09.11.2009. - Entertaiment WeeklyTokio Hotel: A music mix Q&A
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pair of twins who only just turned twenty are leading Germany’s latest
musical blitzkrieg. Bill and Tom Kaulitz are half of the emo-pop
foursome Tokio Hotel, and with the release of their second U.S. album
Humanoid this October, the European superstars seem poised to finally
break into America’s mainstream.
Why is this group of Hot Topic
Deutschlanders leagues ahead of the competition? Maybe it’s lead singer
Bill Kaulitz’s thick Robert Smith makeup and Mad Max punk fashion
aesthetic. Or does the combination of twin brothers (and self-described
soul mates) in a band truly make for emo magic?
We talked to
them about guitarist Tom’s secret hip-hop recordings(!), Bill’s
Twilight obsession, and why they named their band after a city they’ve
never even been to.
Entertainment Weekly: Did you ever think you would end up so successful so quickly?
Bill
Kaulitz: No, we never, ever expected that. We came from a small village
and there is no music business there. We never expected it—it was a lot
of happy and lucky moments for us, and we are totally happy that we got
the chance to do all this. There was never a plan behind it. We just
did our thing and try to be good.
EW: Does your success change
the way you approach writing music? Do you ever go into the studio
thinking, “I should I try to write a hit”?
BK: We try to push
the pressure away. It’s not good in the studio if you think, “Oh, I
have to write a hit like ‘Monsoon’ or something.” You just go ahead and
write your thoughts down. Just try to do things you love and I think
then it’s always good. If you like what you do then it’s fine.
EW: Tom, I hear you’re into hip-hop—would you ever try to incorporate that into your sound?
Tom
Kaulitz: Sometimes—we have a home studio—sometimes I secretly put down
some beats, some guitar beats and stuff like that, but I never tried
that in our music. And I’m not a really good rapper, so I never tried
that. Maybe one day, maybe in ten years or something, but for now, no,
that’s not the plan.
EW: When you perform in English it sounds quite natural, but do you have to think about each syllable as you sing?
BK:
In the beginning, for the first English record it was really hard for
me because I’m a perfectionist and I really wanted it to sound natural
and not like a German who tries to sing in English. So it took some
time in the studio but now it’s totally fine for me. It was like the
beginning of Tokio Hotel. Ten years ago we started with that—we started
with English and German songs—but the English ones were so bad. It was
not good English, kind of embarrassing. But now I get really use to it.
If I’m onstage, it’s totally my song.
EW: You also have very distinctive looks. Are there any fashion influences you look to?
BK:
I don’t think so. I never had a role model or something. But as a kid I
loved all the vampire movies, so that might be an influence.
EW: Are you enjoying the vampire popularity with Twilight and everything?
BK:
Yeah, I really love this movie. Everyone was talking about it, and I
was very late. I didn’t know about the movie, and then everyone is
like, “you have to see it, you have to see it,” and I was like, “okay,
okay.” Then I was on the flight to L.A. and I saw the movie on the
plane and it’s really, really good.
EW: Being brothers, especially twins, does that make touring and recording easier, or do you ever find yourselves competing?
TK:
I think it’s both maybe, but it’s completely normal for us to be
together. We always have the same friends, we always have the same
interests in everything. We’re just, you know, together 24 hours,
everything a day.
BK: And I can’t—we can’t—live without each
other. We are always together. We are like one person and like soul
mates. We don’t have to talk.
TK: But if we fight, it’s a really tough fight. We take everything we find, like a table and a chair and everything. We fight.
BK: But it’s not that often, most of the time we are totally like one person.
EW: Is there anything you haven’t accomplished as a band that you’d love to?
TK: Uh, yeah, we want to play Tokyo.
BK: We’ve never been in Tokyo so far, so that’s one thing. And we want to play a world tour, that’s kind of a dream for us.
EW: So what’s with your love of Tokyo if you haven’t been there, what does it mean to you?
BK:
I think we just heard about it and it’s like a huge city and of course
it’s a cool sound: ‘Tokyo” sounds so cool. So that was the main reason
why we chose it.
Jedan par blizanaca,
koji su tek napunili 20 godina, su glavna stvar u nemackom muzickom
biznisu. Bill i Tom Kaulitz cine polovinu emo-pop sastava Tokio Hotel,
i sa izdavanjem drugog engleskog albuma u Americi, evropske superzvezde
se nadaju velikom proboju.
Zasto su ovi Nemci toliko ispred sve
konkurencije? Mozda je to zbog sminke Billa Kaulitza, radjene u stilu
Roberta Smitha, ili zbog mode u stilu Mad max-a. Ili je mozda to zbog
kombinacije brace blizanaca (i kako oni sami priznaju, srodnih dusa)
koji zajedno u bendu cine emo magiju?
