Post by midori on May 13, 2010 18:38:35 GMT 1
Thought I'd post it here as well as on the website because there is scans now and I always really liked that article. ;D
The phenomenon Tokio Hotel
On the road with Germany’s most successful band. Their story, their plans – exclusive pictures.
PAGE 44 & 45
The pop miracle from the countryside
Hysteric teen fans, chart successes and sold out venues. Four guys from Magdeburg are Germany ’s most successful band. Now they are also supposed to conquer the international market – and they might even succeed.
Bill picture: In love with Billy: Tokio Hotel singer Bill Kaulitz moves closer to the fans in Moscow
PAGE 46 & 47
Picture: Lunch break with a waiter: singer Bill Kaulitz looks at the served main course sceptically
They like eating fast food the best. Today it's the hotel cuisine's turn.
PAGE 48 & 49
Georg picture:Moscow views: Bassist Georg having a quiet minute in the hotel room. It faces the yard, in front of the hotel fans are screaming.
TH picture: Just like a small [version of] Michael Jackson: Bill Kaulitz (right), his twin brother Tom next to him and bassist Georg
Gordon picture: Gordon Trümper is Bill and Tom's step-father. Here he is [pictured] standing in front of his music school where his sons used to have their first rehearsal room
Bill picture: Life on the go and out of a suitcase: Bill Kaulitz in his hotel room in Moscow
Bill designs his [own] outfit - since he has been 11 years old
PAGE 50 & 51
Their music? Nirvana for teens, the soundtrack to puberty
Picture: Lined up for the press: Tokio Hotel during an interview with MTV Russia
PAGE 52
Bill live picture: Bill Kaulitz on stage in Moscow. Recently Russian TV reported that interest in German as a foreign language would have increased a lot thanks to Tokio Hotel
Bill in plane picture: [an] Unusal [sight] without make-up: Bill is woolgathering on the plane to Moscow
(German original by Hannes Ross and Andrea Ritter, Pictures by Thomas Rabsch)
It is late evening at the four-star restaurant “The Park” in Moscow . Vases with white lilies are standing on the tables, next to every plate are four forks, four knives and three spoons. In the far back, at a long table with many white candles, sits Bill Kaulitz, a lanky boy of 17 [years]. His eyes are painted with eyeliner to [achieve] fabulous size, his black hair is backcombed to pointy spikes standing in all directions. Next to him sits his twin brother Tom, having a red baseball cap pulled down in his face. His blonde dreadlocks fall over his slender shoulders like snakes. Across [him] a long-haired teenager is crouched, Georg Listing, 19, he keeps putting his fine mane behind his ear, next to him Gustav Schäfer, 18, a burly blonde who nervously drums on the table with cutlery.
The boys, all from a village nearby Magdeburg, seem as if their parents would have dragged them along to a posh restaurant. And now they want to get it over with as fast as they can. They feel out of place here.
Two waiters candidly make an effort not to take any notice of the four. But they do not succeed. They keep putting their heads together and grin. One franticly twirls through his hair, the other holds a hand in front of his mouth and chokes his laughter. They have no idea that those four guests, who wearily lounge in their chairs, are Germany’s most successful pop stars. Maybe they would know if they had little daughters. Not only in Berlin and Paris but also in Moscow girls between six and 13 years are crazy about Tokio Hotel.
Since the early morning hoursaround 300 Russian teenagers have been screaming "Biiill", "Toohm", "Gusstaw" or "Georrch" into the freezing air until their faces turn red outside the hotel. Girls that had to take the train for two hours just to get here. [Girls] that skip school for the first time in their lives for it. [Girls] that sit over German-Russian dictionaries with their friends in the afternoons. Nadia, 13, practises "Ichh liehbe dichh" (Ih lohve youu) just in case. In the evening Russian TV reports that the interest in the foreign language German has increased enormously amongst teenagers since the success of Tokio Hotel has reached the country.
PAGE 53
”Leave Germany!“, fans shouted at the concert in Moscow
Fans picture: Creative raptures: A Russian girl shows a self-made Bill doll to her idol
PAGE 54
"It's such a blast to play in front of 20,000 girls."
Devilish live picture:Rocking out in a skirt: (nb der Rock = skirt) Bill and Tokio Hotel at a competition in Magdeburg in 2003, back when they were still called "Devilish"
Devilish picture: Rehearsal break: Bill (second from the left) and his band in the backyard of where their first rehearsal room was in the summer of 2003
One does not hear the fans from inside. The high bank of windows of the restaurant is sound-proof and the hotel pianist gives his best to lull the remaining guests to sleep with a sonata by Schubert at this late hour. Bill Kaulitz yawns, his twin brother Tom scribbles small figures with his fork onto the tablecloth. “This here really isn’t our kind of world, so much luxury“, says Gustav. Does he know how much a hotel room is a night here? He shakes his head. 400 Euros. “That’s really a lot“, he says and bashfully looks down on his empty plate.
To everyone who up until now thought Tokio Hotel, that is this kids’ band with funny hair styles my daughter digs – no, the boys are not only a phenomenon from Flensburg (nb town in Northern Germany) to Freising (nb town in Southern Germany) . They are also a phenomenon to young Polish girls. To Austrian, Swiss, Dutch, Russian and French girls. Last year the debut album “Schrei” even entered the French charts at position 19. In the meantime, the band sold 50,000 CDs over there. A German-language record by four young East-Germans that is successful in the mother country of the “chanson“ – that is almost close to being a little miracle.
Tokio Hotel have already sold more than 1.5 million CDs in total. That is a sensational success even with competing groups like Silbermond and Juli selling similar amounts. However, bands do not make the big money primarily with CD sales anymore but in concert halls and Tokio Hotel are amongst the market leaders there. In the past, a tour was considered to be a promotional campaign for a CD. Nowadays, the days of free music on the internet and pirate copies, it is vice versa. Often a CD is only the reason for a new tour where then the millions are made. Tokio Hotel sold 350,000 tickets for an average price of 24 Euros on their last tour. “That was the most successful tour in our firm’s history“, says Alex Richter of Four Artists, Tokio Hotel’s concert promoter.
