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Louie Austen's Musical Elixir Of Life

Author: Jonty Skrufff
Wednesday, June 22, 2005
"Most people stop living when they're 30 or 35, thinking "this is it'. Their musical taste stops changing, even some of my musical colleagues are like that, they don't think right. There's always something new to explore and they're stuck telling me "remember how wonderful it was 20 year ago, Louie'. I'm like "guys, look how great it is today'.

Nowadays in his 60s (though he claims 58) Austrian crooner Louie Austen has enjoyed an unconventional career to say the least, enduring poverty and minimal commercial success for almost 30 years, before becoming one of the unlikeliest stars of electroclash after meeting Patrick Pulsinger in 1999. Co-producing one of Peaches' biggest records, the Spinal Tap-esque "Grab My Shaft' he's also gone on to sing with Gonzalez and more recently, Christopher Just as well as signing an album deal with Universal Records, Germany. Not bad for a man who spent his formative years in the 70s hanging out with a struggling jazz group called the Harlem Blues & Jazz Band who passed on their hard earned knowledge to the then 30 something young contender

"They said "Louie, it's not about money, it's not about fame, it's about music'," he tells Jonty Skrufff.

"These guys were in a jazz band, the youngest member was 65 years old and I learned from them that regardless of whether you're playing for $20 or $70 it doesn't matter; as long as you can pay your rent and continue doing what you love, then the rest is not important," he recalls.

"I learned that in New York, because in Austria, the attitude was, if you get £300 a night one night, then you shouldn't play the next one for £70. That's stupid if you think about it because if you really believe in what you're doing then the money doesn't matter. Of course, you've got to pay the rent but sometimes you get more, sometimes less so the question is, how much do you love the business and playing. One day it's an Italian restaurant, then the next day a great club, it does not matter. I needed to learn this," Louie admits.

Nowadays prolifically busty (he admits he loathes holidays), Louie's also just released a new single 'Open Up Your Heart' , with Berlin producer Korsakow which comes out shortly in the UK on Komfort Records, a project he embraced as much as he could.

I try to be involved in everything because I'm a perfectionist, I know it's not nice to say that because it annoys a lot of musicians and producers, but I'm interested in everything from bass-lines to keyboard sounds," he admits.

This has only been for the last two years because when I first got involved in electronic music I had no idea how these guys were doing it, but I'm a conventional musician and singer who's studied music, so it was fantastic to combine these two different worlds. These days I'm involved in at last 50%. All of the melodies and lyrics, including the bad ones, are all from my pen, I'm always keen to be involved and like to control the message."

Skrufff: It seems a fairly radical shift switching from singing in hotels to dance clubs, has it been that big a change in reality-

Louie Austen: "Absolutely, I used to be a show singer, and also a Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin impersonator in America. But all my life I was looking for something new. When I studied music my teachers were very smart because they found out that within a couple of days I got really bored as a student so they encouraged me to explore far wider. I studied music and singing for eight years. One of my greatest heroes in life was Miles Davis and I've always thought it's important to be interested in new ideas, that's what keeps me staying alive. Otherwise I'd get bored. I'm a crooner and my voice is retro so it makes no sense for me to do something retro because I like new people and young people.

I used to produce and play 250 musical shows and was so completely unsuccessful but this time it worked out. It began as a workshop because two DJs, Mario Neugebauer and Patrick Pulsi
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