Culturally, Bavaria and Brazil don’t necessarily seem to be on the same wavelength. But the musicians of the Franconian party band “Die Dorfrocker”, the three brothers Markus, Philipp and Tobias Thomann, almost felt at home during their performances in Entre Rios in the southern Brazilian state of Paraná in front of 3000 fans who came by tractor. Markus Thomann explains how this came about.
SZ: Mr. Thomann, with your party rock band “Die Dorfrocker”, in which you play the accordion, you have been giving concerts to farmers sitting on tractors for a year. Why?
Markus Thomann: The idea was born out of necessity. Our normal concerts were canceled due to Corona, so we thought about it: How can we do it anyway? Back then, drive-in cinemas were explicitly allowed, so we turned the drive-in cinema into a tractor cinema, or rather: a tractor concert. This went perfectly with our recently released single entitled “The King on the Bulldog Seat”. The idea was so well received that we were able to give more than a hundred such concerts in 2021. At some point there were inquiries from abroad, including Brazil.
Until a few days ago you were in Entre Rios in southern Brazil to give concerts in front of 3000 tractor drivers. What does Brazil have to do with your home country?
The concert there was supposed to be the unforgettable icing on the cake of our big tractor tour, which we have now achieved. Many Danube Swabians who emigrated from Germany in the 1950s live in the area. That’s why a lot of German is still spoken there today. Otherwise, the landscape is very reminiscent of our Franconian homeland. The fields, the meadows, the forests. The region is very agricultural. There is a large agricultural cooperative in the area. One farmer delivers the corn, the next the potatoes. Like in Germany. There’s a starting point right there. People have recognized in us what they already know themselves.
But your songs are named after the rowan tree or the workwear brand Engelbert Strauss. After very German things, then.
At the end of the day, a song consists of music and lyrics. In Brazil we only played mood songs, i.e. up-tempo numbers that make you want to dance. That worked great. And you will laugh: Songs like “Dorfkind” or “Der King” were already known there. People sang along, especially with the line: “I’m a village child, I’m proud of that.” It fits like a glove, because many people live in rural areas in southern Brazil. There was even a Guinness record attempt for the longest tractor polonaise in the world, inspired by us. The required number of tractors was reached, there were only a few formal problems, so unfortunately it wasn’t enough for an entry.
Markus Thomann from Kirchaich in Lower Franconia is an accordionist with the “Dorfrocker”. Together with his brothers Philipp and Tobias, he has released ten albums to date, which regularly make it into the top ten of the German album charts. Their musical style is a mix of party rock, pop and folk music, they have performed both in the “Musikantenstadl” and at the Mallorca Opening. In the pandemic summer of 2021, they played more than 100 Traktor concerts.
(Photo: Christian Pöllmann)
Maybe you can explain it to the desk workers among our readers: Why does someone want to sit on their work equipment after work to listen to a concert?
It’s different for farmers. Farmers are proud to show off their own tractor. They clean it when they come to our concerts and they are happy when they can talk to other farmers about it. Of course, that wouldn’t happen if you simply put the farmers on a concert area without a vehicle. But if the tractor is next to them, they can show exactly what they mean when they talk about it.
How is the German tractor different from the Brazilian?
There aren’t that big differences. One day there was a vintage tractor parade, and there were also lots of European tractor models. If you put these tractors in the Hunsrück or in the Bavarian Forest, they would hardly attract attention as exotic machines.
And how do the drivers tick?
There are regions in Germany where people stand at our concerts after the first song. In other corners it takes two or three songs. In Brazil it started after just a few notes. There were even guests who came in dirndls and lederhosen. Music brings people together.
In Germany, when it comes to nutrition, many people think more of Lidl or Edeka than of farmers. Are farmers more valued in Brazil?
Definitely in the area where we performed. The topic of agriculture plays a major role there, every second person works in the sector. There’s a different appreciation. Germany is much more densely populated and therefore less rural. The times when almost everyone was involved in agriculture are long gone in Germany.
That sounds heavenly for someone like you. Ever thought about relocating?
We are village children from Franconia, we all live here and have parents, family and so on here. Through our existence as musicians we have been able to experience many regions and get to know people and cultures. But why move somewhere else? We make music to excite people, not to find a new place to live.