When Tokio Hotel were launched two years ago, its members were between 15 and 18 years old. [They were] Perfectly suited for a target group that already has got a considerable influence on charts and ticket sales for a long time: six to 13 year-old girls. With commercial hindsight this age group is interesting like that because those kids are still open-minded and one still reaches them as a unit, meaning before they start to divide up in Rock-, HipHop-, Reggae-, Pop- or Techno-fans. As a band Tokio Hotel combine current trends perfectly: band name and singer Bill’s appearance remind of Japanese Manga comics, guitarist Tom’s dreadlocks and clothing comply with American “street wear”. Bassist Georg resembles Brit poppers with side parting hair that he likes to listen to himself. And drummer Gustav is the down-to-earth guy, no-frills, nothing dolled up.
Their music: German, straight-forward rock. It is mainly their anthem-like choruses of the songs that carry away the fans of Tokio Hotel, as catchy as football fan sing-alongs in a stadium. Most pieces by the band are arranged like musical earthquakes: it starts low-key, ballad-like. While Bill Kaulitz sings in a clear, sad voice sounding a bit like the young Nena rock guitars are already lurking in the background that will then vociferously tear down the beautiful ballad construction in time for the chorus. Nirvana for teens. The soundtrack to puberty. A market niche.
PAGE 55
Picture: First posing for a camera on a sports field in Magdeburg. Back then Bill was still the smallest one, nowadays he towers over the others being 1.83 metres [tall].
Of course the hysteria surrounding Tokio Hotel gets managers dreaming. What works so well in German is supposed to be expanded now. According to plans of their record label Universal the four guys from Magdeburg are supposed to become world stars now. Presumably the first English language CD of the band will be released in England and America in May, in the USA on the successful Interscope label which has Eminim or Gwen Stefani signed amongst others. The concert in Moscow is part of the test series “Tokio Hotel International”. Bill Kaulitz is supposed to enthuse Russian teens with lyrics like "Schrei! Bis du du selbst bist" and "Leb die Sekunde" on stage of a former figure skating hall for the first time the next evening.
Right now Bill Kaulitz still has got other worries. Salmon in salt crust? Duck in dill crème? Crayfish soup? He looks sorrowfully through the menu. „I want pizza“, he then says in a quiet voice towards the waiting group. He does not say it in a demanding way like a stubborn child, he says it carefully and politely as if he would just want to test what would be possible. “Sure, you’ll get it, Bill”, the label supervisor says and smiles softly. The table gets cleared and bodyguard Saki is sent on his way. He is supposed to find a Pizza Hut branch in Moscow.
Roughly put, there are two things Bill Kaulitz loves more than anything: fast food and making music. Fast food is what he lives on and making music is his job. “To me it’s incredible fun to perform in front of 20,000 girls and to do something with them.” “To do something?“ “Yes, to play with them, to get them going, to make them laugh, to make them cry, to inspire emotions”, he says very professionally and at the same time still sounds like a boy who only just recently swapped his play room for the concert stage.
These days Tokio Hotel’s new single “Übers Ende der Welt” will be released and the second album “Zimmer 483” [will follow] in February. Once again it is in German, once again the lyrics are about love, anger and world-weariness (Weltschmerz) and once again [it is] pretty gloomy. Children-gothic, dark multi-coloured: their new song goes: "Achtung, fertig, los und lauf/Vor uns bricht der Himmel auf/Wir schaffen es zusammen/Übers Ende dieser Welt/Die hinter uns zerfällt."
PAGE 56
Bill Star Search picture: The first TV appearance: in 2003 Bill applied for the Sat1 casting show "Star Search" - and was kicked out in the end
Bill and Thomas Gottschalk picture: He could be his granpa: Thomas Gottschalk and Bill Kaulitz on "Wetten, dass..?" last Saturday
David Bowie picture: The style role model: One of Bill Kaulitz' big idols is the pop star and actor David Bowie
It seems as if Tokio Hotel would highlight the end of Happy-Hippo-children-pop music, Hartz IV [nb a reform that brought together unemployment benefits and social security benefits in Germany], job anxiety, violence at schools, right-wing radicalism, resolving families – all that is part of their generation’s daily life, they never experienced the cosy easy-going years of prosperity. Tokio Hotel sing about the drama of a divorce from a child’s point of view in “Gegen meinen Willen”: "Ihr guckt euch nicht mehr an/Und ihr glaubt, ich merk das nicht". (“Against my will”: “You’re not looking at each other anymore/And you think I wouldn’t notice it”) Such are lines that fans can identify with. “We can only write about things that concern ourselves”, says Bill, “everything else would be sellout.“ He knows what he is talking about there. His parents separated when he was still a child.
Anyone who listens to the way Bill Kaulitz talks about music, stage shows, song writing, might find it hard to believe that there is a boy sitting that dropped out of school after year nine. He is a professional – a star. And [he is] the main reason for the amazing success of his band. Everything began in the year 2003. After a 13-year-old Bill performed on the Sat.1-show “Star Search” producer Peter Hoffmann went to Magdeburg to take a look at Kaulitz and his band in a small club. Even back then he already wore make-up like a mixture of vampire and pixie. “Maybe David Bowie could partly be blamed for it”, he says, “I watched his fantasy film `Labyrinth` over and over and admired him.” In that [film] Bowie portrays the Goblin King with a backcombed tousle-mane.
