interviu TH

Tokio Hotel Exclusive FemaleFirst Interview
10 months ago 30th Jul 09:59

Bill: Are you kidding?! We’re together now for seven years. And all we ever wanted was a record deal. After we met our producers we went into the studio and practiced, practiced, practiced – over 2 years. We thought we would never release a single.

Tom: Then we got our deal and we released “Monsoon” in Germany – nearly 2 years ago. And then everything happened so fast. It was unbelievable. More than we ever dreamed of. And now – after our big success in Germany – it happened in France, Sweden, Italy, Spain, Russia – in so many other countries in Europe. In April we finished our first European tour. I still can’t believe that we’ve really been on a European tour. None of us would have ever imagined something like this would happen.


You have sold 3,5 million records in two years what do you think has made you so successful so quickly?
Tom: That’s hard to answer. We always knew what we wanted to do. We have our own style and it was important for us to do our stuff the way we wanted it. We never gave up and it was a real challenge to be in charge and making decisions. There are always people who want to tell you how everything has to work. But we had our own vision and did it our way.

Bill: I also think you need luck and have to be at the right place at the right time. That happened to us. Also, our fans write us all the time saying that they identify themselves with our songs, because we sing about things, which they experience in their lives and that that’s the reason why we’re so close to them. We share emotions, problems and situations that kids have when they grow up.


The video for your single ‘Ready, Set, Go’ is interesting and really quite dark in places. What was it like to shoot?
Bill: It was a very though shoot. We shot for 25 hours non-stop. The song is about breaking out. It’s about not giving up and not being caught up by fears or by other people telling you what to do. So we choose this video with the “grey” people - as I call them. They gave up their dreams and stopped trying to reach them. When they hear us playing, they break out and leave everything behind them - like us.


You played at the Bastille Day celebrations in France 500,000 people turned up how did you find that?
Bill: It was absolutely amazing. The biggest crowd we ever played for. It was so exciting and special. And it was a huge honor for us as a German band to play at the Eifeltower on the 14th of June! It felt like a “once in a lifetime” gig

Tom: You have to imagine that - even from this big stage – you couldn’t see the end of the crowd. Absolutely crazy!


There are rumors that you are to release a make-up range is there any truth in this?
Bill: There are so many rumors – but this one is new to me.

Tom: I heard about it. But it’s not true.


You gave your first gig in the UK in June how was the response here?
Gustav: It was amazing. Whenever we come to a country I’m always so exited about the fact, that our fans already know our lyrics and can sing along. That happened that night in London as well. And that was special, cause it was the first time, Bill performed the English songs.

Bill: I was very nervous but everything went perfect. The English fans gave a fantastic welcome - it was great.


For those who don't know you very well in the UK what can we expect from your album?
Bill: It’s our first English album and it’s called “SCREAM”. Recording it was a very special experience and challenge - especially for me. It’s a mixture of songs from our first and second German album and the songs have been translated into English. So while the others had time off (all of them moaning), because we didn’t need to record the music again - I had to go into the studio and record the songs in English. Since I’m a perfectionist, I wanted the songs to sound like a native speaker would sing them and not like some German trying to sing English. It took me some time, but I’m really happy with the result and I’m very proud that we did the English album.

Tom: There’s one special thing about the UK-Version, we added two extra songs - “Life Every Second” and “Raise Your Hands”.


Did you write the album yourself and if so who is your musical inspiration, who do you admire?
Bill: We’re working with 4 producers. I’m writing the lyrics, the boys do the music. And our producers come along with their ideas. We work on everything together so it’s a team process and everybody is involved.

Tom: The four of us listen to very different types of music in our private life. With Tokio Hotel we always wanted to find our own style – the music we play with Tokio Hotel is the result and you could call it our common ground – musically at least (laughs). We all have musicians and bands we like and respect, but we never had idols or wanted to sound like somebody else.


Have you any plans for more gigs in the UK?
Georg: Sure, we would love to come back and play in the UK! That’s what we’re all about: playing live and having a great time with our fans. It’s all we’re living for and why we’re became musicians.


And what about America?
Tom: We love to travel, get to know new countries and meet new fans. Whenever we get to know that there a fans in a country, we haven’t been to yet, which are in to our music, which like us and really want to see us live, we go there to meet them

iaka inka unul

Matthew Sheret feels decidedly old as he sits down with Tom, Bill, George and Gustav in the plus surroundings of Chelsea Harbour to talk about their multi-platinum career, all by the age of 18.

Your guys are...really young! Tell us a bit about how you got to this point?
Bill: Tom and I have been doing music for a really really long time. We started out at about 7 writing our own songs and stuff. It really went very fast, going to our own stages and playing parties, private parties and weddings, little city parties and stuff like like that. We met the other two about seven years ago in the main club that we always used to play, and they knew each other from music school. When we got together we needed a bass played and a drummer and it all worked out really good. We got along really well, had the same vision and then we took off.

Was it tough adjusting to all this attention?
Tom: Sure, that was a deep cut into this world, and a big experience. You have to imagine that our first single went from nowhere straight to number one in the German charts. As soon as we came out with 'Durch den Monsun' everything changed for us. All of a sudden we were on big stages and we actually didn't know a lot or have a lot of experience. We had to get used to a lot of situations and a lot of stuff. We had bad experiences and good experiences and we really needed time to grow into it. We will never get used to paparazzi and stuff like that, that's something we will never adjust to. At the moment we enjoy everything about it. We're traveling the world. We just came back from our first European tour, which was really our highlight both career wise and as musicians, it was the biggest thing for us ever. We're not getting used to it anymore, we're living it finally and we're enjoying every second.

This album, Scream, was your first recorded in English. Was that tough?
Bill: I suppose I have to answer this as the others didn't have any problem with an English album, haha. Honestly it was a big challenge for me, and for the guys as well, it was emotionally a big step doing an album in English because we a lways did music in German, I always wrote lyrics in German, I always sang in German, so it was a big big step for me and a weird feeling to go over to singing in English. We made the decision because lyrics are really important for us and we really wanted people to get what we were singing everywhere because you can't expect in every country for your fans to sit down and translate your lyrics. I'm a big perfectionist, so it took me some time in the studio because I really wanted to soun d good. I didn't want to sound like some German who's trying to sing English, I wanted to sound native. I'm really really proud of it, we're all really proud of it. It's a mixture of the first and second German albums
Tom: It's like writing a new song. It's tough to get that one-to-one translations of the songs and you have to work really hard on them.

So what's coming next for you?
Bill: Well it's touring, touring, touring. We're going to a lot of countries that we haven't been to yet and doing promotion over there, but at the moment our main spot is really the UK, because we're releasing 'Ready, Set, Go' on the 27th August and this is a really really big step for a German band to set up here, so that's what we're concentrating on.
Tom: The second big thing for us is that the European tour is being continued, we've got extra bookings from countries we haven't been to yet like Holland, France and Russia. That all starts in October.

What are you guys listening to at the moment then?
Tom: Well, I'm listening to German hip-hop all the time, which is very far away from our style, and when I listen to bands I listen to ours, hahaha.
Gustav: I listen more to the harder stuff: Metalica, System of a Down and that sort of stuff.
Bill: A little bit of everything. I really like Placebo and Coldplay, depending on whatever mood I'm in
George: I'm listening to Sum 41's Underclass Hero a lot.