With MARASKINO you meet for a champagne frühstück, because: The Popsch threesome from Vienna knows how life can be fun. NANCY NUCLEAR, MELODY MARASKINO and ROY PRINCE HAPPY – the alter egos of the self-proclaimed porn-pop performance – sit in the sunshine at the Meidlinger Markt. The buttocks remain exceptionally on asphalt, dafür make the rest of the outfits even make Persil ads look like black and white stripes. Because the perlage is right, MARASKINO chat for an hour üAbout Ballerm’s broadening of horizonsäinner, vulva abdrückes and tire tracks, their own thong collection and the new song.
Compared to my black-clad blandness, here you are in colorful shirts and dresses and sweaters. Very chic!
Melody Maraskino: (smiling) We’re not the ones dressed in black – except when we go to concerts by the Electric Guzzis must [Bernhard Hammer ist auch Teil der Techno-Band Elektro Guzzi, Anm.]
Nancy Nuclear: Then we uniform all in black.
Melody Maraskino: Although Berni breaks that up anyway.
Roy Prince Happy: I put myself in different roles. Gladly even!
Melody Maraskino: Clothing is also educational work. Recently I was taking my child to kindergarten, a woman with her boy came towards us and said: Look, the man is wearing a pink sweater!
What are you saying?
Melody Maraskino: Yes, exactly, super nice!
Roy Prince Happy: With that we are right in the middle of the topic. Back then, at the first gigs in Salzburg, we were the support act for Ankathie Koi occurred. We wore suspenders and heels and thongs and people were horrified. That was a cool feeling. Also because this amazement has turned into euphoria.
Melody Maraskino: After that, a woman came to me and said: I’ve never seen that before, you’ve enriched my life and broadened my horizons.
Nancy Nuclear: That’s the irritation through Maraschino.
Broadening horizons is a good thing. your hänt just a colorful Fächicken on the Bühne, you dress like that.
Melody Maraskino: It has to start somewhere. That’s why I think it’s great when queer topics end up in the mainstream. For example on Netflix. Or at Ö3. With gender-neutral language. Barrier-free.
Nancy Nuclear: In short rubrics though.
Melody Maraskino: But as a good start.
Nancy Nuclear: At Maraschino it’s going on. When you’re on stage like that as a man, you can role model be because you show possibilities. Maybe someone is in the audience and realizes that this is really possible. It’s like an incentive.
Melody Maraskino: I remember a concert where a couple of twelve-year-olds stood in the front row. You noticed that they had never seen anything like this before, but they will remember it.
Nancy Nuclear: As a way to present yourself. But that doesn’t mean that everyone has to run around like that.
Melody Maraskino: Exactly. It’s about showing alternatives. If it’s always just: blue is for boys and pink for girls, where is the possibility for anything else?
Nancy Nuclear: Yes, they say it’s a boy’s bonnet, it’s blue. Or that’s a girl’s slipover because it’s pink. That’s bad.
Roy Prince Happy: What is important to us is that we are heterosexuals…
Nancy Nuclear: Oh wait, I’m not straight.
Melody Maraskino: Neither am I, well… well, yes, but not only.
Roy Prince Happy: Primarily, I mean.
Nancy Nuclear: It’s a cis masculinity you mean.
Roy Prince Happy: It’s better that way, yes. So what is important to us is that we can do all of this because there was a lot of preparatory work. You have to be aware of that when it comes to queer topics. I can act like that as a cis man because…
Nancy Nuclear: you can connect.
Melody Maraskino: Yes, a Bowie found it easier than Elton John to flirt with the subject because he never came out. So he could play with it and…
Acquire certain codes.
Melody Maraskino: Exactly, it’s an appropriation that has a different effect than coming out as gay.
Maraskino Impulsanz 21 (c) Emilia Milewska
I can’t believe it camp term on, it’s about the appropriation of kitsch. What was previously unthinkable is suddenly normal. Because people suddenly act like that and make it visible.
Melody Maraskino: That applies to us, yes. And besides, if something is different for the mass, of course, the resistance is large. As soon as several people do it, he picks it up.
Nancy Nuclear: That’s why it was me – and I’ve always been about sets and outfits from Maraschino cared – important that it is never costuming. Maraschino doesn’t want to be a spectacle that appropriates a trend. If Roy wears the sequin dress with heels, that’s Roy.
Melody Maraskino: We don’t force the outfits on ourselves, we feel good in them.
Nancy Nuclear: I can remember the first outfits well. I gave Roy glitter dresses from my closet back then. He put one on and walked up. It was clear: This is Roy, this is him!
