Old interview with Tom 2007

“I admire Bill” Interview with Tom

Tom about co-operation in the band, his fears and his relationship with Bill.
When somebody meets you, you seem very virtuous. Is there also something that makes you scared?
- With my head in all places, I hear a lot of stuff, and in the end I’m just a normal person who still needs adjustment. What makes me scared? Totally normal stuff, and in the stuff that I’m not good at, I get really stressed. Traveling was a very brief conversion to us. Before we only saw Loitsche and now we constantly travel and we go everywhere. I only had to get accustomed to it.

Are your parents still concerned when they read the headlines in the newspapers?
- That was at the beginning. When they read something, they ask us what’s wrong. But then we always convince them that all of that isn’t true, that they are all lying, and then they became more relaxed. Parents always feel concerned about everything, but I think that that is also healthy and normal. Otherwise it doesn’t concern us what is in the newspapers. Then we phone our parents and explain it all, and it’s completely different from the headlines. And anyway, if something isn’t right my parents would know that immediately.

How do you handle your stress?
- For me the most important thing, is that I have a good night sleep. If the time permits me I go the next day very early to bed and sleep as long as I can. When I sleep 10 hours, then it’s good, but when I sleep 19 hours, then that is the best thing. Otherwise I love to take a bath in the hotel rooms, then I feel great.

You also have to play, who gets up first?
- Well, we developed a game when we are in studio working, because there is only one bath there. Whoever is the last in the bathroom, he can take a bath longer then rest of us. We played a game today also, for example, for who will be the first to go to the bathroom the next day. And whoever says first that he’s gonna go last, is the winner. Afterwards, the I say when am I going, and it continues in such way. However Gustav manages to always go first, because he is already awake at seven o’clock.

Sometimes Bill as a frontman is more stressed then you. Do you feel concerned about him?
- So far I haven’t, because we weren’t separated that much. And as long as we are connected somehow, and go everywhere together and do exciting stuff we don’t care about anything. So therefore there is nothing to be concerned about. I know when he has a problem, he will tell me immediately, but when we are separate, then we especially know. When we were little, Bill spent some time in the hospital, and that was the first time that we were separate for real. It was such a horror to drive every day to the hospital.

What do you admire about Bill?
- He has so much energy on stage, or when he talks. If somebody meets Bill, then he will be always full of power. It is only in the evening, when he lies in bed, that he is without energy. Bill has an awful incentive to everything he does.

Bill says for himself that is an emotional human being. Are you more the rational being?
- I decide from my gut, but if somebody compared us, they would see that Bill is an emotional human being, and I the rational being. As for him, he is more related to feelings of love. Bill never gets in a relationship if he isn’t absolutely sure he’s in love. As for me, I don’t go like that. In that way we are different.

As you call it, the optics must be correct, and it’s enough? (Meaning: If a girl is hot then it’s enough for Tom.)
- Yes, exactly!

Do you talk about certain things only with certain people from the band?
- If it is about certain things, like if I’m throwing a party in the evening, then I talk with Georg the most. But when we talk about something that is in our hearts than we talk with the whole band. And even when I’m in love, I don’t keep it just with one person, but everybody knows. But Bill and I still maintain to keep some stuff between only us two.

The Big Europe Tour 2007

With what are you particularly pleased with the tour?
- With the stage. On our first tour we had those resounding stages, and we didn’t need to create them. Now we have our own stage on our Tour. And it’s naturally very complex. We had such great ideas about a mobile stage, which stand out of the bottom and so on. But the tour will still be exciting, and we have all the support we need. 

Is a larger stage a bigger challenge for you?
- Yes. That becomes a real problem to me, when the stage is that big. I as a guitarist have a lot of effects. The others can run as they want and Gustav, he sits only in his place. I still have - how we call it - “stress board”, there are whole bunch of effects there. So then I must be in a certain part of the song in a certain part or place so I can press a certain effect, and in spite of that I must run naturally.

Do you fear that sometimes something will go wrong?
- I already exercised on the last tour. There were also big stages and I had to run a lot. So from time to time I started to sweat a lot, so I just nevertheless had to be there and had to press that effect. But I think we seem here very critical, because probably only one sees that missing effect when he plays the guitar alone.

Do you have your own opinions about the way the security puts up with the fans?
- Yes. We do actually play in big halls, and there is that risk that something could happen, so it must be well coordinated. Our safety team has got exact plans about the halls and plans everything before it all begins, and how the people are cleaning and how everything works. This is very important. It doesn’t happen to us for nothing, but still we risk everything to keep everything running in that way.

Which song are you particularly looking forward to performing live?
- “Wo sind eure Hände?”. That is one “thank you” song to our fans. We wrote that song specially, so we can bring all of those past moments together, to a point, in which we are now. We are somewhere all day long, always traveling, giving interviews, here winning some award and there in some Gala. But in all of that, only one thing concerns us: making music. We want to play concerts with our fans in the halls. And all of that goes in that song. And the music of the song is also great, so I look very much forward to it.

Do you really look at your fans on a concert?
- Yes, you can definitely see many people in the first five or ten rows, depending on how far can see. In some halls you can even recognize some people on ranks.

Do you speak with your colleagues from the band about some cute girls in the front rows?
- Of course. When we notice somebody then we tell like - “Georg there is one blond there, she is very cute.” Then most of them saw another one, who is “standing” out. But sometimes some are only noticeable to me, and Georg don’t see them. We also have different taste in girls. I can’t describe Georg’s type of girl, I can’t even describe my own. When we look at somebody, with whom we have been, then there are also differences: brunette, blonds, black-haired.