(06.05.2016)
Bill Kaulitz’ strange solo comeback as Billy
Bill Kaulitz is now called Billy. He has his hair dyed blonde, facial piercings, wearing black pants with red sneakers. Compared to before, he looks normal. But he gives interviews.
He came from Los Angeles to Berlin to present his new solo project, the mini-album “I’m not okay” with five songs, a photo album and a short film. The first single “Love, do not break me” has been published, an electro-ballad, the accompanying video sits Bill Kaulitz scantily dressed next to a woman in bed.
In the Seven Star Gallery the plaster peeling off the walls on purpose, in the two small rooms and around the DJ booth in the basement 200 guests pushing. Everywhere are beautiful people and drink gin and tonic, which is available now. Lena Meyer-Landrut, Jimi Blue Ochsenknecht, the rapper McFitti.
On the walls hang portraits of Billy, he poses in black and white, bare-chested and his mouth slightly open.
Six years ago, Tokio Hotel overnight took refuge to Los Angeles, because they had enough of the public, the fans, who persecuted them and broke into her home. Since then it has been quiet around the band, Germany got the four guys rarely seen. 2014 came after a long break their fourth album “Kings of Suburbia” on the market; it was unable to repeat the huge success of previous albums.
Now, try Bill Kaulitz alone. A member of the management goes hastily to him, “Look! – very important – here come the girls from ‘Blogger Bazaar’, two important bloggers We try to have some private time with them Yes..?” He nods. Then he has time for a few questions. Why this now alone? “In the band we are interested in different things,” he says.
“I want to combine music with fashion and photography, creating a personal art project that works best alone.” The new name Billy come from his mother, he continues. No one else had called him that. Since the album was very personal, he had chosen this nickname. In the title song “I’m not okay,” it was about the great love he says, “and a big heartbreak, I had“. Wait a minute, heartbreak? He has never shown with partners over the whole year.
Billy about one-night stands
“I had a relationship for many years that parted very painful..” Because of his fame, it was very difficult for him to find a partner. “One-night stands are not for me..”
He looks at the window of the gallery, behind which people are pushing and taking pictures of him. There are not as many as before, perhaps 30 or 40. However, he says: “In Germany, I have to keep moving and every now and then move to another place, otherwise it gets out of control.”
He moves with the times, makes electro-dance music, singing about the great love. The portraits of him are in Instagram style: black and white, a lot of skin. Or how Bill Kaulitz says: “I did not want a beauty shot In the photos I look like a junkie from Bahnhof Zoo..”
Tokio Hotel is a band that you can either love or hate, nothing in between. The new Billy is not particularly startling. Bill Kaulitz wants to reinvent itself. He has.
He is – okay.