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Interviews // |
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The big "Auswärtsspiel" Interview - Part 2??? The new album begins with the lyrics, which translate as "You're on the road leading to tomorrow, looking in the rear-view mirror at all the years you left behind." Is the song "Du lebst nur einmal" ("You only live once") about someone who is looking back at "All die Ganzen Jahre" ("Down the Years")?
Campino: It's about not waiting around for someone to come and pick you up
to go to the party, but to get it the party going yourself, because nobody is
going to come along and help you out of the shit. If you're not prepared to take
the first step, then you'll be waiting for a long time. You only live once.
Time flies. ??? "Was zählt" ("What matters") is the first single to be taken from the album and is full of striking images. Is it true that the Bible was the source for some of these?  Campino: The Bible is a brilliant book and is full of beautiful images. And if I ever got stuck for lyrics, then I'd certainly make use of it, it has such a wealth of ideas. After all, in a philosophical sense the Bible touches upon every topic that might interest us. The parables for example, are told over and over again and they are really good for training up your imagination. You come across sayings like "live on water and salt" in a variety of different formulations. I can really understand if people think that the Bible influences the things I write. I am not familiar with the Bible in the least, but I intend to read it soon. There's a really good English version written in a more down-to-earth style, avoiding all that pathos. ??? The song "Auswärtsspiel" ("away fixture") has turned out to be the title track of the album... Campino: "Life is an away game" is the kind of philosophical gem that could only have originated in Düsseldorf. So it was logical that it would feature at some point. One of the most difficult and important objectives for us, is to write new material with the same power and energy as our early stuff, but without running the risk of imitating ourselves. Stuff like "Opel-Gang", "Liebeslied," etc. I'd like to think that we've come up with a song in that particular vein. The chorus "Olé ola" is a clear reference to Argentina, because our fans there always sing this between songs. Musically speaking, it's sort of in the Bad Religion style, as we like to follow their line, along with that of New Model Army. ??? Is "Auswärtsspiel" the Fortuna song that you always wanted to write?  Campino: It's a song about Fortuna, but somehow it's also a song about life. I've always had a bit of a problem with writing an anthem devoted purely to Fortuna, because I can't help thinking, with all due respect, what earthly use would it be to somebody in Hamburg? Of course, I did have F95 in mind when I wrote "Auswärtsspiel" but I think that it ought to be possible for other people to get something for themselves form the song too. We're sponsoring the team as it is, we go along to matches when we're in town, we're constantly featuring the team at concerts with all the scarves and such flying about the place. So to write the ultimate "I'm off to Flinger Broich"-Fortuna-Song just wouldn't be right for a Hosen album. ??? Recently, you commented on what it takes to be a fan: "For us the word "fan" still stands for avowal of belief, that you are prepared to go through thick and thin, to support your team or band no matter what, even when things aren't working out or in times of crisis. Every fan should be in a position to forgive his "team" a poor game or concert, otherwise he or she wouldn't be a true fan." Campino: You have to accept that neither musicians nor sportsmen can maintain the same high level of performance throughout their whole lives. It's simply not possible to be in top form all the time, and certainly not over a twenty year period. That's why it's obvious that some albums are weaker than others and that the same applies to concerts. I simply don't get the fan who maybe has seen The Vibrators, say, 17 times before and they'd been brilliant every time, but still says "Oh, The Vibrators aren't half shit now - they were really crap tonight." I think he should be saying something like "perhaps they weren't so hot tonight, but let's wait and see, they might be up for it more next time."
 ??? And being a Fortuna fan... Campino: ...is an avowal alright, to "put up with the crap, even if it's worse than terrible, even if it hurts!" And that's how I see it for a band too. A fan should spring to his team's defence, even when they are poor, and not immediately lose faith. Of course, you can make things happen just as you can at a football club, should the millionaires be reluctant to move their expensive butts around the park quickly enough: "Kick the vocalist out! Campino, take your money and go!" If I was offered another contract, then I'd accept it. The trouble is, no other club will have me!" ??? There's a cover version of Dillinger's "Cokane In my Brain" on the album, which is much harder-sounding than the original. Why did you pick this particular song?
