Another MTV article…
Tokio Hotel Hope To Expand Already-Rabid Fanbase To Make It Big In The U.S.
‘We are so excited we have fans here at all,’ says Bill Kaulitz, frontman for the German pop-rockers.
By James Montgomery, with reporting by Kim Stolz
According to their (rather rabid) fanbase, Tokio Hotel are: A) “Certainly the most interesting up-and-coming music act in recent years”; B) “The cutest Germans I’ve ever seen”; C) “F—ing amazing. … They showed me that music doesn’t have to be complex and full of technicalities for it to eat my f—ing heart alive”; D) “An amazingly talented group of young guys. And the twins are amazingly hot!”; or E) “sooooooooo HOTT!”
That’s pretty hot(t). Of course, that enthusiasm is not shared by the other 98.9 percent of the planet, who probably only know Tokio Hotel as “that German band with the weird lead-singer chick” (if they know them at all).
And therein lies the problem — or, more specifically, the challenge — facing Germany’s hottest pansexual pop-rockers: They are massively popular in their homeland (not to mention pretty much everywhere else in Europe), having sold more than 5 million albums, singles and DVDs in just more than three years, and they lord over a dedicated online army. Yet here in the States, they probably couldn’t get arrested, unless frontman (yeah, he’s a dude) Bill Kaulitz’s epically spiked mane violates some sort of zoning laws or something.
In short, Tokio Hotel have a legitimate shot at being the biggest rock act on the planet. All that’s standing in their way are the amber waves of grain and purple mountains majesty of the United States.
“It’s really hard to get fans in another country, especially here, because America is so, so big, so it’s really hard to get known in this country,” Kaulitz said in a heavy accent. “We are so excited we have fans here at all. In America, we see a fan and it is like, ‘Oh, we are proud! We have a fan in America!’ ”
So with the hopes of increasing that fanbase here in the States, Tokio Hotel — including Kaulitz and his brother Tom on guitars, bassist Georg Listing and drummer Gustav Schäfer — have just released their first English-language album, Scream, which features re-recorded versions of tracks from their first-two German efforts, Schrei and Zimmer 483. Distributed here by Cherrytree (an Interscope imprint), the album is chock-full of crunchy riffs and self-flagellating lyrics, a cash cow clearly aimed at the Hot Topic set and their chain wallets.
And if it manages to score big, well, then the guys in Tokio Hotel will know that their hard work has paid off. After all, getting to be the biggest band on the planet isn’t easy.
“We had some help with [this album], because our English is not so good. For me, it was pretty hard to go into the studio and sing English for the first time, because I always sung in German, and we’ve been making music for seven years and it’s always been in German,” Kaulitz laughed. “So that took some time, and hopefully the fans will like it. It’s really important to us that everyone can understand our lyrics, so we said we’d try it. But also, the fans in America want to hear German songs … and last time we played here, we did two German songs [and] they sang the songs with us.”
Ah, yes, their fans here in America. They’re a small — but loyal (and vocal) — bunch, turning Times Square into a squealing mess Tuesday when the band appeared on “TRL” and packing Hollywood’s vaunted Roxy earlier this year for Tokio Hotel’s first U.S. show. Clearly, the seeds have been planted. And now, everyone involved with the band is hoping they’ll come into bloom.
“We expect great live shows here. We’ve played a few times here, and it was great. So now we want to play a tour,” Kaulitz said. “So we might come back and play a tour. I don’t know. We are going back to Europe to start writing a new record, and then we’ll do it in English. And then we want to come back.”
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Charlotte you’re right but it is unfair to stigmatize a Band for their fans, I think that there is no single standard or mad fans are only fans, many of our mothers shouted with the Beatles and now are so formal :) i think its not important going crazy while not offend anyone
and i think Europe loves TH and i dont think people relations be fan to be a maniac…
I think we have to be more tolerant with the feelings of others but we seem exaggerated cuase a fan is a fan sreaming or crying or buying their cds :)
greetings from Spain
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Well here in Europe people either love them really much or hate them really much. Then we have the sneaky-fans who just doesn’t want to ADMIT that they accually like them or their music because of the rumors about Tokio Hotels’ crazy 14- years old bimbofans that everybody hates. Cuz’ some people (not fans) really truly believe that when you say that you’re a fan of Tokio Hotel you are a mainiac and that all you do is scream as soon as someone mentions Tokio Hotel. I can understand the anti-fans of Tokio Hotel about what they think about us fans, but they are assuming and exaggerating to much. Tokio Hotels’ fans are quite different in many ways. Some of us fans are just fanatic and goes really crazy for nothing, some of us are just “normal” and just go crazy in concerts or at a record signing and then there is the fans who just don’t say anything- they just like them and their music but they don’t let the whole world know that they love Tokio Hotel, and last but not least we have the REALLY crazy fans who I don’t even what to call fans cuz’ all they want is to have sex with one or all of the guys (LOL). Ofcourse there is several other sorts of fans but these are the most common ones ;)
Wow… why do I always write to much? Sorry!
