CIRQUE DE LA MERDE - World Circus (Austria - HardCore/Punk - Interview with Tobi).
- Hello ! Can you introduce yourself and tell us how it all began for you - your encounter with thismusical universe, what appealed to you, what fascinated you and what made you want to get into music?
Hey, my name is Tobi, I play guitar in Cirque de la Merde. I guess my fascination for music manifested itself pretty early as a kid, especially when „harder“ or „alternative“ music played on the radio or my parents but on CD’s or cassette tapes of bands like Sisters of Mercy, L7, Die Krupps, Rammstein (we’re talking like 1997 here and this stuff was new and exciting haha!), Clawfinger (when I think of it, at that time my parents listened to a lot of Crossover and I liked it, the harder the better, I was never really into metal though). The list goes on and on, but yeah, my parents’ CD shelf was probably my first encounter with the musical universe. That and some friends of course, and maybe some of their older brothers and sisters listening to Die Toten Hosen, for sure my first real love for one specific band. They were no doubt my biggest influence as kid and teenager and their 1991 album „Learning English Lesson One“, which is a compilation with all their idols from the UK and USA (Like Joey Ramone, Johnny Thunders, Charlie Harper, Honest John Plain and all their respective bands from the late 1970s) got me digging deep into classic punk, later on Oi! and also Ska & Reggae, so I got into this whole Skinhead thing. I guess I always liked when music was a bit rough, also production-wise, and never to neatly polished like most of popular music. I really found punk music for myself, I never really had peers who where into it as well until I moved to Innsbruck to study. Punk music just appealed to me so much and I loved to discover more and more bands. I was a nerdy outsider, moved from Eastern Germany to Austria when I was 9. There was A LOT of built-up frustration and this music was my outlet. Many times after school I would hitch-hike to this remote mountain village we lived in, lay on the couch and put on records by the Dead Kennedys, The Ruts or UK Subs and read the lyrics and liner notes. It wasn’t until I was 16 that I bought my first acoustic guitar, at the age of 18 I got my first electric guitar. I would go to more and more shows with my parents, who at some point also picked up on punk music again, and to this day I mostly meet my parents at punk shows haha! (What a cool story - love it ! - Ed)
- Tell me about the band... How you met - the current line-up - past experiences - and above all - WHY the need to form THIS band?
So I moved to Innsbruck in 2010. During the following years I met Mille, our bass player (the only true local in the band) at many punk shows and other diy underground occasions. He played bass in STOCKKAMPF, a Punk’n’Brass band here in Innsbruck which is still active. I later joined them to play Baritone Saxophone, but Mille and me just got to play one show together, as he left the band around the time I joined them. In 2018 Mille and Michi, our drummer, and two other friends formed MAHONEY, a great melodic punk band. Michi and Alica had just moved to Innsbruck from Bavaria not so long ago and quickly got super involved into the local diy scene, setting up punk shows, theatre plays and what not. So at some point us four, Mille, Alica, Michi and me hung out more often together at punk shows or each other’s places and in the summer of 2020, when nothing was going on for some reason, we decided to do a band together. It kind of fizzled out after a few rehearsals, but at the end of the year we gave it another shot and very quickly recorded our first 3 song demo early 2021. I think it was really this experience, this satisfying moment when you successfully record your first songs and are super happy with it, where we realised that we were onto something, that we really linked well together. We then played our first show in summer 2022 at a local one day open air punk festival, which Alica and Michi set up with their collective.
- Describe your sound and explain why I should listen to YOUR band at all cost ?
I would describe our sound as a mix between punk, hardcore punk, some post-punk and maybe other sub-genres of the Punk and Hardcore world. Our influences are very broad and different from each other which makes it really interesting to write songs together, you never quite know how your own little idea will end up in the final song haha. There’s fast-paced in your face hardcore punk, but also more quiet, atmospheric chorus guitar parts that build up tension. It’s a bit unconventional structure-wise here and there, you won’t always guess what’s coming next and I think that’s refreshing about our sound.
