At Pavillon

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BIOGRAPHY

When Tokio Hotel appeared on MTV for the first time in 2005, it was clear to 12-year-old Mwita Mataro that he also wanted to play big stages with his own band, sing rock anthems and be loved.

But as a black musician, he quickly reached his limits in conservative Salzburg. Only the openness of Vienna was the basis for the frontman-to-be to feel comfortable in the world of music – in a world where racism and class play no role.  A year abroad in Ireland and numerous concerts by bands such as Kings Of Leon, Phoenix and Arctic Monkeys later, he began working on his own songs for the first time with school friends. For lack of a rehearsal room, a garden pavilion in Vienna’s Türkenschanzpark was misappropriated to develop the first indie hits. The name of the band was derived from the meeting place: At Pavillon was born.

In 2016, things got serious: the adolescent drumming turned into indie rock with a political approach. Of the original group, only Kiddy B and Mwita were still part of the band, while the Austro-Iranian drummer Paul Ali set the rhythm from then on. A diverse band that initially politicized more than rehearsed, until finally their first single “Lions” hit the German-speaking world. A single that already bears the band’s DNA in its basic features: class-struggle indie rock that roars loudly and also always convinces live. With success also came a relevant realization: whether at festivals, in clubs or in the charts – indie rock is white. “As a musician, it is therefore my mission to motivate black people to also make rock and to create structures in which that is possible,” says Mwita Mataro. A mission he also pursues in his upcoming documentary AUSTROSCHWARZ.

One album, one German tour and one pandemic later, At Pavillon now returns with their second album.

The new album “Personal Development Deals” will be broad enough in its musical and lyrical diversity with rock anthems, synth-pop tracks, indie-western romance and melodic ballads to ask all freedom-lovers and freedom-seekers to dance as a sonic support. After all, everyone should dance to At Pavilion, regardless of skin color, gender, age, sexual orientation or origin.

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