“Sometimes our fights escalate”

We met Tokio Hotel in L.A.

Bill and Tom Kaulitz – two names that embodied teen hysteria and prepubescent sexual fantasies of their then, most of the time, female emo-audience from the middle of the 00s, even though the emo genre didn’t even exist back then. With their band, Tokio Hotel, the identical twins climbed the european charts withtout any detours after quitting school and moving away from their province near Magdeburg. And they also made it into several gossip columns of magazines, at least once a week once their career took off. 2010 they put an end to it: They retreated into the anonimity of Los Angeles.

Far away from Germany, and from their fans. And the media. The big break after achieving everything you could achieve there. And all that happened before they were of age. With their new album “Kings Of Suburbia” Tokio Hotel are back in the spotlight. Bill and Tom Kaulitz – two brothers, one comeback with 25.

INDIE: “Why the long break and the move to L.A.?”

Bill: We just didn’t want to be in the spotlight anymore. Tom was even – temporarily – unsure if he still wanted to be in the band and asked me to look for a new guitarist. He would have still worked with us in the studio, but didn’t want to be in the spotlight anymore.

Tom: We made some headlines in Germany again. We ended up on the front page of several magazines talking about some random private stuff – there simply wasn’t a balance anymore: We didn’t make the headlines because of our music anymore, but with whatever we did or didn’t do in our free time. That was the point where I just didn’t want to do it all anymore – I wanted to quit. None of us wanted to continue under these circumstances.

Bill: Apart from that, I didn’t even know what I wanted to write about after the last album we released, since we had already talked about everything we wanted to talk about on our previous records. It was about time to get our private life back again, which wasn’t possible in Germany. Everything was completely out of control. At some point we just started running away from our own career and didn’t want to have anything to do with Tokio Hotel anymore. The plan was to get everything back under control first and then think about releasing an album again.

INDIE: “A new beginning at the age of 21, in a city where you don’t know anyone, after being followed everywhere by groupies – how does it feel to actually have a private life again?”

Bill: It felt unbelieveably good, being able to do normal things again – like going out for coffee somewhere or simply going to the grocery store and filling your own fridge with food. After leaving school at the age of 15 we weren’t able to do those things anymore. This is the first time that we’ve been able to have a private life, a real life as adults since our career took off. At first it was really weird, because we weren’t used to it anymore, but at some point it just started being fun for us again, especially the moment I noticed that I could basically disappear in L.A. since no one knows who I am here. I was just one of many people that others pass by on the street. In the past we were a part of Tokio Hotel 24/7.

Today we found a balance. We have a private life and are only Tokio Hotel when we work. I think we have never felt as balanced as we do today. We took some time to question ourselves and to discover who we are as a private person – what we like or dislike and who we are. We have hobbies, which wasn’t really the case back then. If you don’t grow and develop as a person, you won’t do either of those things when you’re an artist as well. Looking back, the break was not just beneficial for the band but also for us as people. We just couldn’t continue like that anymore.

INDIE: “Your newly chosen homebase, Los Angeles, seems to have had a big influence on the new album, since it wouldn’t have come together like that in Madgeburg.”

Bill: Definitely not. When I think of Magdeburg today, I’m in horror. It’s an extremely depressing town. But L.A. doesn’t really have a lot to do with the album. It’s actually the opposite for me: I have to say that I think that L.A. is pretty boring. Everything happens so early; the clubs close at 2 a.m. – the nightlife in Europe is much more exciting. The album reflects our own private feeling of life with the big luxury of anonimity.

INDIE: “Does it get easier or harder with time, making music as siblings?”

Bill: It stays the same. But I do have to say that we don’t just have that typical brother connection other siblings have, but that we’re identical twins. It’s hard to explain to other people that we’re not just brothers, but that we actually are the same in a lot of aspects as people. We live together and have also spent every single day together in the past five years, even without Tokio Hotel.

Tom: The question of needing a break from each other or living alone doesn’t even arise. We do everything together and know everything about each other – we’re basically one person. Even if I’m generally the more likeable one, out of us two.

INDIE: “You live together – which one of you is responsible for washing the dishes?”

Bill: None of us, we’re both lazy people. Most of the time we wait for our housemaid to do it for us. But if there is something important we have to do – chores wise – we also do that together.
Tom: But I am the one that always drives the car. Bill never drives. I’m always the driver, which is good – it’s as it should be. When I have to sit in the passenger seat I get nauseous. I hate sitting in the passenger seat and getting driven around. I love driving cars, I love driving bikes and I will have to get used to someone driving us around again when we’re back on tour. I would even prefer driving the tour bus myself!

INDIE: “So there is no friction between the two of you?”

Bill: Very seldom. It’s not like we never fight. When we fight, then it gets really intense, but we’re not the type to hold things against each other forever. The connection between identical twins is a little stronger than the one between brothers. And we don’t know it any differently. We shared all our experiences with each other. There is virtually nothing that I could tell Tom about my day that he wouldn’t know, because he was there and experienced it with me. We live a completely identical life.

INDIE: “What’s the topic you fight about most often?”

Tom: That depends on the situation; most of the times it’s about work though. We rarely fight about private stuff. The good thing about our fights is that I know Bill inside and out, therefore I can provoke him until it all escalates. No one else can provoke him more – and in turn, no one else can provoke me as much as Bill can. When we fight with each other, really fight, then it ends up being so loud and intense that other people usually leave the room with a red head.

Bill: People then usually ask themselves how we can look each other in the eyes after having such an intense fight, but after a few minutes it’s usually already forgotten.

Text and interview: Thomas Clausen
Photography: Kelsey Hart
INDIE - Magazine #44/2014
Translation by Icey @ loveth-music.com