Q&A: KROWNS are Defining Themselves on Their New Self-Titled Album
BASED IN AUSTRIA, KROWNS ARE A FIVE-PIECE ROCK BAND — who released their self-titled debut album on September 27. The band includes Simon Rupp (vocals, guitar), Michael Marginter (saxophone, keys), Stefan Kemminger (drums), Miša Cvetković (bass), and Samo Weidinger (keys).
“Smoke Machine” was the first single off the album which teased a laid-back sound to complement a beach day or an unworried day spent at home. However, with the full release of the album, listeners will find that it presents a variety. The tracklist aligns with the band’s description of it being “a confrontation with the quarter-life crisis” because it provides a true assortment of emotions. A song like “Lonelier” slows the motion and surveys the difficulties of relationships. The song also highlights Rupp’s gentle vocals, but they can also be commanding like on “Leave Me Alone.”
This mix reflects the band’s years of individual experiences that they all contribute to KROWNS. They tell me that the process of writing the album was intuitive, and they chose feeling rather than overthinking, allowing their relationship as friends to define a self-titled record that exhibits who they are, and who they want to be, as a group that believes in each other.
Read our interview with Rupp, Marginter, and Kemminger below about their spontaneous process, the collaboration that brought it together, and their hopes moving forward.
LUNA: The album is produced independently. Is that your usual process?
RUPP: Every project so far was produced in our own studio (studio 77) together with Matteo Orenda. He’s sort of the sixth, silent member of the band. He supports us behind the scenes and I produced the album with him. We have our own studio here in Vienna where we write, produce, and hang out. Everything is very focused on this space, and that’s how we wanted to record this album. Just the five-piece band plus our producer in that room, a very simplified DIY approach.
LUNA: So what’s the dynamic like? Is there a main lyricist? Simon, you said you mostly work on the production, but what are some of your roles when it comes to each project?
RUPP: Yeah, I write most of the stuff, or write the skeleton of a song. Sometimes I do demos then show it to the guys. From there, we throw in ideas together and it’s only then when it really becomes a KROWNS song. So I sort of build a foundation, but then the rest is done together.
LUNA: And the band had a few changes over the years, right?
RUPP: It’s been two years since we’ve had this formation and since we’ve been sure this is the combination of people we want to have. We started the whole project when we left school in 2016, but there were different versions of it and we weren’t happy. We didn’t do anything for a year, and then we started again. So it has been a long process to get here and that’s also the purpose of the album. Now we are a proper band, and it’s the first statement piece we have.
LUNA: You described the album as drawing inspiration from a classic rock sound while also presenting itself as refreshingly modern. Who are some of those classic rock artists or albums that you drew inspiration from?
RUPP: The strange thing about this band actually is that we all come from very different directions. Michael, for example, he’s a big jazz guy. He’s our saxophone player and mainly listens to jazz. That’s the magic of the band.
MARGINTER: We have our own stuff that we listen to, but we have some artists we agree on. So it’s kind of the inspiration of those artists and then everyone brings in their individual element. No one in the band hates The Beatles. We all like Arctic Monkeys and Frank Ocean.
RUPP: I think the classic inspiration refers to 70s rock bands. I’m a huge Bowie fan so the whole bells and whistles stuff, I really enjoy and want to incorporate in our music.
KEMMINGER: I also love Queens of the Stone Age. Like Michael, I listen mainly to jazz, but also, of course, other types of music.
MARGINTER: Our bassist likes 90s grunge. Our keyboardist is more the mellow, indie type of guy. A lot of stuff comes together.
LUNA: I think it comes together nicely because every song on the album is different from the other. “Leave Me Alone,” for example, is stylish and soft, but then it builds up to a heavier sound. How did you guys decide on the pace of the album?
RUPP: Interesting question. It’s just six of us in a room trying to figure it out. It was a very stream-of-consciousness approach. We threw everything against the wall to see what sticks.
KEMMINGER: There was a lot of talk about, “Don’t overthink it.” We wrote the songs that we liked the most, that we enjoy playing the most, and that sound the best to us. Later, we figured out how to put it together. But at first it was like, “Which songs do we like the most?”
