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Alex, Leo, and I (Justin) have been making music together since 2015, but we have known each other for much longer. Our first attempts started at a music school, the School of Rock Timmendorfer Strand, under the name "Breathing Punx" as a Green Day and Blink-182 cover band.
Our increasing interest in German-speaking punk rock and a new
instrument in the band (a synthesizer that Alex received as a Christmas gift) led to a renaming and reorientation of the group at the end of 2018. Since then, we have been causing a stir as Jack Pott with a new style, lyrics, and a lot of silliness on the stages
(and in the ears) of this republic.
In April of last year, we had a change in bass with our youngest member Jaki. Since we have been doing this together for a while, we have already experienced many ups and downs in the music industry. The rollercoaster ride has taken us through sold-out clubs and unique festival experiences to concerts in front of two people in hardware store parking lots. We are incredibly grateful for all these experiences. Only this way do we learn to appreciate every little gesture and see an opportunity in every problem.
Congratulations on your first album! Your first album is titled "Bomben über Disneyland". How did you come up with the title?
Thank you very much!
The title "Bomben über Disneyland" was picked up by Alex one evening somewhere. We had already recorded eleven songs and were desperately searching for an overarching name that thematically summarizes all the songs. The lyrics of the album, like our first EP "Adoleszenzgeschichten", mainly revolve around adolescence with all its problems and attractions.
The metaphor "Bomben über Disneyland" provided a suitable bridge between the various facets of this eventful life phase. A bomb on the tried and tested, the childish - followed by the reconstruction of a new identity. When you visualize this imagery, surely everyone can find themselves in it. We even dedicated a song to the album title, which opens the record.
Listening to your album, I notice the very good production and the precisely played songs. How was the time in the studio?
How long were you in the studio?
The very good production is thanks to the dear Nils Enners from Northroad Recording Studio, for whom we gladly traveled to Breidenbach in the Hessian hinterland.
Already at our first meeting in September 2020, we realized that there was a spark between us and that we wanted to record our album there. The time in Breidenbach felt like a vacation or a class trip gone awry. There were truly no limits to creativity, and our eagerness to experiment was taken to absurd levels. We could do whatever we wanted on this album, as there were no expectations of us, and luckily the nagging punk police couldn't find us in Breidenbach.
"Doesn't exist" didn't exist. In three separate recording sessions of four to five days, we meticulously crafted eleven songs. "So Indie" and "Du machst den Punk kaputt" still come from previous recordings in Hamburg and were roughly revised.
"Urlaub auf dem Balkon" is the third song on your album.
What connection do you have to Rostock and the balcony there?
The basic structure of the song was written by me (Justin) on my balcony in Rostock Lütten Klein when Leo and I still lived there together in a shared apartment. We moved there for our studies.
During the pandemic, we spent a lot of time there with friends,
even though the beach is only a ten-minute train ride away.
This balcony was the hub of social life in Rostock.
In "Urlaub auf dem Balkon" you sing about the high prices at the Baltic Sea beach. You don't live far from the Baltic Sea.
What are the prices like where you are?
That's one of the reasons why our visits to the exploited tourist hotspots with their high society (like in Scharbeutz or Timmendorfer Strand) are kept to a minimum.
These Sylt-like conditions are really unbearable. For us, the term "Küstenkind" is considered a mocking insult. We prefer to linger in the bleakness of Bad Schwartau's desolation, where the world is still in order.
You released the song "So Indie" as a single. Why did you choose this song? What do you have against indie?
"So Indie" is one of the oldest songs in our repertoire and has therefore been tried out live countless times. It has proven to be a huge mood booster at our concerts, which can easily be sung along to after the first listen. Moreover, it is musically the most typical Jack Pott song on the album. The cherry on top was created for us by the pop-punk legend Zirkel with a feature, which really gave the song a boost. So it was a sure thing that this song had to be the first sign of life to the public.
