Interview with David Jost

Tokio Hotel is the most successful German Rockband. He’s their musical brain: David Jost, 36, wrote hits like “Durch den Monsun” for the four boys from Magdeburg. And now also the Nr.-1-Hit for Til Schweiger’s comedy “Zweiohrküken”. Dagmar von Taube talked with the music producer from Hamburg.

Welt am Sonntag: Every child knows Tokio Hotel. By contrast you’re never in front of the camera. Do you hide?

Jost: Not at all. I just pretty much never talk in cameras.


Welt am Sonntag: Is there a formula by which you produce your hits? 



Jost: No, usually I do not even know exactly when a song is really finished. I have often worried that there still is somethinag missing or that you can still leave something out. If you can leave out anything that is usually a good sign. Let's say I write a song for such a period of time.. eventually it is as close as possible to my instincts: fear, longing, sadness. If a song is too hyper-intellectual, is so perfect, it won't work. Some songs are even better when you subsequently install a couple of small mistakes. 




Welt am Sonntag: Mozart composed at night, often under time pressure; Pete Doherty writes to Amy Winehouse: totally inebriated. How do you do write? 



Jost: There is probably a little disillusioning, but mostly I write at night, sitting on the bed, surrounded by opened bags of chips, while the TV is running without sound. While writing I forget everything around me. Whatever might distract me is stopped. So I'm working through some nights. Then you feel sometimes like the waste of the song is what you've just written. 




Welt am Sonntag: Music and addiction - inseparable? 



Jost: Inner-searches can be done without music. 




Welt am Sonntag: That means you eat only caffeine tablets. 



Jost: Is caffeine in chips? 




Welt am Sonntag: When was the last time you destroyed a hotel suite?



Jost: There will certainly be times when behaving like that is cool again, like hot bands throwing a television through a hotel window. At the moment I find that behavior rather silly. 



Welt am Sonntag: Honestly, what is this Tokio-Hotel-Screaming and this sheer insanity up to?

Jost: Because the band doesn’t want to belong anywhere particular. Because of this, Bill is consequently strange. His emotional excesses are part of his principles of life.



Welt am Sonntag: For example?

Jost: He had an immense will, already when he was a little boy. Before the video shoot of the first single “Durch den Monsun” he told me that he wanted to tattoo the band logo on his neck. I told him that this isn’t a good idea, and asked him, what he would do if the single was a flop or if he fights with the other band members till they break up then he always will have this logo on his neck forever then. Bill said then, and he was only 14: “I have been waiting my whole life to step out there. I want to hold down this moment on my body, I don’t give a shit, if it will be a flop or not.”



Welt am Sonntag: You also wrote the song "I Like" from the film Zweiohrküken. Is that easy for you to switch from hard rock to romantic comedy? 



Jost: I didn't actually write the song especially for the film. It was just coincidence that it fitted so well. 




Welt am Sonntag: ringer melody in your mobile? 



Jost: My phone is consistently set to silent and without vibration. A friend once said that two people would never reach me if they ring at once. But even though I hate ringing phones... I'll always return calls I miss. Or not. 




Welt am Sonntag: Prefer to drink? Coke or Irish coffee? 



Jost: tea, coffee. Alcohol rarely.


Welt am Sonntag: Why do you write Tokio Hotel songs in L. A.?


Jost: Because I can come to rest best there and I can switch off.

Credits: Source & Translation by Angelspit @LJ