Intelligent, Much Employed, and Rather Cool- The Guys from "Killerpilze" Translation
Some notes:
-All instances of you when used by the interviewer are plural. All instances of you when used by one of the Jungs correlate to the British "one".
-This should not be taken as a word-for-word translation and multiple instances exist where whole sentences have been changed to reflect what I perceive to be the spirit of the sentence. Which is to say, multiple sentences offend me grammatically or generally make no sense in English and have been changed as a result.
-It should be assumed that any misspellings, punctuation issues, or other non-verbal errors are the fault of Cityguide and not the band or myself. This is a written record of an interview.
From CityGuide.
The band has existed now for more than 10 years. The 3 guys (Jo, Fabi, and Mäx) have matured from Teenie-Band to truely handsome men and have also already achieved on their own as a band. For the last two years they’ve worked under their own label “Kilelrpilzerecords” [(sic)] and have already released 2 self-produced punk rock albums and are currently working on the next. The guys will go on tour in the fall and will visit Mannheim on 11/1/2012. Cityguide interviewed the Killerpilze under bright sunshine and the three underwent it very humorously.
How are you at the moment?
JO: “Good, bit tired today because we were on the radio at 7 a.m.. The bags under our eyes are a bit big. But otherwise very good. We’re on tour just now and came directly from Vienna.”
(Fabi: “We were in Landau. That is a little bit away, about an hour.”)
You guys also have another thing planned for tonight!
Jo: “We still have to go on to Oberhausen today and tomorrow is the unofficial 10 Years Show in our hometown in Bavaria in Dillingen. 10 Years Killerpilze and then we’re playing more festivals in the middle of May and apart from that we’re working diligently on the album for next year. In the fall we’re going to do another 10 Years Killerpilze Tour. “The greytest Hits Tour” with “grey” like grey. And there we’ll play a few concerts, amongs others [one] in Mannheim on 11/1/2012.”
In the old ropeyard?
Jo: “Exactly. And then, at the same time, something with the new album will be happening. Whether that is a preview-video or something of the sort we don’t know just yet. There will definitely be something. We’re planning something more relaxed this year because we released two albums in the last two years and this year we’re simply going to take a little bit out of the routine, concentrate on the tours, in which we aren’t playing so much now and just simply produce songs. “
You guys have been in the business a really long time, how does that feel?
Jo: “It’s been 10 years now, we are ourselves sometimes really surprised that it’s been 10 years now. It doesn’t seem so long to us now.”
At the moment, is it a phase for you to reflect on the times?
Jo: “Absolutely. This year is important for us. Much has happened. There was, of course, this Universal thing and then the founding of our own label. Like I said, the last 2 years we’ve been rustled through, since we’ve played 120 concerts. And now a little bit calmer of a year by all means does us good.”
How do you do it anyhow, if you have your own label, are by yourselves on tour, working on albums. Don’t you just keel over sometimes?
Fabi: “There are more and more of these types of phases, so a tour-phase or campaign-phase can, of course, always be stressful but it’s never stress in the sense of stress, you work on the things that you took in intensively in the months before and you are really happy when it’s finally done. The more you may do in interviews and the more you can express yourself, the more fun it will be. Then there are also phases, after a festival tour, where you don’t play anything. And then [are the times] where it is rather calm, [which are] always difficult for us, because we are also a band that wants to be on tour, to get through. We are very glad to be on tour and traveling, it doesn’t matter if it’s appearances or promotional tours or howsoever.”
That is to say, it is most important for you to be on stage and not to sit in the studio, producing things for yourselves or others?
Jo: “Stage is absolutely the best. We’ve also noticed we still haven’t played much this year. Even in Vienna the day before yesterday. Yes, that is exactly what we need we’re taking the power off us then also burying into the studio again and writing songs. That is indeed not stressful but it‘s just more work to really think about songs [to make them] mature. But in the end there isn’t real work for us with the band, we don’t want to complain there. Like Noel Galagher said in the last interview “Every rockstar who complains that he has to to do a lot of traveling or so, he should f*ck himself because it is simply the best job in the world”
Mäx: “Stage is the coolest for us.”
And you wouldn’t want to change your career anymore?
Mäx: “No, absolutely not. But we also study on the side and are also occupied there. Everyone does something in the creative field that also helps with the band.”
