Swiss music rocks but struggles to make it big

Keystone

Lausanne is still recovering from last weekend's biennial Label Suisse music festival showcasing fresh new sounds from Switzerland and attended by 300,000 music fans.

According to music insiders, there is a growing buzz about new Swiss music, yet those who manage to make it big abroad can be counted on two hands and most musicians continue to struggle to make ends meet.

Label Suisse, organised by Swiss national radio, was set up in 2004 to put the spotlight on homegrown bands, live acts and DJs. It follows the signing of a charter the same year between Swiss artists and the public broadcaster, which committed to increase the amount of Swiss music on national radio from ten to 25 per cent.

The festival has grown in size and stature from its humble beginnings in 2004. While the first event attracted just 5,500 people, this year 300,000 music fans sang, danced and swayed to the music performed at 15 stages throughout the city.

According to Laurent Pavia, organiser of the Label Suisse festival, music fans, the media and radio stations are increasingly curious about new Swiss acts.

“In 1991 when I started working at Couleur3 [radio station] as a producer we hardly played any Swiss music. We were totally obsessed with what was happening in England, but that has changed due to globalisation. People are keen to know what’s happening locally,” he told swissinfo.

Swiss first

“The French-speaking national radio stations have realised that Swiss music has to be promoted and the creativity of the Swiss music industry has improved dramatically; one in five tunes on Couleur3 [popular radio station] is by a Swiss artist.”

Alain Frey, the drummer with upcoming trip hop six-piece Aloan, agreed that things were starting to change.

“At major festivals the big foreign bands used to headline and Swiss bands played on the small stages. Now it’s starting to develop where they put Swiss groups in the spotlight,” he said.

And who knows, said Pavia, one of the bands at Label Suisse might well find favour with a concert organiser or agent from Switzerland or abroad, who have come to spot new talent.

Language problems

But promoting “Swiss” music is not that straightforward and is handicapped by the language differences, say insiders.

While the pool of Swiss artists and groups is extremely rich, Swiss-German acts are able to depend on much greater local support, whereas bands that sing in French and Italian command smaller markets and are obliged to compete in neighbouring France and Italy.

“Things are much more developed in Swiss German regions,” admitted Aloan’s singer, Lyn m. “They have always promoted them much more.

“We’ve been to festivals where there are Swiss-German groups we’ve never heard of who’ve sold tens of thousands of records, with 25,000 fans singing their lyrics by heart.”

“A ‘Swiss’ label doesn’t really exist at the moment. There are separate French-Swiss, German-Swiss and Italian-Swiss versions, but not a Swiss one covering the whole country; but it’s on its way.”

Status and structure

Despite new enthusiasm for Swiss music, the life of a professional musician remains an uphill slog. CD sales in Switzerland rarely suffice and most people only live from their music by exporting it.

The main problem, say the members of Aloan, is a musician’s status in Switzerland.

“For Swiss politicians being a musician is not a career, it’s a hobby,” said Aloan’s second singer, Granite.

Unlike France, where artists might be paid unemployment benefit when not working, most Swiss artists are obliged to juggle music with other small jobs, added Frey.

“A lot still need to be done to help Swiss musicians and we don’t do enough for culture in general,” said Pavia.

Culture change

For Marc Ridet, director of Swiss Music Export, an organisation that promotes Swiss music at home and abroad, the culture industry in Switzerland needs to be rethought, along the lines of Quebec or Britain.

“The cantons and cities, especially in Swiss-German regions, should also contribute to promotional organisations like Swiss Music Export. And in the medium term the structure of the Swiss Arts Council, Pro Helvetia, has to change,” he added.

But looking back over the results of the past five years, Ridet is fairly upbeat.

“Things are moving, but the process is very slow,” he explained.

Switzerland manages to do quite well exporting electronic music by artists and DJs like Luciano, Shakedown and Alex Attias, but it’s much more competitive in the singer-songwriter category in France and Germany, he said.

“Yet there are still some recent success stories like singers K, Polar and Jéremie Kisling, who have signed contracts with record labels in France,” he added.

swissinfo, Simon Bradley

In brief

In Switzerland the cantons support and promote culture, including popular music. The Federal Culture Office does not have the legal basis to support musical projects.

At the federal level, the Swiss Arts Foundation, Pro Helvetia, is able to support certain musical projects.

Swiss Music Export was established in 2002 as the result of a collective initiative from Migros-Kulturprozent, Fondation Suisa – the Foundation of the Swiss Collecting Society of Authors Rights, Pro Helvetia – the Arts Council of Switzerland, and the French-speaking Swiss Music Information Centre’s Foundation for Contemporary Music and Song.

Its aim is to promote Switzerland’s contemporary pop music industry and to develop international opportunities for its musicians and producers. It has an annual budget of SFr400,000.

This year’s Label Suisse festival, which cost SFr3 million ($2.7 million) to stage, was organised in parallel to the inauguration of Lausanne’s new underground railway.