Poolbar Festival 2026: Laurenz Nikolaus

What's it about?

LAURENZ NIKOLAUS If Danzer had TikTok Growing up between the last bus in the suburbs and the first subway towards the big city, Laurenz Nikolaus opens his diary and lets us participate in everyday worries, young love, and the cultivated decay in old buildings. What seems melancholic at first glance carries a surprising lightness, somewhere between Austropop and indie, between Hirsch, Voodoo Jürgens, and a touch of Beirut. It's about the everyday things that are also the big themes in life – falling in love, getting your heart broken, losing and finding yourself again. He packages these themes in lyrics that are direct, sometimes lovingly twisted, often amusing, and always heartfelt. Tinder dates in Zollergasse, decadence in Volksgarten, and walking home through rain-soaked alleys – these are stories that only Vienna can write. Laurenz Nikolaus honestly keeps the great tradition of Austropop alive, not out of calculation, but because it's in his blood. His band formed from years of friendship and a shared passion for music, down-to-earth and without much fuss. He began his musical journey as a child in a brass band; today, he stands for a sound that has as much heart as attitude. He comes from a new generation, thinks and feels differently, and yet manages to stand with both feet in this musical history. He brings a contemporaneity that is absolutely coherent. He releases through upstairs, the Viennese label that also houses pop/hip-hop shooting star Eli Preiss and the acclaimed indie band Wallners – a creative cosmos between mainstream and subculture, where Laurenz Nikolaus also finds his very own place. From the Viennese soul directly into our hearts.