The EAV has said goodbye to the stage, but now a Christmas album is coming. Thomas Spitzer reveals whether there is still a comeback.
EAV legend Thomas Spitzer (68) fulfilled a great wish in the Corona year with a delay of 42 years: to bring the Austrian band’s long-planned (anti) Christmas album onto the market. The work with the title “EAVliche Weihnachten – Ihr Sünderlein Kommet” will be published on November 5th. The first general uncertainty left the stage in 2019. At around the same time, the 68-year-old became a father again. In an interview with the news agency spot on news, the lyricist and composer talks about the beginnings of the EAV and what his book about the band – if he ever wrote one – would be about. He also reveals whether the EAV will make another comeback and raves about his two children.
How did the idea for the Christmas album come about?
Thomas Spitzer: In 1979 we did a month-long Christmas show through Germany for the first time. That was in the time before Klaus Eberhartinger was a singer. Ever since that anarchic Christmas show, I’ve always wanted to put the program on a record. But then there were bank robberies and mirages and the like in between. I started making music in a basement studio in Berlin in 2010. But only now have I been able to win over a few still living EAV members as well as young musicians who are causing a sensation in Austria due to the corona. Even if 42 years too late.
If you’re stubborn and got that into your head in 1979, you have to finish it off sometime before you die. I had a lot of fun, especially the two weeks in the studio when the men, spread over three generations, were there. With HORST I have found a counterpart to the EAV at the beginning: I love the group, they are like the EAV at the beginning, completely uninhibited, very bizarre and with total love. For example, they asked: Can’t you formulate the text a little more blatantly?
How do you imagine the end of the 1970s?
Spitzer: We weren’t that popular in Austria back then. But in Germany the club scene was an Eldorado for us. We could play in a different club there every evening or sometimes for weeks in a club. After the first program we needed a new show – we couldn’t always play the same program in the same clubs. Our Christmas show was created within two weeks. This was particularly well received in Hamburg at Christmas time. The entire underworld, the entire red light district was there. They rarely go to Christmas mass or Mama’s apple strudel. Anarchist songs were particularly well received. Although not everything was politically correct. I have to say that.
I have also wanted to write a book about the EAV for decades. But that ends with the first hit. From the first hit it gets unexciting, every fool can google that. All good stories have been written before. The really exciting thing is when every record company says, “You can’t be sold. You will never put out a record in your life.” From the moment the seven of us no longer slept on the floor and ate Indian vegetable rice with nuts and raisins, it becomes uninteresting. It was all about survival. In the first five years we were paid 20 marks per concert. That was exactly enough for two packs of cigarettes and a beer. You can do without food.
In the songs you poke Christmas at Christmas. Among other things, it is about consumer greed. Don’t you like Christmas?
Spitzer: I wouldn’t take the joy of the party away from any child. For me, Christmas has always been something special. For once there was no excess at home, my parents got along well. Until I was 16, after wading through all the swamps of drugs and alcohol, I still didn’t want to see the Christmas tree until the straw stars and apples were on it. But that is not the point. It is only bad when a person believes he has to discover his humanity for 24 hours and the next day the wars start again.
You are always infected with your lyrics. Are you still allowed to write certain songs nowadays?
Spitzer: The principle of the EAV has always been: The thinking minority can make fun of all facets of humanity without hurting. To attack the faith, for example, would not be correct. Humor is a good means of transport, even for serious issues. Like the song “Burli” about Chernobyl. The EAV has always managed to separate. But with some things you can no longer make fun of yourself. I can no longer caricature Donald Trump: No matter how much you exaggerate, that’s in kind. You can’t beat that. Sometimes reality is so exaggerated that you can’t add anything to it.
In 2019, the EAV said goodbye with the last tour. Do you miss the band sometimes?
Spitzer: Absolutely. Right at the moment when the time with the EAV was over, I started to miss it. In the last 15 years I always kept it that way: I played the first 20 to 30 concerts with the new album and then someone took it over. The only thing that never really pleased me was playing “Prince Charming” or “Hot Nights” for the five thousandth time. At the festivals in particular, it was usually the case that the EAV played for 40 minutes what the people wanted to hear. But with a new program with a new set and costumes, I was always on fire. Regardless of the EAV, I always wrote texts or made music for others, but the band was still busy. That was a good compromise for both of them.
Will there be another comeback in the form of concerts?
Spitzer: I know it would work like hell. If we were still able to move on stage in five years, it would be financially terribly good. But I think Klaus and I would have to sleep under the bridge or be forced to do so by the tax authorities. We have finished. It is also a beautiful thing to step down with dignity. I think there is enough other work to be done.
What are your professional and private plans for the near future?
Spitzer: I will continue to write lyrics and songs for other people. I still have a lot in my luggage. I also have more time for drawing now. So I never get bored. I will not manage any more plans in this life. And I don’t believe in the next one, one is enough for me.
You are also very busy in other respects. They have a grown daughter and now they have a young son.
Spitzer: That wasn’t really part of my plan. It just happened. This toddler was already on tour for the next six months just ten days after he was born. After two weeks he was already in six countries. He was used to many people, a different hotel every day. The little man has turned two and a half in the meantime. If he runs away from me, I can’t keep up. The life plans will have to shift a bit as a result. But he is my absolute happiness. My two children are the only thing worth dying for. Certainly not the EAV or any other song. When I look into my boy’s eyes, there is nothing purer. That’ll probably change when he goes to kindergarten or when someone else has a better bike. But you really only have to be afraid when he reaches puberty and when he has the same preferences as papa afterwards.