Mzaza European Tour Diary: Part One

The first stop on Mzaza's tour was singer Pauline’s hometown, where we played at a beautiful venue in the very musical 20th arrondissement of Paris.

The band got to meet some great industry people Universal France who recently included a track of Mzaza’s on their Boris Bergman collection. We also met Rachid Taha after the show who, after hearing that we were Australian, reminisced about the time he played the Sydney Opera House with Brian Eno.

Lunch in Montmartre was a great chance for the band to meet Boris Bergman, one of France's most celebrated lyricists and adapted our Gainsbourg cover, Dying To Dance With The Devil.  We heard some great stories of how Boris had adapted and written lyrics specifically for the individual singers on the compilation.

On our last day in Paris we had a great recording session at a studio called Atelier Clandestin with an old friend of Pauline's, Hugo, and his mic-master Antoine. We made live recordings of a new Mzaza song and a French cover and because we recorded them at Atelier Clandestin. We can't tell you anymore! It was the first time in Mzaza's studio experience that the engineers suggested we go to a local restaurant for lunch - most Aussie engineers we work with don't have a concept of a French-style lunch break.

The drive to Switzerland was so smooth in our nine-seater van that Malindi, our merch manager, hired from Slovinia which somehow had room for the seven of us, our bags and our twelve instruments!

The venue in Geneva, La Bretelle, was owned by a not-for-profit organisation of students and music lovers who got together and bought the bar a couple of years back to protect the local music venue.  It used to be a female gay bar, then a male gay bar and the booking manager explained that now it's "tutti frutti". Mostly it is a great “bar de quartier” with a brilliant atmosphere. The audience was one of our best yet - they knew the words to every French cover and sang along drunkenly. 

The drive to Dresden was an epic 14-hour mix of autobahn speed and traffic jams, but we made it to the Scheune Schaubuden Sommer Festival with plenty of time to explore the circus, magic and theatre spectacle.  We were blown away by the energy and enthusiasm of the German audience. 

Prague, the city where violinist, Greta spent four years of her life learning music, was a short drive from Dresden. We played our first show on the (A)VOID barge moored in the Vlatava River . The quays of Prague are full of boats that double as hotels, restaurants, bars and live music venues. We were supported by local musicians who Greta used to play with back in the '90s and before that Martin and Greta played a couple of Martin's duets just for old time's sake. We got to play in the 9pm Prague twilight which was gorgeous.

The next night Mzaza had been invited to play in bizarre tea shop up behind the Prague Castle that was in a series of basement rooms, each one accessed through either a cupboard or a hidden bookshelf.  We had a post-show session with a Brisbane accordionist Keiren who's played with Mzaza in the past, and also the owner of the cafe.

One of Mzaza's most picturesque gigs was in Valdštejnská Lodžie, an old hunting lodge in Jičín. It had been bought about four years ago by a great artist who has dedicated his time to restoring the 15th Century buildings and filling them with music and theatre. The acoustics of the space where we played were amazing; designed for a time when careful design was the only amplification.

One of the most nostalgic nights of the tour for Greta was at U Paliárky, a club in Prague run by an amazing local musician, Rene Starhon. Many of the friends from the Prague music scene were there and we had a good session after Mzaza’s gig.

Mzaza were introduced to a totally new way of performing at the Linz Pfasterspektakel Festival (translated as 'cobblestone spectacle'). Linz has hosted this street festival, which has been designed by artists, for 30 years.  We were given a tour of the 20 busking sites around the old town (which is empty of traffic for the weekend) and then we chose our sites (the quiet, shady ones).  At the start of the festival the Mayor welcomed the performers and encouraged the crowd to be a generous audience, reminding them that the city wasn't paying the performers. We met some lovely musicians including Geordie, a Berlin based guitarist who gave us some tips on how to play street festivals, and Daniel, a local who plays hurdy-gurdy.

One night our gig got rained out so we moved to a Spanish bar where met two Viennese girls who we snuck into the after party.  The favourite band at the party was Faela a mix of Latin, funk and rock. We learnt the name of the band when a fan got on stage, pulled down his jeans and exposed his undies onto which he'd nicko-ed 'Faela'.

After three gigs a day for three days Mzaza drove to Gmunden to see the Austrian alps, have a swim in Lake Traunsee and eat grilled fish.

Then we drove to the UNESCO protected town of Česky Krumlov back in the Czech Republic where we stayed in an ancient renovated house right on the Vlatava.  Our hosts explained that Česky Krumlov had been emptied of inhabitants when the Germans were kicked out of Czechoslovakia.  Slovak Romanies were then relocated by the government to live in the empty town.  Because they didn't have any experience with house maintenance no building or reconstruction was done for years and although they got a bit run down, no modernisation happened until the Velvet Revolution.  After 1989 the little town was alive with music and reconstruction. Then the local council tried to restrict concerts to only baroque and renaissance music to match the architecture and cater to the tourists. Recently the rules have relaxed and when we were there the town was full of musicians including an atypical duo of a Slovakian Rom guitarist and a Czech clarinettist busking. Our lovely hosts organised a concert in a local music bar and Mzaza played to an interesting mix of locals and tourists.  

In Vienna we met with the Elizabeth from the Australian Embassy who had been very helpful in connecting us with festivals in the region. Our intention was to have a couple of days off but our new friends Lena and Teresa who saw an Mzaza show in Linz organised us a gig! We had a great time playing in an artist studio in Yppenplatz - a really multicultural area where many people were enjoying after work drinks and snacks on the street.

Back in Czech Republic we played Prazdiniy v Telči, which is a gorgeous family-run festival in the Telč town square and fairy tale castle.  It totally stole our hearts, as did the lovely people running it. Mzaza opened the festival and had a guest appearance by our good friend Martin from Prague who joined us to perform one of his compositions, Lyra. We also were surprised to be joined by two giant giraffes!

It’s with a heavy heart that we crossed the Czech/Austrian border for the fifth time in two weeks! Our last show was at the charming Beserlpark Festival, a small three-day event with only 500 guests (most of whom were camping) and an international line of up of amazing music including Dorretta Carter and España Circo Este.

On the long journey home we remembered all the new and old friends we made who programmed Mzaza at their venues and festivals, put us up, organised shows for us, shared songs with us, photographed and filmed us, spread the word, showed us their beautiful towns and cities and cheered at our shows.   

We have found connections across the globe, started our export process and created a foundation that will support us in the next steps of our journey.  It was an amazing opportunity to take our music home and record two songs, visit five countries and play 20 shows in 23 days. We can't wait to do it again!