Thomas Spitzer
Harald Thomas Spitzer (born April 6, 1953 in Graz ) is an Austrian lyricist, composer, singer, guitarist and graphic artist. He is a founding member and head of the First General Insecurity (EAV), whose lyrics and songs, album covers and illustrations come almost exclusively from him.
Life
Spitzer was born in Graz in 1953. He began his musical career in the Styrian rock band Mephisto , in which he played together with Gert Steinbäcker and, among other things, appeared at the Popendorf 71 music festival in 1971 . In April 1977 he became guitarist for the group Antipasta . Shortly afterwards, the band broke up and Spitzer founded the first general uncertainty together with Eik Breit , Nino Holm and Anders Stenmo .
Spitzer, who originally wanted to be a painter, studied graphics at the Vienna Art Academy . As a diploma thesis, he submitted the EAV album Café Passé , stage and costume designs as well as the recording of the live show as a multimedia project in 1980 and received the graphic designer diploma. In 2008 he exhibited his graphic works for the first time outside the EAV as part of a vernissage, followed by an exhibition in the Krems Caricature Museum in 2018 .
In 2019 he was awarded the title of "Professor" at a concert in the Graz City Hall.
Temporary farewell to the EAV
In 2010, Spitzer announced in an interview with the Austrian format that he would withdraw from the active stage business of the EAV, as he felt more and more artistically constrained by the "EAV Tralala corset" and he enjoyed any musical and artistic work outside of the EAV more . On the occasion of his 60th birthday, Spitzer announced his return to the stage to release a new EAV album from his pen. This was published on January 30, 2015 under the title werewolf attack - monster ball is everywhere . From February to April 2015 Spitzer was on tour again with the EAV.
The EAV's 2019 concert tour was described by the band as the last and the concert in mid-September in the Wiener Stadthalle as the “final concert”.
Private
Spitzer has lived in Kenya for several months a year since 1992, otherwise in Feldbach (Styria) . He has a daughter and a son.
Awards (selection)
- 2018: Grand Josef Krainer Prize
- 2019: Amadeus Austrian Music Award for life's work and in the Songwriter of the Year category for Gegen den Wind together with Lemo
Spitzer as a copywriter
Spitzer is known for his satirical, snappy song lyrics and rhymes. In addition to his work for Erste Allgemeine Verunsicherung , Spitzer also wrote for other Austrian artists, for example for Udo Jürgens he wrote the lyrics for the song Cafe megalomania . On the occasion of the “1000 Years of Austria” anniversary, he wrote Tu felix Austria, which was recorded together with Wolfgang Ambros , Gert Steinbäcker and Opus . The text of Carl Peyer's Austropop hit Romeo and Juliet is also from Spitzer.
In his verses, Spitzer uses Austrianzisms , dialect expressions and deliberately used grammatical inaccuracies that give the song lyrics a local flavor:
“The furrow needle rules in the Discostadl
and the farmer swings his tight calf.
But the girls from Heide are a feast for the eyes
and I ask a princess: 'Well, how about the two of us?' "
Another feature of Spitzer's texts is the frequent mixture of German and other language parts of sentences:
“She was white like the snow
from Kilimanjaro, a
bit thick around the middle
and she came from Favoriten . Bur'nwurst flew
on a sex safari - Mata-Hari to the beach of Kenya, of course without Hawara. "
("Hawara" is Viennese for "companion" or "friend" - but in this context "partner" or "spouse")
Web links
- Tom Spitzer in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Works by and about Thomas Spitzer in the catalog of the German National Library
- Official website of EAV and EAV fan club
- verunsicherung.de - Fanpage for the first general uncertainty
- The beginnings of the first general uncertainty
Individual evidence
- ↑ The Styrian "Woodstock". ORF , June 27, 2019, accessed on November 10, 2019 .
- ↑ FAQ: Who actually has the ideas for the CD covers and EAV comics and who drew them? EAV, accessed April 29, 2020 .
- ↑ The painter in the musician: EAV guitarist Thomas Spitzer exhibits graphics ( Memento from May 30, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ); www.mein Bezirk.at .
- ↑ EAV head Thomas Spitzer is now a "professor". Retrieved May 11, 2019 .
- ↑ Stage Kaspar exit: EAV mastermind Thomas Spitzer announces band exit .
- ↑ EAV mastermind Thomas Spitzer celebrated the 1960s in Kenya .
- ↑ Wolfgang Hofer's EAV blog, entry from November 9, 2014 .
- ↑ Kurier: New EAV album: Monsters of Today . Article from January 31, 2015, accessed on February 2, 2015.
- ↑ Focus Online: The world today is a monster ball . Article from January 30, 2015, accessed February 2, 2015.
- ↑ THE EAV STOPPING: What is over is over (December 16, 2019)
- ↑ stefanie. Weichselbaum: EAV mastermind Thomas Spitzer became a father again. Retrieved May 11, 2019 .
- ↑ orf.at: Krainer Prize for EAV and Elisabeth Gürtler . Article dated March 20, 2018, accessed March 20, 2018.
- ↑ diepresse.com: Amadeus Music Prize: sausages, windmills and lots of variety . Article dated April 25, 2019, accessed April 26, 2019.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Spitzer, Thomas |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Spitzer, Tom |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Austrian pop singer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | April 6, 1953 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Graz |