Ideas and creativity that mirror their music and their live on-stage explosiveness: Gudrun von Laxenburg is even larger than the three men you see on stage.
Taking influence from some of the biggest bands to shape the genre, they’ve created their own path to follow, with the release of their Panic! album.
For fans of The Prodigy, The Chemical Brothers and Justice, the album is a succession of ten tracks channeling Gudrun Von Laxenburg’s electric live performance. This is something they’ve become renowned for, as well as the meticulous technological standards pushed into every one of their records.
Check out our chat with the trio regarding the release of their album on Fatboy Slim’s Skint Records, signing with a booking agency and more.
Varun – Hi there! Thanks for taking time out for this interview. How has this past year been for you?
Gudrun Von Laxenburg – The past year has been very exciting for us! Our Debut album PANIC! Has been released on Skint Records, we played an amazing release show in Vienna, our singles are on radio rotation and our music videos are creating a buzz too! So we actually can´t wait to see what the rest of the year will bring!
Varun – You’ve recently signed with a new booking agency! What’s next for you on the touring front and live shows?
Gudrun Von Laxenburg – We are currently working on a tour starting in September! Until then we’re playing festivals and shows across Europe! Playing live is what this formation is all about, so we definitely will play as many gigs as possible in the coming weeks and months!!
Varun – Can you tell us more about your album ‘Panic’? How did it come about?
Gudrun Von Laxenburg – Well, we started out as a live band, jamming and remixing live on stage! And when we realized that it was getting serious, we also began to write our own material. It turned out to be an exciting process to create our own sound and to figure out who we were as a band. We worked hard and tirelessly on this record, to create something extraordinary and also something we can stand for. The main goal was to bring the energy and feel of a live band to a record. The human factor of playing instruments live and the fact that we edited as little as possible led to a very dynamic sound. So PANIC! is an album full of electronic music with a big load of punkrock attitude! Guitar-like synthesizer riffs, heavy basslines and high energetic drumbeats!
Varun – How was the album release show?
Gudrun Von Laxenburg – The album release show was a huge moment for us this year. After a long time working on our album, it was finally the moment to get it out there. And of course we wanted to throw an appropriate party for our baby!
Usually we play at music-festivals or in a clubbing context around midnight, but we actually never hosted a hard-ticket show at 9pm before, so it was pretty exciting for us to see how this would turn out.
When we were getting ready to hit the stage, our management told us that we have to wait, because there was still a big crowd trying to get into the club. That was amazing! The show turned out to be one of our favorites in the last few years. The Flex Vienna was packed and the people were going nuts, moshing and stage diving from the first to the last song. We even had encores to play! That really was overwhelming, because we could not imagine seeing a ‘wall of death’ at 9pm in a club! Truly an amazing feeling!”
Varun – How did you come about signing with Fatboy Slim’s Skint Records? Has he always been an inspiration?
Gudrun Von Laxenburg – Skint Records was on our list from the beginning! So when we sent out our demo-packages and Skint replied with positive feedback, we were happy as f***!
Fatboy slim has been our hero since our early teens and we never dreamed of releasing music on the very same label! That’s just amazing!
Varun – Having released the album and signed with a new agency, how do you plan to take your brand to the next level?
Gudrun Von Laxenburg – Playing live is our strong suit and until now the best things always happened to us when we were on tour! So now that we have a record out and have signed with Skint Records, we will definitely use that attention to play as many shows as possible around the globe! We are also working on new songs, so we will try to deliver a continuous dose of ‘Gudrun’ from now on.
Varun – Any advice for upcoming artists that you wish you’d got when you started out?
Gudrun Von Laxenburg – Never stop working and eat more bananas!
Varun – Your essential tracks at the moment?
Gudrun Von Laxenburg –
Daniel:
Soulwax – Masterplanned
Lorn – Anvil
Christoph:
Mother’s Cake – The Killer
A Tribe Called Red – R.E.D. Ft. Yasiin Bey, Narcy & Black Bear
July
Mark Guiliana- My life starts now
Vic Ruggiero – You must be good
You can purchase the album, here.