Jo: “Because technically music is now somehow nonsense to study, because we all have contacts there and have over the 10 years ourselves also gathered experience. That is always the balance, that allows everything to arrange very well with studies and, as I said, if there are a lot of things going on on tour next year, then you can set aside a semester, if needs be. That is really the good thing about studying.”
Normal students do that, too.
Jo: “Yes!”
I just have to ask something very personal, what is the worst question that a journalist can ask you?
Jo: “There aren’t actually any bad questions. The question about the band‘s name, of course, has held constant for 10 years “Why are we called Killerpilze and not something else?”
Mäx: “The worst is actually when someone is unprepared and then says false things and claims: “That was how it was!” You can’t actually do much wrong with questions, though there are questions that you’ve answered thousands of times, like the band‘s name or “What do you have in your refrigerator?” is perhaps not so incredibly interesting right now, at least for us. It’s just more aggravating if someone’s not prepared.”
Jo: “Otherwise, you can talk openly about everything. We’re rather relaxed there.”
You‘re in Austria and in Switzerland often, where is your favorite audience? At home?
Mäx: “You notice a difference, we’ve gone to Russia, France. That is for us really cool when you hear the French fans, how they know our German lyrics by heart and I mean really word for word. And back when we were in Russia, Poland, the Czech Republic there you notice somehow that it’s more extreme, that the people are somehow more physical, more focussed. With flags in the audience. That is amazing for the band when you see that sort of thing.”
Fabi: “It’s clear we’re naturally proportionally less [popular] abroad. We’re in countries like France two times a year or so, more fans come there at one go because they know they can only see us two times a year. Therefore, it is in part somewhat more heated. Austria and Germany are the main markets, however. Meanwhile is is, thankfully, very relaxed there and we are just glad that we are able to tour so much.”
Jo: “We also gather many impressions in the different locations. We began [to tour] abroad around 2007 and before that we were, of course, only here in Germany, Austria, and then came the Benelux countries [(Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxemburg)] and France, Russia, and we were in Italy once. For us as a band those are always so gimmicks. We concentrate on those. There are definitely highlights. But [(this was misspelled)] it is also not as if we have to tour abroad the whole time. But we like to travel there, if requests exist. Last year we were in Greece and in Turkey, for example.”
How have you managed to continuously develop over the many years? Through the different experiences? At the beginning, the music was somewhat poppier, shallower and now rockier?
Jo: “On the one hand, that’s due to age because we really began extremely early and the music was simply exactly that which we wanted to make. And that kept changing with the years. Then there are also the experiences, often also points in the band history, like now the separation from Universal, which wasn’t so easy for us and not so obvious as it proceeds now. For us, it was clear we would continue to make music, but whether we would hae our own label or search for something else, that was not clear at the time. And then there are always phases where you struggle to your feet and then, I believe, you grow musically and we have also grown together as a band in the last 10 years. We’ve always been the best of friends but that was never, just when things are going well but even when it’s sometimes shit, so.”
Fabi: “And I believe also we ourselves as a band, we have there extremely high standards also, musically, lyrics. What we now see again just while writing for the next album. We just want to develop more and more extreme and we are also increasingly aware that much can still be better. We then search for solutions to how it can become even better. We have high demands for ourselves. Because we want to distinguish ourselves musically and always want to be proud of what we‘ve manufactured at the time.”
Jo: “Of course, it is also true that there are prejudices because of the name. Many still have this picture in their heads of our 2006 phase. And we just want people to think that it’s a cool band that makes good music. We also know that we have potential. We don’t rush freely on ahead the reputation of a cool live band and we just want to bring that on board. We also fiddle with the new album as long as it takes until it’s right and bring nothing out prematurely.”
And what do the fans and listeners expect from the new album?
Mäx: “Well, it will be a very personal album. There will only be autiobiographical stuff in it and we will throw also words into the bargain. Stories from our lives, things that have happened to us, and experiences to work with there.”
That was always a characteristic of the Killerpilzes, to be very personal.
All: “Absolutely!”
Mäx: “We’re now more mature and now slowly fine the right words to describe that. That is also always the question, how you express that. And now we have just [(misspelled)] the feeling that we currently succeed very well with the new songs.”
