Intro.de Interview and cool art

Tom has also featured this on his blog. This is the cover of Intro.de with an interview with the Kaulitz twins inside. It’s really cool artwork and cries of “I want this as a poster on my wall” are being heard around the world.

Tom’s blog

If you need some spooky stuff for Halloween you should get the latest issue of German mag INTRO [or join Gustav for a ride in his car!]. The theme is perfect for this time of year – it’s all about ghosts, monsters and scary stories. The cover turned out really great! It was done by someone who specializes in creating old school comics as well as old & cool looking movie posters. For Christmas I’ll give this cover as a giant poster to Bill as my present….so he can hang it up beside his bed, next to all the other pics of me that are covering the walls in his room ;-]

You can download a PDF file of this by right clicking this link!

The interview – Translation by Pat
Twins are a challenge. Because they are so equal, there is the chance of mixing them up. For years, the double identity of Tokio Hotel inspires and polarizes. Kerstin and Sandra Grether, The Intro’s own twinpower, met the two in Hamburg to discuss the phenomenon, the music and everything else.

“Lots of people have an image of us and react automatically, most of all in daily encounters.” (Bill Kaulitz)

What would aliens say, sent from a nosy planet to Earth, to describe the phenomenon Tokio Hotel? It would be quite possible that they would find lots of beautiful things on the first two albums of the most loved and hated band in Germany. Since Nena’s epic early work, there has not been a German-speaking band that succeeded to produce such everyday, rebellious fantasy rock for a young and mostly female target group. Moreover, an original mix of styles, which is more aesthetically demanding then functional.

What it feels like for a girl, boy.

Above all, the aliens would be astounded that a leather jacket, eyeliner, and long-haired dreadlock-wearing pop singer can move heaven and earth, and polarize, just because it pleases him to also show his feminine side. The aliens would possibly remember the start of that which we call pop culture. The decade after the Second World War, when the Americans invented the word “teenager” as a marketing term and the press was making fun of the mass hysteria Frank Sinatra created because he was not wearing a uniform and was not traditionally masculine.

The “Crush with eyeliner” already has credibility with the male audience and it does not even cause a stir anymore in the artificial Anglo-American galaxies of pop. Even so, Tokio Hotel takes a courageous ride through the monsun of German-authenticity hell.

The blood will freeze in the body and mechanical soul of our aliens. Imagine. Two iridescent, cool mythical beings from an East German small town schoolyard, 2005, in the aggro wonderland where bullying is tolerated (translator note: can’t really translate this sentence, god german can be tough sometimes – Pat), while all the adults stand around, talking about being authentic and rational, to overplay their own madness. And what can a 15 year old girl, (who has grown up with internet pornography and female-unfriendly rap songs in the charts, in a time, in which “whore” is just another word for girl/female/woman), wish for besides these romantic, guitar riffing, sexy scream of self, in which Tokio Hotel wrote their experiences about the everyday varieties on the provincial schoolgrounds into their songs?

Yes, Individuality ranks highly in the Tokio Hotel Universe. It is that, which made the differently-styled twins reinvent the teeny band format. Is that what interests the (mostly female) fans the most?

How do you do that, going your own way?

Man could have known by looking at the polarising power the 4 emo boys have, the fans of Tokio Hotel are not just screaming idiots. When you click through the fan forums, you very rapidly see that they can reflect on the band with humor and critic. Which does not stop the scornful, homophobic and shocking voices in public, from telling the girls that they have fallen into a gigantic scam. The rebelling against these idiotic, sexually envious, male anti-pop reflex is a known part in the fan code. And it sharpens all the senses for a independent and creative being. (and a sixth sense for anticipating fear as well)

But the way Rock’ n Roll dies a thousand deaths, it also starts a thousand beginnings. It is no coincidence that Tokio Hotel quote Frank Sinatra’s my way evergreen in the happy science fiction hymn : “The Dark side of the Sun”, while they are tracing their own glorious road : “Hello, the end is near, hello, we’re still standing here. The future’s just begun, on the dark side of the sun”.

Humanoid

Humanoid, at the most humanlike, is the name of the 3rd album, on which the band takes a risk and changes their known TH sound in a grown up and playful way. It includes many perfect pop songs in goth rock style.

Pretty and sick, complex and to sing along to, without meaning and full of meaning, and that all at the same time. Of course there is an influence of renowned international songwriters like Guy Chambers (Robbie Williams), Desmond Child and the Matrix, with whom Tokio Hotel and their song writer team collaborated on a few songs. The guitardriven hit “Automatisch”, with electro beats and highflying singing against the machine values and celebrating being out of love as in a trance. And the already mentioned glam rock manifest: “Dark Side of the sun”, which refers to the novel by Terry Pratchett, tops even the classics of glam rock, with the huge crazy panic scenario, that was designed into it, this neat and crazy Tokio Riot, is already going on. “On the TV, in Your place, on the radio, oh. it’s a riot, it’s a riot, they say no, oh.” The Radio Hysteria song goes over all capabilities of the so called perfect pop song, to take the extraordinary out of the normalities. And it is a worthy answer in the stylish conservative rock era, that searches and curses their superstars, and can not do anything else but either love or hate them for their individuality.