Campino: The Hamburg based label Echo Beach has a compilation series called
"King sized Dub." That's were we noticed this seventies song in a remix version.
I've always enjoyed listening to it, it's a really old favourite of mine. So I
thought, you could do a Rage Against The Machine version of this. ??? You show yourselves capable of self-irony in the song "Graue Panther" ("Grey Panthers"), which deals with the tribulations of being an aging punk... Andi: We wanted to pre-empt the predictable question from journalists about whether or not we feel to old for it all. It's number two in our all time hit parade of stupid questions, right after "Why are you called The Toten Hosen?" If we really felt as old as the lyrics suggest, then we'd hardly admit to it by including the song on the album, would we? It's clearly an ironic treatment of the subject matter.
 ??? What do you think about the blokes who recorded "Opel-Gang" twenty years ago?
Campino: I have no idea how those blokes would respond to us now. I would be
pleased if they could be into what we're doing now. If they would rate the way
we have developed. If I were to bump into them today, I'd tell them that they
need to be a bit more careful. And if I'd spent a couple of days with them,
I'd probably say "This is like hard work, I don't need it any more, but they are
OK." ??? Your worst memory?
Campino: If the door were suddenly to open and five blokes were to stagger
in, probably totally pissed up and mucking about and laughing a lot, then there
would be moments, when it fits. And there would be others when you'd just look
away and mutter "God, how embarrassing!" It was always a bit of a fine line.
And if I'm honest, I'm not sure whether everybody who put us up in those days
would've put up with us a second time! ??? What was the best place you stayed in during the early days? 
Campino: The real drawback of punk was there were too few kids from rich
backgrounds, who were into it. Otherwise we'd have had far nicer places to stay. ??? Or maybe you'd just met "Das Mädchen aus Rottweil" ("The Girl from Rottweil")? Campino: Nothing came of it. One merely exchanged glances... That particular song was, on the one hand, a bit of a dig at the town famous for it's breed of dog, and on the other, it's about a situation that everybody is familiar with. Namely, that you bump into someone completely out of the blue and your stare lingers for longer than is actually allowed. It's all a bit gauche, but you carry on because you don't have the guts to go up and explain what's happening. Instead, you just drive on and kick yourself for hours afterwards for not having said anything. Now and again you imagine what might have been and what you've missed out on.
 ??? How often has this happened to you? Campino: Now and again. I can actually conjure up two, maybe three instances I'll never forget, where I've met people in that way and fallen in love instantly and yet never actually spoken to them. ??? Why did you chose gypsy music as a stylistic element here?
Andi: It's pure coincidence, but we're really into Emir Kusturica and The
No Smoking Orchestra, not least because of the film "Schwarze Katze, weisser Kater"
("Black Cat, White Tom").
 ??? The track "Dankbar" ("Grateful") shows that you are still influenced by a lot of your old heroes. Andi: I played that song to a mate recently and he said he thought it sounded like a good Clash number. I took it as a big compliment, because they've always been one of our favourite bands. ??? "Tier" ("Animal") is the shortest song on the album; is it meant to be the second part of "Sonntag im Zoo" ("Sunday at the Zoo")?
Andi: "Sonntag im Zoo" was a Frank Z cover, but we wrote "Tier" ourselves.
