Interview by The Doghead Ezine
You are back with a new band, tell me about it, and what you've been doing
the last years. From Public Toys 'till now.
Okay, while the Public Toys still existed, the Toys' drummer and I started a new band, the "Happy Revolvers". Mainly glamrock, with make-up and everything else. However, in early 2000 I moved to a different town because of love and the "Happy Revolvers" dissolved. But it didn't take long to find new comrades-in-arms here in Bochum and to keep it simple we named the band "The Revolvers". I can look back on five good years, heavy touring and two long players. Finally the band split up due to the notorious "musical differences".
Well now we write the year 2005 and there's HIROSHIMA MON AMOUR, everything is back to the roots, more punk rock-orientated and a little less professional, but nevertheless ambitious!was ausdenken)
Your bands don't sound German, what are your influences?
Oh God, there are so many influences, starting with the rock'n'roll of the early 60s, but let's skip the hippie era and all of this E.L.O and Pink Floyd crap, continuing in the late 70s with punk rock and new wave. Afterwards lots of this stuff labelled "alternative" in the late 90s, amongst others Nirvana. If I should name some bands: Clash, Manic Street Preachers, Elvis Costello, Turbo Negro, Backyard Babies, Roy Orbinson, Tommy Roe etc.
Tell me little about the punkrock scene in Germany.
Everything's working fine here basically, maybe too fine - too organised. Actually I get the impression that punk becomes demoted to a case of empty words, only you are not governed by the major labels but by the big indie labels. Either you play their game or you can forget about huge gigs, but meanwhile things like that aren't of big importance to me anyway, so it doesn't really matter for Hiroshima Mon Amour. Of course you'll find great punk bands in heaps over here, The Vageenas, Punx Army, Radio Dead Ones, to name just a few. Probably the same here like everywhere.
What are the plans for this year?
First of all we plan to release our first CD which will be released end of April on Klownhouze Records, a split CD together with Shock Nagasaki from NYC.
Then we want to play live as much as possible. We hope we can record our first long player at the end of the year, plenty of songs are waiting to be released.
Five or more most important records in your life:
Turbo Negro - Apocalypse dudes
The Clash - Give em enough rope
Manic Street Preachers - Generation terrorists
The Saints - Eternally yours
Razzia - Tag ohne Schatten
Those are the five records played most often right now, but it changes from month to month.
Tell me about the band name.
Well, there is this movie from 1959, a French/Japanese co-production. The main themes are love and world history, and I liked the contrast between the atomic bomb on the one hand and love on the other hand, two things that aren't really to combine.
Meanwhile I know the song "Hiroshima Mon Amour" by Ultravox as well, but I don't think it's that great that it would be worth naming a band after it.