Well, that was it from me. Love from Sweden :)
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i hate to say it bc i love tokio hotel,, and ive been to germany a couple of times and my best friend lives there– when i told her that i love tokio hotel she told me not to let her friends know because they would all make fun of me.. lol who cares what they think. but ya know there is a lot of other bands i hate and but i wouldnt make fun of anyone for liking them.. so im just gonna say im sure that out of everywhere more people in germany hate them bc thats where they are from and more people will know them there bc they are in the news all time..
lol thats ok germany can stop putting them on the news and america can start..
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there*
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22 Nicole B:
you’re absolutely right. you do get pretty obsessed easily…. BUT im not like crazy, irritating and scream in their face when i met them face to face…. i was pretty calm and talk regularly and then Bill was looking at me and my hair and then hes like “I like your hair” XDDDDDD…. heavenssss!!.
Hmmm…. this was this one article about younger fans are so into them because something about puberty yadda yadda yadda and they think of them (mainly Bill & Tom) as their IDEAL future bfs. Ya knowwwww. Hahaha, believe me… I was in that stage too… like 5 years ago.
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awwww i loved that article! omg! yes please! they need to tour here. I mean how many times can they just visit nyc and hollywood. come to miami boys!!!!!!!!
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# 23
i don’t think sooo…cause i always listen to z100 in the morning and they didn’t mention anything about them today at all.
i don’t even think that they know who they are to tell u the truth, cause if they did they would be putting there music on there.
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Anyways I heard that they were supposed to be on Z100 today? Any updates on that? :)
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#9 – HOLY SHIT. I’m gonna try to ditch again tomorrow to see that.
#15 – HAHAHHAHAHA. BILLABONG.
Ok I’ve seen their younger fanbase and honestly, let’s just say that there is a large sum of fans that they have in that age group that are extremely obsessive and… irritating. But it’s not like they’re the only ones that love them, I mean you got to admit that most TH fans, once you’re in, you get obsessed pretty easily.
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Omg this was a great article, but why “pansexual”?
Anyways they NEED to come back here soon for an actual tour :)
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They need writte new songs¡¡¡¡ cause they take two tours with the same songs except 1000Oceans :)
but they are so happy in America i wish them a BIGGGGGGG success¡¡¡¡
7# Sydney EUROPE LOVES THEM, we are very proud of them, all that they have is for they hard work nobody has given them nothing
(except their Fans)
They have been working since they are on 10 years old I think it is just living their own American dream I do not think theyll corrupt
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THEY NEEED TO COME TO DALLAS, TEXASSSS!!!!
<3333333333333
——Kristinaaa.
x
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wow nice pick .*! awww
really interesting article u:U!
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dude!
when will you come to buffalo???
-cries-
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#15
mmhmm. the whole windows on that block (TRL studio side ofcourse) is ALL Tokio Hotel pictures.
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#9 – oh my god. does that say billabong under the picture of bill? XD
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JED (4) – because it sounds like this will be the last they’re in the states until after they release their third german album.
the nine months was just a joke about ‘popping out’ the album as if it were a baby.
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God,So since they are gonna be doing the 3rd album they wont be doing concerts for a while!
Well that sucks!!
Its like another eternity to hear them play again!
But its worth it!
The Album im sure it will totally rock!!
Lovvee yooouuu TTHHH!!
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#9- that is soooo cool!!! thanks for the pic ;)
(Bill looks HOT as always ♥)
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I really hope they’ll start doing more German songs in North America; That would be awesome :)
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Sydney, no it is not true that Germany and Europe does not like TH. They sell out arenas in matter of minutes all over Europe and they sold platinum and gold in almost every European country in 2007 and 2008.
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wow….
im telling you, young TH U.S fanbase are pretty damn nuts about them. No offense to the younger people but i’ve experienced it FIRST HAND. Two shows in three days and I got like bruises on my face and legs from people pushing and my face collided with the metal barricade and at Bamboozle, I got into a fight with a girl and her mother.
But yea, they’re really amazing live. It was worth it though.
They’re going pretty big here in NY.
TRL studio just posted Tokio Hotel gigantic window-size pictures up yesterday that can be seen in Times Square:
http://i28.tinypic.com/ojnlp4.jpg
(i took this pic)
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i think Germany pretty much has love hate.
they have some DIE hard fans, then some people who just hate them.
but i think its the same pretty much everywhere, not just Germany.
Europe obviously they have a lot of fans
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THIS WAS A GREAT ARTICLE! I’M SO HAPPY! and they are finally going to start recording their third album, then in English (even though the German albums are the BEST.)
@5
yeah, my cousin says Germany actually doesn’t really like them because they just became popular WAY too fast. so imagine a scale: it went UP, then completely crashed down. but i don’t know if it’s true that Germany or Europe in general do not like them….
it was a good article though ^_^
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Tokio Hotel — including Kaulitz and his brother Tom O_o wtf
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well thats good. they need to leave the eyes of america for a little bit.. their fame is happening way to fast that it will surely come crumbling down just as quick if they dont take there time. I’m happy to hear they will be back LATER in the year though.
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#3 Why nine months?
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shit. hope that album pops out in less than nine months.
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They make me so happy.
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I think it’s very very difficult for them to become big in America but I give them credit for trying
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<3
Amazing.
Those boys are as lovely as ever.