He is running around in that outfit since a Halloween party when he was eleven. Back then the band already existed with its current members. Bill as the singer, his twin brother Tom as the guitarist, Gustav on drums and Georg on bass. They called themselves Devilish and had simple, rocking songs with titles like “Grauer Alltag” (“grey everyday life”) – ("Keine Arbeit und Gewalt/So wird hier keiner von uns alt/Politiker fühlen sich ganz schlau/und trotzdem bleibt der Alltag grau" – “no work and violence/none of us will grow old like that/politicians feel really clever/yet everyday life stays grey”). Perfect raw material, Hoffmann deemed. This wasn’t an auditioned bunch of teens but a real, young band. Hoffmann took producers Pat Benzner, David Jost and Dave Roth on board. Together they worked with the four guys in a studio for two years; they had been given music and singing lessons – and a new name. Devilish became Tokio Hotel. It sounded good to the guys and furthermore “it has to be a mind-blowing city”, says Bill, “even though we’ve never been there.”
Alex Gernandt, assistant editor of “Bravo”, was one of the first people being allowed to professionally check out the band. Gernandt – hoodie, trainers, 41 years old – speaks of “fascination” and “incredible visual appearance” when asked about what makes Tokio Hotel special. And when talking about the first encounter with the band he almost turns poetic. “It was a rainy day in May in the year 2005. That was when we set off to take a listen to those boys from Madgeburg – and I was instantly thrilled.”
To Gernandt it was obvious: That is the right product in the right moment of time. Bands like Juli or Silbermond had just turned pop-rock suitable for teenager rooms again – and Tokio Hotel’s single “Durch den Monsun“ was something like the “Perfekte Welle“ (“Perfect Wave“) for the generation of 10 [years] and over. And therefore “Bravo” decided to show “Believe”, which means in music business “Denglish” (German and English mixed) : here is someone to support an act, someone who believes in a group. With “Bravo” to provide initial assistance not much could go wrong anymore: prior to the first single the magazine already reported about “Germany ’s new super band”, stirred up curiosity and already set their sight on the newcomer’s market potential. Result: 60 e-mails. Being the feedback [received] to the first picture alone.
Of course their dedication to Tokio Hotel is also based on a tangible commercial related background. No other magazine is as dependent on fresh new teen-stars as “Bravo”. Thanks to several Tokio Hotel cover stories their circulation increased by a full 12.2 percent during the first quarter of last year. The international career will be the next big topic of the magazine. When asking the four guys about international plans they, however, turn fairly silent, almost unassertive. “We don’t really want to shout it from the rooftops”, bassist Georg says. Are they afraid of failure? “Nah, we don’t really have anything to lose, we’ve already achieved more than we’d ever hoped for”, Bill assures [us]. True. Westernhagen, Grönemeyer, Maffay, all the big German rockers had to play their way up in front of small audiences for many years. Tokio Hotel, on the other hand, launched in a flash. Already they fill up stadiums with 18,000 people.
PAGE 58
Bill and Tom already stood out with their outfits when they were children
Building picture: The Kaulitz-twins grew up in this low building by the potash mining dumps in Loitsche near Magdeburg
It is the second evening in Moscow. Bill, Tom, Gustav and Georg sit around a plastic table in their backstage room. Some gummy bears, some cans of Red Bull and a bowl with fruit placed on it. The mirrors on the wall are crooked. There are no windows. Not much pop star glamour. However, as soon as the door opens slightly one can already hear them scream from inside the hall: 6,000 Russian girls. A few shout: “Bill, leave Germany !”
"What am I supposed to say as a greeting?“, he asks and runs nervously through his tousled hair. “Say 'Dobryj wetscher'. That means „Good evening“ in Russian.“, says Gustav who had Russian in school for a few years. “Dobryi, what? I can’t remember that. I’ll forget that as soon as I’m on stage.“ Suddenly Bill seems like diminished, small and anxious. His hands are shaking a little bit when he opens a bottle of water. By now he is barely responsive, strangely lost in reverie. The press lady sends us out of the backstage room. 30 minutes left until the gig.
As the concert starts Bill seems as if transformed. Relaxed he stands behind the black stage curtain, juggles the mic casually from the left to the right hand, grins, breathes in and out deeply, scurries on the spot like a relay runner waiting for the starting signal. The band already plays the first notes. Thousands of girls have their eyes fixed on the stage. Where is Bill? Suddenly he dashes off, stands amidst the spotlight, throws his arms into the air and a gigantic screech fills the hall. Even as an adult one immediately feels: this boy has got something. This manic energy with which he shimmers through the air. This [kind of] body language when he remains in a perfect rock pose the next moment, the slanted hip, the bent arm, his look longing into the distance. He could be the joint son of Cher and David Bowie, dramatic and very gesticulate, androgynous and glamorous. A boy from the countryside who decided to be a star when he was twelve, who got make-up from the supermarket and cut his clothes into shape himself.
If anyone would like to know where all this comes from - one ends up in Loitsche, a village near Magdeburg, 670 habitants, car registration plate [starting with] OK. [Standing] For "Ohrekreis". "Tokio Hotel? They live over there", a neighbour says and points to a simple low rise building with view on a brown hill. Loitsche is the centre of potash mining. Not ugly, just a bit bleak. It is not hard to imagine that someone would start to write poems here. Or songs about grey everyday life (nb referring to the Song "Grauer Alltag").
The boys played in little clubs in Magdeburg and took part in local band competitions. Then the telephone call from the producer [followed], [causing] huge euphoria. But the first record deal with Sony BMG burst, the corporate group had cut the budget for newcomers.
PAGE 60
Band and Herbert Grönemeyer picture: The band had a conversation with Herbert Grönemeyer which was done for the anniversary issue of the magazine "Tempo" .
Nena and Bill picture: Bill Kaulitz worked together with Nena for the dubbing of a new animated film
"Looking back it wasn't that bad", says Trümper. "The boys learned right away how variable music business and how filigree success can be." And now? Is he worried that they might lose the plot some day? "Of course we think about it. But I've got the feeling that they won't lose the plot. They're incredibly euphoric after being on tour. But they always come down quickly, too. Then they're finding it great that everything's pretty normal back home", he says. "Somehow it’s true what famous people often say: one doesn't even change that much oneself - it's just your environment that approaches you differently."
