(04.01.2017)

Interview: Bill und Tom Kaulitz von Tokio Hotel
“We had to save ourselves”

They were teenie superstars, at Tokio Hotel in 2005 and 2006. Then they fled the screaming fans to Los Angeles. A conversation with Bill and Tom Kaulitz about how their stars have changed.

Stuttgart – Tokio Hotel were never really gone. Today, however, they make electronic music and (1/2) live in Los Angeles. In the interview, they tell you why they escaped to America before their fans and what freefom they have today.

Hello Bill, hello Tom, 2006 I was with you at a concert in the Stuttgarter Schleyerhalle. There were very many very young, very loud screaming girls. In 2017 you play in Wizemann. Who is coming to your concerts today?

Tom: Today as then – people with a good taste of music.

Bill: There are many who have grown up with us. They have been with us since we released our first song in 2005. This is probably a nostalgic thing. There are new people, too, because the music is quite different now.

How did you develop yourself musically over the past few years?

Bill: That was going on with the third album that made our music more electronic. On the following record this had it’s climax. It is very electronic. We have not done anything with guitar, bass and drums for a long time. We now have seven laptops on stage, Georg and Tom hardly play their original instruments. This is no longer the classic band thing. We always have the ambition to create an experience that people see something new. This is why Tokio Hotel is always very visual.

What music are you currently interested in? What inspires you?

Bill: We listen to a lot of mixed music, get inspired by DJs and go to the Coachella Festival every year. Artists like Churches, Daft Punk and Depeche Mode can be found. And I love Robyn above all else.

Tom: I did not know she had a hit in the nineties.

She was a teenager in Sweden. There are parallels to Tokio Hotel.

Bill: I love “Call Your Girlfriend” above and beyond. This song could run with me the whole day in Continuous rotation.

You went to Los Angeles in 2010 in a night and fog. Why was the situation with the fans out of control?

Tom: We were at a point where you came home after a tour and wondered what to expect from life. And that was no life at this time. This was no longer possible in Germany. We could no longer go outside the door, were besieged. When we got bogged down when we were on the road, we never went back. We left the country overnight to go somewhere to live. We needed that.

Bill: Now, in retrospect, this can be said. This was simply a rescue operation. We could not get home and have responded by escaping.

What was the greatest freedom after moving to LA?

Bill: It took us to realize this. At the beginning we are not out, then only with security personnel. Little by little we are left alone – like in the supermarket or the cinema. This was all new and unfamiliar. I felt like an alien that has been exposed somewhere. LA has been our home for seven years now – and we enjoy it incredibly that we can shape our everyday life as we want it.

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