GTGC Reviews
email: gavinals69@aol.com
  • Reviews
  • Live Music
  • THE SPANISH ANNOUNCE TABLE

Thomas Götz: The Beatsteaks Interview

5/12/2017

0 Comments

 
element_settings.Image_30621876.default
Hadley Hudson Photography
As you’re probably familiar by now, I’ve credited a lot of my musical taste to one Mr BAM MARGERA, having discovered several of my favourite bands thanks to his compilation albums and personal choices for soundtracks (The CKY series, “Haggard”, “Viva La Bam” etc.) and one such band are Germany’s favourite alternative melodic punks BEATSTEAKS…with a brand new record released earlier this year, I was lucky enough to catch up with drummer Thomas Götz for a quick chat about the record, touring and an insight into German punk…here’s how it went down.

“I’d like to start off by saying Congratulations! You’ve just recently released your brand new album; “Yours”, twenty years after your debut…did you ever see yourselves getting this far back in the mid-nineties?”

TG: “Never…I never have seen myself going anywhere and I am really glad for spending the last 18 years with the band. I had the chance to see really beautiful places and travel through Germany, Europe and even America with the band. And I am very proud that I was finally able to avoid real work and spend my time playing music for such a long time!”

“When people think of German music, initially, a lot of people make the connection with metal; bands like RAMMSTEIN, SCORPIONS and HELLOWEEN etc…very few people automatically associate Germany with punk rock in any capacity. What inspired you to go in that direction and what’s Germany’s punk scene like?”

TG: “I think that Germany has a very vital punk scene and always had. For me it started all when bands like EINSTÜRZENDE NEUBAUTEN, ABWÄRTS, DER PLAN, DIE TÖDLICHE DORIS entered the scene in the 80's and brought really innovative music to the table….back then people said it’s just noise - not even music. But these bands opened the doors for so much other bands - they were like pioneers….and nowadays bands like PISSE, KARIES, HUMAN ABFALL, GEWALT, TURBOSTAAT, DIE NERVEN, LEVIN GOES LIGHTLY, WOLF MOUNTAIN and others  reap what’s been sowed back then. We as a band are somewhere in between…too melodic for real punks….too punk for mainstream pop….too much guitar for young kids….we love DEPECHE MODE, Hip Hop, AC/DC and all kinds of music…so we are not considered as strict punks….we  just play some kind of pop music or at least something that we think of as pop music.”

“Coming back to “Yours”, it’s another batch of great songs in your ever reliable repertoire, tracks like “You In Your Memories” and “Fever” in particular stand out for me…what can you tell us about the album? What’s the inspiration and story behind it? Having recently listened to it, it’s worth noting that its 21 tracks long, which in most cases is a lot for any album, was that always going to be the case? The writing process was evidently very fruitful…”

TG: “We wanted to make an album as diverse as possible….not our usual 11 song album 32 minutes long that we normally make but an album with a wider variety….not everybody in the band has to love every song as much as another…as long as everyone enjoys contributing to the songs….that was somehow the bottom line of the album….and every time we felt clueless and didn’t know what to do….we just asked friends that we met along the way in our career to help us with the particular song…we asked JAMIE T for help with the song "HATE TO LOVE" and he wrote us a wonderful bridge and lyrics. We asked CHAD PRICE of the band ALL to help us out with the singing because we thought that’s the voice we want to hear on "YOU IN YOUR MEMORIES". FARIN URLAUB of the band DIE ÄRTZTE wrote lyrics for "ABBA DU"….the hip-hop band DEICHKIND wrote lyrics for "L AUF DER STIRN" and sang on it…FRANCOISE CACTUS wrote the lyrics for "VELOSOLEX"….so finally we had our first French song… BREZEL GÖRING of STEREO TOTAL produced two songs on our record…..then there was STEPHEN STREET who helped us with producing and mixing of the album and so on….every time we asked for help we got help and so it was a great experience to work on this album and besides the fun we learned a lot…we had a lot of songs in store and this time we didn’t strip down and made no selection of songs worth to work on….we just worked on every idea that was on the table and we succeeded almost every time but in three cases where we just couldn’t finish the ideas……”

“Another talking point would be those collaborations themselves…it’s not something you’ve done a lot of on past records but here there are several, with tracks featuring the wide variety you just mentioned…how did these come about during writing? Did you seek them out specifically?”