Whether the band is filthy rich already - he prefers not to comment. The agreement between Tokio Hotel’s team of producers and the record label Universal is a so-called “Bandübernahmevertrag” (literal: a contract to take on a band) - that means that the record label buys the entire completed song material at a time and does not have to contribute to production costs. The band itself gets an alleged well-endowed artist's agreement which guarantees their share of all proceeds - CD sales, merchandising, tour revenues. "Up to now", one of the record managers says, "the band only knows one way since signing their contract: straight up.”
David Jost, 34, is part of the producers’ team and writes the songs together with the band. He wears trainers, leather jacket, dark circles underneath his eyes. He had to send friends to look at a new flat for himself in Hamburg. "For me there's no time left for it. Tokio Hotel is a life consuming job", he says. He develops the song lyrics together with Bill Kaulitz. "He had already started to write lyrics aged eight", Jost says. "We included most of it in their songs. That someone is already able to describe such emotional worlds at that age makes him an exceptional talent."
Jost is also some kind of band-dad, the man for specific tasks. He takes care that the boys don't run riot. The twins are still underage and are supposed to do their homework and study for their correspondence A-levels (Abitur) along the way. “That’s important to us”, says Bill, “in case that for whatever reason it [music career] doesn’t continue, we still want to have a school leaving certificate under our belts.”
Pink Box: Tokio Hotel as victims of satire[/b][/u]
"The most annoying German?"
Success has got its price: no other pop group gets mocked as much as Tokio Hotel. Taunting videos circulate especially on the internet.
(Not translated but this is basically a short article summarising the ways Tokio Hotel got mocked, e.g. with videos, comics, being on the cover of satire magazine "Titanic" and the comedian Carolin Kebekus. It gives some examples of the episodes she did for the parody called "Tokyo Motel" of which her being Bill was the main character.)
PAGE 61
Bill's tattoo picture: Bill and his TH-tattoo that he had done even before the first CD was released
The Kaulitz-twins left school after year nine as they were constantly on the road anyway. And if they happened to be there, however, lessons collapsed because fans from all over Germany besieged the schoolyard.
The apple [symbol] on Jost’s silver laptop is always illuminated, he continuously checks his e-mails, forever 400 would be unread, he says. He is with the boys when they have concerts; he accompanies them to every party. He reckons to have noticed how also more and more adults show “Believe” when it comes to the band. “The thing with that Bill,” he says, ”is mind-blowing. For example at the recent Echo-Awards: everybody wanted to talk to that guy. Other record labels’ bosses. I mean, actually, with an external artist that is off-limits. But they wanted an autograph from him. He was surrounded by 40 people at all times. Madness.” Even Herbert Grönemeyer whose daughter is a Tokio Hotel fan, recently gave his blessing to the Magdeburg guys: “At first I heard of the hype, then I wanted to know what it was all about. And when I listened to the music, I thought, that’s not some thrown-together something but [it] has got substance.” The image of the long-time smiled at teen band has changed. By now even a celebrity like Nena works together with Bill Kaulitz. Both work as voice actors for the new animated film „Arthur and the Invisibles“.
And how does Bill cope with all of this? „Amazingly well. But sure, it also strains him to be under continuous observation.“ David Jost says. By now the boys live together in a loft in Hamburg, the recording studio is just around the corner. However, they have not really settled there yet, the high ceiling rooms with parquet flooring seem a bit bare. In return there are entrance surveillances outside the door now because the fans quickly got wind of where the boys are living. Here they live out of their suitcases, ready to leave at any time; somewhere there is always a TV gala, a concert, a signing waiting for them.
There is only one bathroom in the loft. “We always argue about who can go in there last because that’s who may stay in there the longest”, Tom says. They don’t want own flats at all, “but we’re incredibly happy if we can go back home again to our parents to Magdeburg in between”, says Bill.
The moments when Bill Kaulitz also admits to down sides of his fame are rare. He wanted and wants what he got now, too much: unlimited attention, 24/7. Only sometimes it slips out of him. "I have to disguise myself with a cap and sunglasses when I happen to go shopping. However, a short shopping trip turns into a two hour signing including hundreds of photo requests, should a few fans still recognise me. That can be annoying sometimes." He says, re-listens to his words - and recollects again right away. "The fans are great though; all of them are totally lovely." Everybody within the band found their own way to escape the pressure: Gustav often just sits in a darkened hotel room after gigs, Georg already lifts weights in the early morning hours, and Tom says: "I come down best when I can lie around in bed and sleep in for 13 hours."
To Bill Kaulitz Tokio Hotel has always been more than a band. To him it was a vehicle to turn himself into a public art character. A character he had put to the test on small cellar stages for years already. Bill was damn serious about it. Even before the first record had been released, before anyone could have known whether it would be a success or not, Bill Kaulitz called David Jost one evening: I'm going to get the Tokio-Hotel-symbol tattooed in my neck, a "T" and a "H" twisted into each other. "Dude, you're crazy, I said to him, in the end this doesn't work out and then you've got this thing in your neck forever!", Jost tells us. However, Bill would have stayed totally calm. "He just said: That's me, that's what I want and that’s what I represent. Even if we're not going to be successful." David Jost pauses significantly. If all of that was a film scene, violins would be sounding now.
To a certain extent Tokio Hotel's success story disproves a long-standing patent formula in the music business. Celebrities can be made out of any average guys as long as they pull out all the stops. The band of schoolboys from Magdeburg was a rough diamond, one only had to discover and cut it. Whether it will be enough for a worldwide career, is left to see. That American teenagers already know of the existence of the band is down to a simple, yet effective method: put up some news on the internet, a few pictures and videos - and it spreads by itself. Magazines like "Bravo" or German TV shows would have never been able to reach out to a foreign audience as fast as the internet portals Myspace and YouTube.
First and foremost the web-2.0-experienced fans who use the net as interactive communication media demand seemingly authentic celebrities that could have originated directly in their own midst - and also that is met by the four boys from the German countryside. They have got the right look, the right sound and they have got each other. Now all they need is another portion of good luck.
