 LOUIE
AUSTEN |
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Getting started in Vienna & New York
Born in Vienna / Austria to a working class family in 1946, Louie´s parents paid for music lessons since he was 8 years old. He learned to play accordion and piano and also played guitar and bought his first jazz songbooks. After school he studied acting, opera, operetta and musical before he went on a long adventurous journey...
The early years - Around the world with Dean Martin &
Frank Sinatra
In the 1970s Louie emigrated to South Africa, then on to Australia and finally to New York, where he listened to the “Harlem Blues and Jazz Band“ playing. He followed them around and got to know the jazz scene which he fell in love with passionately. So he spent each and every minute in clubs and sang as often as possible at open mike events and jam sessions.
Austen spent the groovy 70s earning his supper singing in dingy Manhattan dives, soaking up the jazz and blues, getting hitched and pitching dinner-theatre variety shows in Pittsburgh. It was also there that Austen perfected his American accent—so perfect it’s like, über-American. From New York he moved on to Pittsburgh/Pennsylvania, where he initiated the show “Joker’s Wild” together with Jimmy Sapienza and Buster Maxwell. Starting with “Crow’s Nest“, he tingled with “Five Guys Named Mo“ through nightclubs before he finally went to the centre of show business, to Las Vegas.
Back in Vienna – Crooning at hotel bars & still in love with
the Ratpack
Ten years down the line homesickness brought our big boy back to Austria, where he got offered a regular with decent paycheck at a Hilton hotel bar in Vienna. “When I started, it was half an hour of me singing and some old guy playing piano. The bar closed at 10 o’clock—I’ve never seen that in my whole life.” Enter an unpronounceably-named Hungarian classical concert pianist on the skids, with a repertoire of 4,000 songs—“classical, jazz, boogie woogie, blues, everything.” The new partnership had the right je-ne-sais-quoi, it seems. “After a couple of months they couldn’t shut the place down before 3am and revenues increased drastically, 10 times more than before! They had to enlarge the bar four times because it was always packed with people standing in queue outside to get in. There was a real renaissance of hotel bars in Austria.” After some successful years at Hotel Hilton he took another arrangement at Hotel Marriott in Vienna where he`s still performing up till now twice a month.
New career with 50 - Around the world with MTV, in love with electro & dance
Then in the early 90s Louie ran into two top producers of the Viennese electronic music scene. From then on lots of innovative ideas and collaborations have been realized and his first contemporary electronic albums “Consequences” and “Only Tonight” – with the smasher “Hoping” - were released. Louie Austen became an international highly-acclaimed “underground-star” in the electronic & dance scene. With the beats and sounds of the young generation he attracted a new mainly young audience. He performed at a lot of different clubs, festivals and events, amongst others at the MTV Mash Party in Paris and at the MTV Film Festival Party in Cannes.
Versatility rules - Louie Austen in movies and theatre plays
Louie´s not only involved in music – at the Viennese "Burgtheater" he had a part in an adaption of Johann Nestroy's play "Höllenangst" which is to be taken back into programme this summer as it´s been so popular with people. Also he´s got his fingers in the film bizness - "The Counterfeiters / Die Fälscher" of Stefan Ruzowitzky got an OSCAR for best foreign movie and includes a cameo of Louie as a casino gambler. Louie also appeared as Karl in the Austrian short movie „Lounge“, an hommage to the film noir movies of the 1940s directed by Armin Bointner of Progressive Pictures.
The likes of Peaches and Senor Coconut & defying age fears
Coops and live dates with Peaches, Gonzales, Mocky, the Filmorchestra Babelsberg, Erobique, Matthew Herbert , Senor Coconut or Commercial Breakup show that Louie´s got a talent for bridging differences which makes his role in the music business all the more important. And that’s not all – Louie even has the ability to dispel existential angst. “Now that I’ve seen you“, so many young people tell him after a show, “I’m no longer afraid of growing old.“ It’s hard indeed to imagine a better compliment than that. And after all Mr. Austen is a busy tourer doing 120 shows a year on average in fancy or underground & also lots of big festivals with contemporary programme. Early 2007 he even founded his own label LA Music – Louie Austen Music - a home of his releases to come.
