“Definitely Schrägged” was born out of weekly sessions held at the infamous Café Schräg in Vienna. The café is run by Reinhard, a definitely schrägged but extremely lovable rouge. His enthusiasm and love for the music fuelled the continuation of the weekly ramblings. The sessions started with just Gernot Feldner and Lionel wanting to have a place to get together and bang through some songs, simply for the fun of it. Café Schräg had a piano, one that was pulled from a garbage pile but hey …
After a few weeks of sessions with Gernot and Lionel schrägging about on their own, they started inviting other players to join in. All was done with casual attire, sitting around the piano, like cattle in the shade, mainly ignoring any audience that would gather, just playing though stuff they felt like playing through at the time. Some players came once and never again (usually due to an indiscretion on Lionel’s part), some came once and kept coming back to get a little more schrägged out. Over the weeks the group slowly gathered, kinda like dust under the bed. By the end of the first six months of sessions they had accumulated the players that are on “Definitely Schrägged”, like minded, schrägged folks who enjoyed the distraction of ambling through the songs.
In December 2006 they spent one day in the studio and recorded the main part of the band. Markus, the tuba player, couldn’t be there as he was sick (hard to play a tuba with a head cold) so it was the remaining five left to stink it out that day. In the following weeks they added the tuba and some extra guest players who were not part of the core session group but who had joined in at the sessions when they could and who definitely churned the engine of the music.
The sessions came to a floundering end when some music critic of a neighbour to Café Schräg started calling the police and complaining they were too loud (them? Never!). They tired to be quieter but the piano didn’t have a volume knob on it (most acoustic pianos don’t) so they could only wallow so low (without getting morally damaged). The Cafe was fined a couple times, they tried playing without the tuba and without the cajon but the police still came. So they, sadly, had to end the sessions. All satisfying escapes must come to an end they say.
"The weekly sessions at Schräg will be missed but at least we have this CD to remind us of what was."
Schräg – Not square, slightly bent.
Lionel Lodge (lead vocals, guitars, percussion), Gernot Feldner (piano, backing vocals, harmonica), Franz Haselsteiner (accordion), Peter Beinhofer (accordion), Markus Weissenbach (tuba), Dave “Da Poller” Koller (cajon, cymbals, udo, percussion), Stephan „Stoney“ Steiner (violin, nycke harpa), Pedro Duarte (flute), soulHsistas (backing vocals), Meena Cryle, Mary Lamaro, Anja Wise.