I visited Bernhard Kern from Siluh Records in the Siluh Laden. Bernhard Kern told me some interesting things about the label, how it came about and himself.
I'm on Wallensteinstrasse, a busy street in the 20th district. In front of me is a large, rather inconspicuous shop from the outside, but I can already see a few records and other sound carriers through the display. Just as I want to enter the shop, the door suddenly opens and Bernhard Kern is standing in front of me. The label and record store owner greets me with a broad grin on his face and invites me in the friendliest way into his paradise, the Siluh store. As a rather reserved person, I rarely felt so welcome and in good hands right from the start.
The high ceiling, some plants, plenty of merchandise and, above all, a large selection of records from a wide variety of music genres, both international and local, struck me as positive when I first looked and browsed. I particularly like the large selection of Austrian artists from the small music scene. "All the cool bands are here," is my first thought. After a quick look around, I follow him through the store. Behind a door, adjacent to the sales area, is the warehouse, the coffee kitchen and the chill-out area with a large couch. In the middle there is a table where I sit down, after a short small talk Bernhard gives me a little historical digression about Siluh Records and the time when it was founded: “I founded Siluh Records in 2005 with my good friend Robert Stadlober. It was a pretty spontaneous idea, we didn't really have a plan for it. We just tried to put out good music on record.” He also tells me that back then, before the idea of the label even came up, he kept putting on shows in Lower Austria and ran the “Mikrobauchladen”, a mail order for records.
With Siluh he booked a wide variety of artists, in 2008 for example "Chairlift" or "Soap and Skin" and later in 2015, at the Siluh Summer Festival before their hype, Yung Hurn and Crack Ignaz with the Hanuschplatzflow crew. Bernhard shows me some old photos and videos from his youth in St. Pölten on his laptop, tells me about his interest in the hardcore punk scene there and his then German rock band "Jugendstil". “It was more of an embarrassing rocker behavior back then, that’s it. From today's point of view, that's not cool anymore," he says when we watch live videos of his band from Frequency in Salzburg. When I asked what else the old files would trigger in him, he replies: "I think I can look back on this embarrassing but also somehow very nice time with a healthy distance." If you consider that Siluh Records started with a young Bernhard and his friend when the warehouse was still stowed under the bed and little was known about the whole big music business, he has probably done everything or at least a lot of things right to this day. Because today Siluh is a 17-year-old company and is not only a record label, but also a successful record shop with an online shop. (laden.siluh.com) Perhaps we can all take an example of what can be achieved when you follow your passion and show perseverance in a cause you are passionate about. I, for one, definitely take home some positive things from my meeting with Bernhard Kern from Siluh Records.
Video and article by Constantin Jacobs
Music: Bad Weed - Delete me
SILUH
NAILHEAD MAGAZINE