TOKIO HOTEL
Exclusive Photographs from Hamburg. TOKIO HOTEL’s (TH: for short) interview before they come to Japan.
“On the stage, I hope we can follow the things that can really stimulate ourselves from the deep hearts.“
Bill/TH Interviewer: YUKO KATO Photos BY P.G.BRUNELLI／INROCK
TH sparked quite a stir among fans. TH accepted the interview from magazine photographer in Hamburg when they were busy with preparing for the South American tour’s rehearsal. Their latest on-site interview and photos are released for everyone right away. In fact, we had interviews with Bill and Tom before. It was published on Vo13 INROCK★POP！Please pay attention!
---Hello, Bill, I’m very glad to talk to you. It is quite excited because it is the first time to talk with you guys. Can you hear me?
Bill: Yeah.
---Ok, what is your schedule for today?
Bill: I got up very early this morning (editor’s note: Berlin time, 12 o’clock), I’m a little bit sleepy right now. Actually if I don’t have enough sleep, I can not do anything well. I’ m that kind of person, but it doesn’t matter! We are doing the rehearsal for South American tour in Hamburg’s rehearsal room.
---Wow!!!
Bill: Yeah, all the band members are doing the rehearsal.
---Well, can you tell me some details about the South American tour? Such as theme, Setting or anything is ok.
Bill: It’s been almost one year since we began to go on tour. For the new album- Humanoid, we began to go on tour from April in Europe. We have been to many countries. We also performed on Asian MTV awarding ceremony. (I think maybe meaning EMA,editor got wrong) And we had good performance in Singapore and Malaysia. With this new album, we have done a lot of tour for a good while. Finally we made South America as the ending. We were really happy that we had our wish fulfilled, because we always wanted to do so. The first tour is in November, I guess. We are looking forward to it. All he settings were carried from Europe, so the scenery was exactly the same with Europe. The theme of the tours was still “Welcome to Humanoid City”. It was the first time to meet fans in South America which was so great. And every one in our band had our own solo performance. It was really awesome and we were very nervous.
“We go on a tour round the world as a normal band instead of being made or produced, so we are so lucky.”
---It’s unfortunate that I haven’t watched your show yet. What do you guys think of your own show? Is it conceptual or dramatic? Or is it a rock show?
Bill: Just as you said, the theme of the tour is “Welcome to Humanoid City”. In a word, we got the inspiration from the album of “Humanoid”, so we prepared several sets of cloths for the show. I changed my cloths 5 times as well. In the conception of creating our own city, we made “Humanoid City” as the theme. This was pretty cool. This time we explored some creative adventures and experienced many new things too. All the members in our band played keyboard or piano or different kinds of instruments. So it was a new experience for everyone. It was a fresh and exciting show, although it was based on the album of Humanoid.
---You must spend a lot of money, after all your show was not over after your performance.
Bill: Yes, the more we spent the more success we got. We hoped we can give all the fans a real show. The music was connected with everything. So we wanted to have perfect costumes, perfect stage. Everything must be matched perfectly. My birth sign is Virgo. In all sense, I am a completist. To let all the fans enjoy the show as much as you like, even as to forget to leave, we made lots of efforts. We hoped everything was perfect.
---When you are on the stage, your characteristic is the same with yours in daily life or not?
Bill: I think the most important point is to reveal myself naturally on the stage. I don’t want to give you an impression that I tried to act like some one else or I am assigned to be another person.
In the creation stage, I hope we can follow the things that can really stimulate ourselves from the deep hearts. As a band, we have been together for almost 10 years. We have got lots of stage experiences, so we can express ourselves naturally on the stage. It’s very important to contact with fans, which is related to the album. So we don’t think we are playing some roles. As for me, what I pursued is to try new things and make the show fresh and new.
---Where did you get the inspiration of changing the way you perform? Movies? Music? Or books?
