we found out about new music, new styles, and so on, apart from our local record stores and music magazines of course.
Nowadays it seems way easier to get hold of information through the internet, talking from my own experience.
Most of us don’t really attend the clubs so much these days, to be honest, except for our drummer Michael, who is still DJ-ing from times to times. But I am sure that the clubs today offer a similar “service” to the people, especially for the younger generation!
Talking about the pandemic, it is really hard to say how all this will work out for the clubs and promoters, as we are right in the middle of it – I am sure there will be a point when they can go back to sort of normal, but who knows when this will happen. I hope that most will manage to survive, as we see businesses closing down for good worldwide – so we will see and hope the best!!
One of the oddest locations that we have played as a band so far, was definitely a car park in Portugal in the early 2000s. It was a massive building and we had a big stage and it felt really hot in there – and a little claustrophobic as well, as the stage was so high that the ceiling could not have been too far away from heads.
Wolfgang on his favorite Sofa Surfers show
You have made quite a few studio albums, soundtracks. How would you describe your musical journey over the last two decades from Transit to 20?
It has always been one of our goals to keep the creative process exciting and sort of fresh for us. So apart from the technical way how we approach things, we always tried to incorporate different musical styles and aimed to combine ideas, that maybe one would not have thought about in the first place. So those can be contemporary movements, as well as things from the past, just stuff that kind of excites us for the moment. On the other hand, things seem to recur from time to time like hints of hip hop, or alternative rock styles, although I would not describe ourselves as distinct fans of those genres. But it feels great if you have the freedom to take parts of something that you may not like as a whole, but only use the bits you are into and then try to create something new out of it. Maybe that describes our musical journey through the years the best.
Your live shows are always fantastic. Do you have a favorite show and audience you can’t forget?
One of the oddest locations that we have played as a band so far, was definitely a car park in Portugal in the early 2000s. It was a massive building and we had a big stage and it felt really hot in there – and a little claustrophobic as well, as the stage was so high that the ceiling could not have been too far away from heads. The People loved the show in there though, Portuguese fans have always been a great crowd to us!
Will you please tell us about the Austrian music scene a little? We could use some recommendations, too.
As I mentioned before we never really felt part of any musical scene, though we definitely took advantage of the fact that at a certain point in time, the (musical) world was looking at Vienna! Since then the Austrian music scene changed a lot obviously, but in most areas for the better! There are far more acts around of various styles and genres and far more internationally touring musicians now! Of course, that is true for almost every scene in almost every country worldwide.
So two recommendations that show the range of what is going on in Austria would be on the one hand a band called “Radian” and on the other hand, an Austrian Rapper named “Yung Hurn”.
Radian approximately started out at the same time as us, though they always were more of an “abstract” sort of band. Imagine like “Aphex Twin” would start a jazz band.
Yung Hurn would be a current representative of the Austrians young “Cloud Rap” scene. The thing about him is that you never really know if he is a complete “tard” or an ingenious artist!
Singer Mani Obeya joined the band in 2004. 
Setlist at Vigo, Spain.
2006
Since your last album, ’20’, the world has been suffering even more from politicians, commercialization, global warming, social injustice, state violence, and viruses. How does all this affect your music if it is?
Needless to say, that is affecting our artistic output, as well as it is affecting our daily lives in general. I would not describe ourselves as a “political band” in particular, although our singer Mani Obeya in fact is addressing political issues in some of his lyrics.
However, it has never been our aim to “word” certain incidents, or circumstances. What we always try to achieve is to convey a certain feeling, or atmosphere in that particular track, song, or whatever music we are working on. So I guess that shows more our artistic way to communicate and digest things.
Last question: When should we expect your next album?
We actually were about to start working on our new album right when the “shut down” was happening in Austria.
So for the moment, we can’t really say, when we will be able to work on it, keeping in mind that releasing a product, would include playing live shows and maybe some touring as well. So we might see how things progress in that area and then make our decisions.
All we can say for now is, that we decided to do a sort of a “band” album again, as our latest one was more based around electronics. But this time we would like to work out things again through jamming live as a band and see where the journey will take us!
Tracklist: Encounters
1. “Formula”
2. “21st Century Army”
3. “River Blues”
4. “Babylon Tymes”
5. “Twisted Tongue”
6. “Elusive Scripts“
7. “What Kind of World“
8. “See the Light“
9. “Can I Get A Witness”
10. “Home Truths”
11. “Passing ‘Tru”
12. “Selling Souls”
13. “Gamelan”
