2023-11-06 14:25:00
This band is still an insider tip. But anyone who has already heard “Miss Monroe” – the debut single from the Viennese four-piece HIDDEN GEMZ – will probably come to the conclusion that it won’t stay that way for too long. The hip-hop played by the young group is one that does not remain stuck in purism, but rather interweaves itself with other styles of music in an exciting and casual way. You also notice that there are musicians at work here who really understand their craft and have done their homework when it comes to songwriting. In an interview with Michael Ternai, the four heads of HIDDEN GEMZ – DIDIER KURAZIKUBONE (vocals), DAVID MURG (bass, keys, vocals), MATEO SCHMID (electric guitar) and JONAS STRONDL (drums) – talk about the organic development of their band sound, how much work went into it and why now was the time to go out with your own music.
When and where did your band start?
David Murg: Mateo and I were in the same class in junior high. Didier was in our parallel class. We got to know each other better through the school band, which all of us joined at some point. Over time we started making music together outside of school. We met Jonas in high school. It was recommended to us to bring him into the band.
Jonas Strondl: We were all in the music high school at our school and therefore generally played a lot of music. Ultimately, we couldn’t avoid doing something together. So the band developed out of the school and now continues to exist.
Is your sound the result of your shared musical preferences or did it gradually develop organically?
Mateo Schmid: The sound is of course partly a mix of our different tastes, but also a result of our shared love of hip-hop. We all listen to a lot of hip-hop in our private lives. Our sound has already developed organically. But elements from other directions clearly also flow into it. For example, David also likes to listen to pop, Jonas likes to listen to fusion. And somehow elements of these styles also occur to us in some form.
Jonas Strondl: The sound has evolved over time. We’ve been around for a while and we used to make a little different music. But with each song the whole thing has shifted more and more towards hip-hop over time.
Didier Kurazikubone: But, as Mateo said, dies happened in a very organic way. The more we played together and the more songs we wrote, the more we realized what we were feeling and where we were headed. That’s how you could say we got our sound.
For a band as young as you are, your music sounds damn professional. To what extent does the school play a role in this?
Mateo Schmid: Well, we didn’t learn that in school. [lacht]
David Murg: I think that had a lot to do with the evolution of our interests. We really wanted to be musicians back then. And we knew that in order to achieve this, it was necessary for us to behave professionally and constantly work on ourselves.
Mateo Schmid: We worked a lot on things like songwriting and production. And it took a really long time to get the production we were happy with. We had already recorded a number of demos beforehand, but they never sounded the way we wanted them to. That’s how it was initially with our single “Miss Monroe”. We experimented a lot in terms of studio and production.
“Our principle is that all ideas – no matter who they come from – are listened to.”
Jonas Strondl: We worked with a lot of people and came to the conclusion that if we record and produce ourselves, the result just sounds cooler. We have been interested in the area of production for a long time. And we really looked into the topic and got into it, because we didn’t want to just record a song and shoot it out straight away.
Didier Kurazikubone: For us it’s basically the case that we divide things up somehow. Each of us has our own interests. One person prefers to focus on one thing, another on another. If someone in our company likes films more, then they will take on more tasks with the videos, while those who are interested in production will be more concerned with this topic. Our interests are well divided and that leads to what we do.
How can you imagine how a song comes into being with you? Is there someone in charge or is it a process in which everyone is equally involved?
Jonas Strondl: Of course, one person likes one thing more and another likes something different. But for us it is the case that we always find a compromise on such issues quite quickly.
Mateo Schmid: In the end, the four of us all stand behind our songs. We have a song when each of us has the same feeling at that moment.
Didier Kurazikubone: Everyone in our band contributes something to a song. Our principle is that all ideas – no matter who they come from – are listened to. We don’t believe that an idea is inherently bad. We’re already trying to get it to work. And if it works really well, we’ll work on it further. But we first had to learn this principle or this approach.
Jonas Strondl: Exactly. At the beginning it happened that we didn’t feel like taking up a certain idea. Things are definitely different now. Even if someone in the band isn’t completely convinced about an idea, they still try it out. And it’s not uncommon to be surprised that it actually works very well.
What are your musical influences? What music did you grow up with? You can hear a lot of different styles in your music: hip-hop, funk…
Mateo Schmid: That’s interesting because I don’t think anyone here actually listens to radio much. At least not me.
David Murg: But I can already hear the radio. But our funk isn’t really the classic one.
Jonas Strondl: I think the influences don’t come so much from individual musicians, but rather from the making of music itself or from the time in which we learned our instruments.
David Murg: As far as my influences go, I listened to a little bit of funk, but also a lot of pop. Then the time came when I started playing bass, and when you learn bass, you play a lot of funk. Through funk I came to hip-hop of the 1990s, which also features a lot of funk basslines.
Didier Kurazikubone: I think David is the one of us who listened to the most music from this era. I always found it interesting when he worked with things from, for example Tupac arrived. We really discovered some new things for ourselves.
Groove definitely plays a big role in your music.
Mateo Schmid: Yes, definitely. Groove means a lot to us.
Jonas Strondl: We worked a lot instrumentally at school, including playing a lot of fusion. And I believe that a lot of our music derives from this influence. We don’t always try to stick to a given form, but rather break it up a little by using different effects and bass fills.
Mateo Schmid: That is very important to us. For us, a song is created in such a way that the instrumental comes first. And we are already working hard to make sure that they work. That’s why we try out a lot of things. In the past, we may have been a bit more complex in this regard and may have exaggerated a bit when I think of our experiments with various clock shifts.
Jonas Strondl: [lacht] We have now scaled back things like that a bit.
What are your songs about?
Didier Kurazikubone: The texts are often about what I notice about people and about myself, how people treat each other and behave socially. Or they reflect what is currently bothering me and what dreams I have at the moment. These are the topics I address. I’m generally more thoughtful, so it makes sense for me to incorporate my perspective into the songs in a certain way.
We also make sure that the text and music fit together well. It’s not just like there’s an instrumental and I just slap my lyrics on it. This will happen together. When I hear the music and the chords, I already know what mood we are in. From there, a topic develops that I want to talk about, and then we build it together.
You’re with your band Ink Music, a very renowned Austrian indie label. How come?
Jonas Strondl: It was still in school or near the end of school when we decided to take the next step in our music career. That’s why I contacted a few labels in Vienna and we met with some of them. One of these meetings was with Nadja Haderer from Ink Music, who responded relatively quickly to our request. I think it was about two years ago when we first met. We maintained contact and Nadja continued to support us in various matters. About two or three months ago we decided to finally take the step and produce and release our first single. I think we were just ready for this step now.
Didier Kurazikubone: I think now is exactly the right time. We’re done with school and have a label. All the things are now being addressed and projects are being planned. I think we have a good flow at the moment.
Your first single “Miss Monroe” has just been released. What’s next? More single releases? An album? What do you have in your plans?
Didier Kurazikubone: We’ve definitely written enough songs already. We spent every free minute during school working on songs. A lot has already come together. Of course there are also very old things that we probably wouldn’t produce now, but there are still plenty of them. Now it’s just a matter of tackling the singles and producing them in the studio so we can take our music out there. And an EP is also being planned.
Jonas Strondl: We’ve been in the studio a lot over the last few weeks and months and are currently working intensively on our new singles and our EP. So we’re still in the process of emerging, but I think we’re well prepared.
Thank you very much for the interview.
Michael Ternai
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