Jo: “There are many songs from us which take up specific themes which are rather ironic, rather playful and that should not be lost. We want to keep our puns anyway. And despite that it is very important for us to go the extra mile. And that we make an album that you can still confidently listen to in 5 years. The next album should simply be a turning point for us, location to be determined. There are certain albums which you associate with Killerpilze and we want this to be another one. Virtually establish a cesura. And that’s why we work very precisely and maturely on it."
And when you look at the last 10 years, what was the most beautiful and moving moment?
Fabi: “There were many different ones.”
Jo:“An experience was, of course, when we received our golden record for 100,000 sold albums. That was at the time perhaps a little unreal, but it was awesome in any case. And you can look at the wall again and see what you’ve achieved."
Fabi: “There were both Ethiopia trips, the “People for People” Project.”
You are there all told very dedicated.
Jo and Fabi: “Yes, select things, but those properly.”
Fabi: “We have 2-3 actions we are pursuing intensively, those then properly. And we were there even with “People for People” two times in Ethiopia on-site. Once to rebuild a destroyed school. And once at a school that our fans built through donations. That is also a great experience. That is, of course, completely different as that which you experience as a band. But for us as people it was a very defining experience.”
Mäx: “It‘s unbelievable how excited the people there were. The adults go there in the evenings now to night school. 500 kids walk 15 km to school and we drove there over rocks and stones through the veld to get there. And the people were incredibly friendly and approachable. That was totally great to see such a thing that we so affected. Building a school! By now a few buildings have followed.”
Are you also looking to give something back for the success that you have here?
Jo: “That is a project that we hold near and dear. I also believe that we will always do [so]. We support 2 specific projects that and “Not Up for Nazis”. We always get many requests for such charity things and you have to weigh that also. We don’t want to be a band that says “yes” and “Amen” to everyone and then doesn’t do anything intelligent.”
Mäx: “Or so image-moderate, there’s that too. That we take up the cause of something. It’s no use. We are passionate about it and particularly “People for People” because we were in Ethiopia twice.”
Jo: “We are also aware that this can be a project that goes beyond the band’s career. We don’t plan to separate in the forseeable future. We must inherit from all the old bands, however it is a lifetime thing. You can, I believe, still do that in 30 years.”
Now we’ve deviated a bit from the actual questions which were, what were your nicest moments?
Fabi: “I think that the last two years, since there was Killerpilzerecords, especially were. And again for us because we have scheduled ourselves to a completely other level and have approached with a different philosophy when it comes to a band. Also what concerns the makeup of a band. It was so extremely close, how the years passed before a lot of very fast and perhaps too fast. Since there was now this: You get every article that is written, that has to do with you, since you coordinate it is again very different with it. Since you're already really proud of if one disk [(of yours)] is on the CD rack. And then you think "Hey, cool, we've done it all by ourselves!" We’ve achieved this with our small team! This was again a different experience. They were also really important for us, the last two years. There was the first step and we were glad that we went that way. We have seen that everything has gone in the right direction. It’s taken a lot of courage for the current album and the ones before it.”
Jo: “There are also many nice life-moments.”
Mäx: “When we were here in Mannheim before, because we played in the Arena of Pop, there were 80,000 people. That was huge for us.”
But that is nice, that you connect something nice with Mannheim.
Jo: We talked about it a short while ago that that was our biggest concert. That was a day before my birthday. That was the biggest! 80,000 people, that is a crowd. We’re always happy to come here. Mäx always says that it’s the little Berlin for him.It has a certain flair. Is again completely different from Frankfurt. We’re glad that we’ll have another show in Mannheim on 11/1.
You were really quite young when you began, how have you done that, that you have further developed not just musically but also personally?
Mäx: “I think it’s just that we went to school as normal. We concentrated on the band during the vacation season and during the week we went to school as normal.”
Jo: “Quite so you can’t say that we were traveling way too much at the time.”
Mäx: “Yes we were of course traveling a lot but I mean many other bands that in the course also became famous, they all threw school away. They said “Now only band, high life, rockstar!” And we continued to go to school and that has definitely kept us on the ground. If you see your friends regularly and their families and you are despite that still a completely normal teenager apart from the whole interviews, appearances, and concerts. That is the most important thing and has brought us a lot.”
