Obwohl er eigentlich nicht aus München stammt, sondern aus Manchester, lebt der Singer-Songwriter Matthew Austin nun schon seit über zwei Jahren hier und ist vergangenes Wochenende zur "Münchner Band des Jahres" gekürt worden. Mit dabei Cellistin Matilda Pfeiffer. Die beiden waren bei uns zu Gast in der Hörbar und haben über die Musikszene in München und zukünftige Projekte gequatscht.

Are you still enjoying the sweet taste of victory?

It's nice to be recognised, especially because we didn't have that many fans in the audience to vote for us. It was nice to win, but all the bands were really good this year at the Sprungbrett, all of them. I think it was great!

So Matthew, although you were not born in Munich, you definitely deserve the title "Münchner Band des Jahres" cause you've also been living here for quite a while now - two years. How does it feel to swap Manchester's Pubs with Bavarian Beergardens?

It feels good. The beer is cheaper. Better quality and a better price. The language is difficult for me, I'm trying my best. But apart from that the Isar and Munich with this weather is just amazing. And it's in the middle of Europe, you can just get in a car and go anywhere. England is so on its own island. But I do miss Manchester though.

As your influences you name – of course – Manchester's Music scene, traditional blues and folk music and music legends like Bob Dylan. You also describe your music as rooting in `guitar primitivism´. What do you mean by that exactly?

Well, I like the fact that we all come from monkeys, we're all primates, we're all animals. But what I mean is, in the art world, modern primitivism is when you don't have a teacher, so it's self taught. I taught myself how to play guitar. My technique is not perfect, there's mistakes and the way I hold the guitar is wrong - and people always tell me. But a lot of my heroes also held the guitar wrong as well. Jimi Hendrix held the guitar incorrectly, so he's also a "primitive" player, in that sense of the word.