Tokio Hotel

Tokio Hotel
Bill Kaulitz • Tom Kaulitz Georg Listing • Gustav Schäfer
Background information
Origin	Magdeburg, Germany
Genre(s)	Pop Rock[1][2] Emo,[3] Teen pop,[4] Glam rock[5][6][7]
Years active	2001 - present
Label(s)	Island (Universal) Cherrytree/Interscope (US)
Website	www.tokiohotel.com
Members
Bill Kaulitz Tom Kaulitz Georg Listing Gustav Schäfer

Tokio Hotel [ˈtoːkio hoˈtɛl] is a German band founded in Magdeburg, Germany in 2001 by singer Bill Kaulitz, guitarist Tom Kaulitz, drummer Gustav Schäfer and bassist Georg Listing.^[8] The quartet have scored four number one singles and have released two number one albums in their native country, selling nearly 5 million CDs and DVDs there.^[9] After recording an unreleased demo-CD under the name "Devilish" and having their contract with Sony BMG terminated, the band released their first German-language album, Schrei, as Tokio Hotel on Island Records in 2005. Schrei sold more than half a million copies worldwide^[10] and spawned four top five singles in both Germany and Austria. In 2007, the band released their second German album Zimmer 483 and their first English album Scream which have combined album sales of over one million copies worldwide and helped win the band their first MTV Europe Music Award for Best InterAct. The former, Zimmer 483, spawned three top five singles in Germany while the latter, Scream, spawned two singles that reached the top twenty in new territories such as Portugal, Spain and Italy. Their first live album, Zimmer 483 - Live In Europe, was released near the end of 2007. On 25 March 2008, Scream was released in Canada, and was planned for release on 29 April in the United States, but due to Bill Kaulitz's vocal problems had to be postponed to 6 May. In September 2008, they won their first MTV Video Music Award for Best New Artist. They also beat bands Metallica and Linkin Park and picked up the prestigious Headliner award at the MTV Europe Music Awards 2008 held in Liverpool on 6th November 2008.

History

Founding

Tokio Hotel was founded by vocalist Bill Kaulitz and guitarist Tom Kaulitz, who are identical twin brothers, drummer Gustav Schäfer and bass-guitarist Georg Listing. The four met in 2001 after a live show in a Magdeburg club, where Listing and Schäfer, who knew each other from music school, watched from the audience while Bill and Tom Kaulitz played on the stage.^[11][12] Under the name Devilish, the band soon began playing in talent shows and small concerts.^[13] After Bill Kaulitz's participation in a children's Star Search in 2003 at age thirteen (which he lost in the quarter-final), he was discovered by music producer Peter Hoffmann. Devilish changed their name to Tokio Hotel: "Tokio", the German spelling of the Japanese city Tokyo, due to a love of the city, and "Hotel" due to their constant touring and living in hotels.^[11] Soon after Sony BMG took them under contract, Hoffmann hired David Jost and Pat Benzner into the team of creators and authors, and had them give the teens instruction on songwriting and instrument playing; most of the songs of the first album were written by Hoffmann, Jost and Benzer (including the singles "Scream" and "Rescue me" which were completely written by them), only the single "Unendlichkeit" was written completely by Tokio Hotel themselves. However, shortly before release of their first album, Sony terminated their contract. In 2005, Universal Music Group took Tokio Hotel under contract and developed a marketing plan. The band has now become one of the biggest acts from Germany.

Schrei

Bill Kaulitz performing in Hessisch-Lichtenau, Germany in 2006.
Photo by Pascal Parvex

Their first single, "Durch den Monsun" ("Through the Monsoon"), quickly rose in the charts, appearing on the German official Media Control single chart at #15 on 20 August 2005 and eventually reaching #1 on 26 August 2005; it also reached #1 on the Austrian singles chart. Their second single, "Schrei" ("Scream"), climbed to the #5 position in the German charts. These two songs were written by singer Bill Kaulitz together with their group of producers Peter Hoffmann, David Jost, Pat Benzer and Dave Roth. Their debut album, Schrei, was released on 19 September 2005, which the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry – Germany later awarded a platinum certification for selling over 200,000 copies.^[14][15] In 2006, a third and fourth single, "Rette mich" ("Rescue Me") and "Der letzte Tag" ("The Final Day"), were released; both reached #1 as well. "Der letzte Tag" contained a B-side called "Wir schließen uns ein", which was also accompanied by a music video.