Bill: Sometimes I can get inspired on the trip. There are many ideas. To write them down I always carry notebooks and pens with me on the walk or trip.Sometimes I got some inspiration from fans all over the world. And sometime I got inspired by others’ PV. The last way is to listen to our own songs. I had lots of new ideas as I listened to our own music. The way to make PV or design the cover always came into my mind when I was doing the recording in the studio. What inspired me on the album of Humanoid are the things that we don’t have on the earth. The cosmos, the aliens and science fiction unknown things are all the background of this album. We wanted to put all these elements on the stage. It was very difficult to figure out what we exactly want to do and how to do it and finally make a conclusion. Comparing to other albums, this album is full of electronic sounds, which sounds a little different. All the members tried different kinds of instruments. It was also a good idea on stage or external looking.
---As you mentioned just now, the album of Humanoid is different from other albums. This new album is more refined. And you guys pad more attention to melody. It’s conceptual. The previous albums impressed me as a rock music album.
Bill: Yeah. But we didn’t plan to make this kind of album at the beginning. We didn’t have any conceptual thoughts. We figured out involuntarily after we got into the studio. We gathered in the studio. I combined all the themes and ideas in my mind gradually when I wrote and composed the songs. The title of the album was the same, so all of this was not we planned in advance. I didn’t think anything like this at the beginning of writing. After I finished writing and producing, I began to think about the title, art designing, stage and so on. As last, I summarized all the ideas and made a complete album. This album was definitely different from the previous albums, but it’s what we wanted. We expected something different. Because we took this album seriously, we spent a lot of time in the studio. I don’t like to make a deadline or something and then I do my job according to the schedule under a big pressure. Usually the record company released a new album and then talked to us about next one. But it’s very important that we have enough time to relax, and we gather in the studio. So we went to many countries and saw many streets for this album.We even went to LA, Miami and Hamburg. We met all kinds of people in cities all over the world and worked with many producers which really helped us find inspiration a lot. It was very cool. This was also a new experience. Just because we spent lots of time and energy, we can figure out how to make a good song.
---Oh, I got it. Bill, you are a super star like God in music world. And do you know why so many people are obsessed with you? What do you think? Is there anything that people understands you?
Bill: I don’t know. Just because I don’t know, so I can express myself naturally on the stage with no purpose. I don’t define myself as any particular person. I am not gonna tell fans that next time which type I will be or what I will look like. What presents in front of you is exactly who I am. When I was a little boy, I put on make up and dyed my hair. That was me. Now in our band I still do what I want. It’s very important for us that we are true to ourselves. Georg and Gustav are totally different from me, maybe. Nowadays there are quite few bands like us. “We go on a tour round the world as a normal band instead of being made or produced, so we are so lucky.” There are so many German bands like us, I appreciate it a lot. Just enjoy it. We don’t have any secret. Coz we don’t even know what we will be, we become sort of super star by accident. If there are any bands like us, I believe I must be obsessed with them as well. (Laugh) To be honest, I was really touched as we went to so many countries. When we were in Asian early this year, everyone sang with us together. I was really happy. It was pretty cool for me as an artist at that moment. I was excited to see that kind of scenery. And finally we can go to Japan soon, so I cannot wait any more.
“We were born in a small town. There were many things that we didn’t like.”
---We can not wait either. Your brother and you look like exactly the same. But in our previous interview, it was reported that your characteristics are totally different. Tom also said you two are like the two sides of the coin. Is that true?
Bill: Yes, you are right. I cannot imagine how I can live without Tom. We are together all the time no matter what we do. I feel we are like one single person. Although we are different on catachrestic, style and ideas, we are perfect when we are together. Because we do every thing together, I cannot imagine what kind of life I can lead by myself. We founded this band together and we went to school together, till now we never separated from one another. The maximum time we separated is no more than 7 days, so actually we are almost together every day. It’s hard to say, there is something that only identical twin brothers can understand. We have some kind of connection like the sixth sense. Even though we are not together, we know what is in the other’s mind. It’s unbelievable. Yeah, I know it sounds crazy, but I guess this is what identical twin brothers have.
