Manic days is back and it’s bigger and better than ever before!
In late January, after a long break for Uncensored and an even longer break for the band we reunited with them in a pub near Szene to talk about their break, their new music, what changed, what happened and what is yet to come for the five guys of Manic Days.
To understand what happened we have to go back to summer 2024 when the band parted ways with a former member and decided to take some time away from the stage to regroup, and reorganise themselves as well as find a new bassist, and singer.
Fritz, Marcel, and Ju never stopped recording and so it happened that the same summer they found Clemens, who has been part of the Vienna band scene longer than most. And it just so happened that he is a bassist, a good one too. For Clemens the subsequent invite to a jam session was wild because he was an actual fan of the band already and then through pure coincidence he got the chance to play with them. Life is strange like this sometimes because really quickly it was clear that he was a match, more than that. He nailed every song and he did not even have much time to prepare. But the more complicated and longer process was still ahead of the guys. Finding a singer that fits to their music, fits as a person, and is genuinely interested.
Enter Matteo: New in Vienna and fresh from Innsbruck he let music, something that has been part of his life for a long, long time, slip away a bit before interviewing or rather singing and jamming with nearly a dozen different bands. And the last one, but certainly not least was Manic days. They have been looking for a singer everywhere and they got a ton of applicants but most of them were not the greatest fit or weren’t up to bar with their standards. So when Matteo turned up to their practice with all the lyrics memorised and vocals that rival rockstars like Steven Tyler (and yes he can hit the high note in Dream on) they were more than just positively surprised. But that was just the beginning, he waited for a definite answer for quite some time before officially becoming Manic Days vocalist. Try outs included songs from Billy Talent as well as „Never fight a man with a perm“ by Idles. That said - we are of the opinion that they made the right decision and I think everyone who has heard them play already would agree.
However; even after Matteo officially got welcomed to the band, they did not come back immediately. They laid low, wrote songs upon songs, recorded, practiced, things that were already halfway done got finished with the right vocals and generally they did an impressive amount of background work. But they didn’t hide away completely until their comeback gig at Kramladen in late 2025. Some might have noticed rather weird line ups at gigs on the Gürtel. Names such as „Freunde aus dem Wienerwald,“ or „Eyelinerboys“ are rather strange for the scene, especially the first one seemed like an interesting choice for an opener for a band like Giftig, formerly known as Killing Milfs, but it was not some Austrian Folk group from the country side but it was Manic days hiding behind stupid names trying to get back into the groove of playing live. Trying to get a feel for playing with a new line up and new songs. There were three of those undercover gigs in total before they came back full force in december last year.
But it did not stop there, in early march they released their EP „Wired“, with five songs but enough energy to make B72 almost boil over with energy when they held their release show there supported and opened for by Ludex and Giftig. And now? Now they have a few gigs coming up as well starting with one at TU Wien Getreidemarkt Geniehof next Friday!
If you have time check them out because it’s big, it’s energetic, it’s full of motivation and rage and really, really good music. Also the entry is free and the drinks are cheap so there really is not one reason not to go there!!!