Twisting, Turning: 10 Years of "Twisting"
10 years ago today, New Native’s debut EP Twisting was released. The EP continues to mean a lot to us as a band. A trip down memory lane.
Alex, Christian, Michael and Simon met through previous projects in the Viennese and Hollabrunn punk and hardcore scene between 2007 and 2011. In the summer of 2013, two of these projects almost simultaneously dissolved (Recall To Life, Blind Of 69). We started New Native as a reaction to that, as we wanted to continue making music together. Through New Native, we were looking for a more serious, moody sound that was more in the vein of 90s post-hardcore, which was back in fashion in the early 2010s.
Vienna didn’t have many bands of this brand at the time: our local heroes were either inactive (Everton) or took a different musical route altogether (Rika). There were Newspeak, who had just released their demo, Lorraine, who had been around since 2011, and Soey from the suburb Wiener Neustadt. The Viennese scene wasn’t big, but it sure was lively: Venster99 served as the scene’s nucleus and was like a second home to us, owing to the work of Benedict Seidl (The Bird and the Worm) and, from 2015 onwards, Miso Ljuboje (Hardcore for the Losers). The shows were inexpensive (for both promoters and visitors) and real: it was a venue by the scene for the scene. Unfortunately, Venster99 is currently threatened of being shut down by the Viennese municipality.
The four songs on Twisting came together pretty quickly, within 3 or 4 rehearsals between June and September 2013. We wrote the music to both Coughing Ashes and Wallow during our first practice.
First New Native practice. Oberfellabrunn, Austria. June 2013.
We released a self-recorded demo of Coughing Ashes on YouTube in August 2013, which helped us score our first shows in Dorog (Hungary) and Arena in Vienna, with the Story So Far and Seahaven. Around that time we also started recording the songs for Twisting with Dominik Kazmierczak at Leftside Studio in Vienna.
The EP was released on May 2nd 2014 on one-sided 12” vinyl through a co-release by the Viennese label Goddamn Records, two German labels, Shivery MMXII Productions and Tief in Marcello's Schuld (physical), and the US-based Either/Or Records (digital). Little did we know that four songs, written in a garage in a Lower Austrian village, would mean so much to us a decade later.
In celebration of the EP’s tenth anniversary, we spoke to Klaus Axmann of Goddamn Records about Twisting:
"I discovered the Coughing Ashes demo on Facebook in Spring of 2013 and it spoke to me. Stefan and Chris from Rika liked the demo as well, so we watched your set at B72 in Vienna, where you played as part of the No Label Night. I remember we started talking at that show and the EP release developed from there.
Simon and Alex at Alex' parents garage, the New Native practice space. Oberfellabrunn, Austria. June and July 2013.
You need to consider that the scene in Vienna (and Austria in general) was very small. This music was less popular here than it was in Germany. It was challenging to keep a label like Goddamn Records running. In 2013, the scene was deserted. In my view, Rika and Everton were the only bands that had played this kind of music in our area. However, both were a little too early for the emerging emo revival. It was like a twilight zone: too late for the previous wave and too early for the one to come. At that point, Everton had already broken up and Rika were developing more in the direction of Red House Painters and Notwist, even though they had their roots in emo. When I heard New Native, it felt like a good fit for Goddamn Records.
The release of Twisting went well for us, and as far as I know, the same is true for Tief in Marcellos Schuld. I was surprised to hear that things didn't go so well with Shivery, though I thought the record was a good fit for the label. It was cool to see that German media outlets like Ox and Visions picked up the release and published reviews about it. Also, German mail orders included the release in their catalog without needing much convincing. I remember Visions commented on the improvised packaging of the EP. I had black vinyl covers with holes in them from a previous order, which were sent to me by mistake. We used these for Twisting to let the inlay shine through.
New Native on their first European tour. Berlin, Germany. August 2014.
The fact that Pianos Become The Teeth took you on a European and UK tour in January 2015 took me by surprise, in particular, that a new band from Austria with only one EP on three mini-labels would get such a request. I still don't know how they found out about you.
I also remember that I met Felix from Flix [label and booking agency] again at a show in Vienna around that time. We talked about you and Rika. Flix eventually took over parts of your booking. This connection later led to a tour of Rika with Free Throw, where Laurin Rutgers [bassist in Phantom Bay] was the tour manager. And that's how the release of his band Redensart on Goddamn Records came about.
At the time, Twisting was compared to bands like Balance & Composure, Seahaven and Moose Blood. To be honest, I always thought Twisting was more interesting than the bands mentioned. I think your last show really showed what Twisting means to some people. It was very moving. And that is really all you can expect from art and music. That is the highest appreciation."
To celebrate ten years of Twisting, an exclusive t-shirt “New Native 99” designed by Christian Schwarz is available for preorder until May 12th. All proceeds are donated to Venster99.