It is a combination of spontaneity and strategy, and the high degree of selfmade stylising, that turn Bill and Tom Kaulitz into worldwide superstars in the boulevardised pop stables. The ideal of this decade is to channel extreme emotions in a creative way, to have a voice that counts. Bill Kaulitz’s voice and his notoriously touching looks are not anything like the idle coldness and the warpaint worn by David Bowie or Him singer Ville Vallo. He shocks and inspires with humor and cordiality. And makes fans all over the world crave for Bill and Tom’s media presence on lots of documents on the internet. Especially twins have been used historically as a strong projection of the desires of society. The world around them sees something special in them, threats them as outsiders because of that and at the same time fights the symptomes of this special state.

Twin Towers

Man, we are already really excited for the interview, we do not meet identical extravagant twins every day, who come from a town at the end of the world, coffee addicted and sunshy. And who exist to keep a distance.

Then all of a sudden Tom and Bill show up, really looking like very big dark angels (1.90m) dressed in lots of black, with striking white contrasts. Which mimics with their changing between light and dark songs. The boys come across as very neat, make jokes and are a bit nervous on this early interview day. They radiate with energy, so that a lifely conversation develops really fast. Drummer Gustav and bass player Georg are not there, too bad, it is a twin meeting after all.

What does Humanoid mean to you?

Bill: The song has a lot of different melodies and influences. And that is exactly what Humanoid means to us, a feeling of being torn up, not knowing where you belong. We have freed ourselves of the typical song structures and build the song like a story, with highs and lows.

How did you come up with the new sound anyways?

Tom: We wanted to try a few things. We had the best technichal possibilities for it. Our goal was to have cool songs and get something completely new soundwise.
Bill: It was a lot of detail work. We didn’t sleep the last few days and just kept changing it. Tom and I have also co-produced the album.

How should we imagine your songwriting process?

Tom: In the past 90 percent of our songs were created with the acoustic guitar, and then in the studio we figured out how to make them work. This time, we were directly composing and recording in the studio.
Bill: Our producers for instance played something to us and said, so and so in that direction. Then Tom had played guitar to it, and I sung to it, the songs were created in different ways.

The song Automatic sounds like you wanted to return the projections, that a lot of people have about stars or your band. That you were created, and function like a machine and so on.

Bill: Super that somebody recognizes that. That is what we meant with the song. A lot of people have an image of us and react completely automatic. Especially in meetings, that happen automatically during the day. You cannot get people to be genuine enough when you meet them.

Tokio Hotel must meet the requirements of an internationally succesful act. Your view as a popband is obvious.

Bill: Clothes, lyrics, music. It all goes together for me. It is a feeling you want to transport. I love taking pictures and I am very much into the entire fashion thing. This way you can make a lot of small dreams come true.

[to Bill] We had the theory that you went in Tom’s hairstyle direction, because he did not want to take yours.

Tom: [laughs] Let’s say, I have been a rolemodel for Bill my entire life.
Bill: When I decided to get the dreadlocks, I did not even think about his, cause I thought his were horrible. They were kind of nature things. And I wanted something completely different.

Did you guys have a phase in your lives in which you did not stand out at all?

Bill: When you were out on your own, it was not such a big theme. But when you show up together, people talk about you. Even though we look so different.
Tom: That was already like that in the past.
Bill: There is nothing more beautiful then being an identical twin. I cannot even imagine it being any different. Tom and I, we are so much one, we are soulmates. I can not be without him for even one day.

Next to all the enthusiasm, that comes with that, there must be people who are afraid of this strong unity.

Tom: That has happened to us a lot, naturally. In the seventh grade we were punished exactly because of this. The teachers said, our opinion was to strong for them.
Bill: [laughs] When Tom and I share an opinion, you cannot get passed that. That is pretty hard/rough. Also for the people on our team.

Your twinly togetherness is probably not standard in society?

Bill: Yeah, it is something different.
Tom: All people always thought, it is crazy that these types, who dress so differently, talk to each other at all.
Bill: Like the motto: why is someone, who obviously listens to hiphop, hanging out with a dude, who paints his eyes.

You are living in the vision of a really tolerant society. Because it is nice that a hiphop type guy and such a feminine type understand each other so well.

Bill: Yeah, to be understood, ja, right!
Tom: I think, people can supplement each other, when they would do more together. People compliment each other really well , thank god, while everyone has a different opinion.

Really shocking , that your teachers dissed you. They should have saved you from being bullied.

Bill: Yeah, exactly, instead the teacher, when we got punished, told the students, they should put Tom in a new class.
Tom: We found that out recently. My best friend was in that class, and he told me.
Bill: We never allowed it though.
Tom: We have always polarised. That was a good preparation for now. We love our fans for this courage. And it is great that it inspires girls to get creative themselves.
Bill: Everywhere we go, they give us their lyrics and demo’s and drawings. That is really cool.

The Aliens transmit to their planet: Once Tokio Hotel confused the schoolgrounds. Humanoid could convince the adult doubters, who only saw blank posterboys in a group/band. Tokio Hotel are too good to just be a “Guilty pleasure”. One of the last truths that can still be twisted about in this era.

See it online as well.