Bill's Cutie Bill's Favourite Fan
Number of posts : 7333 Age : 29 Location : Humanoid City, Lebanon Registration date : 2008-03-27
| Subject: Exclusive: Tokio Hotel Launches “Humanoid” (Teen Music) Sat Oct 31, 2009 10:15 am | |
| Formed in Germany in 2001 by tween twin brothers Bill and Tom Kaulitz, pop/rock band Tokio Hotel, whose members are now in their early 20’s, also features drummer Gustav Shaefer and bassist Georg Listing. While Bill and Tom were onstage in a club in Magdeburg, Germany, music students Georg and Gustav watched from the audience and saw a future partnership possibility. The young group first appeared as “Devilish” but once young Bill almost won the German version of “Star Search”, a music producer latched on and Tokio Hotel was born. The band hit big first on the Emo and Pop scene in their native Germany and have gone world-wide in winning both MTV Europe Music awards and MTV Video Music awards as well as Latino honors.
Tokio Hotel’s second English language album “Humanoid” (their first was 2008’s “Scream”) features metallic single “Automatic” and the band focuses on the future with a more electronic sound. Both Bill and Tom were heavily involved in all phases of production. The twins couldn’t look more different; frontman Bill with his dark Goth leather a la Adam Lambert vibe and twin Tom with a leathers and watchcap look that replaces his sporty with long dreadlocks appearance. In contrast Georg and Gustav look like two cute guys who could be in your English class.
While on an American promo tour for the new album, the energetic guys sat down and chatted with us on speakerphone. We are sure some silly faces were made while we couldn’t see but a fun time was had by all. We chatted mostly with Bill but Tom chimed in and we got the occasional comment from Georg and Gustav. Just to keep it simple, we’ll go with just Tokio Hotel on responses. During our chat we learned that the guys have never been to Tokyo and that their fave U.S. food is an artery-clogging but yummy nightmare!…..
TeenMusic: Okay, German fans and American fans.. how different? - Tokio Hotel: American fans can speak much better English. That’s the main part. I don’t know. I think our fans are just so energetic and cool everywhere. No matter where we go. We are just proud of them.
TeenMusic: Can you give me your strangest and then most touching fan encounter so far? - Tokio Hotel: I think there was a lot of crazy stuff going on nearly every day. One day in Spain, there were some naked girls in (drummer) Gustav’s (Shaefer’s) room, lying in the bed. That was funny. And in L.A. we got some underwear and one fan made a Tokio Hotel guitar which was really good. And for touching, there was one woman yesterday and a little boy and girl and they were crying all the time. It was like a dream coming true for them. To see that you can make people happy just to be there and sign an autograph, was really cute.
TeenMusic: Are you guys still into video games or do you play ‘Rock Band’ or ‘Guitar Hero’ on the road? - Tokio Hotel: We do that when we are on tour. Now, we are every day in another city so we have no chance to play. But I think we will do that again on tour.
TeenMusic: Why name the band Tokio Hotel? - Tokio Hotel: Just the idea to have a symbol so we chose hotel. It was always our dream to travel the world and stay in hotels. And Tokio because it sounds great and we’ve never been in Tokyo. We want to go there. We hadn’t been there so we didn’t know what came with that. We didn’t expect anything so it was cool to choose a city where we’d never been.
TeenMusic: You’ve gotta go there! Do you have a most embarrassing moment on stage to share with us? - Tokio Hotel: One time we were doing a concert in Russia I think and the whole stage just broke down while we were on stage. It fell down. Nobody was hurt but nearly. But it was embarrassing.
TeenMusic: We read that Bill said he’d love to be a Twilight Vampire. Are you a fan of the books or the films or vampires in general? - Bill: Vampires in general and the movie is great. It’s really cool.
TeenMusic: Are you guys still determined to keep your looks very different from each other? Do you have any plans to change the look of the band in future? - Tokio Hotel: I think you don’t plan that in advance. It’s really a personal thing. The change just comes out of you. Some day we wake up and say ‘okay, I’ll cut my hair off’ so you can’t plan that. Maybe we’ll change it.