It tends to remind us of early Wire songs, because they got to the point pretty
quickly. ??? "Kanzler sein..." ("When you're Chancellor...") is one of the humorous songs on "Auswärtsspiel" - have you ever met Herr Schröder (the German Chancellor)?  Campino: I came across him once in a talk show. He'd just won the election in Lower Saxony and was beamed in. We exchanged a few quips and that was it. I offered him a joint... ??? The Scorpions did a sort of political one-two with Schröder before the last general election... Andi: We'd never have done anything like that. The song isn't a paean to the Chancellor in any case. It's more about the problems surrounding the office itself, viewed somewhat humorously. We have never stood behind any particular party and said "You must vote for all these candidates!" We do let people know where we stand politically, or what our opinions are, but we've never appeared at election rallies and the like. There's always a danger that these people will start making demands on you. If there's a camera about, without exception a politician will shake your hand and make like "Look at me, I'm great". We've always avoided their sort. ??? On "Unsterblich" there's a song about your deceased father. This time you sing about the death of your mother.  Campino: In "Unser Haus" ("Our House") it's more about recounting stories from youth. In the case of "Nur zu Besuch" ("Just passing through") the thing with my mother was just the catalyst that got me to write about it, but it has a more general application really. Anyone who has been torn away from somebody close to them knows that feeling. You are often with that person in your thoughts. You are still communicating with her, even though she's been dead for a long time. The connection remains, just as before. That's what I wanted to express, not who has happened to die in my immediate circle. ??? But it does come across as being rather personal... Campino: There's a one tell-tale line, which I thought long and hard about. I sing "Und dein Garten, ihm geht es wirklich gut" ("And your garden is really looking good") once, and it's pretty obvious that I'm not singing about one of my drinking buddies, who wouldn't have a garden in the first place. Everybody knows what's what. Even though for a while I was going to alter the lyrics and make them less meaningful, I thought no, stick with it! You wrote about this and somewhere along the line it's what gives it it's edge, like you open up a door, talk about something that isn't properly worked out, but that's nonetheless bang on. That's the only way to arrive at the kind of intensity, which I believe the song has. ??? Did any of you take piano lessons for the purpose?  Campino: Hans Steingen plays the piano. He's the one we call when we need something a bit fancy. He has the connections to proper musicians. If ever we have arrangements with strings for example, then the best thing is to get one or two people to put it down live rather than have it sounding too synthetic. Hans only played on that one song. Apart from that, we work with a mate of T.V. Smith's, Tim Cross. He's done a great job with things that we're not particularly good at, like the flute for instance. ??? There's a song on the album "Daydreaming" written in English. Did T.V. Smith have a helping hand again with this one? Campino: The tradition of working with T.V. dates back to the "Pushed Again" single. That's when we figured out that we worked well together. He put in a great deal to the track "Revenge". And he was a real help with the translated version of "Crash Landing". We really like doing songs in English for our fans in some of the more exotic countries. Sometimes you wonder where all the records are. It's nice for someone in Japan, say, to understand a song more quickly than they would if it were in German. Besides, it allows me to indulge my secret need to sing songs in English. After all, my favourite music comes from there: Lurkers, Adverts, The Boys. It feels different to me when I sing in English. I realise that our German stuff is the reason why we exist, but funnily enough, my voice is quite different then. I find it easier singing in English. ??? Have you ever considered singing a song in Spanish?  Campino: When we were in Argentina, we had a few songs translated into Spanish, such as "Viva la Revolution" or "Liebeslied". It always comes across well, even if me singing in Spanish is bound to sound funny. I've even tried to learn Spanish recently. I took some lessons from a Spanish teacher when we were in Spain. I learned about enough to help me ask the way to the post office when we were in Cuba. But that has all but vanished after the spell in the studio. It's my most ardent wish to be able to speak fluent Spanish. It would be great if you could just buy a chip that you simply insert into your head and suddenly you can speak Spanish. I really envy Breiti's ability to speak the language so fluently. ??? Did you simply copy the words for the song "Amanita phalloides" from an instruction leaflet in a medicine package? Campino: There's no way you'd get that kind of scope on an instruction leaflet. They're all symptoms of diseases I found when reading medical books, which is pretty dry reading matter I can tell you. It's all about these illnesses and what you can do to combat them. I came up with the term "Amanita phalloides", which is an extract from fly agaric. There's nothing I enjoy more than browsing round a library, pulling out books from