Fabi: “Yes, even the providing of a spiritual home and everything that goes with it: The school, the family, the friends, that which is at home. We come from a smalltown where things aren’t so excited. So you are held to the ground when you come back.”
Jo: “There were also phases where we were to briefly say “ School is crap! We want to throw everything away.” Up until the first Ethiopia trip it was that way, I earn good money now and now everything is working out and now I‘ll throw away school and then we even told our families and our friends “Don’t you dare do that!” and I’m also happy that that was so.”
Fabi: “Otherwise we couldn’t even play now.”
Mäx: “And we have pulled through successfully!”
Jo: “It wasn’t like we were bad students. It’s all good the way it is. We thankfully didn’t do overly bad by ourselves with school.”
How is it personally between yourselves?
Jo: “Actually, we‘re brothers! We miss each other if we don’t see each other for a long time so it really is. Because of that we are always happy that we are traveling again.”
Mäx: “And at the time like such phases as the break from Universal, where there was a gigantic team of 30/35 people and that was then simply shrunk to 3.”
Jo: “Only us 3!”
Mäx: “And then we really showed that we as a band had a great foundation. And that we struggled to our feet. We’ve built a small, family team around us. That welded then of course together. You make so many experiences with one another. We can talk greatly with each other and obviously we fight something and can argue, but there we are all on a level and that‘s remarkable. We went through the whole of puberty together. You have to actually see that! And we have all have the same goal and have grown ever closer to each other.”
Jo: “What that goal and the vision for the band is, that we’ve always shared. Also if the vision altogether maybe changed but it was always so that we developed it together and share [it]. I don’t believe that it will change. There was also no phase where I ever thought “oh, this is getting on my nerves and I don’t want to have any more to do with them.” It is simply perfect and continues to grow, continues to grow healthily.”
Now I have only one more question, whether you have wishes or greetings for our Cityguide readers?
Jo: “We wish you all well and say hello!” (Laughs)
Fabi: “And lots of love!”
Jo: “Lots of love and Rock n Roll. Have a lot of fun and enjoy the summer. It is also still a while until November but we’re really looking forward to our first headlining show in Mannheim. At our 10 Years Tour, you can [go] see that. We’ll play many old and new songs and will certainly play songs from the upcoming album then. ”
-All instances of you when used by the interviewer are plural. All instances of you when used by one of the Jungs correlate to the British "one".
-This should not be taken as a word-for-word translation and multiple instances exist where whole sentences have been changed to reflect what I perceive to be the spirit of the sentence. Which is to say, multiple sentences offend me grammatically or generally make no sense in English and have been changed as a result.
-It should be assumed that any misspellings, punctuation issues, or other non-verbal errors are the fault of Cityguide and not the band or myself. This is a written record of an interview.
From CityGuide.
The band has existed now for more than 10 years. The 3 guys (Jo, Fabi, and Mäx) have matured from Teenie-Band to truely handsome men and have also already achieved on their own as a band. For the last two years they’ve worked under their own label “Kilelrpilzerecords” [(sic)] and have already released 2 self-produced punk rock albums and are currently working on the next. The guys will go on tour in the fall and will visit Mannheim on 11/1/2012. Cityguide interviewed the Killerpilze under bright sunshine and the three underwent it very humorously.
How are you at the moment?
JO: “Good, bit tired today because we were on the radio at 7 a.m.. The bags under our eyes are a bit big. But otherwise very good. We’re on tour just now and came directly from Vienna.”
(Fabi: “We were in Landau. That is a little bit away, about an hour.”)
You guys also have another thing planned for tonight!
Jo: “We still have to go on to Oberhausen today and tomorrow is the unofficial 10 Years Show in our hometown in Bavaria in Dillingen. 10 Years Killerpilze and then we’re playing more festivals in the middle of May and apart from that we’re working diligently on the album for next year. In the fall we’re going to do another 10 Years Killerpilze Tour. “The greytest Hits Tour” with “grey” like grey. And there we’ll play a few concerts, amongs others [one] in Mannheim on 11/1/2012.”
In the old ropeyard?
Jo: “Exactly. And then, at the same time, something with the new album will be happening. Whether that is a preview-video or something of the sort we don’t know just yet. There will definitely be something. We’re planning something more relaxed this year because we released two albums in the last two years and this year we’re simply going to take a little bit out of the routine, concentrate on the tours, in which we aren’t playing so much now and just simply produce songs. “
You guys have been in the business a really long time, how does that feel?