Pricali smo sa njima, sa
Tomom o njegovim tajnim Hip-Hop snimanjima (!), Billovom opsesijom
filmom Twilight, i zasto su bend nazvali prema gradu u kome nikada nisu
bili.
EW: Da li ste ikada ocekivali da cete biti ovako popularni?
Bill Kaulitz:Ne, nikada to nismo ocekivali. Dolazimo iz malog mesta i tamo nema
posla oko muzike. Nikada nismo nista ocekivali - bilo je puno srecnih
trenutaka za nas i jako smo srecni sto nam se pruzila sansa za sve ovo.
Nikad nije stajao nikakav plan iza svega ovoga. Mi smo samo radili nasu
stvar i trudili se da u tome budemo dobri.
EW: Da li je vas uspeh uticao na nacin na koji pisete pesme? Da li nekad ulazite u studio sa mislju: "Moram da napisem hit"?
Bill Kaulitz:Pokusavamo da se oslobodimo pritiska. Nije dobro da udjes u studio i
mislis: "E moram da napisem hit kao sto je Monsoon ili nesto tako."
Samo pocnes da zapisujes svoje misli. Samo radi ono sto volis, to je
uvek dobro. Ako volis to sto radis onda je sve dobro.
EW: Tom, znamo da ti se svidja Hip Hop. Da li bi ikada ubacio malo Hip Hopa u vas zvuk?
Tom Kaulitz:Ponekad - posto imamo studio kod kuce - ponekad tajno zapisujem neke
ritmove, akorde i tako, ali to nisam pokusavao sa nasom muzikom. Nisam
bas dobar reper, tako da to nikad nisam pokusavao. Mada jednog dana, za
10 godina ili tako, ali za sada nam to nije u planu.
EW: Kada pevate na engleskom, zvucite veoma prirodno, ali da li razmisljate o svakom slogu koji treba da otpevate?
Bill Kaulitz:U pocetku je bilo jako tesko da snimamo album na engleskom, meni je
bilo jako tesko jer sam perfekcionista i zeleo sam da zvucim prirodno,
a ne kao Nemac koji hoce da peva na engleskom. Tako da je trebalo malo
vise vremena u studiu, ali sada je super. Tako je bilo i na samom
pocetku Tokio Hotela. Pre deset godina poceli smo da snimamo i na
engleskom i na nemackom - ali engleske pesme su bile jako lose. Moj
engleski je bio ocajan, bilo je cak i sramotno, malo. Ali sada sam se
bas navikao. Kada sam na bini, to je onaj pravi osecaj.
EW: Takodje, vi imate i veoma upecatljiv izgled. Da li imate modnog uzora?
Bill Kaulitz: Nemamo. Nikad nisam imao uzora ni u cemu. Ali kao mali sam obozavao filmove sa vampirima, mozda je to imalo uticaja.
EW: Da li uzivate u popularnosti Twilight filmova o vampirima?
Bill Kaulitz:Da, bas volim ovaj film. Svi su o tome pricali, a ja sam malo kasnio.
Nisam znao nista o filmu, a onda su mi svi rekli: "Moras da pogledas,
moras da pogledas" a ja sam bio sav "ok, ok." Gledao sam ga na putu za
Los Andjeles i jako mi se svideo.
EW: Posto ste blizanci, da li je zbog toga snimanje lakse, i da li se nekad nadmecete oko necega?
Tom Kaulitz:Mislim da su oba slucaja u pitanju, ali za nas je potpuno normalno da
smo stalno zajedno. Uvek smo imali iste prijatelje, ista interesovanja
u svemu. Zajedno smo, pa, 24 sata, svaki dan. (
)
Bill Kaulitz:I ja ne mogu - mi ne mozemo, da zivimo jedan bez drugog. Uvek smo
zajedno. Mi smo kao jedna osoba, i kao srodne duse. Ne moramo da
razgovaramo.
Tom Kaulitz: Ali se svadjamo, i to bas opasno. Sve sto nadjemo blizu upotrebimo, sto, ili stolicu, bilo sta....tucemo se.
Bill Kaulitz: Ali retko, uglavnom smo jedna ista osoba.
EW: Da li ima nesto sto zelite da uradite kao bend, a jos uvek niste?
Tom Kaulitz: U, da, zelimo da sviramo u Tokiju.
Bill Kaulitz: Nikad nismo bili u Tokiju, tako da je to jedna stvar. I zelimo da uradimo jednu svetsku turneju, to nam je takodje veliki san.
EW: Pa zasto toliko volite Tokio, kad nikad niste bili tamo?
Bill Kaulitz:Pa samo smo culi o njemu, kao da je veliki grad, a i naziv je cool:
"Tokyo", zvuci tako cool. Tako da je to bio glavni razlog sto smo ga
odabrali.
Izvor:
EW.com 