- Lyrical and musical inspirations/influences ? How important are the lyrics for you ? Are there any specific messages or thoughts you try to develop and share through your lyrics ?
As I said, we bring in very different influences all four of us. From Post-Hardcore to Emo to Grindcore to Punk to Indie to Noise. But there’s certainly a couple of bands we can agree on, mostly contemporary hardcore punk and post-punk bands. I wouldn’t want to name just two or three bands,
as there is really a lot out there we like and that influences us, and I love how all of us are still hungry for more and open for new inspirations and new horizons. Lyrics are an important aspect of our band. They are mostly written by our singer Alica, and are in English language, but also German and Russian. A specific message is surely to address the problems and harm the patriarchy still causes within our society. Also injustices and destructive forces that get in our way of celebrating life in peace and solidarity.
- About your latest release ?
Our first LP is called „Favourite Season“ and came out in Spring 2024. We recorded it with a good friend of ours, Leo (No World Records) in our rehearsal space in late August 2023. Apart from his help in recording and mixing it, we basically did everything else ourselves. From the artwork to layout – of course you got all the lyrics with the record – there’s even a little zine included, with poems, drawings and some background stories about what other projects we are involved in. You can get our LP via Keep It A Secret Records or Kink Records respectively. Or just write us :)
- Future plans ?
After playing many great shows including a 10 day run last and this year through many countries in Europe we are currently planning a little live break to focus on writing new material. So surely at some point in 2026 we’ll be back with a new record and new shows. There’s a lot of places I haven’t been yet but definitely plan on going with this band, like more in Eastern Europe!
- Your most insane dream with the band would be ?
I can only speak for myself again, but I guess to one day tour far away places like South-East Asia :)
- Your BEST & WORST concert - as a band - and why ?
I feel lucky that I can say there has been too many great shows already to pick just one as THE BEST. Last year on our first 10 day tour we had a great packed show on a Tuesday night in Toulouse, France in a little bar. The place was full of young, energetic people going absolutely crazy. No stage, no monitors, just raw unfiltered passion. We also had many great hometown gigs, some on pretty special occasions/ stages. Last year for example we played at the Bogenfest, which is a huge festival right on the main party mile with tens of thousands of people. Or just recently we performed at a combat sport event in the middle of a boxing ring which was a totally new experience as well! Finally I would pick one show which was maybe the best & worst show we ever played combined. Last year on a cold November night in Trento we had a gig in a tiny rehearsal place, absolutely packed with people. The energy during our set was so intense that people kept stepping and falling onto my pedalboard, ripping out cables pretty much from the first notes we played haha. I was constantly busy re-arranging my set-up, rejoining the song, only to get send flying into Michis drumkit haha! 2 times! So usually you would think everything goes wrong and that sucks, but no, it kind of added to the fun. It was totally wild and chaos and everybody had a great time. They would pick me up for crowd surfing, undoing all my cable stuff again, but it didn’t matter. So that was a great experience as well, to deal with it, when not a lot goes as planned haha.
- Next live-appearance(s) ?
We will play four final shows this year from July 23rd to July 26th in Germany: Bamberg, Berlin, Faetzig Camp near Görlitz and Leipzig. Then we take a little break for songwriting.
- Some words on your local scene - bands you're friends with and you'd like to name ?
I mentioned MAHONEY before with half our band involved. They are currently inactive unfortunately, but we played a couple of shows together when we started. There’s also GISELA, hardcore punk in german and sometimes even lyrics in tyrolean dialect. They’re a great live act, check them out. Then there’s AkediA, a blackened Stoner Doom Punk kind of Duo, where our drummer Michi is playing, too.
Innsbruck does have a small but pretty active underground scene. There’s new bands popping up here and there. One of the good newer bands would be CRAVERS, a fuzzy distorted garage punk group that seems very promising!
- Last word is yours..
Support DIY culture – go to shows and other community events, get involved, get connected, try new stuff, do the right thing, be kind and enjoy yourselves!
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