Tokio Hotel a hit in two languages

By JASON MacNEIL - Special to Sun Media
Growing in popularity, German rock band Tokio Hotel is new to North American fans but all the rage back home.

So when the foursome decided to break into the difficult North American market with its English debut album Scream, the group translated and then performed all of its German songs in English, something that took some time but was worth the work.

"The biggest challenge was to sing for the first time in English because as you can tell my English is not so good," singer Bill Kaulitz says inside a Toronto restaurant. "This is really the first trip that we've spoken English in interviews because we just know some words."

Tokio Hotel, playing the Sound Academy tonight, says translating each song "word by word" was trying.

"I'm a perfectionist, I really wanted to sound natural like I was a native speaker," he says. "That was really, really hard but I hope the fans like it."

"And then they (the words) have to rhyme and still have the same meaning," twin brother and guitarist Tom Kaulitz adds. "We wanted everyone to have a chance to understand what we are saying which was really important."
The band, rounded out by drummer Gustav Schafer and bassist Georg Listing, has made a lot of inroads in a short period of time with singles such as Monsoon and Don't Jump, which deals with suicide, a topic mentioned in some of the fan letters the band received from teens.

But both brothers say the single Ready Set Go! describes how the band members, who got together in 2001, found success at the mere age of 15.

"It was our first single in Germany and it was during our vacation in the summer holidays," Bill says. "It went directly to Number One and after that our whole life changed completely. It was a new life and that was our dream, our dream come true."

The resulting success caused a frenzy that some concert promoters in Germany weren't quite prepared for.

"We were playing a village party, a small festival and there were only 100 or 200 people expected," Tom Kaulitz says. "It was booked six months in advance and we released our first single Monsoon in Germany and we came to that festival."

"There were so many fans and thousands of people, the security was absolutely not ready for that," Bill says. "It was then we knew we had fans. Before it was always five or 10 people in a club just drinking beer and not looking at us."

The toughest thing a new band often has to do is learn how to say no to growing demands. A grueling touring schedule earlier this year left Bill Kaulitz unable to speak for 10 days following surgery to remove a cyst from a vocal chord.

"I was really afraid," he says. "We only played 10 concerts and had to cancel 16 (including a Toronto gig). I was in my hotel room and I looked (at the clock) and I was thinking at this time normally I'm on stage so it was really, really hard."

However, like so many identical twins, Bill had Tom nearby to act as his almost telepathic speaker.

"It's a very cool connection and a very special connection," Bill says of being a twin. "I think nobody else has a connection like that. I had a book and wrote things down (after surgery) but there were some things where I just looked at Tom."

"I always know what Bill is thinking in different situations because I think the same," Tom says without missing a beat. "I had to speak for him for 10 days, it wasn't a great time."

Having an affinity for the cosmopolitan Japanese city, German quartet Tokio Hotel would love to find itself in a Tokyo hotel sometime in the near future.

"We've never been there," guitarist Tom Kaulitz says. "They have a Jacuzzi in the room and you can just lie there."

"And they have the flat screen televisions over your head," bassist Georg Listing adds. "We really want to go but haven't yet."

"I have heard so much about the hotels in Tokyo and how nice they are," Bill Kaulitz says. "So I think that town is really, really crazy and we would love to go there."

While a Japanese tour is still in the works, Tokio Hotel is surprised by their North American fans.

"What we saw the last time is that our fans are so energetic, they are screaming and waiting for us," Bill says.