The phenomenon Tokio Hotel
On the road with Germany’s most successful band. Their story, their plans – exclusive pictures.
PAGE 44 & 45
The pop miracle from the countryside
Hysteric teen fans, chart successes and sold out venues. Four guys from Magdeburg are Germany ’s most successful band. Now they are also supposed to conquer the international market – and they might even succeed.
Bill picture: In love with Billy: Tokio Hotel singer Bill Kaulitz moves closer to the fans in Moscow
PAGE 46 & 47
Picture: Lunch break with a waiter: singer Bill Kaulitz looks at the served main course sceptically
They like eating fast food the best. Today it's the hotel cuisine's turn.
PAGE 48 & 49
Georg picture:Moscow views: Bassist Georg having a quiet minute in the hotel room. It faces the yard, in front of the hotel fans are screaming.
TH picture: Just like a small [version of] Michael Jackson: Bill Kaulitz (right), his twin brother Tom next to him and bassist Georg
Gordon picture: Gordon Trümper is Bill and Tom's step-father. Here he is [pictured] standing in front of his music school where his sons used to have their first rehearsal room
Bill picture: Life on the go and out of a suitcase: Bill Kaulitz in his hotel room in Moscow
Bill designs his [own] outfit - since he has been 11 years old
PAGE 50 & 51
Their music? Nirvana for teens, the soundtrack to puberty
Picture: Lined up for the press: Tokio Hotel during an interview with MTV Russia
PAGE 52
Bill live picture: Bill Kaulitz on stage in Moscow. Recently Russian TV reported that interest in German as a foreign language would have increased a lot thanks to Tokio Hotel
Bill in plane picture: [an] Unusal [sight] without make-up: Bill is woolgathering on the plane to Moscow
(German original by Hannes Ross and Andrea Ritter, Pictures by Thomas Rabsch)
It is late evening at the four-star restaurant “The Park” in Moscow . Vases with white lilies are standing on the tables, next to every plate are four forks, four knives and three spoons. In the far back, at a long table with many white candles, sits Bill Kaulitz, a lanky boy of 17 [years]. His eyes are painted with eyeliner to [achieve] fabulous size, his black hair is backcombed to pointy spikes standing in all directions. Next to him sits his twin brother Tom, having a red baseball cap pulled down in his face. His blonde dreadlocks fall over his slender shoulders like snakes. Across [him] a long-haired teenager is crouched, Georg Listing, 19, he keeps putting his fine mane behind his ear, next to him Gustav Schäfer, 18, a burly blonde who nervously drums on the table with cutlery.
The boys, all from a village nearby Magdeburg, seem as if their parents would have dragged them along to a posh restaurant. And now they want to get it over with as fast as they can. They feel out of place here.
Two waiters candidly make an effort not to take any notice of the four. But they do not succeed. They keep putting their heads together and grin. One franticly twirls through his hair, the other holds a hand in front of his mouth and chokes his laughter. They have no idea that those four guests, who wearily lounge in their chairs, are Germany’s most successful pop stars. Maybe they would know if they had little daughters. Not only in Berlin and Paris but also in Moscow girls between six and 13 years are crazy about Tokio Hotel.
Since the early morning hoursaround 300 Russian teenagers have been screaming "Biiill", "Toohm", "Gusstaw" or "Georrch" into the freezing air until their faces turn red outside the hotel. Girls that had to take the train for two hours just to get here. [Girls] that skip school for the first time in their lives for it. [Girls] that sit over German-Russian dictionaries with their friends in the afternoons. Nadia, 13, practises "Ichh liehbe dichh" (Ih lohve youu) just in case. In the evening Russian TV reports that the interest in the foreign language German has increased enormously amongst teenagers since the success of Tokio Hotel has reached the country.
PAGE 53
”Leave Germany!“, fans shouted at the concert in Moscow
Fans picture: Creative raptures: A Russian girl shows a self-made Bill doll to her idol
PAGE 54
"It's such a blast to play in front of 20,000 girls."
Devilish live picture:Rocking out in a skirt: (nb der Rock = skirt) Bill and Tokio Hotel at a competition in Magdeburg in 2003, back when they were still called "Devilish"
Devilish picture: Rehearsal break: Bill (second from the left) and his band in the backyard of where their first rehearsal room was in the summer of 2003
One does not hear the fans from inside. The high bank of windows of the restaurant is sound-proof and the hotel pianist gives his best to lull the remaining guests to sleep with a sonata by Schubert at this late hour. Bill Kaulitz yawns, his twin brother Tom scribbles small figures with his fork onto the tablecloth. “This here really isn’t our kind of world, so much luxury“, says Gustav. Does he know how much a hotel room is a night here? He shakes his head. 400 Euros. “That’s really a lot“, he says and bashfully looks down on his empty plate.
To everyone who up until now thought Tokio Hotel, that is this kids’ band with funny hair styles my daughter digs – no, the boys are not only a phenomenon from Flensburg (nb town in Northern Germany) to Freising (nb town in Southern Germany) . They are also a phenomenon to young Polish girls. To Austrian, Swiss, Dutch, Russian and French girls. Last year the debut album “Schrei” even entered the French charts at position 19. In the meantime, the band sold 50,000 CDs over there. A German-language record by four young East-Germans that is successful in the mother country of the “chanson“ – that is almost close to being a little miracle.
Tokio Hotel have already sold more than 1.5 million CDs in total. That is a sensational success even with competing groups like Silbermond and Juli selling similar amounts. However, bands do not make the big money primarily with CD sales anymore but in concert halls and Tokio Hotel are amongst the market leaders there. In the past, a tour was considered to be a promotional campaign for a CD. Nowadays, the days of free music on the internet and pirate copies, it is vice versa. Often a CD is only the reason for a new tour where then the millions are made. Tokio Hotel sold 350,000 tickets for an average price of 24 Euros on their last tour. “That was the most successful tour in our firm’s history“, says Alex Richter of Four Artists, Tokio Hotel’s concert promoter.
