The Austropop legend initially had little objection to the age that Spitzer reached with his milestone birthday: “I don’t care that there’s a seven in front” – only to add: “It hurts.”
Made a virtue out of necessity
Born in Graz-Liebenau as the son of a writer and a journalist, his childhood was shaped by his strict father. “There was no television, no radio and no record player in the house,” says the artist. “Even in the first grade of elementary school, I knew everything that was age-appropriate in the Graz City Library. But my father would have killed me if I had come home with a comic book. The only thing I was allowed to occupy myself with was Wilhelm Busch’s collected works.”
So Spitzer had to draw and write his comics himself and discovered his graphic talent early on: “My father banged around on his old typewriter at the desk, and I sat next to it and drew.” He was “removed” from middle school because his Grades were all between four and five—“except in physical education, music, German, and drawing”—so Spitzer attended an arts and crafts school. But there was another reason: “Long hair was not allowed in high school. But there you might have feathers up to your ass.”
Enthusiasm for music sparked in Vienna
From 1974 he studied in Vienna at the University of Applied Arts. The anarcho shock rock group Drahdiwaberl played a concert there every year. “I always thought: That’s it,” remembers Spitzer, who taught himself to play the guitar at the age of 14 – “I confess, because I noticed that it goes down relatively well with the opposite sex,” says the later music legend.
Thomas Spitzer turns 70: “It hurts”
“Humor is the lifeboat in the sea of misery” is a credo of Thomas Spitzer. The man from Graz wrote Austropop classics and conquered the charts with the EAV. On Thursday the lyricist, singer, guitarist and graphic artist will be 70 years old.
While studying, Spitzer founded the EAV with Nino Holm. “We weren’t very good at acting, so we did musical theater. Necessity has become a virtue that has developed relatively successfully,” smiles Spitzer, who wrote almost all of the band’s lyrics. Because of the tours, he was rarely to be found at the university, but he completed his studies anyway. For his thesis, Spitzer submitted the EAV album “Cafe Passe”, stage design, costumes and a live recording. His mother, who was anything but happy with her son’s job, “was satisfied”.
EAV success with Eberhartinger
The commercial success of EAV was only possible with the entry of Klaus Eberhartinger: “The quality of Klaus lies in slipping into thousands of roles. We made him a storyteller. Ultimately, that was the recipe for success.”
The EAV celebrated its commercial breakthrough with the album “Spitalo Fatalo” and the singles “Afrika – Ist der Massa gut bei Kassa” and “Alpenrap”. With the LP “Geld oder Leben!” things went uphill in 1985 – also internationally, not least because of the single “Ba Ba Banküberfall”. In 1987 the commercially most successful work “Love, Death and the Devil” was published. All in all, recordings with spitzer were sold, a rumored ten million copies.
The EAV set up its studio in Kenya, and the country became Spitzer’s second home: “I love Austria without being a nationalist. But between All Saints’ Day and Easter it’s not bad on the Indian Ocean.”
Great success came as a surprise
“The great success came as a surprise to us,” continued Spitzer. “In the early years we got fired from every record company. They told us we were in good hands in the field of cabaret, but they certainly can’t sell us.”
Spitzer designed all of the band’s covers and skilfully packaged criticism into seemingly simple songs: “It was quite brilliant that three generations were crazy regarding these easily consumable melodies, and what was between the lines was only understood later.”
“Mom, something has become of your boy”
Spitzer sums up his long career: “I have a few partial talents, but I am not a boss in any discipline. On the other hand, the palette of my life is so colorful: if I were just a top painter or top guitarist, my life would be boring. But as it is, I can be creative in five areas.”
Thomas Spitzer on his 70s
The Austropop legend initially had little objection to the age that Thomas Spitzer reached with his milestone birthday: “I don’t care that there’s a seven in front” – only to add: “It hurts.”
The Styrian appreciates at least one thing regarding age: “Now I have more time for my four-year-old son to be a better father than I was for my beloved daughter.” What does he regret in retrospect? “That my mother died before I got the honorary professorship.” If there is something like an following, she tells Spitzer: “Mom, something has become of your dirty boy.”
Spitzer’s wife Nora has created a special present for the birthday child with the book “Get an old heart on a journey” with 150 handwritten love letters and travel reports from her husband.
