Q: Congratulations on the new album “Feuer & Papier”. It is your eighth album. I feel that it strongly focuses on friendship and solidarity and having a good time together. Was that a kind of “concept” or how did the songs come about?
ZSK: Thank you!
In dark times, you have to focus on the good things.
That wasn’t the big concept, but now that you mention it: yes, that theme runs a bit through the album. It’s very important not to lose hope amidst all the hate, war, and devastation out there.
We like to encourage the kids with our songs.
Q: How do you manage to put a smile on your face every day with so many bad news?
ZSK: It doesn’t help to do anything else; we have to keep going.
We’re not going to hide under the couch and cry. That’s not our idea of how to deal with challenges. We’re more like “Now more than ever!”.
Q: You have been supporting KEIN BOCK AUF NAZIS for years. How is this initiative doing, especially in relation to the right-wing shift in society and politics?
ZSK: We don’t just support KEIN BOCK AUF NAZIS; we founded the campaign and have been working day and night for it ever since.
We never thought this project would become so huge, and especially not that KEIN BOCK AUF NAZIS would become so important. We had hoped that we could eventually end the campaign because Nazis and the right-wing shift would no longer be an issue. Unfortunately, the opposite is true.
Currently, we are preparing protests against the AfD congress in November in Gießen, and next year there are several important state elections. So we have our hands full.
Q: “Keine Liebe für Berlin” is, as I find as a Berliner, a very sympathetic anthem from the new album about the city. You sing that the city is simply becoming too crowded and that you only have love for Kreuzberg, but Kreuzberg is also very crowded.
ZSK: Hehehe.
You wouldn’t believe how many discussions this song has sparked.
Super crazy. It’s just a charming song that takes a playful jab at the Berlin hype with a wink. And then people actually write to us saying they are offended because Berlin is so beautiful, asking what we have against the city and so on. That surprised us. They can celebrate every Deichkind and Kraftklub song ironically, but when we make a joke, there are tears. It’s hard to understand.
But the nice thing is:
The song goes over really well live, and everyone sings along very loudly. It’s really fun for us when new songs are celebrated like that.
Q: Sometimes when I return from a trip to Berlin, especially to Kreuzberg, I think, “Finally, normal people again.” What do you think in such situations?
ZSK: Absolutely.
We also play a lot in the East in small towns with many Nazis and AfD fans. You appreciate it much more when at home a large part of the people you meet on the street are, in the broadest sense, left-wing and have been socialized with punk.
Q: In Berlin, many clubs and leftist free spaces have had to close or have been driven out in recent years. Are there any positive news from your perspective?
ZSK: We would really wish for something positive on this topic, but unfortunately, there is almost nothing. One good club after another is closing, not just in Berlin.
A small ray of hope is that SO36 has been around for almost 50 years now. We love that place!
Q: You played in Japan in 2024. As far as I’ve heard, it was fantastic. How did the concerts come about? How were the attendees? What is different from Germany?
ZSK: It was more than fantastic.
We love going on such adventures with the band.
The attendees at the shows are much more polite than here; otherwise, punk is very similar there. That’s the great thing about this music. It works across all language barriers. But there weren’t just people from Japan there. We also had about 20 hardcore fans from Germany who flew over for us and attended all the shows in Japan. Incredible!
There’s our little Japan tour documentary on YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fonZzrMj1bg
Q: The prices for your concerts have risen significantly compared to the last tour. What is the reason for this, and how do you deal with it when people say that attending a concert has become too expensive?
ZSK: It annoys us too, but everything in this music sector has become much more expensive.
We can’t exempt ourselves from that.
We have to pay our crew properly, rent all the equipment, insurance, the buses, etc. It just can’t be done any other way.
Many clubs also say that they simply don’t want or can’t hold the shows for a lower ticket price.
For us, the prices are still manageable. For the big “highlights” that everyone wants, the prices have exploded astronomically. So these stadium concerts for 1000 euros and more. The few large agencies that now control the live business worldwide are pushing prices up with all their might. It’s a nasty spiral where no one knows when it will finally stop. At the same time, wages haven’t increased.
Q: The concerts you play in the afternoon for the very young are already sold out. There are still tickets available for the concerts for adults. What is the reason for this? Is there a punk rock wave going through the kids?
ZSK: We are playing six children’s concerts and have sold 1000 tickets each.
Within a few weeks, the children’s concerts were sold out. We were quite surprised.
Our impression is that many people who grew up with punk want to pass this music on to their children now. We seem to be the perfect entry point, and of course, we also really enjoy doing this. We released a children’s book for the tour. The book is called “Nikas erstes Punkkonzert”. We had it illustrated by a children’s book illustrator. We give it away at all the shows to the kids. It’s going to be great.
Q: Many bands have played in small AJZs in the countryside, especially in East Germany, in recent years to show that the people who engage against Nazis there are not alone. Do you plan to do that again?
ZSK: We’ve been doing that repeatedly for years. Zwickau, Glauchau, Jamel,
Chemnitz, Cottbus, Riesa – we go wherever there’s a fire and play for the engaged.
It’s very important that we, as musicians, don’t leave people alone. Of course, we’re only there for one evening, but such concerts give strength and courage for the daily fight against the right-wing shift and right-wing violence.
