Leftovers

What's it about?

"ES KANN SEIN, DASS ALLES ENDET" (IT COULD BE THAT EVERYTHING ENDS) is the title of the new, third album by the fast-paced, insane Viennese band Leftovers. A good title, but one that certainly doesn't apply to the band itself, which has matured in the best possible way with this album – and at the same time continues to burn brightly. The author Eric Pfeil recently wrote a hymn to the romantic idea of the band as a gang of friends in a column for "Rolling Stone". A rock band, according to Pfeil, is a "breeding ground for mischief" with "erratic ambitions", and founding one is "one of the most meaningful undertakings for young people ever." Perhaps Eric Pfeil was thinking of the Viennese band Leftovers when he penned this fiery appeal. Leftovers have been celebrating what it means to turn the world upside down with your friends for three albums now in an electrifyingly invigorating way. The new album, "ES KANN SEIN, DASS ALLES ENDET", released on October 11, 2024, is now more than ever the 'everyone-does-everything-record' of this band – and thus the most collaborative Leftovers music to date. All four have written lyrics, sung, everything merges and reinforces each other. Often you don't know who is singing or doing whatever, but that's not important: Everything on this astonishingly stunning album is Leftovers. The perhaps not so surprising, by no means self-evident thing about it: Anna Grob, Leon Eder, Leonid Sushonund, Alex Waismayer, whose names we are writing out here exceptionally just this once before we call them Anna, Leon, Leonid and Alex again, are indeed four highly different individuals. Who naturally feel, perceive, dream, yes: are different. But that's exactly what it's about! It is precisely their differences that make Leftovers not only greater than the sum of its parts, but unbeatable. "We worked for the songs, not for our ego," says Alex. On "MÜDE" (TIRED) in 2023, Leftovers sang about chronic overstimulation, panic attacks, toxic relationships and other catastrophes of adolescence; now they are already one step further. ES KANN SEIN, DASS ALLES ENDET is about the power of community, about supporting each other in dark times, about the longing for love and the absence thereof. During production, separations occurred, new bonds formed, others stabilized, all against the backdrop of major global crises. The band actually didn't want to record a new album at all this year. Not again! After countless concerts and two albums in as many years, they wanted to take things a little more relaxed. Release one or two EPs, maybe another song here and there, just put out what's ready. But then it turned out completely differently: "We talked to colleagues, and they said: 'Real bands make albums, not EPs,'" says drummer Leon, "we adopted this attitude. This music still feels like a catharsis, is chronically overexcited, sometimes noisy to the point of pain. The lyrics oscillate between functional poetry, DADA, punk and are therefore as immediate as the music. So far, so Leftovers. But you can also hear that the band has worked on these rich, profound pieces more thoroughly than ever before. "The demands on our own music have grown," confirms Leon. It fits that Leftovers for the first time ever engaged in a truly collaborative effort with two producers (Georg Gabler, Sven Regener). Leftovers have grown up. In the best and most mature way possible. "It could be that everything ends"? Sure, anytime. But now, for the group Leftovers from Vienna, things are really just getting started.