here and there, and losing myself for hours in them. ??? What kind of literature do you prefer? Campino: The more abstruse, the better. I've read these really heavy tomes about psychiatry. There are short stories and poetry written by people who have received psychiatric treatment. There's some really gripping stuff, I can tell you. "Die Fliege" ("The Fly") on the album "Opium", for example - how it crawls around in your head, well I thought, that's only going to work if you know some pukka technical terms. I needed to find out what it's like inside the skull, inside the brain; check out what's with the pineal body and stuff like that. The song would've been completely boring without terms like that. ??? In "Depression Deluxe" you pick up the theme of suicide again - there's the line "geh in meinen Schrank und häng mich auf" ("walk into my cupboard and string myself up")... Campino: Well, this is about a feeling that perhaps everybody is familiar with, when you're feeling really down. A real depression is no laughing matter, it's not simply a case of "Oh, I don't feel so good today." You can talk and analyse and speak about it until you're blue in the face, but you can't get rid of the empty feeling. It's a proper illness. It's quite possible then to flick the switch between dream and reality. You imagine what it might be like if you were to kill yourself. ??? The song ""Steh auf, wenn Du am Boden bist" ("Get up, when you've hit rock bottom") is more positive and has the qualities of an anthem... Campino: That's from the perspective of a third person, who can see that someone else is having a rough time. And he says: "Keep your chin up! Try and pull yourself together! Life goes on, other people are in the shit as well." It's all a matter of perspective. There are thousands of songs about love and there will be another good one come along when somebody discovers a new perspective. "Steh auf" is more about someone who has suffered a mishap, someone whom fate has dealt a blow. ??? Is "Steh auf" also a comment on the current general economic situation, in view of the recession and unemployment, etc.? Campino: No! I had the line "Walk On With Hope in Your Heart" in my head. It doesn't sound at all emarrassing in English. I was hoping that we'd come up with something similar to that. That was the intention. ??? Is "Schwimmen" ("Swimming") an example of how a song can start out in the studio? Andi: "Schwimmen" is undoubtedly our most experimental song on the album. It just came together in the studio, when we spontaneously started hitting some metal objects or other during a break in recording. After a bit, we started to like it and said "Come on, let's include it on the album!" And then we combined it with a bit of Spanish guitar and some Macedonian music at the beginning. It's certainly unusual for a Hosen song. ??? The track "Venceremos - wir werden siegen" ("Venceremos - we shall overcome") clearly refers to your one-week trip to Cuba last spring, does it not? Campino: It's more of a mini-travelogue, actually. I noticed that there are cops on every street corner in Havanna and there are slogans on all the walls and houses. Fidel Castro and Che continually exhort the people from the placards: "We shall win, the struggle goes on!" Sometimes these placards have been put in the most idiotic places: You get one of these billboards in a potato field, right in the middle of the countryside with not a soul for miles. And in the same vein, the fact that there are no buses in the villages and the people just sit around waiting for hours on end. The song is an attempt to describe a particular circumstance in a completely objective manner. It's not often I've written such an unbiased, neutral song in twenty years of the Toten Hosen. Maybe we should go on such trips more often... ??? Does "Kein Alkohol (ist auch keine Lösung)!" ("No Alcohol (isn't the answer either)!") represent the obligatory drinking song on every Hosen album? Campino: There wasn't a single song like that on "Unsterblich", so I bet everybody can imagine just how difficult it was for us to go for four whole years without producing something of this kind (smiles). It ought to be an indication that we are still a force to be reckoned with in the superficial-song-writing-stakes! We simply can't let it lie! And it feels as good as ever. Just because it's got to be about alcohol, doesn't mean that it is necessary entirely witless. It can be a fun contemplation of what is a significant factor in people's lives. If I am able to sing about love because love plays a part in my life, then I think a certain percentage of songs about drinking ought to be allowed too. ??? "Kein Alkohol" will be the second single to be taken from the album. What chance is there, that it will challenge Cologne's Bläck Fööss or Höhner for the Karneval Number One spot this year? Campino: I think there are a few lines in the song that might stick in the craw of your average Karneval enthusiast. You won't find the couplet "Vatican and Taliban" uttered at any Karneval committee meeting quite like that. Songs like "Bis zum Bitteren Ende" and "Jägermeister" have long since been much bigger hits than anything that these groups from Cologne have come up with. I don't even know them by name anymore... They sing their ditties in praise of their bank of the Rhine and we sing ours. Besides, we keep on singing after the season is over. Click here to read Part 1 of the Interview.
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