Roy Prince Happy: I immediately fell in love with wearing beautiful glitter dresses. Therefore Maraschino a platform on which I can carry this part to the outside.
Melody Maraskino: In everyday life I don’t wear suspenders or stockings. At Maraschino it has to be like that. But it’s different to ride the bus with certain clothes, for example. It would be interesting to find out how people who lead their lives like this feel. Only then can you put yourself in their place.
Roy Prince Happy: Isn’t the cool thing about nightlife that the society there becomes more open? I don’t mean the classical concerts with their locations, but the clubs. That makes a big difference. I’m thinking of the concert at the Kultursommer on the Praterwiese. There was a Ballermann wedding troupe in lederhosen. They dropped the drawer when they saw us.
Melody Maraskino: In the end they were our fans. But it took a while. You notice that with most onlookers. One called his wife because he saw us on stage in thongs.
Nancy Nuclear: These are exciting moments!
Melody Maraskino: Also for us. An audience that can’t classify us at first is exciting. It doesn’t matter whether you like us or not, it knocks your entire opinion together.
Recently you also have in Berlin Kit Kat and Sisyphos played. A very different experience I suppose.
Melody Maraskino: Im Kit Kat we were all dressed in white The audience wore almost exclusively black. We were surprised, then we were told: there is a ban on white, that’s door policy. So even in this club we have the uniform…
transferredtotally
Melody Maraskino: Exactly! They’re all conservative, in their own way.
Roy Prince Happy: People still thought our white stuff was great. Precisely because they irritated. And that is our goal. The combination of texts, music and our appearance should lead to irritation.
Melody Maraskino: That’s why we have to be on the style police watch list to push the far ends of the horizon. Because: If someone sees us in the outfits on stage, it becomes more normal – for example on the street.
You already have it before seen.
Roy Prince Happy: The same goes for the music. Live we play dance-technoid numbers, but in between there are always pop-like things. With this we break with dogmas. People celebrate it. Me too. Even if I rarely dare to admit it.
Because it is a Guilty Pleasure is?
Roy Prince Happy: There’s something Catholic about that, doesn’t it? Man must feel guilty about liking something. Actually a contradiction. As long as you don’t hurt anyone, you shouldn’t feel bad about finding something good!
Maraschino im Garten (c) Maraschino
Even so, there is rarely anyone to. Why?
Roy Prince Happy: We live in a reactionary time. 30 years of neoliberalism in Austria have shaped society.
Melody Maraskino: The prosperity distracts from the diversity that society would have. You no longer have an overview of your own horizon because the oversupply is too great to develop further. Besides, it is easier not to think than to empathize with others.
Roy Prince Happy: That’s why the upcoming number will be interesting. It is called “Rosa Horizon” and the text can be read in different contexts.
Melody Maraskino: That’s what I find so exciting about writing. It should allow different perspectives. It’s a kind of art form that works like this.
On „Asphalt”the last single, Nancy sings the lead vocals for the first time.
Nancy Nuclear: Becoming part of the stage was an exciting process. I’ve already been to Julian’s last project Julian & the Fux worked behind the scenes, most recently at Maraschino gave a lot of musical input and did the artwork.
Melody Maraskino: Because you are always the first port of call.
Nancy Nuclear: At some point Julian said: You are such an important part, you should be on stage with us!
Melody Maraskino: Then Kristian Davidek asked us if we could both CIVA Festival want to perform. I agreed immediately.
Nancy Nuclear: Now it’s a given. And I can bring in my topics. “Asphalt” is about self-empowerment. me and my body The masturbating. my sexuality I wrote about this earlier for an underground feminist magazine, fiber. material for feminism and pop culture, written. For “Asphalt” I also made a risography from my vulva imprint and tire tracks. We are also enclosing a sex column that I wrote in my early 20s. It’s all about masturbating and changing the vulva – how does it blossom? That’s a nice picture, a jerk off template for next time!
Roy Prince Happy: This works as a beautiful package, like all releases of Maraschino.
Asphalt Package (c) Maraschino
Nancy Nuclear: Our thong collection that we feature Viki-No-Viki have worked out, is how it came into being. Also because there were nowhere to buy men who met our expectations. We now sell them as merch after our concerts. Although many men have seen us like this before, most of them still say: Well, that’s not possible! If your partner then buys you one, you’ll be fine with it.
Melody Maraskino: We sent a thong to Carinthia as a birthday present. A month later, three repeat orders came in. Directly from him.
Suddenly you realize: it works!
Nancy Nuclear: Exactly, just trying it out makes a difference! That’s why we keep trying. We all want to make the world a better place!
Thanks forr the conversationäch!
Christopher Benkeser
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