one year after my debut EP "my therapist says you're an asshole", I am releasing a remix EP. For this EP 6 acts that I treasure a lot, have remixed the 6 songs on the EP in their own style. A little fun project which's outcome I am super happy with!
cannot believe that I get to say this, but two weeks ago I received the "Morgenstern" Price from "Land Steiermark" & "Kleine Zeitung" and I am beyond grateful for that.
In May, the newspaper Kleine Zeitung announced the competition for the "Morgenstern Prize" and thanks to my mom, I applied for it. I honestly never thought that I would get this amazing price, but 1-2 months later I received the amazing news that I was gonna get it.
The jury had the most amazing statement, why they picked me:
Deutsch:
Schon der Name führt auf die falsche Fährte: Fraeulein Astrid trägt zwar die antiquierte, aus misogyneren Zeiten herrührende Bezeichnung „Fräulein", zeigt aber nicht nur mit der leichten orthografischen Änderung, dass sie aus anderem Holz geschnitzt ist, als das Gelsenkirchener Barock aus der Hans-Moser-Zeit. Das liebliche Fräulein ist Vergangenheit, das Fraeulein scheint eher die Funktion eines Nom de Guerre zu haben. Wobei der Kampf, den Astrid Hirzberger führt, sanfte Mittel im Arsenal hat. Das Fraeulein beweist sich auf seiner 2024 ersten EP „My Therapist says you‘re an Asshole" als bereits gereifte Musikerin, Komponistin und Sängerin, die das Songwriter-Genre zwischen Elektronik und Neofolk zwar nicht neu denkt, aber mit Geist erfüllt. Zwischen genrespezifischer Empfindsamkeit und sphärischen Klängen und messerscharfen Beobachtungen aus dem Alltag pendelt sich dieses Werk ein und zeigt schon jetzt Züge einer in ihre Mitte findenden Künstlerin, ohne auch nur einen Hauch früher Saturiertheit zu tragen. Fraeulein Astrid ist mit ihrem Zugang, ihren künstlerischen sehr heutigen Strategien (etwa über die sozialen Kanäle) jemand, der sich als wahrer Morgenstern profilieren konnte. (Jurybegründung)
English:
The name itself leads you astray: although Fraeulein Astrid adopts the outdated, misogyny-rooted title “Fräulein,” the subtle spelling change signals that she’s cut from a very different cloth than the Gelsenkirchen Baroque of Hans Moser’s time. The sweet, demure “Fräulein” is a thing of the past; this Fraeulein seems to carry a “Nom de Guerre” of sorts. Yet the battle Astrid Hirzberger fights employs gentle tools in its arsenal. On her 2024 debut EP, My Therapist Says You’re an Asshole, Fraeulein Astrid proves herself a mature musician, composer, and vocalist who, while not reinventing the songwriter genre between electronic and neofolk, breathes spirit into it. This work settles between genre-specific sensitivity, ethereal sounds, and razor-sharp everyday observations, already showing traits of an artist coming into her own, with not a hint of premature complacency.
With her approach and very contemporary artistic strategies (such as social media channels), Fraeulein Astrid has emerged as a true Morgenstern.
Huge thanks to everyone who was involved in the process - receiving this prize means the world to me and as an independent solo artist 10.000€ is a huge amount of money, which I will happily invest into my debut album ahhh!!
For the past years I decided to step back from music videos, because it was just too much extra work for me, I didn't have the creative head space left or the extra money. But as my debut EP "my therapist says you're an asshole" came out this May, I knew that I also wanted to honor my personal little milestone visually. I have been working on this idea for many months and I am super proud to be finally releasing this video. Many hours of work, brainstorming sessions, talking to people, location scoutings, costume concepts, building doors, looking for second hand toy snakes etc. went into this project and I am very proud of how it turned out. I had this idea of playing every song on the EP while creating a little world for each song. The day of the videoshoot was such a cool experience for me, because I had these insanely talented people around me and my best friends were the sweetest "helping hands" I could've wished for.
The biggest special thanks go out to Chris and Dom for helping me with turning my ideas into reality and helping me with the creative process.
