DIE TOTEN HOSEN
 DIE TOTEN HOSENInterview: Paco Rubio - April 2002

-What do you want to transmit with the name of Toten Hosen. Has it a special meaning? Explain it.
Tote Hose is an expression among young people in Germany, which means something like nothing is going on, beeing boring, bad in bed etc. Literally you would translate it with the dead trousers. We choose this name because when we started the band, we did not know, how to play our instruments very well.

-Which groups had influenced in your style to define it?
Bands like The Ramones, Johny Thunders, The Clash, 999, The Damned etc. were very important for us. We were fans of their music, felt as a part of the Punk Rock movement and tried to play this kind of music in the bands we had even before Die Toten Hosen started.

-Do you consider you are a punk group? What is the ideology punk according to your point of view?
Punk Rock was a movement in the late 70ties as a reaction to things going on in politics, society and music. Punk Rock as a movement only existed for a very short time, but its influence is still important until today. Certainly, we were influenced by Punk Rock ideology and many things of it are still important for us, e. g. we try to keep the prices for our tickets as cheap as possible or when we make a new album we rather put on 18 new songs instead of 10 or 12. Though we don't use the term Punk Rock anymore to describe our music, of course it is still important as an attitude and a way of life to many people.

-What kind of music do you use to listen? 
In general, I  like music with hard guitars and good melodies, but I am also interested in many other kinds of music, like Dub, Reggae, certain DIE TOTEN HOSENkinds of Techno and some kinds of South American music. Just to give you some examples, some of my favourite bands are: Faith No More, Rage Against The Machine, Bad Religion, Unwritten Law etc.

-How do you make your songs? Music as well as lyrics.
The usual way of making a song begins for us with an idea for music. When someone comes up with an idea, we try to make a complete song out of it. Then Campino writes the words for the songs, listens to the music and tries to get an idea, what the words could be about.

-What do you give more importance to? Music or lyrics?
Both music and words are of course very important. The best songs are, when both is very strong and fits together well.

-What do your lyrics speak about in your lastest album “Auswärtsspiel”?
The lyrics on the latest album "Auswärtsspiel" come from a wide spectrum: perDIE TOTEN HOSEN - Auswärtsspielsonal experiences, political topics as well as ironic songs or piss-takes.

-What can you tell us about “Auswärtsspiel”? 
When we started to work on the album, we left out the ideas for quieter songs because we wanted it to sound rougher than the previous one called "Unsterblich". We rented a house in Spain in the middle of nowhere and had nothing to do but to concentrate on the music 24 hours a day. Before we recorded the songs, we played a lot of them live and therefore, when we went to the studio, we were very sure about what we were doing.

-What songs do like the most?
My favourite songs of the album at the moment are: "Auswärtsspiel", "Cokane In My Brain", "Was zählt" and "Nur zu Besuch".

-What is it more important for the Toten Hosen: to do good gigs or good songs/albums?
Both is important of course. What we still like most of all the things we do with the band is playing live and being on tour. But of course we always need new songs to play because it is much more entertaining for yourself and the audience, so you regularly feel the need to work on new songs.
DIE TOTEN HOSEN
- What about your shows, how are they? How many time go on usually? Do you play versions of other bands? Which places did you play? 
It is difficult to describe your own shows in words. What I will hope, what people say who see us, is Die Toten Hosen like what they are doing and they put full power and energy in their concerts.

-What do you remember from your shows in Argentina with the Argies?
Argentina is one of our favourite countries to play. People are very well informed about their favourite bands and during the shows they are really going for it. Out of 8 shows in Buenos Aires for example at least 7 were absolutely unforgettable. The Argies are my favourite band from Argentina. There are a lot of very good bands over there. You will probably know some of them in Spain, but unfortunately no one takes any notice of them in Germany.

-Which is the band you've played with that has surprised you the most.  And disappointed?
As we only play with bands we like, there were no big disappointments. In contrary, we had a lot of great experiences with, e. g. Bad Religion, Green Day, Faith No More, Therapy, AC/DC. One of my favourite live bands ever will always be Faith No More.

-Tell some of the bands you have heard lastly?
The bands I have heard lately are among others A, Dover, Bad Religion (new album), Joey Ramone, Beatsteaks (great band from Berlin) and some weird South American compilations. 
DIE TOTEN HOSEN
-How did you find the surrounding punk-hardcore in Germany? The are many bands? Is it easy to play live? There are many places to play in?
Unfortunately, television becomes more and more important. When people know a band from television, they go to the gigs as well, but hardly anyone wants to risk a few hours to check out an unknown band which plays around the corner. That makes it more and more difficult for young bands to play live and draw some  attention, if you don't have a record company, which can pay a video for you.

-Do you have any opinion about Spain? Have you heard about any band from this country?  Will you come to play to Spain?
We have spent a few month in Spain writing the songs for the new album and recording it. We really liked the time we spent there and also the few shows we have played in Spain so far. Of course, we would like to play in Spain again, but we do not know yet exactly where and when.

-What has been the worst shit that has ever happened to you in these  years on stage.
The worst experience through all the years was certainly the death of a young girl, who died in the audience during our 1.000 show in Duesseldorf in 1997.

-How can you explain the music of the Toten Hosen in a few words?
It is difficult to do that in a few words. In the wide range between a stupid drinking song and a serious anti-racist song, we have tried everything I think.

-Which are your ten favorite albums of the 2oth century?
-Ramones "It's Alive"
-The Clash "The Clash"
-The Clash "London Calling"
-AC/DC "Highway To Hell"
-Faith No More "Kind For A Day, Fool For A Lifetime"
-Chelsea "Evacuate"
DIE TOTEN HOSEN-Nirvana "Nevermind"
-Manu Chao "Clandestino"
-The Damned "Machine Gun Etiquette"
-Beasty Boys "Licensed To Ill" and many more.

-What kind of plans do you have for this year?
Our tour will start next week and lasts till the end of the year. We are really looking forward to it because, as I said before, it is still what we like to do most.

-What advice would you give to the bands that are just beginning?
Just do, what you want to do. Don't care about your abilities to play an instrument or what people say, just go for it.

Web: http://www.dietotenhosen.de

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