antonandtheheadcleaners

	anton and the headcleaners: mess-age (1998, cd, switzerland, private release)
	anton & the headcleaners: rotor (2011, cd, switzerland, unitrecords utr4265)
	anton & the headcleaners: zappanale 24 (2013, dvdr, germany, private release) - including a couple of zappa compositions

Zappanale not only presents bands that perform the music of Frank Zappa. It's also a showcase for artists and bands that play adventurous music.
Bands like Humble Grumble, Corrie van Binsbergen, Gargantua and Panzerballet, to name a few, have all played in Bad Doberan.
One of this year's surprises is called Anton and the Headcleaners, Anton Brüschweiler's project. They will be opening the festival on Friday, August 2, at 15:00 h.
Here's a short chat with Anton.

UniMuta: Anton, the youtube videos from the Burg Herzberg festival show that you had a lot of fun. There's a lot of energy on stage. At Zappanale, you will be opening the festival as you are the first band to enter the stage at the festival ground. Looking forward to it?

Anton Brüschweiler: Music without fun is only an exercise. Music has to reach the body and heart of the listener. Although we play complicated music we always have fun and we like to dance to our own music. To open the Zappanale on the main stage is a honour. Normaly it is not the best time for a gig, if you open a festival , but at the Zappanale it might be okay because there is a warm up day on thursday.

UniMuta: Last year, you released "Rotor", the band's second album. The first album got released in 1998. What happened with the band in between these two records?

Anton Brüschweiler: A very good question: As you mentioned we released our first album "Mess-Age" in 1998. At that time I already made complicated Instrumental music for 15 years. So I was frustrated about how hard it was to tour with music for minorities. So I concentrated my work on funny songs that I wrote in swiss-german. With "Die Hellen Barden" we produced three CD's and toured a lot around in Switzerland. Then after two years something happend that I never thought of: A lot of people phoned me (it was the time before Internet) to get a Mess-Age CD. The CD got cult. After a few years the CD with this complicated music was sold out and we had to press another thousand. This was really incredible: Without any promotion the CD got known from mouth to mouth, and we had a lot of fans. Then in 2009 Harald Haerter a guitar virtuoso and boss of Unit records asked me to produce a new album with the Headcleaners , 11 years after the first. I was so happy that I did it. 2012 the album "Rotor" was released in Germany and received excellent reviews everywhere. That made us of course extremly happy.

UniMuta: Dedicating an entire festival to the music of one man, in this case Frank Zappa, might seem weird. But the result is a festival where bands play Zappa's music and where you get to hear bands that are inspired by Zappa's music. How do you feel about this concept? Who is your musical inspiration?

Anton Brüschweiler: To your last question: I have a lot of musical inspirations but one of the most important influences is a musician called Frank Zappa. I saw him three times live. Those were among the best concerts I ever saw. Zappa inspired me as a composer but also as a guitar player. Other influences are: Strawinski, Jimmy Page from Led Zeppelin, Gentle Giant and of course Hendrix to mention only a few.

Two years ago we played in Germany and a guy was telling me about the Zappanale. I never heard of that before: And I knew: This is my thing! So I went there as a guest last year and this year we will play there, which is of course great.

And now I will tell you a big secret. I was such a fan of the concept of the Zappanale that I decided to do a simular festival in Switzerland. So next year there will be for the first time a festival called Zapperlot! at a very nice place in the nature of Switzerland, in the Emmental. At a place called Schangnau. Hope to see yuo all there:

Zapperlot!-Festival
Open-Air für progressive, innovative, fun-tasievolle Musik
Schangnau, Emmental, Switzerland
www.zapperlot-festival.ch

UniMuta: That's excellent news !! I'm assuming that Anton and the Headcleaners will be performing there as well?
At Zappanale, you are playing on Friday. Will you be staying the entire festival. Have you seen the program? Are there bands that you want to see?

Anton Brüschweiler: We stay till sunday, then we have to leave . I want to see a lot of bands, and I'm looking forward to meet a lot of interesting people.

UniMuta: Your website (http://antonline.ch/Home.html) shows that you have various musical projects going on. What's your favorite project?

Anton Brüschweiler: As a professional musician I play in several bands. My favorite band is of course "Anton and the Headcleaners".

UniMuta: Great. Thank you for your time and for the Zapperlot! scoop !!
See you at Zappanale on Friday, August 2, at 15:00 h.

ANOTHER SHORT CHAT WITH ANTON BRÜSCHWEILER / ANTON AND THE HEADCLEANERS - 2014 08

About a year ago, I did a short chat with Anton Brüschweiler. He was scheduled to perform at Zappanale with his band, Anton And The Headcleaners, so I sent him some questions. Not only was Anton kind enough to answer my e-mail, he also told me that he would be organising a brand-new festival in the Emmental region of Switzerland, called "Zapperlot!", in August 2014.

August 2014 has arrived and Zapperlot will indeed take place in about ten days: August 15, 16 and 17 in Schangnau, Emmental, Switzerland.

UniMuta : Dear Anton, I'm glad to hear that Zapperlot has become reality. How tough was it to get the necessary collaborators and funding together?

Anton Brüschweiler : We started with a crowdfunding in the internet. We hoped to get 5'000 franks as a maximum. But in the end we got incredible12'000.- franks ( about 10'000.- Euro). The help we got was totally unexpected! It gave us a lot of power and motivation. But of course a festival in this dimension needs incredible money. Our team (12 People ) are working since 18 months for free. And then on the 24 of july came the big shock: A flood,as it happens every 300 year,s came down the river Emme. The whole festival area was under water!

First we thought, that we could cancel the festival. But then a huge wave of solidarity started: Everyday there came about 10 helpers out of nowhere to help us. We had to bring tons of sand out of the area. And we got it! The first Zapperlot!-Festival will happen as planed. It's a little wonder!

UniMuta : The program looks very promising. There's some familiar names: Mats and Morgan, Tarentatec, Inventionis Mater, Anton And The Headcleaners, Mörglbl, Fido Plays Zappa,... Was it difficult to convince them to play at Zapperlot?

There's also a quite a number of Swiss bands performing. Who will be the biggest surprise / who do we definitely need to catch?

Anton Brüschweiler : Switzerland has a incredible rich scene of progressive musicians and bands. The bands we booked are all excellent! One of my absolute favorite is "Cowboys from hell" The sax player has a sound like Jimmy Hendrix.

UniMuta : If my information is correct, Schangnau used to be the place where the "Out In The Kraut" festival took place years ago? Will Zapperlot be at the same location?

Anton Brüschweiler : Yeah you are absolutly right this is the same place. I used to live there 1995-1997 with my wife Arlette and my friend Dani Buri. After Arlette and me left the place Dani started with the "Out in the Kraut" Festival. Since he is still living there he is still the most important organizer in our festival-team.

UniMuta : The Zapperlot festival has a fine website (http://zapperlot-festival.ch/de/index.php) in German, French and English, with lots of info regarding camping, a children 's program and much more.

I can imagine that there are still a lot of people that need some convincing to come to Zapperlot. What would you like to say to them?

Anton Brüschweiler : What makes this festival unique is the place with the incredible beauty of the nature. And the friendly family like organization of the best festival-team of all times.

The Zapperlot! festival will take place in Schangnau, Emmental, Switzerland on August 15, 16 & 17.