ELLEGirl.jp - Interview Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Tokio Hotel was found by identical twin brother, Bill (Vo.) and Tom (G.), who come from an old small city called Loitsche in Eastern Germany. (Birthday: 1989.9.1) Then Georg Listing (B. - 1987.3.31) and Gustav Schafer (D. - 1988.9.8) joined them. Finally four of them set up this band. Bill and Tom began to compose music at their age of 7. They did their performance in Magdeburg when they were 10 years old. So they were early-maturing.

Later on, at their age of 13, they had similar tastes and interests with Georg and Gustav who came to watch their live show, and began to set up the band.

Georg began to play the base at age of 13 and Gustav began to play the drum at age of 15. To them, the band was the real career.

Regarding to the reason why TH named their band Tokyo, Bill said: "They consider Tokyo as their final destination, because Tokyo is too far to reach. The scene that we are in Tokyo always hangs around us. We are inspired by this scene and add Tokyo into the band's name." (This question is on my twitter from Rily.)

The interview started in harmonious atmosphere like last time. (Questions about music are included.

Their style is fantastic and I prefer to call Bill's hairstyle an art.

The interview started in harmonious atmosphere like last time. (Questions about music are included.)

---What a fabulous hairstyle!
Bill: Thank you!

---How long did you spend on this hairstyle?
Bill: It don’t take long. I just stuffed my hair into them as you see. So it won’t spend some time. When my hair was long I had to use up a bottle of hairspray everyday. But now you can see , 5-10 minutes are enough.

---It is the second time to come to Tokyo. What do you think of Tokyo?
Bill: We really like the streets in Japan. We were a little nervous on the first day when we just arrived. We could not imagine at all before we reached Tokyo. But we knew what it was like this time. We met different kinds of people and everything was exciting. We really appreciated that everything was full of energy. And all the people were very kind. Besides this, our fans were energetic. Fans do a lot for us, and we’re expecting for meeting with them in a country we have never been. It will be so much fun!

---Where do you want to go in Tokyo?
Gustav: We haven’t seen much. But we went to Shibuya, it was awesome! The crossing in Shibuya was amazing. We met many people that we’ve never met before. In Germany, there is no place like this. We really want to see more streets like this.

---What kind of impression do you have on Japanese girls?
Bill: They are very lovely. Although sometimes they are a little bit shy, I think they are sweet and cute. It is normal to be shy and flustered when your favorite band is standing in front of you, after all they are your favorite. So this is natural. I really like.

---How about German girls and American girls?
Bill: They are not shy at all. What should I say? In Germany, people are more crazy.( He raised his voice) Because different countries have different culture, I can not judge. It differs from man to man. After we just arrived in Japan, I realized that Japanese are a bit shy. But all the TH’s fans are basically in a big family. They share everything on Twitter. So I think Japanese fans are going to join in the big family.

---Bill, so you are a shy boy, right?
Tom, Georg, Gustav: Bill is shy!(laugh)
Bill: No, no. (blushing). I think I am always shy in some ways. You may not imagine, sometimes I don’t know what to do in some conditions or situations though I have been accustomed to meeting so many people, just like meeting beautiful girls in private. I can’t even confidently say “Hello, I’m a rock star” to her.
Tom: I have a good advice. If Bill meets someone and feel shy, he should kiss her.(All the people laugh) Therefore Bill is shy!(laugh)
Bill: Ok, I am a little bit shy.
Tom: So you should do that.
Bill：I can not do that. I know it’s better to kiss with true feelings.
Tom: See? Bill is a shy boy.(laugh)

The interview keeps on in the harmonious atmosphere.

---Bill, you create lyrics like writing diaries?
Bill: Ja. They are completely different. We get inspiration from various aspects, and the contents are basically about our feelings and experiences.

---The songs are not only about reality and fantasy, also the connection between them.
Tom: I think both worlds will arouse my true feeling. The fantasy world affects us, especially reflected on our new album “Humanoid”.



“Humaniod” released in 2009

---Which emotion can be easily impressed in Tokio Hotel’s music?
Bill: We always create lyrics with our emotions in the moment. We would probably feel aggressive or sad, grieved, brokenhearted, happy, or sometimes we just want to have a party that night. We have different feelings every each day. We always catch some points and put them into our lyrics, just like keeping a diary. There must be some people write diaries at night! And our music is the product of the mixture of diaries and fantasies.

Now let’s introduce the song “World Behind My Wall” collected in “Humanoid”.

---In TH official website, we can know a lot about your own views of world from the concepts of designing webs. When did you have this idea?
Bill: HAHAHA(laughing happily). It’s like doing a puzzle. We had not even one idea at first. We just kept on creating our songs, like putting the electronic music into them and made it more colorful. When we did this, we gradually had some ideas such as how visual effects can be appeared, or how to convey human’s emotions. We achieve this effect through the pictures or backgrounds, and they’re just like the costumes on tour. All of them make the songs lively.



Bill have already had a star look as a kid.

---So deep! Cool! Bill, when did you think you are like a star?
Bill: Very early. Mama always said Tom and I were very noisy kids.
Georg: And you are still a noisy kid. (laughing together)
Bill: (keep on saying with a little anger) We’re naturally artists.Mama often brought us to parties and we kept the microphones with us, then speaking or dancing. We were energetic anytime.
Tom: (in German) But sometimes there is bad tongue.

--Though I’m quite interested in the story of the puzzle . Then what kind of movie influences Bill’s World View?
Bill:It’s hard to say. I like various kinds of movie. The first movie I watched was David Bowie’s Labyrinth(1986). It’s my favorite movie.

--When did you watch this movie?
Bill: Ehm… At about 6 years old. I watched it again and again because I really like it. I also like Dangerous Liaisons(1988), though it’s a very old movie. I watch different kinds of movies, such as science fiction movies. When I was young, I liked E.T(1982) very much, and also vampire movies. I like The Fifth Element(1997). And I like watching romantic movies as well, such as The Notebook(2004). It’s really quite moving. Yes, I watch many kinds of movies, rather than one particular type.
Tom: It’s really crazy. We have thousands of DVDs, since there are too many good movies.

--And the other three? Do you have a favorite band or movie, or is there something influencing you? Could you talk about this?
Gustav: My favorite album is Daskside Of The Sun. And my favorite DVD is Tokio Hotel.(All laughed)



Daskside Of The Sun Deluxe Edition(with DVD)

Georg: Talking about the actors, I like Leonardo Dicaprio the most.(Gustav and Tom laughed loudly)
Georg(sayed seriously): His movies are really good.
Bill(agreed):Ehm, it’s a fact. His movies are quite good. The movies made when he was young are good too.
Georg: He could be a century actor.
Bill:Right!

--And music? What’s your favorite album?
Georg: I listen to many kinds of music. And I listen to more than one album each day. The lastest album I bought is Mike Posners’.( Mike Posners was also a candidate for 2010 MTV Europe Music Awards)
Bill: He is an American new-comer. And there is a pop and R&B feeling in his music.
Tom:R&B,Dance and HipHop, those three feeling mix together.
Georg’s favorite musician is Mike Posner recently☆

--And what about Tom?
Tom: My favorite movie is Training Day(2001) which was acted by Denzel Washington. He is cool and…
Bill(interrupted): Tom likes all the movies acted by Denzel Washington. And Man On Fire(2004).
Tom:Ah! Man On Fire is really good. Dakota Fanning is also a good actress. (Who acted in Man On Fire too,16, her full name is Hannah Dekota Fanning, well-known movie is I Am Sam(2001)

The interview suddenly warmed up.