(24.12.2009)
Tokio Hotel: Also Bill and Tom are sitting around the Christmas tree with their family
HAMBURG A Peaceful Christmas, that’s what the Band Tokio Hotel has been looking forward to this year. Because the time before Christmas has been very stressful.
Bill, Tom, Georg and Gustav are stuck in the preparations for their “Welcome to Humanoid City” Tour. Nevertheless the Band took some time to talk about music, their life as celebrities and Christmas with Susanne Linnenkamp.
You’re already rehearsing for the Tour?
Tom: Yes, we’re preparing for the Tour. This will be one of the most elaborate Tokio-Hotel-Shows. This means, that we go through intense tour preparations – as a band we rehearse in Hamburg and then later with the whole Crew in London.
You promised the Fans one of the best and most spectacular Tokio Hotel Shows ever…
Gustav: Yes, the stage will be amazing.
Bill: It’s a brand new and sensational stage, a little spacey and huge. There are six to seven meter wide constructions. A lot of things will happen: We’re working with Pyro and with some moving elements. The Tour is called “Welcome to Humanoid City” Tour and we will really build-up our own Humanoid City, in every city we play in.
You also promised to play a lot of new songs. But it seems like your German fans don’t even want to hear them. You got kicked off of the Top of the charts pretty fast…
Bill: That’s a false conclusion. We always have a run on the charts in the first few days. What other artists sell in a longer period of time, we sell in the first few days. That means, our Album gets kicked off of the top very fast, because everyone already bought it. Humanoid is, so far, the most successful Tokio-Hotel-Album.
Critics are accusing you of neglecting your German fans lately…
Tom: This accusation is understandable because our career started in Germany, and we were on the road with our first Album there. And now we have to travel to 100 different countries. We try to keep it balanced.
Your music sounds more mature, do you want to get away from the pure-teen clientele?
Georg: We took our time with the new Album. Before that, we were always on the road, and played an unbelievable amount of tours. And then we spent a year in the studio, to see, which kind of music we want make. It wasn’t a decision to sound more mature. It was a natural development.
Tom: You make the music, you feel like at the moment and the people who feel like this too, hear this. Whether they’re older or younger, to be honest, we don’t give a shit about that.
At the last tour, in Dortmund, you had some trouble with the authorities, because Teens camped out in front of the venue for weeks. What can you do to avoid this in future?
Bill: I don’t even want to avoid this. For us as a band it’s great that the fans are waiting so long to see us.
With your new Tour you’ll be in the region of Oberhausen again. Why?
Tom: Because we have a lot of great fans there. 30 cities in nearly two months, a strenuous program …
Georg: … you could say that, yes…
…and you Bill, you’re getting thinner and thinner. The fans are worried, and asking themselves if you can get through the tour.
Bill: Sure, such a tour is exhausting, but I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t believe that I could get through it.
How do you prepare for the tour physically: With relaxing or fitness training?
Bill: I prefer relaxing. But since I don’t have a lot of time to do this, I want to make some sports, to be in shape for a show on this huge stage. We’ll be taking a small gym on tour with us.
Allegedly you’re not going shopping on your own anymore…
Bill: Yes, that’s right. I’m thankful for the life I’m living now, but there are also bad sides to it. As Bill Kaulitz, you don’t have a private life anymore. That’s just how it is.
Who buys things for you?
Bill: Personal Assistants.
Christmas Shopping?
Bill: Also our assistants. Or I order something from the Internet.
How will you spend Christmas?
Tom: Traditional – We’ll be sitting around the Christmas tree with our family.
And you’ll sing ‘Silent Night, Holy Night“?
Bill: Absolutely not…
Gustav: …if we do so, then the rock Version…
Bill: …nope, absolutely not. I don’t like to sing Christmas songs. I always hated it, it’s too uncreative for me.
Original Article
(23.12.2009)
#6: Tokio Hotel “Humanoid”
The currently most successful German rock bands are Silbermond, Rammstein and Tokio Hotel. All three have released very strong albums in 2009 – but looking back, one has to say that the quartet from Magdeburg comes out on top with their record. The third Tokio Hotel album “Humanoid” is, despite the band’s image, a successful and soulful outcry with a lot of facets. What most people wouldn’t believe possible for the band to do, but will have to admit after listening half-way objectively: they work important topics into good lyrics. They may be youthful topics – but aren’t those moods in society of general interest?
Musically speaking, “Humanoid” is a great hit. Where Rammstein sound oddly uptight despite all the hardness, where Silbermond despite undeniable class waver between “making sure” and some kind of plan-less euphoria to experiment, ever single note and the superb-effective rhythm group of the Kaulitz brothers fit. Singer Bill Kaulitz has grown up to become a gifted entertainer, he walks the line between beautifully entertaining in-your-face-ness and painfully open soul strip. Even songs like “Alien”, “Geisterfahrer” or “Für immer jetzt” – that one might have thought to be b-sides after hearing the album for the first few times next to hits like “Hunde”, “Sonnensystem” or the Goosebump’s hymn “Lass uns laufen” – turn into evergreens. That is exactly the way perfect rock music has to sound for the new millennium – even if the production was a little softened…
Original Article