TG: “Jamie T. did a show in Berlin while we recorded so Arnim and me went to the show and Arnim went backstage to ask him if he could imagine to help us out which he said was no problem…..a few weeks later he sent us his ideas and we loved it…..I met BREZEL GÖRING and FRANCOISE CACTUS during a Radio session that I did with STEREO TOTAL for the Berlin based station RADIOEINS….a few months later I called them because we had this demo that cried for French lyrics and also would be perfect with her voice….and she didn’t hesitate - she listened to the song and asked for a theme to write about…BREZEL suggested something with motor scooters and Ii suggested something light and something anti right wing…she came up with the story of an ex lover trying to make up for his bad behaviour….trying to reach his ex girl living in Aix and on his way he meets Brigitte Bardot to tell BB that she’s a cunt….”

“Collaborations are everywhere in the charts these days, especially in pop, rap and R'n'B based genre's...are there any artists you'd love to work with that you've not had a chance to?”

TG: “BEASTIE BOYS, TY SEGALL, TOPPER HEADON, PAUL SIMENON, MICK JONES, TONY ALLEN, FRANK OCEAN, LIGHTENING BOLT…..all in all ….too much to mention…”

“Coming back to the new record, you’ve just completed a tour promoting the album, primarily within Germany but a couple of shows around Europe including a date in London, how was the tour for you? How has the reaction been to “Yours” in general?”

TG: “We had a great time including an amazing evening at the KOKO in London…we got along really good, the audiences were great and we’d love to come back to England as soon as possible to continue with our tour. The reaction to the new material was good and it’s getting better all the time! I guess we will have a lot of fun during the next year with this album.”

“What’s next for Beatsteaks in the new year? Is there going to be more extensive touring overseas or aiming to play any festivals? What does 2018 have in store…?”

TG: “Another tour in Germany in spring, a lot of festivals all over Europe during the summer hopefully coming back to England….maybe a few shows in France and definitely some shows in East Europe.”

“Nochmals vielen Dank und viel Glück mit dem Album.”

TG: “Thank YOU!”
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    News & Reviews

    Gavin J Griffiths, a.k.a GavTheGothicChav, lover of new music and supporter of bands. Inspired by a mixture of horror and comedy, and fueled by a blend of alcohol and sarcasm...if you're a singer / in a band and would like a review written up, please do get in touch via the email address at the top of the page and I'll get back to you ASAP. Much love x

    Follow @GavinJGriffiths

      CHAV CHAT

    ASK GAV!

    Archives

    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    January 2016
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014

    Categories

    All
    Acoustic
    Alternative
    Article
    Black Metal
    Blues
    Book
    Classic
    Classic Rock
    Comedy
    Competition
    Compilation
    Country
    Death Metal
    Doom
    Electronic
    Emo
    EP
    France
    Funk
    Games
    Glam Rock
    Gothic
    Grime
    Grunge
    Hardcore
    Hard Rock
    Heavy Metal
    Hip Hop
    Hip-Hop
    Indie
    Industrial
    Interview
    Jazz
    J-Rock
    Melodic Death
    Metal
    Metalcore
    Newport
    New Wave
    Nu Metal
    Nu-Metal
    Pop
    Pop Punk
    Pop-Punk
    Pop Rock
    Post Punk
    Post-Punk
    Prog
    Punk
    Punk Rock
    Rap
    Reggae
    Rock
    Rock 'N' Roll
    Shoegaze
    Ska
    Sludge
    Soft Rock
    Southern Metal
    Southern Rock
    Stoner
    Symphonic Metal
    Synth
    Thrash
    Unsigned
    Urban

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly