Q: On your new CD “Hinterhofhits”, the cover reads “Houses are for living in, not for speculation”
JB: That’s just a photo we stumbled upon. Our primary focus was on the people shooting around in the yard. But the saying is important to us as well. Especially in Berlin, it’s important to give a hint that the prices for rental apartments and real estate are exploding. Obviously, because in this strange system called capitalism, there is no other investment opportunity for the rich than to buy houses that they can then rent out profitably.
SV: The saying is meant to provoke thought.
JB: So you have to look at the cover twice.
SV: You can also look at it three times.
Q: Does the song “Go2Hell” build on this theme?
JB: Yes.
Q: What is the situation regarding rent increases and displacement for you specifically or in Kreuzberg?
JB: We are all affected in some way and know people who are affected. You can already notice it with rehearsal spaces. It continues with friends' apartments, spaces for projects, and children's shops that have to close because rents have reached levels that are no longer affordable.
SV: In my building, every apartment is being renovated individually for a lot of money so that it can then be rented out for double the price.
Q: But you’re holding your ground?
SV: I’m still in and bravely holding my ground, but eventually, they will probably come for me too.
Q: Let’s talk about the line “It doesn’t work. It has never worked” from the song “Die Maschine”. Is that a dadaistic statement or a slogan against everything?
JB: The lyrics already existed. However, we changed them when the incident in Fukushima happened, where an allegedly earthquake-proof, tsunami-proof nuclear power plant broke down. Wide areas were contaminated as a result.
SV: The super disaster.
JB: The super disaster was the trigger, but there are many other things that don’t work.
There is no safe final storage for nuclear waste in Germany. All these high-tech things that have been planned or built in the last 10 years are either too expensive, don’t work, or their completion has to be postponed indefinitely. The lyrics generally address the dependency of people on modern technologies.
Q: Has humanity become too arrogant?
JB: There is no one human being. However, it is true that people in Western countries are extremely dependent on technology and wouldn’t know what to do if the power went out for 48 hours.
That’s not the case everywhere on Earth. In the Southern Hemisphere, there are certainly many societies that are not so dependent on technology.
Technological dependence is already enormous in Western Europe and North America, and it is even higher in Japan.
Q: The song “Kannibale” advocates for the disappearance of tourists in Berlin. How many tourists can Berlin handle?
JB: The question should be “How many tourists can Johnny Bottrop’s stomach handle?”.
SV: The best are well-beer-soaked Bavarians; they taste particularly good.
JB: I prefer wiry Southern Europeans.
SV: You like leaner meat more?
JB: The whole tourist thing goes hand in hand with gentrification. The question is also, how long will tourists keep coming when entire, formerly original, authentic, and real neighborhoods consist only of tourist cafes, youth hostels, tourist restaurants, electronic clubs where only tourists go, and next to them a youth hostel and then the next building with rental condos for tourists. When entire streets consist only of that, I wonder why they still come here?
SV: In Spain, in the Balearic Islands, that worked perfectly.
JB: But there’s sun and beach! Where’s the sun and beach here?
BBB: They don’t come to Berlin for the sun and the beach...
SV: ...but for the authentic neighborhood.
Q: Doesn’t Berlin and the alternative scene also benefit from tourists?
JB: Young people looking for jobs or side jobs definitely find something in youth hostels or similar. I know a lot of punk rockers who work in youth hostels. It’s also an income.
SV: It’s definitely also an enrichment. It’s not just complete idiots walking through the streets and drinking. There are also really nice guys among them that you can get along with. I’m also a tourist when I’m in Spain, for example. I might behave a bit differently than the average German who goes to Mallorca.
JB: The difference is, when I go somewhere, like to Italy or Spain, I go where I know people and do things with them. Nowadays, that has completely become independent.
SV: Where we would be with the song “Go2Hell” and the tower of shit. Entire neighborhoods are being bought up, and the apartments are being rented out as vacation homes at horrendous prices. Rents for the average citizen then rise accordingly.
JB: In Wilhelmstraße in Mitte, towards Unter den Linden, the original tenants have been thrown out of all the residential buildings. They are now all vacation apartments. There are no original tenants left there.
