(30.10.2009)

Tokio Love

THEY’RE currently the most popular German band to hit the international music scene, and they’re about to get bigger.

Formed in 2001 in a town called Magdeburg in Germany, pop rock band Tokio Hotel has been dominating the European music television channels for a little more than two years now with their vividly striking video clips and charged-up tunes. In Germany, teenagers walk the city streets all dressed up like Bill Kaulitz, the band’s lead singer.

“It’s crazy! But it is also like a dream come true for us. I think every band dreams of having people imitate them, it’s a form of flattery,” said Bill in a phone interview from Los Angeles, where Tokio Hotel was promoting its latest album, Humanoid. The band, which was called Devillish in its early years, also includes Kaulitz’s guitarist twin brother Tom, drummer Gustav Schafer and bassist Georg Listing.

“When we got our recording contract, we had to think of another name. We like to travel, and we love Tokyo. The one thing that you will always go to when you travel is a hotel, so we decided to call ourself Tokio Hotel. The funny thing is, we have never been to Tokyo but we do hope to go there soon,” explained Bill of the name change.

“After this I think we’ll be going back to Germany, then to Paris, and then later return to the United States and South America, as well as to Canada,” he added, relating the band’s busy schedule. Earlier, the band had played in Athens, Greece, as part of the MTV Day 2009 celebrations (the gig will be shown under the MTV World Stage banner on the MTV channel).

On Nov 5, Tokio Hotel will perform at the 2009 MTV Europe Music Awards in Berlin, Germany. Among the other stars on the list are Katy Perry, who will be hosting the programme, Foo Fighters, Leona Lewis, Shakira and Green Day.

“We’re so excited about that! We’ll be playing with such big names like Foo Fighters and Green Day – these are bands we grew up listening to. It will be a totally amazing experience,” said Bill, who sounded genuinely giddy with excitement over the prospect of playing with childhood heroes.

Tokio Hotel is no stranger to MTV awards. In the 2007 Europe MTV Awards the band received the best international act honour, while a year later, it won best new artiste in the MTV Music Awards, as well as several accolades at the MTV Latin America Awards. However, Tom insists that winning awards is the last thing on the band members’ minds when it comes to their music.

“It’s mostly about the lyrics and how to reach our fans through music. But the awards that we get show us that we are appreciated, so that’s very special, too,” explained Tom.

For Humanoid, the band’s second English album (the first was the international hit Scream), Tokio Hotel worked with producer David Jost for about a year, co-producing some of the tracks.

Said Bill: “We have German and English versions of the album, but right now we are focusing on promoting the English version. We write our songs in German because that is our mother tongue and it is much easier for us to think and express ourselves in the language. But we want people all over the world to enjoy our music so we translated the songs into English.”

Having been together for some time now, the band members are aware of each other’s personalities and traits, so travelling around the globe for weeks (and sometimes, months) is not much of a problem, although the twins do admit to having arguments every now and then.

“It’s normal for people to fight, especially for brothers like us! But everyone knows their boundaries and we each try not to make things difficult for everyone else. If we do argue, we’ll usually forget about it after like, five minutes,” said Bill.

Well, with their star rising at mega speed at the moment, Tokio Hotel really does not have much to argue or complain about, anyway.

Original Article