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Formerly the group Devilish, Bill, Tom, Gustav, and Georg now make up Tokio Hotel — and the uber-cuties from Germany are taking the U.S. by storm! I caught up with them at their recent New York City show at The Fillmore at Irving Plaza (a venue where most rock legends have performed), where the line to get in was hundreds deep and, according to one fan, people were waiting for hours to get a spot in front of the stage.
Hey, guys! It must be really exciting to perform in New York. Do you love the city?
Bill and Georg:
Very! Yeah, we like it, but we love L.A. too, with the warm weather, sunshine, and big houses.
What’s the difference between your European fan base and your U.S. one?
Bill:
We were really surprised when we came to North America because we expected it to be different than in Germany. We expected people to be calm, laid-back, and checking us out from a distance. But as soon as we got onstage here, everyone got really excited and started to yell and scream the way we were used to from home. We were really surprised. Having fans like that gives us a lot of power and energy when we’re onstage. We love it! It was such a shock that our shows here are selling out. It’s more than we ever expected.
That’s pretty amazing to be selling out shows here in the U.S. on your first North American tour.
Bill:
Yeah. We’re so excited.
So tell me, who were your musical influences?
Bill:
We couldn’t find a single common influence.
Tom:
I influenced them all.
Bill, Gustav, Georg:
Ha!
Bill:
We listen to so many different kinds of music. Tom only listens to German hip-hop, but I listen to a lot of rock, so we couldn’t really agree on one band that influenced us. Everyone brought his own style to the group, even if Georg doesn’t have any style [rest of band laughs]. What we created with Tokio Hotel was just our common ground of liking a variety of bands. We wanted that to influence our music.
How’d you get the name?
Bill:
[Band laughs simultaneously]
The reason everyone laughed is because now you’re getting into the dark past. We used to go by a different name – Devilish, but that was all Bill’s idea. To tell you the truth, Devilish didn’t have any meaning. We tried to remember why we chose that name, but couldn’t. When we started to get deals with record companies, we thought it was time to find a name that fits and one we all liked. We love New York and L.A. because they’re really big cities, and we chose Tokio [the German spelling of Tokyo] because it’s a wicked place. Then we wanted to find a symbol that represented our lives, and we came up with Hotel because we’re living out of hotels these days. Our lives are packed in our suitcases and we always carry them behind us.
How would you describe your personal style?
Gustav:
Well, we’ve got a womanizer, a comedian, a bodyguard… [the whole band starts to laugh]. Actually, no, we’re not about rules – we didn’t want to create one image.
Bill:
Yeah, if we had to do that, Georg wouldn’t even be here today [band laughs]. We’re not about playing any characters — we’re just us, just being ourselves. What you see is what you get. If you look at old pictures of us from when we were called Devilish, you will see how everyone started to find his own style. That’s what we’re about.
What would your advice be to anyone who wanted to get a start in music?
Bill:
We hate to be in the position of telling people what to do because when we started, people who were older and had been in the business a while would tell us how we should act and what we should do, and we didn’t like that. Everyone has to make their own decisions and go through their own experience – find out for yourself. Everyone has to find their way. The only thing I would say is that it’s important to play live, go onstage, and have fun because that’s what it’s all about. And it’s important to make mistakes. That’s what we did and still do. Georg is still making 10 to 15 mistakes every day [band laughs]. Just do your thing!
What’s your favorite thing to do online?
Tom:
[laughing] I’m not sure you want to know! Actually, I basically check e-mail and watch videos.
Georg:
Yeah, I watch videos. I just watched Scream.
Gustav:
I just watch a video where the filmmakers raced an Audi against a BMW. The BMW won.
Tom:
Ready, Set, Go video. Check it out!
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