Der Nino aus Wien
Stuwerviertel, 2014
“I have overslept”, mutters Nino, rubbing his eyes while he welcomes us to his apartment. It’s a Monday early afternoon and Nino adds apologetically: “I always work late. The only time I might get up early is when I’m on holidays.” However, it’s not the time for holidays for the Viennese songwriter who is about to release two new albums “Bäume” and “Träume”. Over the last couple of years the former suburban kid has developed his own sound with some local colour. Nino’s oeuvre now comprises 7 or 8 (if you count in the one from his side project Krixi, Kraxi und die Kroxn) albums and he surely doesn’t seem to run out of ideas. In fact the twenty-something applies good work habits and has after school directly taken a dive into working life. Nino has done everything from iceman to waiter to screen printer and can by now modestly live from his music. At home in the sleepy, but cosy Stuwerviertel he tells us about his songwriting process, his inspiration, his neighbourhood and his origin before playing the languorous title-track “Bäume”. Der Nino aus Wien then takes us to his local bar, where he goes for a solo-acoustic performance of “Grant”.
Stuwerviertel
Although there has been quite some gentrification-talk concerning Stuwerviertel with its once notorious red-light area, you can still get the sleepy village impression when strolling along its traffic-calmed, tree-lined residential roads. Like a village it has its local market (Vorgartenmarkt), green space (Venediger Au), squares (Max-Winter-Platz or Ilgplatz) and local bars (Dezentral or Lokativ) where you meet other people from the neigbourhood. However, there are signs of change in the air. Since the extension of the underground line U2, the construction of new areas in its proximity (around Nordbahnhof) and most of all since the opening of the close-by WU Campus (Vienna University of Economic and Business) the formerly cheap and slightly run-down Stuwerviertel is turning into an attractive residential district. Not only are its low-traffic streets wide and open. With Prater and the Danube some of Vienna’s best recreational areas are in vicinity of Stuwerviertel that is situated in a triangle between Lasalle-, Vorgarten- and Ausstellungstraße.