TeenMusic: I heard that you all have disagreements and even hit each other at one point. How do you handle your disagreements? - Tokio Hotel: I don’t know if anybody was hurt but sometimes it’s like that. We had a lot of tracks and then we had to make a decision on which track would make it (on the album) and there were some fights but we come back together.
TeenMusic: Sounds like a brother thing. Are you bringing out another single after “Automatic”? - Tokio Hotel: Oh definitely and we have to decide this in the next (few) hours. It’s really hard to pick the next single but we are talking about three songs. We don’t have a final decision but we really have to do it. We have to decide on the videos too. Once we have the song decision we’ll figure out what the video is. You have different pictures in your mind for each song.
TeenMusic: What can each of your simply not live without on tour? - Tokio Hotel: This is Bill, I can’t live without my dogs in general. I bring them with me when I’m on tour in Germany. I have everything with me. I’m prepared for every situation. (Another member… Tom??) But, I’d say it’s important to have your laptop just to stay in touch with your family and write things down and check your mail.
TeenMusic: Who cooks and what do you cook best? - Tokio Hotel: I think I’m the best (bassist Georg Listing). I cook whatever the boys like. We all like pasta and pizza so it’s not that hard.
TeenMusic: What track on “Humanoid” is the most personal and why? - Tokio Hotel: We can’t pick one. There is a personal story behind every song. I really like the sound of ‘Dogs Unleashed’ and I love ‘World Behind My Wall’ which describes our life very well.
TeenMusic: Who would you most like to collaborate with on an album in future? - Tokio Hotel: It would be Arrowsmith. It’s hard to pick one band because we all listen to different music but I think Arrowsmith would be cool for everybody (we hear a lot of “yeahs!” in agreement).
TeenMusic: Do you have a favorite food here in the states? - Tokio Hotel: Animal fries! Definitely. (Animal-style, super fattening fries from California Chain In-and-Out Burger! Your tray of fries comes topped with a mass of melty cheese, grilled onions, and a heart-stopping ladle of Thousand Island dressing. Good thing these guys are skinny to start with!)
TeenMusic: Have you had songs used as part of movie soundtracks yet? - Tokio Hotel: Not so far but we’ve planned something that we can’t talk about yet.
TeenMusic: When you are on tour, do you dress in disguise and go out to do stuff in the towns you are in? - Tokio Hotel: Most of the time you have no chance to go out. You are in the city to play the concert then go to the next city. You only thing you can do is look out the window.
TeenMusic: Awww. What do you do when you have a chance to relax then? - Tokio Hotel: Sleeping, just sleeping.
TeenMusic: Who is the band is the jokester and who is the one who says ‘okay, we need to actually work now’? - Tokio Hotel: (some discussion) I think Tom and me (Bill) are very serious about Tokio Hotel and Georg, definitely not. I think he’s the funny guy. He’s clumsy (we hear Georg mumbling in the background).
TeenMusic: Does everybody write songs or who is the biggest songwriter in the group? - Tokio Hotel: Most of the time Tom is doing the music and I (Bill) am writing the lyrics and we work together with our producers. But we’re like one big family in the studio and we do everything together.
TeenMusic: Biggest musical influence in the last two years? - Tokio Hotel: That’s hard to say because with all the studio time, you don’t listen to other music. You’ve got no time. You’re just focused on your music and your production. But, I think that can be good. Focusing on your own stuff is really important.
TeenMusic: You are very young but have been singing for what now, 10 years? What is the biggest change in your sound that you’ve seen in those years? - Tokio Hotel: I think it just becomes better and better. We have new sound boards for this record so we tried new things out. It’s a bit more electronic than the older records. I think a goal for this album was to try new things out and see what is the next step for us. I think we don’t know what is coming up. We take our time. I think the record company expected the record half a year ago. We just took our time and produced for a year and I think it will be the same for the next record. Give us enough time for us to listen to ourselves and decide what we want to do.
TeenMusic: Good for you! Message for your fans? - Tokio Hotel: We want everybody to enjoy the new record and to let them know we really want to come back and play live and are really looking forward to that.
Thank You . x
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