[interw japon vid] Best Hit USA, Tokyo 13/12/2010

I: Welcome Tokio Hotel.

All: Thank you very much.

I: Congratulations, you are making a debut over here.

All: Yeah.

I: Congratulations, among other things, you sold over 7 million copies…you’re already a big monster band and you won some prizes. What special performance prize or something from MTV?

B: You know, when it comes to voting awards where the fans can vote. Actually that’s when we always win because we have the best fans in the world. They are so crazy when it comes to that so we are so proud to have fans like that and so blessed.

T: I think we have nearly 90 awards and we are very proud of each, single award. It’s really good, yeah.

I: Germany has a tradition of ???, techno music, album rock music, as a matter of fact, in the 80s, they have Bowie…they have some kind of movement. That’s before your band…you use the influence?

B: You know I think, our influence is just that we are so different. You know he [refers to Gustav] brings a little bit of the metal stuff and I like a lot of different…you know I like the 80s stuff. I like some pop music. He [points to Tom] he likes hip hop so I think our inspiration is just…We’re four, we are just so different and we never covered songs so we directly went into our own rehearsal room and we just started to make music, wrote our lyrics and our own songs, so when it comes to our music we always have a clear vision on what we want to do.

I: So I was wondering and watching you and listening to you, it’s futuristic, but at the same time retro, in the sense…I come from the 60s, 70s glam rock. I see a little bit of shade of glam…like you said, it’s a combination of four different guys…combination of something…

T: Really new. I mean the last record was a bit sci-fi inspired…so really futuristic, sci-fi movies and all that, so that was a bit…the Humanoid record.

B: I’m really into the sci-fi movies. I really like those stuff.

I: You have been writing since you were very young, since you were in grammar school, elementary school.

B: Tom and me started with seven. Do you know Nena?

I: Nina Hagen?

B: No. Nena. She’s 99 Red Balloons. Do you know this song? (I: Nena! Yes) Exactly. I was just watching the concert on TV. I was 6 or 7 and I said “I want to do exactly the same thing.” I want to be on stage and I want to perform for people and stuff like that and then we just started.

I: What kind of stuff were you writing?

B: Oh it was bad stuff. When I’m looking back now, I’m so embarrassed. It was just the beginning.

T: It just started. I had my first chords on the guitar and we just started to write music with that. So it was just really simple and you know not really good, but we tried our best. Bill had a keyboard and just pushed some buttons for the bass and the drums.

B: You know for us, it was just, it was just exciting. You know after school, we directly went into the rehearsal room, then we wanted to play live and be in all the live clubs and everything. And now we’re in Tokyo, that’s crazy.

I: What were you like then? Did you like to please the audience?

B: Yeah, you know for us, I think for the people it was kind of strange because we were so young. We were maybe 13 or 12 and we were playing…

T: We were playing live clubs and the other bands were 25, 27, nearly 30 years old. And we were like 12 or 13 years and we played in live clubs.

I: ??? (All: laugh) Let’s get to the video.

I: When it became a big hit, how did it start?

B: Darkside of the Sun?

I: Yeah, was it a video hit?

B: Yeah, it was the last single.

T: It was not a radio hit.

B: No, it was not a radio hit because in Europe, they never play us on the radio, so that’s funny.

I: How come?

B: How come is that? Yeah, it’s funny because we started so early and in the beginning, everyone said your voice is too young to play on the radio. So we did everything without radio, it was just TV and internet and everything.

I: Now they are playing a lot of it.

B: Now they are playing some stuff in some countries, but not everywhere. In Germany, our home country, they are not playing us at all on the radio.

I: They are ??? or something?

B: I don’t know why. Maybe you have to talk to them. You can call them.

I: Radio is very important.

T: Yeah definitely. Radio is important, but we are really proud that we made it without the radio. Because radio is so important for the music industry and to sell records and all that. We are really proud that we made it without radio.

I: Obviously, 99% of new songs come from, are heard on the radio.

T: We just did it with music videos and internet and all that.

I: You’ve formed a new species…from the internet.

T: So internet, was always really…

I: One thing, one big question…when you sell over 7 million albums, you’re already too big…your target is something bigger, that can be a menace?

B: You know for us, it was always a goal to go to Tokyo, to visit Japan. So right now, it’s another exciting moment because we’ve been through a lot of different stuff and we’ve been in so many countries and we sold a lot of records and everything. Our history is just great.

I: Thank you.

All: Thank you very much.

I: Gute Reise.

All: Yeah!

I: Thank you.l