We personally have nothing against indie. On the contrary.
The song is about a band that desperately wants to write a worldwide hit, but the results are dismissed by the critical mass as "radio-unfriendly" or "too specific", thus derogatorily labeled as "indie". This musical pamphlet is directed against the mainstream pop of the Forster-Giesinger faction.
In the song "Du machst den Punk kaputt" you sing about a person from East Germany. Is there this person you sing about?
What have your experiences in East Germany been like?
"Du machst den Punk kaputt" is sung from the perspective of many punk bands and fans who want to explain to us how "being punk" works.
We collected all the questionable remarks and comments from the past years and wrote a sarcastic song out of them, following the motto:
"Cops = Nazis,
East Germans = Nazis,
Rammstein = Nazis,
no holey pants = bourgeois, etc."
Overall, one should not take the song too seriously. No one is ruining punk, except for punk itself.
As for our experiences in East Germany: There are idiots everywhere in the world, but also many decent and nice people.
More there, less here. To view East Germany and its citizens as a unified entity would be too simple, especially since there are strong regional differences between big cities and the provinces.
Is East Germany and West Germany a topic for you?
No, not at all.
That's something for the older generations to sort out among themselves.
The division of Germany is decades behind us, of which we have not experienced a second.
Whether Kiel, Lübeck, or Rostock: We all come from the north.
"The East" is for us an abstract term from history books and stories.
09 ) The shortest and stylistically the punkest song is "Bundeswehr". How did this song come about?
Do personal experiences play a role?
Is the separation from a girlfriend legitimate if she goes to the Bundeswehr?
This song should also be enjoyed with a healthy dose of humor. Of course, it is important and right to criticize the Bundeswehr, especially because of right-wing structures that have been proven not to be isolated cases. But we certainly do not want to judge or exclude people who are in the Bundeswehr.
The song tells a (very short) fictional story that originated from a pure thought experiment. There isn't really a "backstory" here. When we play the song live, we always dedicate it to the former Minister of Defense AKK.
10 ) What does punk mean to you?
Musically, punk is the source of all life for us.
It is unimaginable where we would be today as a band or as individuals if we hadn't discovered punk in our childhood.
Without bands like die Ärzte, die Abstürzenden Brieftauben, or WIZO, we would never have started playing in a band together.
However, we never really had access to punk as a subculture and movement. We are probably too bourgeois and uncool for that.
I (Justin) once dyed my hair red, and that was it.
Teenage riot in the terraced house.
Your record release party will take place in Lübeck at Treibsand.
What do you have planned for the evening, especially regarding the remaining restrictions?
So far, our concert at Treibsand is looking very promising regarding the easing of the Corona measures. It is still unclear (as of 25.02) whether there will be a mask requirement during the event.
We just hope that we can perform the show in the usual atmosphere - that is, without face masks.
Our planned stage program will be very colorful as usual:
We will play songs from the new album, dig out some old classics from our sound treasure, and have a few interesting surprises planned.
Also visually, concert visitors can expect a lot: It has become widely known that we can dance exceptionally well. We will certainly prove that.
You can be sure that there will be an explosive rock show with all the trimmings that is second to none, and even Rammstein will turn pale and be in awe.
As support, we have the band One Tape with us, our dear friends from the Sauerland. They will heat up Treibsand nicely, that’s a given.
After the live music, the actual party begins, which we hope we will all survive unscathed.
12 ) What are your further plans for this year?
First and foremost, we are, of course, hungry for many concerts in every corner of this country.
We hope for a steadily growing audience so that we can play well-attended concerts throughout the German-speaking area in the future.
Moreover, we hope that in the coming challenging months and years, we will still love each other and that the fire in our hearts will never stop burning.
The review of "Bomben über Disneyland" can be read here:
https://www.ramtatta.de/s/reviews/f/details/id/9073/
The debut album impressed me so much that I couldn't resist asking the band a few questions.
