interview Tom Kaulitz

interview with TOM :'D
(translation)


Tom and women in Tourbus? 
Tom: Actually, we have almost no rules in the band. Actually, we have just one and that’s a ban for girls on the tourbus. That means, that for the winner of the contest it’s an exception, I don’t think some stranger has ever been inside of the tourbus. No, we’ve made one shooting there, but other than that it’s top secret, we have two Tourbuses, that means the band is split up too, Georg and Gustav have one, me and Bill are in the second Tourbus. We have two big separate bedrooms, two big beds, I have my dogs with me for the first time this time, that means a person can be totally relaxed on the Tourbus. We watch movies, lay on the bed with the dogs .. 

How does it look like on the Tourbus? 
Tom: To be honest, I really like to spend time in the bus. I think it’s great! A person feels so at home there, it’s like a livingroom on wheels, this time we’ve also brought boxes of stuff like we were moving, we have everything with us, candles, decorations from home and we always decorate it there the way we like it. Me and Bill, we have like 20 suitcases, we have a big closet there and it’s really like at home. It’s really cubby. And when I am at home I also just watch TV, so about that, it’s not such a big difference. And we have a huge stage with us on tour, so a person is really thankful when he can lay in the tourbus after the show and chill. 

Tom and women in the Tourbus? What to do against boredom? 
Tom: I have to say that once in a while I try to trick Bill, we are on tour for 2 months and of course I can never be completely without women, that means I always try to secretly trick him, but a person shouldn’t see what happens there. But we have videogames, we can build some Twister and we play board games, there’s always something that we think of. And other than that, we have breaks on parking lots, we are on the road with 11 trucks, and 6 nightliners, so we always have like a gas station party. 

Difference apartment/bus. What’s happening? 
Tom: Waking up in the Tourbus isn’t always as amazing as it is at home. On tour we always film some kind of documentary for people to see how we live and it’s not that glamorous like everyone thinks it is, because we have a television on the bus, but it is still just a bus, a person sleeps there for two months, so about that, a person respects each other more, than he would do at home, because we’re already terribly grumpy in the morning. We can sleep like 24 hours, if I don’t set the alarm clock I’d sleep the whole day. And we don’t celebrate that much. Normally, a person likes to drink a bit or party, but on tour we never do that. In the bus we only have peppermint tea and ginger tea, so it’s more peaceful. 

Bathroom in the bus? 
Tom: Yeah, for the tour we let build a kind of bath trailer, of course only the band is allowed to use it. And uhm.. yeah, it’s kind of a trailer and there’s a jalousie on it, like a privacy shield and in it there’s a big shower, a tropical shower, and a sink, just everything you need, that thing is really great. We let build this extra for the tour, because on the bus there’s just a toilet where you’re not even allowed to do “big business”. That’s not so great, but we have an extra bath trailer this time and it will be great. 

Preparations for the concert? Rules? 
Tom: Directly before the concert.. well, it is that we do a soundcheck, which is actually moronic, because it sounds equally every time, ‘cause we have completely our own stuff with us, we have our own technique, our own stage, our own production.. and.. uhm.. our preparation consists of doing a soundcheck every time. This means that we always go into the venue, take a look how it will be this evening and play like one or two songs, just to get the feeling.. For the rest we’re only backstage and have interviews, and half an hour before, this is the golden rule, we’re all together in one room, and we’re just nervous together, nobody is allowed to disturb us or to come in. Then we all are just completely nervous. 

Georg’s ritual 
Tom: Georg, our bassist, always has to go to the toilet before the show, that’s very important, that he does “big business” before we go on stage, because that brings us luck. It has always been so, we probably have already played about 3000 concerts so far, and everytime he was on the toilet before, and this must be retained. 

About what do you talk before a concert? 
Tom: There are no specific topics, well, we talk just about everything. Most of the time we bitch about Georg, and are mad to each other, but actually we’re just being nervous together. Actually there’s a lot of bullshit which gets out. There shouldn’t be a camera then because we just talk crap. 

Will the winner get the experience how a rockstar lives? 
Tom: Yeah, of course.. well, I’m really looking forward to it because you get a glimpse of such a tour life. And this is, as I said, not how you imagine it to be. I always thought ‘Okay, such a tour life is completely relaxed. You play your songs in the evening, and apart from that it’s just “Halli Galli” [means like “it’s easy”] and you have a booze and there’s a party, and then you go backstage and there’s champagne and maybe a whirlpool, and everything’s great”, but the truth is, you go backstage and you see cold, grey walls and there’s not much going on. We have a little plate of sweets on the table, and.. uhm, yeah, I find it good that the people see how it really is on tour. But as a stranger you probably find it awesome first, because you’ve never been on tour. You see the bus and… I still can remember when I saw our bus for the first time I was totally impressed and I thought ‘This will be the bomb!’, but when you sleep in that thing for two months, and you do everything in this bus, then you don’t find it that awesome anymore. Uhm.. but I find it pretty good, you really get an impression of the whole thing.. and you really have a daily routine. It’s not that every day is completely different, actually the days are the same, you have a course, like you’d go to the office in the morning. You come to the venue in the morning, mostly without having showered, you do a soundcheck and so on, after that you have interviews, then you’re nervous together, then Georg goes to the toilet and then it’s the big show. 

Décor/effort 
Tom: The people come in the venue, and then is the concert, you just take it how it is. You don’t know how much effort is behind. And I think it’s quite interesting to see how 150 people go into this venue in the morning, everyone with these helmets and build the stage at two ends of the venue. And then it’s the soundcheck, and the lightshow and so on. And it’s also quite interesting to see what hectic is there, when for example we go off the stage. 

Distraction/relaxation? 
Tom: This time we take our dogs with us, that’s really awesome, we’ve never done that so far. This means that you can probably drive to a forest with the dogs and go for a walk or something. And besides that.. I’m actually a passionate driver, I’d find it cool, if I’d have my own car with me, but that would mean that I have to hire another person who drives my car behind the bus, and if I want to I can drive it myself once.. but there are really long distances we leave behind. On this tour we also drive 3 days non-stop in some cases, so we’re 3 days on the bus without making a break somewhere, because we have to drive for example from Moscow to.. uhm.. I don’t know where, and there are 3000 km on the plan or so. And with such busses it’s a really long distance. 
I already drove our bus once! Am I even allowed to tell that? .. But on a private ground I even drove our bus once, on the terrain of the venue, so to say. Not that easy. 

Style of your clothes / your own / in comparison to your brother 
Tom: How would I describe it? There’s actually a general word.. to describe it.. well, “extremely good looking”, I would call it like that. No, with me it’s really that I need freedom, it has to look good, but above all I have to be able to move in it and it has to be relaxed. I’m not the type who wears extremely tight clothes, which are uncomfortable and so on, this looks really dumb. For example, my twin brother, really looks “bananas” how he runs around and he wears really tight clothes. And with me it’s that I have to feel well, yeah, I think that’s the most important thing. It has to look good and you have to feel well, just easy-going. I have to say that because of my bodily frame I always have to wear extremely wide pants.