Jo: “It’s been 10 years now, we are ourselves sometimes really surprised that it’s been 10 years now. It doesn’t seem so long to us now.”
At the moment, is it a phase for you to reflect on the times?
Jo: “Absolutely. This year is important for us. Much has happened. There was, of course, this Universal thing and then the founding of our own label. Like I said, the last 2 years we’ve been rustled through, since we’ve played 120 concerts. And now a little bit calmer of a year by all means does us good.”
How do you do it anyhow, if you have your own label, are by yourselves on tour, working on albums. Don’t you just keel over sometimes?
Fabi: “There are more and more of these types of phases, so a tour-phase or campaign-phase can, of course, always be stressful but it’s never stress in the sense of stress, you work on the things that you took in intensively in the months before and you are really happy when it’s finally done. The more you may do in interviews and the more you can express yourself, the more fun it will be. Then there are also phases, after a festival tour, where you don’t play anything. And then [are the times] where it is rather calm, [which are] always difficult for us, because we are also a band that wants to be on tour, to get through. We are very glad to be on tour and traveling, it doesn’t matter if it’s appearances or promotional tours or howsoever.”
That is to say, it is most important for you to be on stage and not to sit in the studio, producing things for yourselves or others?
Jo: “Stage is absolutely the best. We’ve also noticed we still haven’t played much this year. Even in Vienna the day before yesterday. Yes, that is exactly what we need we’re taking the power off us then also burying into the studio again and writing songs. That is indeed not stressful but it‘s just more work to really think about songs [to make them] mature. But in the end there isn’t real work for us with the band, we don’t want to complain there. Like Noel Galagher said in the last interview “Every rockstar who complains that he has to to do a lot of traveling or so, he should f*ck himself because it is simply the best job in the world”
Mäx: “Stage is the coolest for us.”
And you wouldn’t want to change your career anymore?
Mäx: “No, absolutely not. But we also study on the side and are also occupied there. Everyone does something in the creative field that also helps with the band.”
Jo: “Because technically music is now somehow nonsense to study, because we all have contacts there and have over the 10 years ourselves also gathered experience. That is always the balance, that allows everything to arrange very well with studies and, as I said, if there are a lot of things going on on tour next year, then you can set aside a semester, if needs be. That is really the good thing about studying.”
Normal students do that, too.
Jo: “Yes!”
I just have to ask something very personal, what is the worst question that a journalist can ask you?
Jo: “There aren’t actually any bad questions. The question about the band‘s name, of course, has held constant for 10 years “Why are we called Killerpilze and not something else?”
Mäx: “The worst is actually when someone is unprepared and then says false things and claims: “That was how it was!” You can’t actually do much wrong with questions, though there are questions that you’ve answered thousands of times, like the band‘s name or “What do you have in your refrigerator?” is perhaps not so incredibly interesting right now, at least for us. It’s just more aggravating if someone’s not prepared.”
Jo: “Otherwise, you can talk openly about everything. We’re rather relaxed there.”
You‘re in Austria and in Switzerland often, where is your favorite audience? At home?
Mäx: “You notice a difference, we’ve gone to Russia, France. That is for us really cool when you hear the French fans, how they know our German lyrics by heart and I mean really word for word. And back when we were in Russia, Poland, the Czech Republic there you notice somehow that it’s more extreme, that the people are somehow more physical, more focussed. With flags in the audience. That is amazing for the band when you see that sort of thing.”
Fabi: “It’s clear we’re naturally proportionally less [popular] abroad. We’re in countries like France two times a year or so, more fans come there at one go because they know they can only see us two times a year. Therefore, it is in part somewhat more heated. Austria and Germany are the main markets, however. Meanwhile is is, thankfully, very relaxed there and we are just glad that we are able to tour so much.”
Jo: “We also gather many impressions in the different locations. We began [to tour] abroad around 2007 and before that we were, of course, only here in Germany, Austria, and then came the Benelux countries [(Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxemburg)] and France, Russia, and we were in Italy once. For us as a band those are always so gimmicks. We concentrate on those. There are definitely highlights. But [(this was misspelled)] it is also not as if we have to tour abroad the whole time. But we like to travel there, if requests exist. Last year we were in Greece and in Turkey, for example.”