MARGINTER: And it probably also had to do with the fact that we were in the studio for a whole week, Monday to Sunday.
RUPP: We pretty much didn’t leave the studio.
LUNA: I like how you paradoxically start the album with a song called “The Bitter End.”
RUPP: It was our show starter. Whenever we played live shows, it was this very energetic song. The music came first on that one, then later on the lyrics. It was a good opening track. That’s why we decided that we want to open live shows with it. Then we decided, “Hey, why don’t we just kick off the album with that?” It was a fun coincidence!
MARGINTER: For the whole album, the order of the songs was natural. It just has to be the way it is because otherwise, it wouldn’t feel right.
LUNA: You recently released a music video for “Heavy Eyes.” Instrumentally, that song is distinct. It is one of the lead singles, but it stands out compared to the rest of the tracklist. It’s ominous, kind of folk, and the music video is full of different symbols. Where did you shoot it and with who? For you, what is the relationship between the song and the video?
RUPP: We knew from the start that it might not be the best choice for a single — it’s a very long track, it’s distinct. But we wanted to try because it was one of our favorites. It’s very fun to play, was really fun to record, and we wanted to make a music video.
MARGINTER: The whole time, Simon and I had a picture [in our minds] of people dancing around a circle in the forest, or in the woods, or on a field.
RUPP: The song informed the visual idea. As you said, it sounds like folk so there was the idea of a cult-like community dancing around in nature.
MARGINTER: Stefan’s girlfriend’s brother is a professional videographer. He does mainly sports, like mountain biking. He wanted to do something creative, so we collaborated. We filmed it in Lower Austria on a field.
RUPP: We invited a bunch of our friends and had a nice August afternoon. We were really pleased with the outcome. We believe in that song.
LUNA: Speaking of Austria, obviously, you guys are joining me from very far! Have you played any shows out of the country, or do you have any plans to?
RUPP: Individually, we all have with other projects but not with this band. It’s a big dream.
KEMMINGER: I think everybody is feeling this energy with the new album and the music video that now our band could make a step forward.
RUPP: Next step is Madison Square Garden [laughs].
LUNA: Do you have any recommendations of artists from Austria that we should check out?
RUPP: I like listening to Sofie Royer recently. She has an album called Cult Survivor which was sort of my quarantine album. There are a lot of local indie bands, like a cool punk band called CURB.
KEMMINGER: Austria has a lot of great artists and musicians.
LUNA: That’s great for collaboration and getting to hear other people’s ideas.
RUPP: Yeah, it’s pretty easy in Austria. Everybody knows everyone. It’s a small country. All of us are not really from Vienna, but it’s the obvious choice — once you turn eighteen and leave home, you go to Vienna. Then when you decide you want to do music, you sort of go into the local clubs and fast-forward two or three years, you know a lot of other musicians. It’s very communal.
LUNA: Last question: what is one thing about the album, whether it’s a track, a memory in the writing process, a riff, anything, that excites you most?
RUPP: The cool thing about having your own studio is that you can spend a lot of time there and you don’t have deadlines. Without deadlines, you can experiment a lot. So at the end of recording sessions, we’d record doors and slam cutlery, stuff like that. There’s a moment in “Leave Me Alone” where Michael slams the door. We put a bunch of reverb on it and it’s just this very impactful sound. My personal favorite moment on the album is Michael’s sax playing at the end of “Heavy Eyes.”
MARGINTER: Mine is also the doors. There’s a lot of little details, funny add ons.
RUPP: Like easter eggs.
KEMMINGER: There’s another song that didn’t make the album but on that song, you can hear Simon hyping up Michael before he starts his sax solo, shouting at him. It was like two in the morning and everybody was a little drunk. That was my favorite moment.
LUNA: As you said, you were in the studio for a full week and the final sound is also very lived in. I love when albums reflect the relationship of the band, or the process of creation is reflected in the sound. It makes it so real because it’s a human aspect.
MARGINTER: Yeah. Also at the end of “Follow The Rain,” there’s feedback and a bunch of laughing and screaming. We wanted to keep that because that’s who we are.
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