My roots in Austria (UK)

End 70’s, it was a very cold winter morning in Brand, a small tourist village in the middle of the Alps, also called the ‘Pearl’ of Austria. A young skiing teacher with an enormous beard and dressed up in red, met an innocent and lovely Dutch lady for her first skiing lesson…

About 5 years later, I was born in this deep valley of Brand. I remember that in my childhood the 700 mountain dwellers really knew how to get a party started with the tourists; shaking, dancing all night and live music. But not the typical umtata sound from an après ski bar. We had the, in our village world famous, alternative acoustic Rock band called 'Beck’s Company'. I still see myself running away from home in the middle of the night just aged 12, a meter snow and deadly slippery, climbing over the dizzy heights of our rooftop on the way to the pub just to hear the band playing songs from Tracy Chapman, Braclay James Harvest, Neil Young, U2…I was young, and really crazy! It was one of the most beautiful and inspiring times of my life and so my dreams started rolling. I want to be a rock star!

Oh so funny when I look back. I often found myself taking a shower holding the shampoo bottle in my hand up high and saying “thanx for this Grammy, I wanna thank my mum and dad and…” Oh yeah, dreams. I tried writing my first lyrics, but what to write about? Myself? Love? Drugs? Sex? The World? God? Where do I get inspirations from and how do I capture my emotions and write them down?

In the summer of 1998 I went to Holland on holiday. I sat in the train with a note bloc and a pencil, but what to write about? I gazed outside and noticed the beautiful sunset and was overwhelmed by the many different colors spread on the ceiling and I felt my skin become goosy with the warmth of the last rays of sun, gently brushing my face and suddenly my hand started writing on its own, wow! I felt the adrenalin running through my whole body with a kick that I have never felt before and wrote and wrote…about the beautiful landscapes and view across the seas, cities that we passed by and the world out there and the darkness that slowly draws a curtain over the fields. It was a wave of ecstasy.

So I noticed that when I’m on a move with all the changing pictures around me combined with different emotions, it starts working in my head. I wanna travel, wanna stay in this flow of writing, wanna see the world with my eyes and share all my emotions and my feelings with everybody! With you…

Next time I’ll tell you more about this crazy fellow, his journeys and his way of becoming a singer & songwriter, his diary!

Stay in touch

Falco Luneau