This is Martin from Cherry Tree Records and www.cherrytreeradio.com.
Today I have the privilege of being in the
studio with Bill and Tom of Tokyo Hotel
to talk to them about some of the
songs from their new album Humanoid.
This is a real opportunity, thank you.
Let's get right to it.
Why did you pick Noise as the opening song for your album?
What special qualities does an opening song need to have for you
and when during the process of making
Humanoid did you decide to start with Noise?
The opening song of an album has to be really
energetic and I mean after you recorded all the songs
and decide what tracks to include on the album,
you just kind of know which one will be the first.
And from the very beginning we felt that Noise had
this great energy and a perfect message to open with.
I think the song Dark Side of the Sun is a great example of
how you've developed and evolved your sound but at the same
time kept the essence of what's so great about Tokyo Hotel.
Do you ever wonder about your fans' reactions towards a
particular song when you're in the studio or when you write it?
When we write songs we only focus on our feelings and
go with our intuition and you can never be sure if
in the end the fans will like a certain track or not.
But that's what makes it so exciting and during
the songwriting process we blank out the thoughts
of other people and if they will like our music.
But those thoughts eventually catch up to
us when we get closer to the release date.
We get really nervous and start worrying about so many things.
Dark Side of the Sun is a really motivating
song and every time we listen to it,
it reminds us of being on tour and gives us
the urge to go back on stage and perform.
I know you argued about what tracks to include on the album but it
seemed like there was never a doubt about the choice for first single,
Automatic.
How come?
Automatic was one of the last songs we wrote for the
album but it was exactly the track we were missing.
One day we realized how often we use the word automatic
and that's where we got the idea for the song.
It's insane how often we hear and use the word each day
and there are so many things that work automatically.
A lot of them are also really positive
but what's not automatic at all?
Love is certainly not automatic.
We were starting working on the song in the studio and everything
went nice and easy and it didn't take long until we had finished it.
Right after recording we knew that this would be our first single.
Your previous recordings have included heavy tracks,
especially some ballads.
Listening to this album,
I can hear that the ballads like World Behind My
Wall for instance are lighter but still impactful.
Was that something you set out to do from the beginning on Humanoid?
Every album and all of our songs are part of us
and all the albums have a certain sound and I think
Humanoid is the one with the most power so far.
We didn't plan that in advance,
it just happened.
And World Behind My Wall is a very intimate
song that describes part of our lives.
What about the song Humanoid?
What came first, the album title or the song?
The album title came first but it didn't
take very long until we also had the song.
Humanoid is a feeling that has been with us for our
entire life and also during the production of this album.
Yes, it's true.
I would say that Humanoid is also the track
that connects all the songs on our album.
It has so many different melodies and feelings.
It might be confusing or not,
make no sense at all in the beginning
but that's what Humanoid is to us.
In this track we got rid of all the normal song structures.
The song is like a journey to a different universe.
Forever Now is a mesmerizing and hypnotic song.
Were you influenced by anything internal,
external while recording that song?
Yes,
being in the studio is full of ups and downs.
We do have tons of fun together but sometimes we don't take
care of ourselves like we usually do when we are on tour.
And from time to time we pull a few all-nighters
or Bill can still feel buzzed when he's recording.
Being in the studio is our creative time
where we allow a lot of things to happen.
We spend time together when we are down,
we have tons of fun or we just argue.
That's when so many new ideas come up.
When I listened to your previous albums it seems
like you limited the use of keyboards as an effect.
On your second German album you barely used keyboards.
But on Humanoid it seems like you've purposely
used keyboards in a more pronounced way.
Who is responsible for that and who is the best keyboard player?
Our goal for this album was to start fresh and try out new stuff.
So much time passed since the last album and we
wanted to listen to our inner voice first to
find out what kind of music to do in the future.
For this album we used all the technical and
musical options that were available to us.
I mean why should we only use the drums,
guitars and bass?
Pain of Love was one of the first songs we recorded and I
guess that's why we have millions of versions for this song.
Dogs Unleashed.
It's basically a big kiss off to the haters.
Are you always aware of the impact your music has?
A lot of the time we are not aware of
this but now that you mentioned it,
yeah it's pretty cool.
Packing all your experience and feelings into a
song and telling people your truth is really cool.
Especially since we can't transport
a message without doing an interview.
In the past we experienced some pretty heavy stuff
and used some of this experience in our songs.
Here's a question I think a lot of fans would want me to ask you.
Tom, say you were in love with a girl.
Would you come up with a love song for
her and put it out for her to hear?
Yeah I might actually do that but you know let's face
it if I ever fell in love and wrote such good lyrics
like Bill this whole tactic would probably work out.
But I guess I have to leave all these
romantic parts to my little twin brother.
When I listen to your track Human Connect to Human
I wonder how important partnership is to you.
I think love and partnership is what life is all about and
yeah that's the ultimate thing we are looking for every day.
And everyone looks for a true soulmate
and it's what the song is about.
I think if there's nobody in your life who loves
you then you're lost and love keeps us alive.
I think humans need humans and of course dogs too.
Wasn't Alien the track we could also
hear on the Caught on Camera DVD?
When did you come up with that song?
Yeah exactly this was our first song.
Pretty much the foundation for the entire album.
We also came up with a lot of different versions of this track and
it was you know really really difficult to pick one in the end.
And to be honest I really want to see
Gustav's dance to this song in a club.
How difficult is it to translate words like
Phantom Rider into German or vice versa?
Are you happy with the German and English versions for this album?
That was one of our biggest challenges.
We quickly noticed that a word-for-word translation wouldn't work.
I guess you just need to look at it as two different
song versions and one is in German and one in English.
The message of both versions is pretty much the same but we
were not able to translate any of the songs word for word.
And we didn't want to make one of the versions
weaker and that's why we chose this way of doing it.
Tom there's footage of you playing Zoom on
the piano in the studio when you were in LA.
Can we expect to see a piano on stage
during this upcoming concert tour?
Yeah I know it would be pretty cool but it's not certain yet.
I also have to admit that I don't have the
biggest talent when it comes to playing the piano
and I really don't want to destroy the song.
No I can tell you he's doing a great job really.
This is Martin from Cherry Tree Records and www.cherrytreeradio.com.
I've been talking to Bill and Tom. Thank you guys.
Congratulations on Humanoid.
Tokyo Hotel rules.