Meet Georg Altziebler | Musician

We had the good fortune of connecting with Georg Altziebler and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Georg, how has your perspective on work-life balance evolved over time?
This is an interesting term. It suggests that your work and your life are two different things and that your life only starts when your working day is done. The best thing about being a musician is that you don’t have to worry about your work-life-balance. It just doesn’t exist. There’s no boss to tell you what to do between 9AM and 5PM. You do what your music needs to be done. In a way, you don’t work to make a living but live to make it work .. You may spend weeks and months writing songs for a new album. You may put all your efforts in promoting your songs. You may set up a little tour and work on life-arrangements for your songs. Or you may be trying out different tunings for your guitar to keep things interesting. As an artist you don’t want to repeat yourself and a lot of thought goes into the “what’s next”- question. In our case, luckily, these considerations can wait for a few more weeks. We are just in the process of releasing our new album “Ghost ranch” and at this point our lives are revolving around these new songs and the way we would like to present them to our audience. Life for musicians can be challenging but we feel very lucky to know our lives are filled with the work we love.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
We are a husband and wife-duo, originally from Austria/Europe and now sharing our time between the High Desert in California and the old continent. So, our way of life definitely sets us apart from most people here in the US who don’t seem to travel much and consider their home-country the center of the world. We are proud US citizens now but still have family- and business-ties to our original home country Austria. Our personal history also defines who we are as artists. We grew up with French chansoniers like Georges Brassens and Jacques Brel AND their American counterparts like Bob Dylan or Leonard Cohen. So, our songs take inspiration and draw influences from European cabaret-traditions and US-folk and, in many ways, seem to reflect both worlds.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
The High Desert is famous for its music scene, so we would definitely focus on live-music venues like Spaghetti Western Saloon in Morongo Valley, Furst Wurld in Joshua Tree or Giant Rock Meeting Room in Landers. For a drink we would probably go to the Tiny Pony in Yucca Valley, a cozy little bar with a great selection of good liquors.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
We came to California in 2013 and found a house in Joshua Tree. What attracted us to the High Desert was not only the cheap housing but the vibrant music scene in the area. From the beginning, we were accepted and welcomed into the music community. Fellow musicians and songwriters like Victoria Williams or Joe City Garcia were very warm and supportive. Barnett English invited us to play the famous Joshua Tree Music Festival. We felt right at home and do so ever since. So our shout out goes to all those great people in the JT Music Community. It’s a challenge to put down roots anywhere, anytime, but you made it easy for us and we still feel grateful.

Website: sonofthevelvetrat.com

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Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChUPAIAzfvfXRqRs3Sjb1lA

Image Credits
Marija Kanizaj Elija Kulmer Joe City Garcia Sandra Goodin