This article was automatically translated by AI.
Falk (vocals):
First of all, because it's fun! This whole band thing is just a welcome change from the often monotonous daily grind. You get out of the city, travel a lot, spend time with friends, meet other great people. That's awesome. We consciously keep our sound very simple and reduced. Good songs don't need guitar solos and endless repetitions of the chorus. Less is often more.
Matthias (drums):
Awkward, edgy, straightforward are the attributes we chose because square, practical, good was already taken. Everything else has been said.
Frank: Your lyrics are very radical. You manage to highlight issues in just a few words. What do you want to achieve with your music, with your lyrics?
Falk:
Phew, I have no idea if our lyrics are very radical. There are certainly many bands that speak more clearly than we do. But I might be too close to really judge that. But to answer the actual question: At our concerts, we want to move people in the truest sense of the word. If people are bouncing around in front of the stage, it's usually a sign that they're having a good time. And that's our primary wish, that the people who come to FRONT have a good time. If they then listen to our records at home and maybe ponder over one or another lyric or start to engage with the themes of our songs, then we are of course happy about that. I think music can't achieve much more than that. Music can at most give a little nudge to question things more critically or change behavior.
Frank: What’s the deal with the gas mask and its wearer at your concerts?
Falk:
That's Markus, our bassist. He likes to be in the spotlight. Since hardly anyone is interested in bassists normally, unless they shoot heroin like Sid Vicious. We once decided at a band meeting to stay away from heroin, and that's how the gas mask came about. So far, it's been working quite well.
Markus (bass):
That's exactly how it was!
Frank: Your album from 2013 criticizes specific issues more concretely than you did before. Are you fed up with abstract criticism, or do these times need concrete enemies again to take action against?
Falk:
That's true, the lyrics on the last album are more concrete. But there wasn't really a master plan for that. It just happened while writing the lyrics. I think both are important. Abstract criticism has the advantage of being more timeless. For example, if I write a lyric about those Pegida idiots now, it might be that those despicable demonstrations no longer exist when the song comes out. But if I write the lyrics a bit more abstractly and generally about everyday racism and anti-Semitism in Germany, it will still be valid in a year or ten years. It really depends on the topic. For a song like 'Sieg Smile', which is already very concrete, the concrete fits again. Villages or small towns will still look the same in ten years and be populated by often narrow-minded people. And with 'Derrick SS', I just had to name the whole shit. It couldn't be abstract.
Markus:
If you think everything is shit, the enemies never run out. Germany is full of 80,000,000 concrete enemies.
Frank: Pegida demonstrations, terror warnings across Europe, and you are against more surveillance and more cameras. What should one do when the media and politics instill fear?
Falk:
First of all, don't believe every crap that's presented to us! Because, without wanting to join the chorus of the lying press, some media do spread pretty blatant biased or even false nonsense. I can somewhat understand the reflex to call for more security when some religious nutjobs commit an attack again. But the sad truth is that such attacks can't always be prevented. We just have to live with a certain residual risk. In France, for example, data retention has been in place for years. Nevertheless, two men armed with Kalashnikovs were able to storm an editorial office and create a bloodbath there. As we now know, those two assholes were also on the intelligence agencies' terror lists, so they were already known as a security risk, yet they were still able to carry out their bloodbath. The same in Copenhagen. The attacker was also known. And in general, I just don't want the state to know everything about me and to track every step I take. It’s getting increasingly difficult, and we are aware that thanks to smartphones, the internet, and social media, which we all use diligently, the demand against more surveillance is contradictory. But more surveillance does not lead to more security. That's just how it is — no matter what politicians or some media might declare.
Matthias:
That's propaganda of the finest kind! More and more, I believe the world is full of lunatics, up and down, right and left, here and there, everywhere. We could open a huge can of worms here.
Andy (guitar):
The reflex to call for more security is certainly understandable at first. However, one should consider what this security is bought with. Unfortunately, the threat of comprehensive surveillance in digital times is so abstract that it doesn't initially stand out to many. Sure, I can ignore personalized advertising, and I don't notice if I end up in some database at first. I only realize it when that database comes into play and I happen to have the bad luck that the evidence is against me. Not to mention what these data could mean if our society takes a step into an openly authoritarian system.