When Tokio Hotel were launched two years ago, its members were between 15 and 18 years old. [They were] Perfectly suited for a target group that already has got a considerable influence on charts and ticket sales for a long time: six to 13 year-old girls. With commercial hindsight this age group is interesting like that because those kids are still open-minded and one still reaches them as a unit, meaning before they start to divide up in Rock-, HipHop-, Reggae-, Pop- or Techno-fans. As a band Tokio Hotel combine current trends perfectly: band name and singer Bill’s appearance remind of Japanese Manga comics, guitarist Tom’s dreadlocks and clothing comply with American “street wear”. Bassist Georg resembles Brit poppers with side parting hair that he likes to listen to himself. And drummer Gustav is the down-to-earth guy, no-frills, nothing dolled up.
Their music: German, straight-forward rock. It is mainly their anthem-like choruses of the songs that carry away the fans of Tokio Hotel, as catchy as football fan sing-alongs in a stadium. Most pieces by the band are arranged like musical earthquakes: it starts low-key, ballad-like. While Bill Kaulitz sings in a clear, sad voice sounding a bit like the young Nena rock guitars are already lurking in the background that will then vociferously tear down the beautiful ballad construction in time for the chorus. Nirvana for teens. The soundtrack to puberty. A market niche.
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Picture: First posing for a camera on a sports field in Magdeburg. Back then Bill was still the smallest one, nowadays he towers over the others being 1.83 metres [tall].
Of course the hysteria surrounding Tokio Hotel gets managers dreaming. What works so well in German is supposed to be expanded now. According to plans of their record label Universal the four guys from Magdeburg are supposed to become world stars now. Presumably the first English language CD of the band will be released in England and America in May, in the USA on the successful Interscope label which has Eminim or Gwen Stefani signed amongst others. The concert in Moscow is part of the test series “Tokio Hotel International”. Bill Kaulitz is supposed to enthuse Russian teens with lyrics like "Schrei! Bis du du selbst bist" and "Leb die Sekunde" on stage of a former figure skating hall for the first time the next evening.
Right now Bill Kaulitz still has got other worries. Salmon in salt crust? Duck in dill crème? Crayfish soup? He looks sorrowfully through the menu. „I want pizza“, he then says in a quiet voice towards the waiting group. He does not say it in a demanding way like a stubborn child, he says it carefully and politely as if he would just want to test what would be possible. “Sure, you’ll get it, Bill”, the label supervisor says and smiles softly. The table gets cleared and bodyguard Saki is sent on his way. He is supposed to find a Pizza Hut branch in Moscow.
Roughly put, there are two things Bill Kaulitz loves more than anything: fast food and making music. Fast food is what he lives on and making music is his job. “To me it’s incredible fun to perform in front of 20,000 girls and to do something with them.” “To do something?“ “Yes, to play with them, to get them going, to make them laugh, to make them cry, to inspire emotions”, he says very professionally and at the same time still sounds like a boy who only just recently swapped his play room for the concert stage.
These days Tokio Hotel’s new single “Übers Ende der Welt” will be released and the second album “Zimmer 483” [will follow] in February. Once again it is in German, once again the lyrics are about love, anger and world-weariness (Weltschmerz) and once again [it is] pretty gloomy. Children-gothic, dark multi-coloured: their new song goes: "Achtung, fertig, los und lauf/Vor uns bricht der Himmel auf/Wir schaffen es zusammen/Übers Ende dieser Welt/Die hinter uns zerfällt."
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Bill Star Search picture: The first TV appearance: in 2003 Bill applied for the Sat1 casting show "Star Search" - and was kicked out in the end
Bill and Thomas Gottschalk picture: He could be his granpa: Thomas Gottschalk and Bill Kaulitz on "Wetten, dass..?" last Saturday
David Bowie picture: The style role model: One of Bill Kaulitz' big idols is the pop star and actor David Bowie
It seems as if Tokio Hotel would highlight the end of Happy-Hippo-children-pop music, Hartz IV [nb a reform that brought together unemployment benefits and social security benefits in Germany], job anxiety, violence at schools, right-wing radicalism, resolving families – all that is part of their generation’s daily life, they never experienced the cosy easy-going years of prosperity. Tokio Hotel sing about the drama of a divorce from a child’s point of view in “Gegen meinen Willen”: "Ihr guckt euch nicht mehr an/Und ihr glaubt, ich merk das nicht". (“Against my will”: “You’re not looking at each other anymore/And you think I wouldn’t notice it”) Such are lines that fans can identify with. “We can only write about things that concern ourselves”, says Bill, “everything else would be sellout.“ He knows what he is talking about there. His parents separated when he was still a child.
Anyone who listens to the way Bill Kaulitz talks about music, stage shows, song writing, might find it hard to believe that there is a boy sitting that dropped out of school after year nine. He is a professional – a star. And [he is] the main reason for the amazing success of his band. Everything began in the year 2003. After a 13-year-old Bill performed on the Sat.1-show “Star Search” producer Peter Hoffmann went to Magdeburg to take a look at Kaulitz and his band in a small club. Even back then he already wore make-up like a mixture of vampire and pixie. “Maybe David Bowie could partly be blamed for it”, he says, “I watched his fantasy film `Labyrinth` over and over and admired him.” In that [film] Bowie portrays the Goblin King with a backcombed tousle-mane.
He is running around in that outfit since a Halloween party when he was eleven. Back then the band already existed with its current members. Bill as the singer, his twin brother Tom as the guitarist, Gustav on drums and Georg on bass. They called themselves Devilish and had simple, rocking songs with titles like “Grauer Alltag” (“grey everyday life”) – ("Keine Arbeit und Gewalt/So wird hier keiner von uns alt/Politiker fühlen sich ganz schlau/und trotzdem bleibt der Alltag grau" – “no work and violence/none of us will grow old like that/politicians feel really clever/yet everyday life stays grey”). Perfect raw material, Hoffmann deemed. This wasn’t an auditioned bunch of teens but a real, young band. Hoffmann took producers Pat Benzner, David Jost and Dave Roth on board. Together they worked with the four guys in a studio for two years; they had been given music and singing lessons – and a new name. Devilish became Tokio Hotel. It sounded good to the guys and furthermore “it has to be a mind-blowing city”, says Bill, “even though we’ve never been there.”
Alex Gernandt, assistant editor of “Bravo”, was one of the first people being allowed to professionally check out the band. Gernandt – hoodie, trainers, 41 years old – speaks of “fascination” and “incredible visual appearance” when asked about what makes Tokio Hotel special. And when talking about the first encounter with the band he almost turns poetic. “It was a rainy day in May in the year 2005. That was when we set off to take a listen to those boys from Madgeburg – and I was instantly thrilled.”
To Gernandt it was obvious: That is the right product in the right moment of time. Bands like Juli or Silbermond had just turned pop-rock suitable for teenager rooms again – and Tokio Hotel’s single “Durch den Monsun“ was something like the “Perfekte Welle“ (“Perfect Wave“) for the generation of 10 [years] and over. And therefore “Bravo” decided to show “Believe”, which means in music business “Denglish” (German and English mixed) : here is someone to support an act, someone who believes in a group. With “Bravo” to provide initial assistance not much could go wrong anymore: prior to the first single the magazine already reported about “Germany ’s new super band”, stirred up curiosity and already set their sight on the newcomer’s market potential. Result: 60 e-mails. Being the feedback [received] to the first picture alone.
Of course their dedication to Tokio Hotel is also based on a tangible commercial related background. No other magazine is as dependent on fresh new teen-stars as “Bravo”. Thanks to several Tokio Hotel cover stories their circulation increased by a full 12.2 percent during the first quarter of last year. The international career will be the next big topic of the magazine. When asking the four guys about international plans they, however, turn fairly silent, almost unassertive. “We don’t really want to shout it from the rooftops”, bassist Georg says. Are they afraid of failure? “Nah, we don’t really have anything to lose, we’ve already achieved more than we’d ever hoped for”, Bill assures [us]. True. Westernhagen, Grönemeyer, Maffay, all the big German rockers had to play their way up in front of small audiences for many years. Tokio Hotel, on the other hand, launched in a flash. Already they fill up stadiums with 18,000 people.
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Bill and Tom already stood out with their outfits when they were children
Building picture: The Kaulitz-twins grew up in this low building by the potash mining dumps in Loitsche near Magdeburg
It is the second evening in Moscow. Bill, Tom, Gustav and Georg sit around a plastic table in their backstage room. Some gummy bears, some cans of Red Bull and a bowl with fruit placed on it. The mirrors on the wall are crooked. There are no windows. Not much pop star glamour. However, as soon as the door opens slightly one can already hear them scream from inside the hall: 6,000 Russian girls. A few shout: “Bill, leave Germany !”
"What am I supposed to say as a greeting?“, he asks and runs nervously through his tousled hair. “Say 'Dobryj wetscher'. That means „Good evening“ in Russian.“, says Gustav who had Russian in school for a few years. “Dobryi, what? I can’t remember that. I’ll forget that as soon as I’m on stage.“ Suddenly Bill seems like diminished, small and anxious. His hands are shaking a little bit when he opens a bottle of water. By now he is barely responsive, strangely lost in reverie. The press lady sends us out of the backstage room. 30 minutes left until the gig.
As the concert starts Bill seems as if transformed. Relaxed he stands behind the black stage curtain, juggles the mic casually from the left to the right hand, grins, breathes in and out deeply, scurries on the spot like a relay runner waiting for the starting signal. The band already plays the first notes. Thousands of girls have their eyes fixed on the stage. Where is Bill? Suddenly he dashes off, stands amidst the spotlight, throws his arms into the air and a gigantic screech fills the hall. Even as an adult one immediately feels: this boy has got something. This manic energy with which he shimmers through the air. This [kind of] body language when he remains in a perfect rock pose the next moment, the slanted hip, the bent arm, his look longing into the distance. He could be the joint son of Cher and David Bowie, dramatic and very gesticulate, androgynous and glamorous. A boy from the countryside who decided to be a star when he was twelve, who got make-up from the supermarket and cut his clothes into shape himself.
If anyone would like to know where all this comes from - one ends up in Loitsche, a village near Magdeburg, 670 habitants, car registration plate [starting with] OK. [Standing] For "Ohrekreis". "Tokio Hotel? They live over there", a neighbour says and points to a simple low rise building with view on a brown hill. Loitsche is the centre of potash mining. Not ugly, just a bit bleak. It is not hard to imagine that someone would start to write poems here. Or songs about grey everyday life (nb referring to the Song "Grauer Alltag").
The boys played in little clubs in Magdeburg and took part in local band competitions. Then the telephone call from the producer [followed], [causing] huge euphoria. But the first record deal with Sony BMG burst, the corporate group had cut the budget for newcomers.
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Band and Herbert Grönemeyer picture: The band had a conversation with Herbert Grönemeyer which was done for the anniversary issue of the magazine "Tempo" .
Nena and Bill picture: Bill Kaulitz worked together with Nena for the dubbing of a new animated film
"Looking back it wasn't that bad", says Trümper. "The boys learned right away how variable music business and how filigree success can be." And now? Is he worried that they might lose the plot some day? "Of course we think about it. But I've got the feeling that they won't lose the plot. They're incredibly euphoric after being on tour. But they always come down quickly, too. Then they're finding it great that everything's pretty normal back home", he says. "Somehow it’s true what famous people often say: one doesn't even change that much oneself - it's just your environment that approaches you differently."
