“You soi nua tånzn and låchn and hoam mit eam geh” sing the Pockrucker Sisters in their current hit number “SIE”. The three women from St. Ulrich im Mühlkreis, together with the OÖN, invite choirs, brass bands and all conceivable music formations to play their own version of this song. Whoever does it best visits the Poxrucker Sisters in the rehearsal room, they play an exclusive concert.
OÖ Nachrichten: Who do you mean with your song “SIE”?
Christina: Ourselves (laughs).
Magdalena: Musicians and simply all the women who work with us. Even everyone you don’t see on stage. Because nothing works without us women, although there is often a lack of appreciation for it. We want to celebrate them all – and tell them how cool they are.
What prompted you to offer this song to choirs, bands and music formations of all kinds – and to offer a rehearsal room concert?
Stephanie: The song is a celebration number – a serious subject with a wink. It’s about a positive, exuberant atmosphere. So we thought this would be perfect for a call like that.
Magdalena: We are also often approached by choirs and music associations that they would like to play our songs. And it’s a super cool feeling when we hear other people sing one of our songs. There is no greater praise.
Stephanie: The first Austrian women’s brass quintet, the Brassessoires, produced a feature of it. That’s when we realized it was a cool number for brass instruments. And it will be interesting to see what others make of this song.
- The Poxrucker Sisters sing the hit “Sie” in the OÖN Newsroom:
To what extent did you struggle with the role model of women at the start of your career?
Stephanie: Right from the start we were told: Ah, three sisters – great, but if one of you gets pregnant you can stop right away. That was always part of the talks, whether with record companies or with booking agencies. Then the first pregnancy was there five years ago – and at first we were really irritated whether that meant our end as Poxrucker Sisters. And we have shown: No, there is another way. Two of us now have children. Of course it’s a challenge. And they say pregnancy is not an illness, so you can go on stage. But there comes a point when there is a mini-lockdown, because it’s not that fun on stage when you’re in bed.
Does being sisters help in this process?
Magdalena: That’s an advantage because we support each other. But there are many women who stand alone on stage or handle another project alone – if they have a child, they’re gone. Alone, it is much more difficult to continue afterwards. With us, everything goes on anyway, because not everyone is pregnant at the same time (laughs).
Stephanie: And let’s be honest, the business is male-dominated. In the summer we consciously looked at what the line-ups at festivals look like: from city festivals to huge festivals with 80,000 people. The proportion of women is negligible – from zero to five percent. This applies to all areas, classical concerts as well as pop and rock music. You don’t always have to point your finger, but it’s about raising awareness.
Magdalena: And precisely because people can hear us and we’re played on the radio, we have to say so. We don’t want it to come across as ungrateful, but we want to give other women that opportunity too.
- OÖN TV: The Poxrucker Sisters in conversation
What is going wrong in the society of a highly developed country if one is still being warned whether the profession can be practiced with a child at all?
Magdalena: Especially in uncertain times, which we are now experiencing, this gender trap snaps even more: the woman reduces hours, looks after the children and helps around the house – but the man works as usual.
Christina: It is also one of the women’s strengths when we make sure that everything fits. We put our things back first…
Magdalena: … on top of that, men usually earn more. Let’s take the social professions, in which mainly women work. You would have to ensure that the pay is better there, then there is also the possibility that the man will stay at home. There is still a lot to be done politically so that this question is no longer thwarted by money.
Stephanie: Together we have the chance to dissolve such role models.
What disadvantages do you still experience today as a women’s trio?
Stephanie: We have had the hard experience that male bands still get double or triple the fee. And we agree, out of sheer joy, to be allowed to play.
Christina: That’s the eternal theme, that you like doing a job that you enjoy. But that doesn’t mean you have to do it cheaper or for free.
Stephanie: When a woman plans something well and gets her way, she is said to be manipulative. When a man does the same, he is focused. We should also rethink the terminology.
You used to perform as the “Poxrucker Menscha”, why did you change that?
Christina: It used to be said: Mencha, sing! Hence the name. But when we were in Vorarlberg, nobody knew what Menscha means.
Magdalena: Mensha have more of a folk character. But we don’t feel at home in this scene. Yes, we are nice, we like to laugh, but we don’t feel like little dirndls.
Relationships are shaped by power relations, how is power distributed in your trio?
Christina: First of all, we are sisters. Our first single was released exactly ten years ago, and it probably took half of that time to learn that we are work colleagues at the same time. There were tears too.
Stephanie: There were conflicts that we could have saved ourselves, but we couldn’t get out of our roles either.
Magdalena: Steffi as the eldest was something like mom. I was 18 when it started – and we had to learn together that Steffi is no longer the boss, but each has her parts and each is responsible for something different.
Christina:There it is also an advantage to be sisters – because we got the same upbringing, the same values.
- Here it is the sheet music to download and the music video for the song “Sie” to listen to:
Source: Nachrichten
