Q: After 15 years, you are breaking up. What is the reason?
Ü: The reason is quite clear. Some people in the band have said that due to family and work, they no longer have time to make music. We don't want to be a band that exists but only plays twice a year. We said to ourselves, either we have a band and do it properly or we let it go.
The second reason is that we also don't want to replace any band members. Then FRAU DOKTOR would simply no longer be FRAU DOKTOR as it has been for the last 10 years.
For some in the band, it's a shame, but overall it's good as it is.
Q: Are there band members who want to continue in other projects?
Ü: As far as the Ska scene is concerned, nothing has come up so far and nothing has been mentioned. I have another punk band. But that's more of a hobby band. I don't know, something could develop there. Some people in the band are still involved with music. Our bassist is a music educator. He will continue to make music. A new ska band made up of members of FRAU DOKTOR is not planned for now.
Q: If you had the opportunity to live off music, would you continue, or would you still break up due to lack of time?
Ü: That's certainly a question of age. If it were to happen overnight, we would be completely overwhelmed. We have been on tour for 10 days now, and I am completely exhausted. At the moment, I can't imagine making music forever. It's really exhausting. Besides, some of us have families. You can't just leave them at home alone.
If we could have lived off it, everything would have had to develop earlier. Eight years ago, we would definitely have decided to continue if it had gone that way. Maybe we would have looked at the whole thing with different eyes. Every concert of FRAU DOKTOR is a big party. If you let all the family men loose...
Maybe if it had developed earlier, it would have gone on a more professional track. It is, of course, extremely unprofessional to get completely drunk every night. You can't keep that up for long. At least we can't. We are all around 40 on average.
Overall, it was never the case that we could have lived off record sales. If anything, you live off the concerts you play. At least in the segment we are in.
Q: Today at CLASH, you are playing your second-to-last concert. How do you feel when you think that soon FRAU DOKTOR will be a thing of the past?
Ü: Until now, it has always been that in the cities where our hearts have been for years, like Hannover, it was very moving to play one last concert there. Now we are all a bit worn out. I am also glad that I can sleep in my own bed tomorrow and no longer have to sleep in the submarine we've been traveling in for 10 days. Somehow, despite everything, we have managed to throw a huge party every night. That is also a lot of fun. It's always a very emotional thing. In the clubs where we have played during the tour, they are places where we have often and gladly played in the past. We booked the tour specifically like that. Yesterday we played in Coburg, in exactly the JUZ where we had our very first away concert. That was in 1996! It is still the JUZ as you know it, with social workers and everything. It felt like a time travel. Only this time our bus was bigger than the venue. Well, we had to park elsewhere because the parking lot of the JUZ was too small for our bus. When you play in such a place, it's just a bit more emotional than when you play in a club for the first time and don't have that intense, personal connection.
Then, of course, there is our last gig in our hometown Wiesbaden. That will be really emotionally heavy. It will be a huge concert, which is actually not our style. We are more of a band that feels at home in smaller clubs.
Q: Would you have had the opportunity to play in a smaller club in Wiesbaden?
Ü: We would have had the opportunity, but then we would have had to play four or five times. Currently, around 1500 tickets have been sold for our gig in Wiesbaden.
The club has a capacity of 1600 people. In principle, it can hold 2000 people.
So far, we have always played in a smaller venue in Wiesbaden. For our traditional annual concert in Wiesbaden, we have always played twice in a small club. That worked well. Although some people were always sent home because it was sold out, it was okay. There were always around 350 people per show. For our farewell concert, we would really have to play there five times, probably even more. We don't have that much time.
Q: You mentioned the clubs. I also noticed that you often played in alternative clubs or squatted houses. Does it mean something to you to play there, or did it just happen that way?
Ü: It means a lot to us to play exactly there. We want to play in leftist venues that have a certain standard! We are not just a club band that plays anywhere and that's it. Of course, that has also happened over the years, but it has been a conscious and intentional development. That's where our roots come from. That's how the band was formed. The first concert of FRAU DOKTOR was in Wiesbaden at Café Klatsch, which is pretty much the most leftist place in Wiesbaden. The whole left scene is there. That has always been important to us from the beginning and remains so to this day.