Whether the band is filthy rich already - he prefers not to comment. The agreement between Tokio Hotel’s team of producers and the record label Universal is a so-called “Bandübernahmevertrag” (literal: a contract to take on a band) - that means that the record label buys the entire completed song material at a time and does not have to contribute to production costs. The band itself gets an alleged well-endowed artist's agreement which guarantees their share of all proceeds - CD sales, merchandising, tour revenues. "Up to now", one of the record managers says, "the band only knows one way since signing their contract: straight up.”
David Jost, 34, is part of the producers’ team and writes the songs together with the band. He wears trainers, leather jacket, dark circles underneath his eyes. He had to send friends to look at a new flat for himself in Hamburg. "For me there's no time left for it. Tokio Hotel is a life consuming job", he says. He develops the song lyrics together with Bill Kaulitz. "He had already started to write lyrics aged eight", Jost says. "We included most of it in their songs. That someone is already able to describe such emotional worlds at that age makes him an exceptional talent."
Jost is also some kind of band-dad, the man for specific tasks. He takes care that the boys don't run riot. The twins are still underage and are supposed to do their homework and study for their correspondence A-levels (Abitur) along the way. “That’s important to us”, says Bill, “in case that for whatever reason it [music career] doesn’t continue, we still want to have a school leaving certificate under our belts.”
Pink Box: Tokio Hotel as victims of satire[/b][/u]
"The most annoying German?"
Success has got its price: no other pop group gets mocked as much as Tokio Hotel. Taunting videos circulate especially on the internet.
(Not translated but this is basically a short article summarising the ways Tokio Hotel got mocked, e.g. with videos, comics, being on the cover of satire magazine "Titanic" and the comedian Carolin Kebekus. It gives some examples of the episodes she did for the parody called "Tokyo Motel" of which her being Bill was the main character.)
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Bill's tattoo picture: Bill and his TH-tattoo that he had done even before the first CD was released
The Kaulitz-twins left school after year nine as they were constantly on the road anyway. And if they happened to be there, however, lessons collapsed because fans from all over Germany besieged the schoolyard.
The apple [symbol] on Jost’s silver laptop is always illuminated, he continuously checks his e-mails, forever 400 would be unread, he says. He is with the boys when they have concerts; he accompanies them to every party. He reckons to have noticed how also more and more adults show “Believe” when it comes to the band. “The thing with that Bill,” he says, ”is mind-blowing. For example at the recent Echo-Awards: everybody wanted to talk to that guy. Other record labels’ bosses. I mean, actually, with an external artist that is off-limits. But they wanted an autograph from him. He was surrounded by 40 people at all times. Madness.” Even Herbert Grönemeyer whose daughter is a Tokio Hotel fan, recently gave his blessing to the Magdeburg guys: “At first I heard of the hype, then I wanted to know what it was all about. And when I listened to the music, I thought, that’s not some thrown-together something but [it] has got substance.” The image of the long-time smiled at teen band has changed. By now even a celebrity like Nena works together with Bill Kaulitz. Both work as voice actors for the new animated film „Arthur and the Invisibles“.
And how does Bill cope with all of this? „Amazingly well. But sure, it also strains him to be under continuous observation.“ David Jost says. By now the boys live together in a loft in Hamburg, the recording studio is just around the corner. However, they have not really settled there yet, the high ceiling rooms with parquet flooring seem a bit bare. In return there are entrance surveillances outside the door now because the fans quickly got wind of where the boys are living. Here they live out of their suitcases, ready to leave at any time; somewhere there is always a TV gala, a concert, a signing waiting for them.
There is only one bathroom in the loft. “We always argue about who can go in there last because that’s who may stay in there the longest”, Tom says. They don’t want own flats at all, “but we’re incredibly happy if we can go back home again to our parents to Magdeburg in between”, says Bill.
The moments when Bill Kaulitz also admits to down sides of his fame are rare. He wanted and wants what he got now, too much: unlimited attention, 24/7. Only sometimes it slips out of him. "I have to disguise myself with a cap and sunglasses when I happen to go shopping. However, a short shopping trip turns into a two hour signing including hundreds of photo requests, should a few fans still recognise me. That can be annoying sometimes." He says, re-listens to his words - and recollects again right away. "The fans are great though; all of them are totally lovely." Everybody within the band found their own way to escape the pressure: Gustav often just sits in a darkened hotel room after gigs, Georg already lifts weights in the early morning hours, and Tom says: "I come down best when I can lie around in bed and sleep in for 13 hours."
To Bill Kaulitz Tokio Hotel has always been more than a band. To him it was a vehicle to turn himself into a public art character. A character he had put to the test on small cellar stages for years already. Bill was damn serious about it. Even before the first record had been released, before anyone could have known whether it would be a success or not, Bill Kaulitz called David Jost one evening: I'm going to get the Tokio-Hotel-symbol tattooed in my neck, a "T" and a "H" twisted into each other. "Dude, you're crazy, I said to him, in the end this doesn't work out and then you've got this thing in your neck forever!", Jost tells us. However, Bill would have stayed totally calm. "He just said: That's me, that's what I want and that’s what I represent. Even if we're not going to be successful." David Jost pauses significantly. If all of that was a film scene, violins would be sounding now.
To a certain extent Tokio Hotel's success story disproves a long-standing patent formula in the music business. Celebrities can be made out of any average guys as long as they pull out all the stops. The band of schoolboys from Magdeburg was a rough diamond, one only had to discover and cut it. Whether it will be enough for a worldwide career, is left to see. That American teenagers already know of the existence of the band is down to a simple, yet effective method: put up some news on the internet, a few pictures and videos - and it spreads by itself. Magazines like "Bravo" or German TV shows would have never been able to reach out to a foreign audience as fast as the internet portals Myspace and YouTube.
First and foremost the web-2.0-experienced fans who use the net as interactive communication media demand seemingly authentic celebrities that could have originated directly in their own midst - and also that is met by the four boys from the German countryside. They have got the right look, the right sound and they have got each other. Now all they need is another portion of good luck.