---The most unimaginable thing is that you had the same score. I heard that both of you had the same score of 1.8 when you were in high school (editor’s note: the way German score system is different from Japan’s, 1 is the highest). You were such good students.
Bill: Yeah, (laugh) Tom and I didn’t like to go to school. I think the most terrible period of time is school days. I wanted to make music since I was a little boy, and I just did what I wanted, so I didn’t have much time to study. I had a feeling that we were supposed to be somewhere else instead of school. School’ life was tough. We were born in a small town. There was no one who had the same hobbies and thoughts about life with us. At that time our dream was to go to some bigger cities to make music. The days we spent in that small town were not happy, coz we hated school. There were many annoyed teachers there. But our scores were good, so it was all right.
---You said you have written songs for a good while, what kind of style is your next new song?
Bill: I kept collecting all kinds of ideas. I think the first thing I have to decide is the date we go to Japan. And we are going to South America later on (editor’s note: it is after Japan’s tour). It comes to a conclusion for this year. We will come back to the studio and start it over. We will spend more time than last time. Coz we need to think about what we want to do and what kind of music we want to make. So it’s the moment of collecting ideas. After we come back to the studio, we will write songs with our producers like a family, which must be very cool. We look forward to the new album with new songs. And we also expect the next year.
---When will the new album be released?
Bill: I don’t know yet. I just have some ideas and wrote several songs, but I cannot tell when we will release the new album. I promise it will be amazing.
12th Nov. Published Hamburg
The confidential inside story from photographer of INROCK are exposed.
Report by P.G.BRUNELLI／INROCK
Confidential!!!!
Because I want to take some photographs for TH, someone told me that I couldn’t tell anyone the specific location of rehearsal. I had to switch off the GPS system. I just knew I was in the suburbs of Hamburg, but I didn’t know the exact location at all. I could say it was in the suburb of Hamburg. I guess even those crazy fans couldn’t find where it was. Anyway, if TH’s fans knew the location, it would be out of control. And it is because of this kind of thing, Tom and Bill had to move to LA. There were still some paparazzi tracking us there, but at least it was under the control. TH could go shopping there, coz it seems that they are not as famous as they are in Europe. I was guided to rehearsal room. There were accommodations, rehearsal rooms, bed rooms and garages. A new white race car is parked in the garage. I just wanted to ask whose car is it. I immediately found it is Tom’s. I said to him “You live in LA. How can you park such a nice car here in Hamburg?” Tom said: “I have another one in LA.” They signed a contract with Audi, so they are sponsored in US. By the way, to my understanding, Tom is the most mature. Two years ago, when I met him in France, he was a boy at that time. But now he is a brilliant young people. When we were shooting, Bill wore a pair of 10cm high heeled shoes. To reduce the height gap, considering the balance of the photos, he stood with his feet planted wide apart.
They talked with each other in Germany. But if there was ant problem, Bill replied me politely in formal English with a little accent. Tom and Bill’s English are much better than 3 years ago. Maybe it’s because they live in LA right now. But they need to work with Germans most of time, so both of them communicate in German. In the rehearsal rooms, the drum sets are reproduced. So they kept it in another room and tried to make it silent. To avoid the influence of noise, they made lots of efforts. There was a foosball table in the main room. When Bill was shooting his own picture, they played earnestly. Coz I was busy with shooting, I didn’t know which one won. Tom and Gustav made a team to fight against Georg, so I guessed Georg was the best. After shooting, we went to the airport in a black car, which gave me a feeling that we were spies who kept the secrets. If we were questioned, I would never betray, never. (In fact, no one noticed us. The customs officers with less experience saw our scan photo. And they thought some suspicious images were some parts of a bomb). Haha!!!
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