Q: In the 15 years of the band's history, was there any experience that was particularly bizarre, something that really took you by surprise?
Ü: There are always many crazy things that you experience. Definitely, we have experienced many crazy things at our concerts in Spain. Sometimes we were treated like mega-rockstars, to the point that we got a bit scared.
You arrive at the hotel, and the porn channel is unlocked because a rock band obviously wants to watch porn. You think, “What is going on here?” Or you get picked up from the airport in a special limousine. That is quite bizarre. We were only booked by a large agency, where we were just a small number. You arrive at the airport, and then your crew is introduced to you. Crew? What do we need a crew for? Well, you need a guitar technician and stagehands. Well, okay, we’ll take it. The festivals and concerts we played there were quite large, but we were never the headliners, sometimes not even co-headliners.
In Spain, we sometimes played an open-air concert in the afternoon and then another concert in a hall at night. That is normal there in the summer, but it is quite exhausting.
On the other hand, there are also the very small venues. In France, we once played in a club where the drum kit was mounted above the emergency exit on a platform. The stage was underneath, right in front of the emergency exit door, which had to remain clear in case people needed to exit in an emergency.
Q: How did you come to Ska music?
Ü: We all used to have punk bands. At some point, we all met, some had an active band and some did not. Then we thought that we could play Ska. Why, I don't remember anymore, but it was there, and at the beginning, we covered some songs and brought well-known songs into the Ska style. At that time, there was a ska band called “Turnaround Turtles,” but they had just disbanded. From the remnants of the band, we then lured the musicians to us. Our guitarist played drums there back then, for example. That's how everything developed, and one thing led to another.
Q: You have now released a kind of best-of album called “Grenzen der Gemütlichkeit.” How did the selection of songs that made it onto the record come about?
Ü: We actually thought that Oliver Mauermann, the singer of the Aeronauten, would make the selection. Oliver is a kind of musical mentor for us. Before that, we said we would make a list of songs that we definitely want on the CD. That was already such a huge list that there was nothing left to choose from, as only a limited number of songs fit on a CD. We discussed everything in a plenary session beforehand; everyone is allowed to contribute. At first, we were afraid that if we submitted the list, there would be some really weird songs on it. Tastes differ, after all.
Overall, the songs were oriented towards our audience. What our audience wants to hear.
Q: In your song “Generation Anspruchslos,” it occurs to me that you describe a generation that has few demands. Can you see any changes in the audience after 15 years of band history? Is the demand perhaps lower today than it was in the past?
Ü: I don't know if the song and the statement can be tied to a certain age. The title sounds good, but I mean more a certain group of people, not primarily an age group. The song can also be seen in relation to all the wealthy people in Wiesbaden. For them, we are all a bunch of people with no demands. So the song is definitely meant to reflect reality and self-reflection.
Q: Your statement is therefore more that subculture does not identify itself through material things?
Ü: Exactly. The song is about the fact that you can just go to a football game and have fun without showing others what a fancy car you have.
Q: If young people came to you and said they wanted to start a ska band, what would you tell them?
Ü: That's difficult; Ska has a problem. There are many school bands that meet and make music and already have great success at their first performances because Ska is simply catchy and danceable music.
Q: But Ska is not necessarily easy to play, aside from a few riffs.
Ü: We have found that you have to stay extremely committed. You have to develop and always remain present.
If someone really came to me and said they wanted to start a ska band, I would tell them, “Listen to the old stuff and try to sound as old as possible. Always try to stay committed and develop yourself.”
Q: Are there musical role models you would mention?
Ü: Those are definitely the old ones. Generally, Bob Marley and Prince Buster, from that generation. Younger people usually orient themselves more towards bands like Ska-P. It's all a matter of taste. If someone wants to be as professional as Ska-P and can seriously pull it off, they should go for it.
Q: Do you have any farewell words? 15 years of FRAU DOKTOR...
Ü: ...it was beautiful! I regret nothing. And never say never!