Bridge between young & old
Part of Louie Austen’s appeal lies in the fact that he´s a natural born entertainer / electrotainer. He brought many things along for the ride and his know-how of how to entertain with verve and how to put on a great show, his charm and charisma, and the style of the urban entertainer he had cultivated so long serve him equally well in the electronic underground. He is a mediator who mixes various genres, some of which were previously regarded as incompatible. For several years now he has managed to resolve alleged contradictions and break down prejudices – jazz and dance beats, advanced age and youth culture, smart style and underground. “In a way I stand for a kind of reconciliation“, he describes his unique position, “a bridge between old and new or between young and old.“ And he doesn´t think of retiring, „I´ll probably die on stage but I don´t give a shit.“
DISCOGRAPHY
"CONSEQUENCES" (Album - Cheap 1999)
"ONLY TONIGHT" (Album - Cheap/Kitty-Yo 2001)
“AMORE” (Single – Cheap/Kitty-Yo 2001)
"HOPING" (Single - Cheap/Kitty-Yo 2002)
"EASY LOVE" (Album - Cheap/Kitty-Yo 2003)
KORSAKOW FEATURING LOUIE AUSTEN "OPEN UP YOUR HEART" (Single - Komfort 2005)
"MORE" (Single - Universal 2005)
"HEAVEN'S FLOOR" (8 Track EP - Universal 2005)
“HEAR MY SONG: THE BEST OF LOUIE AUSTEN” (Best Of - Tirk Records 2006)
"IGUANA" (Album - klein records 2006)
"DISCO DANCER" Remixes (Single, klein records 2006)
„SUMMER LOVE EP“ (EP – LA Music 2007)
"DREAMS ARE MY REALITY EP"( EP – LA Music 2007)
„TOO GOOD TO LAST EP“ (EP – LA Music 2008)
„MY AMY EP“ (EP – Etage Noir 2009)
MUSIC VIDEOS
“REMEMBER” – directed by Tina Schula for cheap, 1999
“AMORE” – first version, directed by Tom Kimmig for kitty-yo, 2001
“AMORE” – second version, directed by Tina Schula for cheap, 2001
“HOPING” Matthew Herbert´s High Dub remix, kitty-yo / cheap, 2002
“MORE” – Universal, 2005
“BOOM BOOM” – directed by Progressive Pictures for klein records, 2007
“DREAMS (ARE MY REALITY)” – directed by Progressive Pictures for klein records, 2007
PRESS QUOTES
“Lounge wizard Louie Austen resembles nothing less than your devilishly dashing bachelor uncle. His English is straight out of a Sinatra comedy and his conversation is littered with `50s showbiz expressions.” DAZED & CONFUSED
„Louie Austen manages to sustain the element of class that the rat-pack possessed whilst adding an extra spark of modern originality.“ CHIC TODAY
'Louie Austen could brag about having the most contrasting musical career of all - he has a voice and lounge panache that could give even Sinatra a run for his limo' CLASH
“Frank Sinatra meets Kraftwerk - a definite must see” BLOOM FESTIVAL / UK
„This guy is the perfect mix between Sinatra, Barry White and Leonard Cohen on steroids!!“ Fan comment
"Hail the birth of Croonwave! Enjoyed best with a great deal of alcohol, a mirror ball, many (drunk) friends, and ladies...you'll want to pack an extra pair of panties to throw on stage. Yeah, Louie's that hot. Just ask Peaches." PROPERLYCHILLED |
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| 20-06-2009 |
Cascade Bar - Mariott | Wien | Austria |
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| 21-06-2009 |
Burgtheater | Wien | Austria |
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| 22-06-2009 |
Burgtheater | Wien | Austria |
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| 26-06-2009 |
Beefbar | Moskau | Russia |
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| 26-06-2009 |
Soho Rooms | Moscow | Russia |
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| 27-06-2009 |
Donauinsel Fest | Wien | Austria |
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| 27-06-2009 |
Cascade Bar - Mariott | Wien | Austria |
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| 10-07-2009 |
Summerbreak d. Sozialistischen Jugend | Linz | Austria |
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| 18-07-2009 |
Acid Party | Tiflis | Georgia |
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| 08-08-2009 |
KU DE TA | Bali | Indonesia |
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| 20-08-2009 |
Music Hall | Batumi | Georgia |
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| 05-09-2009 |
Cascade Bar - Mariott | Wien | Austria |
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| 09-09-2009 |
Studio 44 | Wien | Austria |
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| 07-10-2009 |
Club Disco | Sao Paulo | Brazil |
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| 27-11-2009 |
Casineum | Velden | Austria |
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| 28-11-2009 |
Cascade Bar - Mariott | Wien | Austria |
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| 05-12-2009 |
Cascade Bar - Mariott | Wien | Austria |
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| 13-02-2010 |
Cascade Bar - Mariott | Wien | Austria |
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wolfgang@miooow.com
Promoter & Assistant: carina@louieausten.com
 Download
Infos as Word Document (43 kb)
 www.louie-austen.com
www.myspace.com/louieaustenmusic
www.myspace.com/louieausten
www.sonicbids.com/louieausten
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