We meet Bibiza, real name Franz, in a café in Berlin. “Herr Ober, bitte noch ein Soda. Nie wieder Kola, nur noch Soda Zitron!”, that’s one of the first things he says. Roughly translated it means “Waiter, another soda, please. Never Coke again, only soda with lemon!”. His order sounds just like a line straight out of his new song Soda Zitron the fifth single from his album RocknRollSt★r. Here in Berlin, he says, you just get a slice of lemon in your water; back home in Vienna, the drink is a given, practically a cult classic.
Bibiza wears Vienna like a second skin: in his lyrics, in his phrasing, in the way the Viennese dialect stretches every sentence. It’s the city’s laid-back attitude, famous Wiener Schmäh and this directness that speak through him and shape his music. Inevitably, his songs are pulled straight from his city, his everyday life, and his personal experiences – things he works through in the studio. A track is finished the moment it feels right.
"I'm someone who makes music really, really fast, and I don't rework it much. If it doesn't feel good right away, I trash it and start a new one."
That music would end up running his life is something Bibiza knew surprisingly early. What sounds almost like manifestation today was simply the twelve-year-old Franz, lying in his childhood bedroom every night, picturing himself performing his own songs on stage: “Before falling asleep you always have these thoughts running through your head, and these were mine.”
For Bibiza, music has always been much more than something you simply listen to through your headphones, and that still shows today. He sees music as a complete, immersive experience, which is exactly why he believes music videos no longer receive the appreciation they deserve. As a kid of the ’90s and early 2000s, he can still recall the iconic clips that blew his mind. “I think music videos belong to music. It’s a real shame that now it’s just lip-sync reels, like that’s supposed to be enough.” That’s why he pairs his songs with lavishly produced videos. For RocknRollSt★r, for example, he takes centre stage in full Elvis mode, fronting his three-piece band.
“The new album isn’t a rock ‘n’ roll, per se. It’s more the attitude,” he says. Musically, it blends hip-hop, pop and raw live energy with analogue sound and a band that deliberately takes centre stage. To Bibiza, a rock ‘n’ roll star is someone who questions convention, crosses genre lines, refuses to play it safe and stays uncompromising about their own path. He even sees this attitude in hip-hop: “Hip-hop is actually very rock ‘n’ roll.” So, the album can neither be described nor confined to a single genre. Instead, it’s about fun, exhilaration and freedom.
“I'm definitely not someone who avoids living. I like trying everything, I'm very curious and I enjoy life to the fullest. Of course, sometimes you cross boundaries that you end up regretting.”
Search Bibiza online, and you’ll run into comparisons with Vienna’s rock legend, Falco: “Falco 2.0,” or even “the new Falco of Gen Z”. The comparison doesn’t come out of nowhere: his songs celebrate a lifestyle that swings between excess and fame; hedonistic, over-the-top, always a little too much. When he’s not on tour, he’s out in clubs and bars. And while he sips his Soda Zitron in Berlin, the ultimate question comes up: does a rock star have to live dangerously?
Looking at Bibiza’s discography as a trilogy, it almost tells that exact story: from the carefree Wiener Schickeria, which translates to Vienna’s high society, through the emotional crash of Bis einer weint, roughly, till someone cries, to the self-assured RocknRollSt★r. To him, that arc mirrors life itself, with all its highs and lows. It wasn’t until after last summer’s festival season that it really hit him: “Okay, wow, I’ve actually become a musician.” And that’s exactly why RocknRollSt★r has become the biggest milestone of Bibiza’s career so far.
“Listen to the album, your Frank, Francois, Francisco, Franco, Frances, Franziskus, Frantschuski, Francesco, Franz.”