Zimmer 483

The first single off their second album Zimmer 483 (Room 483), called "Übers Ende der Welt" (later re-released in English under the name "Ready, Set, Go!"), was released on 26 January 2007 and quickly reached #1. Zimmer 483 was released in Germany on 23 February 2007, along with a deluxe edition of the album containing a DVD. The album's second single, "Spring nicht" ("Don't Jump") was released on 7 April. The tour accompanying the release of the album, The Zimmer 483 Tour, was scheduled to start in March 2007, but was delayed by two weeks because the band members wished to have a different stage design. A third single, "An deiner Seite (Ich bin da)" ("By Your Side"), was released on the 16 November. The single contains the B-side "1000 Meere" ("1000 Oceans"), for which a music video was also produced.

Scream

While their German albums never received official releases outside the German-speaking world, Tokio Hotel's first English language album, Scream, was released on 4 June 2007 throughout Europe. In Germany, the album was released as Room 483 in order to emphasize the continuity with their last German album Zimmer 483. Scream contains English versions of a selection of songs from their German-language albums Schrei and Zimmer 483. "Monsoon", the English-language version of "Durch den Monsun", was the first single from the album. "Ready, Set, Go!" (the translation of "Übers ende der Welt") was released as the album's second single, with "By Your Side" (the translation of "An deiner Seite") as the third, and "Don't Jump" (the translation of "Spring nicht") as the fourth. A video for "Scream", the English-language version of their 2005 hit "Schrei", was also recorded, and was released to the iTunes Store in early March 2008.

Tokio Hotel gave their first concert in the United Kingdom on 19 June 2007. "Ready, Set, Go!" was released in the UK as the band's first single on 27 August 2007. The song reached #77 in the UK Singles Chart.

Tokio Hotel won an MTV Europe Music Award for Best InterAct on 1 November 2007 and were also nominated for Best Band. They performed "Monsoon" at the event.

Tokio Hotel released their first US single, simply called "Tokio Hotel", in late 2007. The single contains the tracks "Scream" and "Ready, Set, Go!", and was available exclusively at Hot Topic stores. Their second US single, "Scream America", was released on 11 December 2007. The single contains the track "Scream" and a remix of "Ready, Set, Go!" by AFI's Jade Puget. In February 2008, the band toured North America for five dates starting in Canada and finishing up in New York. After appearing and performing live on MuchMusic, while touring in Canada, "Ready, Set, Go!" entered the MuchOnDemand Daily 10, a countdown of videos chosen by viewers. It remained there for over a week, then returned to the top of the MOD Daily 10 chart on April 8. "Scream" was released in Canada on 25 March and in the US on 6 May.

1000 Hotels Tour

The "1000 Hotels" European Tour began on 3 March 2008 in Brussels and continued to locations including The Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Scandinavia, and was scheduled to finish on 9 April; however, during the concert in Marseille, France on 14 March, Bill started to experience vocal problems.^[16] He let the audience sing more frequently than normal and instead of the original 21 songs that were on the set list, they only played 16 songs. Bill apologized, in German, for his bad singing and explained that he was sick. Two days later, the band canceled Lisbon, Portugal concert minutes before it was supposed to commence. The rest of the "1000 Hotels" Tour and a scheduled North American Tour were cancelled following an announcement in Bild by the band's manager that Bill Kaulitz had to undergo surgery to remove a cyst on his vocal cords.^[17][18]

Bill Kaulitz had been putting strain on his voice after playing 43 concerts in the 1000 Hotels tour without vacation.^[19] He had to undergo Larynx surgery on March 30th to remove a cyst that had formed on his vocal cords.^[20] The cyst was the result of a throat infection that went untreated.^[21] Following his surgery, Bill was unable to speak for twelve days, and had four weeks of vocal rehabilitation.^[22] If Bill had continued singing the rest of the tour, his voice would have eventually been permanently damaged.^[16][23] Tokio Hotel started performing again in May 2008^[24] and after that they embarked on a 2nd part of their 1000 Hotels European Tour adding tons of Open Air concerts and wrapping up the tour on July 13th in Werchter, Belgium.

