Q: Your new album is called "Fuck the Consent", which translates to "Screw your consent". What do you want to convey with that?
RY: I believe that consent simply cannot be the goal, and I cannot and will not accept that. It makes no sense to pull together with people when there are completely different views on certain points. However, I also do not believe in total separation from anything that deviates even slightly from one's own standpoint. But “Fuck The Consent” is meant to send a clear message that we are not automatically on the same side just because we might agree on a fundamental point. For example, the often-cited anti-fascist claim. Nice and good. But when someone simultaneously spews anti-Semitic, homophobic, sexist, or other bullshit – how is a compromise supposed to be found?! “Fuck The Consent” is not a final word but a clear positioning.
Q: Your song "Power to the People" deals with the theme that people should have more say in society. How democratic do you think Germany is?
RY: The song deals with whether it is even possible for a people to exercise power. Or whether only a few privileged individuals always exploit and abuse power for their own purposes. Furthermore, the song questions whether a movement or revolution is even “sustainable” if the goal is placed above the individual for whose well-being the struggle was originally intended. But to answer your actual question, I can only say that I do not feel like I can really participate in decision-making. Therefore, I also do not feel like I live in a democracy.
Q: How democratic should Germany be? And isn’t it sometimes better to decide against the general opinion?
RY: Even a smart head can act foolishly in the crowd. At the moment, I am still searching for those answers myself. The song “Power To The People”, for example, is not necessarily to be understood as a demand. The song is one big question.
Q: The right-wing terror cell NSU is currently a hot topic in the media. How did you react when it came to light?
RY: Astonished!
Some of the murders were committed here in Nuremberg, and there was always talk of a lone perpetrator with a racist background or some mafia affairs. Never, however, of a Nazi network. I was only so astonished that there were no indications of this for over 10 years. Especially from the right-wing camp. Otherwise, they celebrate everything immediately that they can claim as a supposed “success”. I find that really strange about the whole thing. No idea. Maybe they even celebrated it, but no one really registered it.
Q: Is the NSU the result of German politics in recent years?
RY: The NSU and all the brown filth is the result of general grievances. I would not attribute this solely to German politics. In 2011, surely no one would assume that a country lives, decides, and develops in isolation from the rest of the world?! The fundamental problems are always the same factors. Poverty, lack of education and upbringing (or even the wrong kind), social exclusion, etc. And instead of talking stupidly every few days about an NPD ban, politics should rather address the roots of this problem. Then parties like the NPD would drift into irrelevance in the long term – which would have more or less the same effect as a ban.
Q: You will soon be playing a few gigs with Broilers from Düsseldorf. How did the joint gigs come about and what do you hope to achieve from them?
RY: Sammy (singer of the Broilers, note of the editor) called me and asked what we were doing on those days and if we had time and desire to play these shows with them. It was actually no big deal. I have known Sammy and the Broilers for quite some time, probably 10 years or so. But we have never managed to play together until now. Therefore, I am just looking forward to the gigs. Especially because Broilers is, for me, the only band that competes up there with style and brains. No comparison to the whole embarrassing German rock circus. What it ultimately brings us, we will see when the shows are over. For us, it is definitely an opportunity to try something new again.
Q: What are your plans for 2012?
RY: Mainly to play a lot live to properly promote the new album. We are also planning to go abroad more frequently again. That has been lacking in recent years. Sweden, Spain, Russia, or the USA, let’s see what we can manage time-wise.
