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TOKIO HOTEL
KINGS OF SUBURBIA
Tokio Hotel Return to Reclaim the Crown with Kings of Suburbia
Tokio Hotel have sold 7 million records worldwide, performed for 500.000 people at the Eiffel
Tower and gone platinum in 68 countries. They are television stars and tabloid favorites,
celebrities of the highest order, a band so big their every move is accompanied by a mobile
army of photographers.
But they traded it all for total anonymity in Los Angeles, where founding members Bill and
Tom Kaulitz were anything but the biggest show in town.
"When we first moved to America, I couldn’t even hear the name Tokio Hotel. I was so over
it,'" Bill says. "We needed to figure out what we wanted to do, step away from the music and
the career to clear our heads and start fresh."
"I would say 'I'm not sure I even want to do this anymore’, the price we had to pay, all the
craziness, maybe it's not what I want to do for the rest of my life," Tom echoes. "But here,
we were able to discover that we want to do music again"
The end result is their new album, Kings of Suburbia, a relentless collection of songs that
burn bright and never fade away. Influenced by a year of intense reinvention – and endless
escapades in L.A.'s club scene – it captures the full spectrum of wild nights and bleary-eyed
mornings, an album recorded without care or compromise.
From the club-heavy wallop of "Feel It All" and "Girl Got a Gun" to the softer, introspective
“Run Run Run" and "Love Who Loves You Back," it's an album that finds the Kaulitz twins
pushing limits of sanity and sobriety, a singular statement born out of one very important
realization: Their band could mirror their lives, could provide the soundtrack to the parties
that never end.
If it feels alive, well, that's because Tokio Hotel were living it as they were making it.
“My producers would love when I came back from the clubs straight into the vocal booth`,
Bill laughs. “We recorded a lot like that, captured the moments.”
"This record, you can say that 100-percent, there was a lot of cigarettes, drinks and very late
nights involved," Tom adds, a knowing smile crossing his face. "We'd see the sunrise every
day."
Kings of Suburbia is Tokio Hotel's most defiant declaration to date. They worked with an
eclectic group of producers and were influenced by top DJs they'd see at L.A.'s hottest clubs.
But for the first time in their career, the Kaulitz brothers handled the majority of the studio
work, with Tom stepping to the forefront, expanding his sonic repertoire to include not just
the guitar, but piano, drums and synthesizer.
"On most of the songs, my guitar is just a tool. I'm really more of an all-rounder and
producer in the band rather than a guitar player," he says. "We wanted to push ourselves.
Every single tone on this record is exactly how we wanted it to be and most of it is produced
by us"
Of course, they also included bandmates Georg Listing (bass) and Gustav Schafer (drums) in
the madness, mixing live instruments with electronic beats to produce an album unlike any
Tokio Hotel have made before. With Kings of Suburbia, they've rediscovered their lust for life
– and their passion for music. Away from intense spotlight of fame, and immersed in a world
of simple (and occasionally audacious) pleasures, they've created a new world for
themselves.
"I feel like it was the first real life we've ever had. We had come out of school at 15, started
the band, and from that moment on, there was no private life, only Tokio Hotel," Bill says.
"We were running away from the success, we were trying to get away. We just wanted live.”
"We wanted to do regular stuff, things we couldn't do before," Tom adds. "I was riding my
bike, bought groceries, went to the DMV. It was fucking great."
And yes, Tokio Hotel are aware that conventional wisdom holds in this business, you can't go
away for five months, let alone five years. But they're going to put that theory to the test.
They've already conquered the world once, and with Kings of Suburbia, they're ready to do it
again … on their terms.
"It's a risk, for sure. But with this album, everything is exactly the way we want it, and I feel
like this is the first time it's that way," Bill says. "We did everything we wanted; it's not like
somebody wrote a song that I have to sell” Their forward-thinking choices also led them to
license this album to De-Code for the US and UK, an independent record label with ideas just
as bold as the bands master plan. “This is 100 percent what we wanted to do. It feels just
right!"
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