Frank: 'Bild dich Ford', 'Hamsterrad', songs against life in work. Does work degenerate us? Is the exploitative system so in control of us that we hand over our brains to work and the motivation to think falls asleep? And if so, what can be done about it?
Falk:
It depends on the work and in what environment it is done. Ramtatta.de also means work; there's a lot of heart and time invested in it, yet you wouldn't say it degenerates you. But if I have to do some crap job every day with idiotic colleagues that I don't enjoy at all and whose only purpose is to just get by, then that can definitely degenerate you, sure. And it's particularly bad if that one crap job isn't enough and you have to take a second crap job to pay the rent and fill the fridge. That also has a way of securing power. Who works day and night for a pittance might have some stupid thoughts but can't implement them because after work, all energy and creativity are gone to engage with anything other than RTL 2 and co. And since we live in a system where one is dependent on wage labor, I see the only way to escape that is to find a job that is somehow fun. Or at least to find a niche on the side that makes the rest more bearable.
Matthias:
Yes, hobbies are important. Drinking and masturbating, for example.
Markus:
I find work very important. Political work like drinking and masturbating against Germany, for example.
Frank: On your current record, there are several song titles that reference well-known classics (e.g., 'Onanie und Alltag', 'Immer wieder Sonntags'). Why these references?
Falk:
I just like it when lyrics contain little allusions or references to other songs, bands, poems, books, or movies. Ideally, this can add another layer of meaning to a text. And sometimes a wordplay like 'Onanie und Alltag' is just fun :)
Matthias:
We also like these classics and many others. There could be more to come when I think of the playlists from the last tour...
Markus:
Soon, other classics will be added. I'm thinking of 'Take it easy Altes Haus' or 'Ich sehe in dein Herz aus Glas'.
Falk:
No, those 'classics' will definitely not be added.
Frank: Wiesbaden = Fiesbaden, a comparison you probably know well. How is life in your hometown, between state government, BKA, and a large US military installation?
Falk:
You definitely live safely, haha. Honestly, you don't notice much from the BKA, the US Army, or the state government in everyday life. In Berlin, you probably encounter more English-speaking people than in Wiesbaden. However, what is certainly related to the state government, BKA, and a lot of officials is the bourgeois mentality that is very widespread in Wiesbaden, which is why we also prefer to call it Spießbaden rather than Fiesbaden, haha. What is very noticeable in Wiesbaden is that alternative or rather non-commercial culture has a hard time surviving. There are hardly any good pubs or clubs. And those that exist are constantly threatened with possible closure or restrictions because the residents like to complain about the noise. Another problem is the often lack of audience support. Although there has been a self-managed venue called Sabot for three years, run in the best DIY manner, where people really put a lot of work into it, unfortunately, concerts are often poorly attended because everyone seems to be doing their own thing. What punks in Wiesbaden don't know, they won't check out. Unfortunately.
Markus:
What outsiders don't know is: Wiesbaden is a Potemkin village. From the outside, everyone sees the beautiful facades, but actually, Wiesbaden is the Mannheim of Hesse. Super antisocial. I don't go anywhere without my switchblade, so rather Miesbaden than Spieß- or Fiesbaden.
Falk:
At least there are beautiful facades. In Mainz, where Markus lives, there isn't even that.
Frank: What does the suburb mean to you, and why is the city center better and more livable?
Falk:
We all grew up in small towns or villages, and the small-mindedness that prevails in villages and small towns often makes life unbearable if you're a bit different. I grew up in a village with 2,500 people. I was the only punk there and for many, something like an exotic animal that you have to gawk at at best. At worst, there was also the occasional punch. Plus, the narrow-mindedness with which everything new or different is met was really hell. In the pub, there were the regulars who wanted to say, 'Well, you can still say that,' on the street the Böhse Onkelz-listening youth, and generally, the village was not a place where anything like youth culture or alternative culture took place. That was hell. That's what I mean by suburb in 'Sieg Smile'. In the city, all that exists too.
After seeing the concert in Berlin at Cortina Bob on December 12, 2014, it was clear to me that I wanted to learn more about the band. The band also wanted me to learn more, and so they wrote me their answers to my questions as follows:
