Tag: bill kaulitz

With the documentary Hinter die Welt producer Oliver Schwabe succeeds to show what’s beyond the world of Tokio Hotel. The movie premiered at the film festival Cologne last week. In the lecture Beuys will be Beuys Bill Kaulitz talks about development, his fears and self-confidence.

The twin brothers Bill and Tom Kaulitz founded Tokio Hotel 17 years ago. Since 12 years they’re in the public eye.  Bill Kaulitz reveals that nothing has changed within the band since then: “we were looking for a bass player and drummer, which would play the songs, Tom and I create.”

Nowadays the band still has the same working process, as the documentary reveals: Tom does the production works and creates new songs with Bill. Bill takes over all visual parts of the band, like light design, stage costumes and concepts for music videos, while Georg is responsible for live events, the booking and finances of the band.

“Georg couldn’t play bass at all.”

The fact that Bill and Tom choose Gustav Schäfer and Georg Listing as drummer and bass player is due to the fact that there weren’t much other possibilities in Magdeburg: “there were only these two guys.”

On top of that it wasn’t an obstacle for the twins that Georg was just learning to play the bass: “Georg couldn’t play bass at all. We all were really bad with our instruments.  Bust Georg was just starting to learn playing the bass for six month. He couldn’t play at all.”

In the opposite to Georg, there was Gustav Schäfer who had to show his drum skills: “Gustav had to do something like a casting for us. We were in our rehearsal space and Gustav played a Phil Collins song, if I remember correctly. This is how he came into the band. This is how everything started.”

Bill Kaulitz: “Gustav loves to play drums. But sometimes he wishes that there would be a wall in front of him, so nobody would be able to see him.”

Today Bill remembers clearly that there was no other option for him than doing music: “Doing music was always a serious thing for Tom and me. Georg had a lot of other hobbies back then. He was playing handball. But Tom and I always knew:  music is our life. Sure for Gustav and Georg it was amazing, when we released our music in 2005. They just accepted it as how it was. But for Tom and me this was always our number one plan… a total drive since we were kids. We never wanted to do something else.”

Kaulitz only sees one difference to when he looks back at the beginning of Tokio Hotel: “I just remember when we had our first performances when we were 13 years old. I was like: ok, give me a microphone! give me a stage! I want to go out there and perform.”
What Kaulitz doesn’t remember is how he formed his self-confidence at this time: “No idea where I got that from. I guess it came from the dynamic I have with Tom. We were always together. I knew I’m never alone.”

“There’s not one idiot who gives a fuck about you. That’s the best thing.”

Nowadays Kaulitz has a different perspective on his life. As he sees himself with a huge backpack, which is filled with fears and bad experiences which he made through the past. At the same time he works on getting back a little bit lightheartedness every day: “Bringing back the lightheartedness, which we had when we started as band, is a challenge which I try to master every day. We always rather want to go back. We want to get away from this music industry shit. At some point it gets to complicated and then you kind of lose your creativity. You’re not good anymore in the essence of what you really want to do – music.”

But Kaulitz manages to leave everything behind, as soon as he gets home after a tour: “Flying back home… going out and then there’s not one idiot who gives a fuck about you. That’s the best thing.”

At the same time Bill Kaulitz  reveals that it was not always like that. When he moved to Los Angeles in 2010 he had to learn living life. Kaulitz remembers that his friends still make jokes about this time: “My friends are still teasing me with this. I remember the first time when I went out to party, I brought along a security guard and I always had a driver with me. In Los Angeles I continued to live the same life I was living in Germany. I just took it with me when we moved overseas, because I didn’t know another life.”

“people think it’s sexy nowadays. they’re like: she wants to have sex with girls and she wants boys and she also wants the people in between.”

Kaulitz already had to deal with press and media, asking him about his sexuality, when he was 15 years old: “In Germany it’s still a question. People are still wondering: “who is joining his bed tonight? Who does he have sex with? Who does he bring home? Who does he fall in love with?”. But these were always questions I never gave a clear answer to. I feel like I give a lot of answers in my songs though. But it’s still a thing which drives people crazy. Nowadays a coming out isn’t really exciting anymore, cause everybody does it. But people still keep asking me these questions. It still drives them crazy not to know who’s sleeping in my bed tonight and I love that.”

Some laughters appeared when host Steve Blade quoted Bill Kaulitz’s twin brother Tom from the documentary: “I get everything from Bill, which other people are searching for in a relationship. So basically I just need somebody for the sexual part. And that’s something you can easily find.” Steve Blade asked Bill if this is a healthy attitude: “I don’t know. I guess others have to judge if it’s healthy. We sometimes wonder the same. We’re like one person and sometimes we don’t get how we are and how others see us. When we’re lonely, we’re together feeling alone. It never happens that one of us is pushing the other one up. When we’re feeling depressed, we’re feeling sad together. Everything always happens together. That makes it of course hard for a partner. Especially for Tom it’s more difficult. When I’m in love, it can happen that I’m just gone from today to tomorrow. I tend to do my own things then.”

„Tom has to tell in which distance they need to place the barriers in front of the stage. And then you ask yourself: isn’t there somebody else to decide this?“

What producer Oliver Schwabe impressed the most about the band was their energy and effort which they put in all their work: “they’re control freaks, which I found really interesting. It happens that somebody calls Tom out of the wardrobe, because Tom has to tell in which distance they need to place the barriers in front of the stage. And then you ask yourself: isn’t there somebody else to decide this? No! It’s always Tom! And he does this every day during the tour for month. This is something which impressed me a lot.”

Original article: flackernflimmern.com