I don’t know how long the Berliners will put up with this.
BBB: There are always two sides; if you want to work here or just live a little, that’s totally okay, but when things, especially regarding apartments, go to extremes, then it’s dangerous. No one has anything against tourists. The question is only, in what quantities can a city like Berlin handle tourists, and in what quantities is it homogeneous.
JB: It’s not necessarily about the quantity, but who profits from it in what way.
Q: Let’s talk about “Menschenmaterial”. I think the song deals with all the poorly paid jobs. What should one do if they are stuck in this treadmill of poorly paid jobs and poor education?
JB: Do something like we do?! None of us has a proper education except for the nerd Bang Bang Benno, who is currently on a second educational path.
BBB: I don’t even have a high school diploma. I have nothing, and you’re getting on my case because I started my first training at over thirty. It’s still far from finished.
JB: You manage somehow. You don’t have to work in a call center.
Q: Is the song “Das Produkt” the follow-up song to “Reduziert”?
SV: We haven’t thought about that yet, but if it comes across that way, it wasn’t intentional.
JB: It was originally different. Originally, the three songs “Das Material”, “Das Produkt”, and “Die Maschine” were supposed to come one after the other. Basically, with the help of a machine, human material shapes products that no one needs and that also don’t work. The eternal cycle of economics.
Q: That scares me, if the machine might someday shape people who are stupid and work cheaply.
SV: Society clones the people who are stupid and work cheaply itself. I don’t think you need a machine for that.
JB: We can’t think that far; we’re just a simple punk band.
Q: You have relatively many sad and melancholic songs on the album for your standards. How did that come about?
JB: I have nothing to do with that.
BBB: Which songs do you mean?
Q: For example, “Ramona” and “Zusammen Sein”. Both songs are not typical THE BOTTROPS.
JB: Both are relationship songs. Both songs have a funny punchline. In the song “Ramona”, it’s such that the guy doesn’t think of one girl but of three dozen girls.
Q: But at that moment, he has no girl.
JB: He has no girl, but that’s just a temporary state. Maybe after half an hour, a girl will sit down next to him. In “Zusammen Sein”, it’s similar. The thought is “I’m so alone. I would love to be with you... or with any other girl”.
Q: At least both songs deal with momentary loneliness.
SV: That’s human. Only “feel-good” songs don’t work either.
Q: The “Hinterhofhits” moves a bit away from power pop, more towards punk. Is that intentional or coincidental?
JB: It sounds a bit harder than our previous albums because the album was recorded live. All the amplifiers were in one room, and it was equipped with many microphones, which makes it sound noisier and harder. At the time of the recordings, our old drummer, The Ace, was still playing. He is a big fan of American punk and hardcore music. That certainly added some hardness.
SV: The recordings were a lot of fun and really benefited the album. The only downside was that the set went by really quickly. It was all done in a flash. We recorded the songs within two days. Unfortunately, the overdubs took a bit longer.
BBB: About seven to eight months.
SV: Suddenly, there was no time left. One couldn’t make it, the other was on vacation, or who knows what, and bam, almost a whole year was gone.
JB: Everything went a bit sluggish.
Q: Regarding current events in Kreuzberg. Until spring 2013, the occupation of an old school by refugees was tolerated by the district. What is your stance on this, and what do you know about it?
JB: I know a lot about it, but I can’t say anything.
BBB: What’s your stance on it?
JB: I’m quite okay with it.
BBB: I think it’s fine too.
Q: That wouldn’t be possible in many cities.
BBB: That’s true; Berlin is certainly one of the most tolerant. That speaks for Berlin!
Q: Soon the long-awaited DVD of the Terrorgruppe will be released. Are there any efforts to get back together?
JB: No
SV: No
Q: What will THE BOTTROPS do in 2013?
JB: We will play live, but a longer tour is not planned.
SV: We will do a small tour around Easter, then some summer festivals, and maybe another small tour in the fall.
And until then, it’s time to get used to “Hinterhofhits”. I’m convinced it will happen quickly because the record is catchy and just a lot of fun.