How have you managed to continuously develop over the many years? Through the different experiences? At the beginning, the music was somewhat poppier, shallower and now rockier?
Jo: “On the one hand, that’s due to age because we really began extremely early and the music was simply exactly that which we wanted to make. And that kept changing with the years. Then there are also the experiences, often also points in the band history, like now the separation from Universal, which wasn’t so easy for us and not so obvious as it proceeds now. For us, it was clear we would continue to make music, but whether we would hae our own label or search for something else, that was not clear at the time. And then there are always phases where you struggle to your feet and then, I believe, you grow musically and we have also grown together as a band in the last 10 years. We’ve always been the best of friends but that was never, just when things are going well but even when it’s sometimes shit, so.”
Fabi: “And I believe also we ourselves as a band, we have there extremely high standards also, musically, lyrics. What we now see again just while writing for the next album. We just want to develop more and more extreme and we are also increasingly aware that much can still be better. We then search for solutions to how it can become even better. We have high demands for ourselves. Because we want to distinguish ourselves musically and always want to be proud of what we‘ve manufactured at the time.”
Jo: “Of course, it is also true that there are prejudices because of the name. Many still have this picture in their heads of our 2006 phase. And we just want people to think that it’s a cool band that makes good music. We also know that we have potential. We don’t rush freely on ahead the reputation of a cool live band and we just want to bring that on board. We also fiddle with the new album as long as it takes until it’s right and bring nothing out prematurely.”
And what do the fans and listeners expect from the new album?
Mäx: “Well, it will be a very personal album. There will only be autiobiographical stuff in it and we will throw also words into the bargain. Stories from our lives, things that have happened to us, and experiences to work with there.”
That was always a characteristic of the Killerpilzes, to be very personal.
All: “Absolutely!”
Mäx: “We’re now more mature and now slowly fine the right words to describe that. That is also always the question, how you express that. And now we have just [(misspelled)] the feeling that we currently succeed very well with the new songs.”
Jo: “There are many songs from us which take up specific themes which are rather ironic, rather playful and that should not be lost. We want to keep our puns anyway. And despite that it is very important for us to go the extra mile. And that we make an album that you can still confidently listen to in 5 years. The next album should simply be a turning point for us, location to be determined. There are certain albums which you associate with Killerpilze and we want this to be another one. Virtually establish a cesura. And that’s why we work very precisely and maturely on it."
And when you look at the last 10 years, what was the most beautiful and moving moment?
Fabi: “There were many different ones.”
Jo:“An experience was, of course, when we received our golden record for 100,000 sold albums. That was at the time perhaps a little unreal, but it was awesome in any case. And you can look at the wall again and see what you’ve achieved."
Fabi: “There were both Ethiopia trips, the “People for People” Project.”
You are there all told very dedicated.
Jo and Fabi: “Yes, select things, but those properly.”
Fabi: “We have 2-3 actions we are pursuing intensively, those then properly. And we were there even with “People for People” two times in Ethiopia on-site. Once to rebuild a destroyed school. And once at a school that our fans built through donations. That is also a great experience. That is, of course, completely different as that which you experience as a band. But for us as people it was a very defining experience.”
Mäx: “It‘s unbelievable how excited the people there were. The adults go there in the evenings now to night school. 500 kids walk 15 km to school and we drove there over rocks and stones through the veld to get there. And the people were incredibly friendly and approachable. That was totally great to see such a thing that we so affected. Building a school! By now a few buildings have followed.”
Are you also looking to give something back for the success that you have here?
Jo: “That is a project that we hold near and dear. I also believe that we will always do [so]. We support 2 specific projects that and “Not Up for Nazis”. We always get many requests for such charity things and you have to weigh that also. We don’t want to be a band that says “yes” and “Amen” to everyone and then doesn’t do anything intelligent.”
Mäx: “Or so image-moderate, there’s that too. That we take up the cause of something. It’s no use. We are passionate about it and particularly “People for People” because we were in Ethiopia twice.”
Jo: “We are also aware that this can be a project that goes beyond the band’s career. We don’t plan to separate in the forseeable future. We must inherit from all the old bands, however it is a lifetime thing. You can, I believe, still do that in 30 years.”
