My life is very much characterized by tinkering: Between Oberammergau, Munich and where I have a performance. With my accordion I make music that is always quickly associated with ‘home’. But I’m only at home for a few moments myself – I don’t have a tiled stove or a corner seat either. An accordion is at home all over the world, you strap it on your back and off you go. The piano would actually be closer to home. It always stays nice and happy at home. For almost ten years I have had a small town seat in Obergiesing above the Café Schau ma moi, probably the smallest beer garden in Munich. I live next door to Trikont, which, as the saying goes, is perhaps the oldest independent label in the world. Here are the albums from my longtime band Kofelgschroa as well as my solo stuff appeared. So here’s my starting point for the week.
Monday: Walk and relax
Even if you are actually only on your way to the Giesingen police station to report the theft of your guitar: You can not only walk in Weißenseepark, you can also linger.
(Photo: Alessandra Schellnegger)
A Monday is not the same as a Monday. For a live musician, Monday feels like a Friday afternoon. Throw suitcases in the corner, find your way around the apartment and do the laundry, move around, look ahead again. I encounter mold in the bread box – everything I didn’t do before leaving is now taking its revenge. I started my last Monday at the Giesingen police station because my guitar had been stolen on the train from Fulda to Dresden. I find the cramping of the drums very uncool. Above all, it was the second guitar that I lost in a short time. But the last one was my own fault. I left them on the platform in Nuremberg after a concert and a drink-loving reunion with old friends. Incidentally, the Giesingen police station is right next to Weißenseepark, which is a nice place to stroll through, but also to linger. Sometimes there is also culture.
Tuesday: Silence in the apartment
The eight-piece English music band “Caroline” has a great way of dealing with silence.
(Photo: Caroline/London)
On Tuesday I really arrived at home and, depending on the day’s condition, I strum a few chords on the piano in the storm-free apartment because my girlfriend is working. I like that, but it’s also a shame when our working hours sometimes overlap so much that we hardly see each other. I’m often too tired to go out on Tuesday evenings. Instead I listen to music, at the moment I really like the debut album by Caroline, an eight piece band from England. The album is called like the band, it’s very minimalist and I like the repetitions the music gets lost in. Reduced, but atmospheric and a great way to deal with silence.
Wednesday: Visiting a colleague
Valued label colleague: Philip Bradatsch plays at the Tollwood Festival.
(Photo: Sebastian Weidenbach/Trikont)
I like the city because the walks to friends you like to gossip with are shorter than in the country. People meet, drink coffee, sometimes a beer, go for walks, make music together at home and on the street. All of these things are easily doable on a Wednesday. At lunchtime, when I’m too lazy to cook, there’s soup of the day and Turkish salads in the “Favorite Café”, as it’s called, on Tegernseer Landstrasse. In the evening, my label colleague Philip Bradatsch is playing in the Hacker-Pschorr-Brettl at the Tollwood Festival, so I’ll definitely stop by. I like very much what he does.
Thursday: Jump in the creek
The Auer Mühlbach lures you to cool down at the end of the jogging tour.
(Photo: Catherine Hess)
I’m going for a run on Thursday. I rarely deviate from the jogging that I have come to love: to the 60s stadium, then along the Hochstraße and down to the Auer Mühlbach, which I jump into briefly when it’s hot. And back again. Depending on the shape, I need a good half hour for this. I lost my front door key the last time I had a swim in the creek, and although I’ve asked Saint Anthony for it several times, it hasn’t turned up. I often lose and misplace things and spend a lot of time searching. Getting through the week with me can also be exhausting. But behind the Giesing train station there is a great locksmith. No rip off! In the evening Eva Karl Faltermeier will appear in the Lustspielhaus, I think I’ll go there.
Friday: double concert
Double concert with the band “Leonie sings” in Edling near Wasserburg.
(Photo: Andreas Stäbler)
Finally Friday. Today I can advertise my own concert. And I play accompanied by Theresa Loibl at Wasserburg am Stoa. The exact location is often misspelled. Not Egling (near Murnau), but Edling. I at least had that wrong on my homepage many times before and was pointed out to the spelling mistake by my homepage visitors, sometimes in a nice way, sometimes slyly. Today it will be a double concert with Leonie sings. Sascha Schwegeler, who did the artwork for my new album, also plays there. I think Theresa and I will open the evening because Leonie sings with drums sounds more voluminous, so logically it is an increase to our accordion-tuba duo. That means: I leave work earlier and have a beer because I don’t have to concentrate anymore.
Saturday: Festival in the Green
Family festival of the indie scene from Munich: The band “What are people for?” plays at the Puch Festival on the green meadow near Petershausen.
(Photo: What are people for/press photo)
I’m playing in Niederbayern on Saturday, which I don’t want to advertise here as well. Instead I recommend the “Puch Festival” on the green meadow near Petershausen. play there What are people for?short wap, a friendly band from Munich with Tom Wu, Manu Rzytki, Anna McCarthy and Paulina Nolte as dancers. Anika from Berlin will also be performing, whose new album “Change” is great, and last but not least, my label colleague Inga. I heard she’s making a new record. I am very excited!
Sunday: passion instead of birthday
This Sunday is Maxi Pongratz’s father’s 70th birthday. But since he is on stage at the Oberammergau Passion Play, there will be a follow-up party on the Monday when there is no play.
(Photo: Angelika Warmuth/dpa)
It’s my dad’s birthday on Sunday. He turns 70. But because he is playing in the Oberammergau Passion Play, he celebrates on a Monday when there are no games. You are not asked to go there. The kitchen will be bursting at the seams anyway with the relatives and friends. Just look at the passion – there are also single tickets without overnight stays, and individual seats can often still be obtained spontaneously. To eat during the break, you can go to Hörbis in Steinbacher Gasse, for example, which a chef and friend of mine has opened and I really like eating burgers there.
Maxi Pongratz commutes between Obergiesing and Oberammergau and is an accordion player, lyricist and songwriter from Kofelgschroa. Trained as a gardener at the request of his parents, Maxi Pongratz swapped his rake for an accordion as a teenager and moved from stage to stage with the latter together with the brothers Martin and Michael von Mücke and the like-minded Matthias Meichelböck. Later he was a brother of Jesus during the 2010 Passion Play in Oberammergau and studied classical accordion at the Vocational School for Music in Altötting (but did not complete the whole thing). With Kofelgschroa he released three albums (“Kofelgschroa”, “Zaun” and “Baaz”). He was seen with the other Kofels in the documentary film “frei.sein.wollen”., to be heard in Josef Bierbichler’s film “Two Gentlemen in a Suit”. Kofelgschroa have been on break since 2019, and Maxi Pongratz is touring solo with his accordion. His first album was released by Trikont in 2019.