Felix for the mental support, being an amazing drummer and also taking care of the live sound, mixing and mastering.
Raphaela for letting me borrow her beautiful hand sculptures, creating the stunning outfit applications and door applications.
My dad, uncle and Felix for building these super cool doors! BG/BRG/MG Dreihackengasse for letting us shoot in one of their gyms!
credits:
video concept & idea: Astrid Hirzberger
all songs written and produced by Astrid Hirzberger
video producer: Chris Pilch, https://leftkiss.com
video producer, cut, color grading: Dominik Hofer
dop: Tim Zoidl
b camera operator, 1st ac: Onur Arslan
behind the scenes: Minna Rothbart
costume design / set design / hand sculptures: Raphaela Miklauc
set design assistant: Natascha Miklauc
outfit concept: Raphaela Miklauc & Astrid Hirzberger
outfit applications: Raphaela Miklauc
live mixing & mastering: Felix Paschke
production assistant: Florian Thausing
production assistant: Martin Moser
production assistant: Rosi Pernthaller
extra thanks to:
BG/BRG/MG Dreihackengasse https://www.3hacken.at
Printhouse Films https://www.printhousefilms.com
Kaiserschnitt Film https://kaiserschnitt-film.com
Banana Rental https://banana-rental.com
Lichtwerk https://lichtwerkgraz.at/
Leon Merkel for audio equipment
Station 1 / NEXT STATION:
idea: Astrid Hirzberger
set design & hand sculptures: Raphaela Miklauc
set design assistant: Natascha Miklauc
song written & produced by Astrid Hirzberger
Station 2 / LOST HOME:
idea: Astrid Hirzberger
doors: Johann & Manfred Hirzberger, Felix Paschke
doors applications: Raphaela Miklauc
song written & produced by Astrid Hirzberger
Station 3 / AFTER ALL THERE IS NOTHING REAL OUTSIDE OUR PERCEPTION OF REALITY:
idea: Astrid Hirzberger
video clips: Astrid Hirzberger
song written by Astrid Hirzberger, produced by Astrid Hirzberger & Fridolin Krenn
Station 4 / TWO YEARS:
idea: Chris Pilch
song written by Astrid Hirzberger, produced by Astrid Hirzberger, Benno Hiti and Paul Wurm
Station 5 / I'M GLAD WE DON'T HAVE TO PRETEND TO BE FRIENDS:
idea: Astrid Hirzberger
all snakes are either bought second hand or borrowed from friends.
special thanks to: Kerstin, Ulli, Selina, Thomas, Paula, Diana, Katrin, Hannah, Gabriel, Niki.
I cannot believe that this day is finally here. My debut EP "my therapist says you're an asshole" is out TODAY!!!!
I am incredibly proud of myself and every single song on this EP. It features some very old songs (I wrote EXPECTED END 2018 and LOST HOME 2019) and also super new ones from 2023.
This EP shows my evolution as a singer, songwriter, musician and producer. I am insanely grateful for the people that I got to work with on this EP and that have helped me with all the work that comes with releasing music. Especially as a solo artist, it can be quite overwhelming, to do this all by yourself - I am very glad that I've let other people help me - without them I wouldn't have been able to release this collection of songs.
I hope that, whoever listens to my songs, feels either heard, understood or finds a new perception of looking at certain things.
HUUUGE THANKS to Felix, Benno, Paul, Frido, Issi, Marie and Sabrina (RAIN management) and Mathias!!!
This is the third (and last) single I'll be releasing from/before my Debut EP (which comes out May 3rd ahhh!!!!) I wrote this song in November 2022, after I've had my first panic attack (which I realized after that) - I'd just freshly moved to Vienna and some things felt a bit overwhelming to me. This song is for everyone who goes through shitty phases/situations - just make it your "main character moment". At least, this helps me. A huge thanks goes to Fridolin Krenn for co-producing and mixing the song and Mathias Garmusch for mastering it!
lyrics:
It’s your main character moment Staring out the window While sitting in a bus in Vienna On your way home ‘Cause everyone else got too drunk