Now we’ve deviated a bit from the actual questions which were, what were your nicest moments?
Fabi: “I think that the last two years, since there was Killerpilzerecords, especially were. And again for us because we have scheduled ourselves to a completely other level and have approached with a different philosophy when it comes to a band. Also what concerns the makeup of a band. It was so extremely close, how the years passed before a lot of very fast and perhaps too fast. Since there was now this: You get every article that is written, that has to do with you, since you coordinate it is again very different with it. Since you're already really proud of if one disk [(of yours)] is on the CD rack. And then you think "Hey, cool, we've done it all by ourselves!" We’ve achieved this with our small team! This was again a different experience. They were also really important for us, the last two years. There was the first step and we were glad that we went that way. We have seen that everything has gone in the right direction. It’s taken a lot of courage for the current album and the ones before it.”
Jo: “There are also many nice life-moments.”
Mäx: “When we were here in Mannheim before, because we played in the Arena of Pop, there were 80,000 people. That was huge for us.”
But that is nice, that you connect something nice with Mannheim.
Jo: We talked about it a short while ago that that was our biggest concert. That was a day before my birthday. That was the biggest! 80,000 people, that is a crowd. We’re always happy to come here. Mäx always says that it’s the little Berlin for him.It has a certain flair. Is again completely different from Frankfurt. We’re glad that we’ll have another show in Mannheim on 11/1.
You were really quite young when you began, how have you done that, that you have further developed not just musically but also personally?
Mäx: “I think it’s just that we went to school as normal. We concentrated on the band during the vacation season and during the week we went to school as normal.”
Jo: “Quite so you can’t say that we were traveling way too much at the time.”
Mäx: “Yes we were of course traveling a lot but I mean many other bands that in the course also became famous, they all threw school away. They said “Now only band, high life, rockstar!” And we continued to go to school and that has definitely kept us on the ground. If you see your friends regularly and their families and you are despite that still a completely normal teenager apart from the whole interviews, appearances, and concerts. That is the most important thing and has brought us a lot.”
Fabi: “Yes, even the providing of a spiritual home and everything that goes with it: The school, the family, the friends, that which is at home. We come from a smalltown where things aren’t so excited. So you are held to the ground when you come back.”
Jo: “There were also phases where we were to briefly say “ School is crap! We want to throw everything away.” Up until the first Ethiopia trip it was that way, I earn good money now and now everything is working out and now I‘ll throw away school and then we even told our families and our friends “Don’t you dare do that!” and I’m also happy that that was so.”
Fabi: “Otherwise we couldn’t even play now.”
Mäx: “And we have pulled through successfully!”
Jo: “It wasn’t like we were bad students. It’s all good the way it is. We thankfully didn’t do overly bad by ourselves with school.”
How is it personally between yourselves?
Jo: “Actually, we‘re brothers! We miss each other if we don’t see each other for a long time so it really is. Because of that we are always happy that we are traveling again.”
Mäx: “And at the time like such phases as the break from Universal, where there was a gigantic team of 30/35 people and that was then simply shrunk to 3.”
Jo: “Only us 3!”
Mäx: “And then we really showed that we as a band had a great foundation. And that we struggled to our feet. We’ve built a small, family team around us. That welded then of course together. You make so many experiences with one another. We can talk greatly with each other and obviously we fight something and can argue, but there we are all on a level and that‘s remarkable. We went through the whole of puberty together. You have to actually see that! And we have all have the same goal and have grown ever closer to each other.”
Jo: “What that goal and the vision for the band is, that we’ve always shared. Also if the vision altogether maybe changed but it was always so that we developed it together and share [it]. I don’t believe that it will change. There was also no phase where I ever thought “oh, this is getting on my nerves and I don’t want to have any more to do with them.” It is simply perfect and continues to grow, continues to grow healthily.”
Now I have only one more question, whether you have wishes or greetings for our Cityguide readers?
Jo: “We wish you all well and say hello!” (Laughs)
Fabi: “And lots of love!”
Jo: “Lots of love and Rock n Roll. Have a lot of fun and enjoy the summer. It is also still a while until November but we’re really looking forward to our first headlining show in Mannheim. At our 10 Years Tour, you can [go] see that. We’ll play many old and new songs and will certainly play songs from the upcoming album then. ”