United States tours and 3rd studio album

Tokio Hotel embarked on a second tour of North America in August 2008. The band's music video for "Ready Set Go!" was nominated for Best Pop Video at the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards,^[25] where they also won the award for Best New Artist.^[26] They returned to North America again in October 2008 for a month long tour of concerts and record store signings.

In between the North American tours, the band have been returning to their record studio in Hamburg to record their third studio album which, according to their manager David Jost, is set for release in March or April 2009.^[27][28] The album will be recorded in both German and English with both versions being released simultanously worldwide.^[27][28] In December 2008, a behind-the scenes DVD called Tokio Hotel TV - Caught on Camera will be released. It will contain footage from Tokio Hotel TV and backstage feature stories of the previous year on disc one entitled "History - The very best of Tokio Hotel TV!". A deluxe edition will contain a second disc entitled "Future - The road to the new Album!" which will feature footage of the band on promotion tours and preparing for their third studio album.^[29]

Musical style

Tokio Hotel's genre definition is a matter of a debate. Frankfurter Rundschau article describes their music as "Straightforward pop-rock with catchy melodies and a well-calculated mix of "stolen" Metallica riffs and romantic ballad elements." "Lyrics laced with "emo" angst, wrapped in a flamboyant pop-rock package", says an ABC reviewer, mentioning that style "range from catchy pop anthems... to appealing rock ballads" from song to song. Tokio Hotel deliver "both yowling rockers and sentimental ballads", follows Rolling Stone.

Band members

• Bill Kaulitz lead vocals

Bill Kaulitz was born on 1 September 1989 in Leipzig, East Germany.^[30] He was born ten minutes after his identical twin brother, Tom, to Simone Kaulitz, a freelance tailor, and Jörg Kaulitz.^[30] His parents divorced when he was seven, and his mother remarried Gordon Trümper, a guitarist from the German rock band Fatun. His stepfather inspired Bill and his brother to begin their music careers, and they began writing song lyrics.^{[30][31][32][11]} Bill has stated that his biggest musical influence is German pop artist Nena.^[30] He voiced the role of Arthur in the German version of the film, Arthur and the Minimoys.^[33]

Bill Kaulitz' style, charisma and his way of performing on stage are the factors that have caused the success of Tokio Hotel.^[30][34] His androgynous look, young age and edgy hairstyle has reached icon status among many teenage girls.^[35] In August 2008, Bill Kaulitz was chosen as the most attractive singer on stage by the readers of the Spanish magazine ¡Hola!.^[36]

Bill was immortalized in wax at the Madame Tussauds museum in Berlin. His wax statue was unveiled on 30 September 2008. At 19 years old, he is now the youngest person to be duplicated by that museum.^[37][38]

• Tom Kaulitz lead guitar

Tom Kaulitz was born on September 1, 1989 in Leipzig ten minutes before his identical twin brother, Bill. As of September 2007, Tom was using Gibson guitars.^[39] He has stated his musical influences to be Aerosmith^[31] and German hip-hop such as Samy Deluxe.^[11]

• Georg Listing bass guitar

Georg Listing was born on 31 March 1987. His hometown is Halle. He began playing bass when he was thirteen-years-old,^[11] and, as of September 2007, uses a Sandberg bass.^[39] He has said that his playing style was heavily influenced by Flea of Red Hot Chili Peppers,^[40] and other musical influences include Die Ärzte and Oasis.^[11]

• Gustav Schäfer drums

Gustav Schäfer was born on 8 September 1988 in his hometown of Magdeburg, and has an older sister. Gustav has been playing the drums since he was five.^[11] His musical influences include Metallica,^[32] Joe Cocker and Rod Stewart.^[31]

Discography

For more details on this topic, see Tokio Hotel discography.

Studio albums

• Schrei (2005), Universal
• Schrei - so laut du kannst (2006), Universal – Re-recording of Schrei
• Zimmer 483 (2007), Universal
• Scream / Room 483 (2007), Universal

Live albums

• Zimmer 483 – Live In Europe (2007), Universal

Singles

DVDs

Awards

2005

2006

2007

2008

References

External links

Record label

• Interscope Records Profile

Official sites

• Official site
• Official Youtube site

Articles and reviews

• Interview from MuchMusic (May 2008)
• Interview from MuchMusic (February 2008)
• Interview from CosmoGIRL! (February/March 2008)
• Interview from Sound Generator (August 2007)

Other

• Tokio Hotel at Allmusic
• Tokio Hotel on MTV