THE INTERVIEW
11/13/2002
BY JARED BRANDON SANCHEZ
How did you discover punk
rock music?
Our bass player Rommel
had read a story about Iggy Pop in a german teen mag, that made him wanna
hear that stuff (The sight of Iggy, chest scratched with glass, bleeding
like a pig, can be quite appealing to a growing teenager...). Guitarrist
Bubba heard "Anarchy in the U.K." on the radio, and something went
"click" inside his head. And i, that's singer Fisch, have almost
the same story as Bubba, but i heard "Sheena is a punk rocker" by the Ramones
first, and i was pretty dissapointed, 'cause after all i've read about
punk before, i expected something a little more apocalyptic...But 2 weeks
later i heard the Sex Pistols too and freaked out completely. And our drummer
Blüm hasn't discovered punk rock yet...
How long has the band been
together?
20 years, but not in the actual
line-up.
Tell me about the early
history of the band, and how your sound developed...
Die Lokalmatadore were formed
in 1982 by former "Pissrinne"-Guitarrist Bubba and former "Big Hammer Trio"-Bassist
Rommel, along with "Bluttat"-Drummer Ralph. Bubba was also the singer of
the early Lokalmatadore.Listen to the last bonus track on "Ein Leben für
die Ärmsten", and you'll find out how our sound developed since that
time. I've joined the band in 1987, after Bubba had heard a tape of my
so called "band" called "Dead Popstars", and said: "The band sucks, but
the singer's great". At that time we also got a new drummer, Mingzopf.
In 89 we recorded a show at the "Scumfuck Tradition" - Festival in Duisburg
an released our first single, "Bizzchen arm". In the next 3 year
we released 2 albums, "Ein Leben für die Ärmsten" and "Arme
Armee". In summer 92, Mingzopf was replaced with our actual drummer Blüm.
And that's all for this early history, from that point on it's the Lokalmatadore
now-time!
Which bands were you influenced
by?
Grateful Dead.
How did you come up with
the name Die Lokalmatadore?
"Die Lokalmatadore" means something
like "The local heroes", but "Lokal" also means "Bar", so it's pretty obvious,
how Bubba and Rommel came up with that name.
Have you guys ever played in
America, or plan on playing here in the future?
I've played in Chicago as El
Fisch,but that wasn't a tour or something, i was just on vacation, and
my friend Mike,who had seen me me before in Germany, arranged a gig for
me (he also asked some friends to play with me, so i got my own band in
Chicago...). But we never played there with Lokalmatadore, and since we're
all working and usually only play on weekends, it could be diifficult to
get us over there. But we never say never...
What are all you guy's
hobbies/interests when you are not playing with the
band?
One of our songs is called "Fußball,
Ficken, Alkohol" (Yes, "Ficken" does mean what you all think..) and that's
basically our hobbies.Fußball is not what you guys in the states
know as "football", but what the rest of the world knows as "football",
only you call it "soccer. We're supporters of FC Schalke 04, the greatest
team in the world.
What do you think of the
negative image oi!/skinhead music has in the eyes
of the mainstream?
We don't see ourselves as an
"oi"-band, and as you can see on our pics,we're not skinheads, but
we do have skins in our audience, and as long as they're not racists, that's
fine with us. We also have some influences from oi!/streetpunk(among lot
of others), especially on "Heute ein König", and we played on some
oi!-compilations. But i can't blame anyone who only knows that scene from
the mainstream press and t.v., if he has a negative image. Even if people
knew that there is such thing as Sharp or even gayskins, you can't
expect them to walk over to a group of skins on the street to take
look at their buttons to see if they're Sharp or nazis.
Where do you see the future
of oi!/skinhead/punk music going in the future?
There is no future!
What are your favorite
songs personally from all your releases?
That's changing from week to
week. At this moment, i like the 60's-influenced crap like "Pipi machen
muß man", "Komm hau mich ab" or "Ich verpiß mich" best, but
that might change tomorrow.
Do you feel compilation
CD's have helped get you much exposure
internationally?
Probably a little, if you know
us from "Oi! It's a world league!". But i doubt that we've got much exposure
internationally anyway. Please prove me wrong, visitor of this site!
How would you describe
your sound and band image to those who may not be
familiar with your music?
In the last 20 years, die Lokalmatadore
have been the strongest creative force in modern punk-rock culture in West-Germany's
Dysentery-area.They compose and interpret the soundtrack of the beginning
21. century, varying and rejuvenating influences from all periods of rock-music
history. They mostly succeed in that, because as a sensitive, in itself
balancing organism, the quartet is always more than the sum of four drunken
jerks.Some people even call them "The Village People of Punk-Rock", and
they're surely wrong!
What kind of distribution
do you guys have in the USA, and how can people
purchase your cd's and
other merchandise?
As i know from your last e-mail,
Taang Records distribute some of our stuff. If Taang or anyone else should
be interested in distributing us, they should contact our label in Germany:
Teenage Rebel Records
Wallstr.21
40213 Düsseldorf
Germany
Tel/Fax: 0049/(0)211/324062
Do you get emails from
fans all over world? What is the most obscure place
you have gotten fan mail
from that you wouldn't have
expected to have fans?
L.A.!
What bands do you all currently
listen to?
Apart from stuff we all love,
like Klamydia or the Macc Lads, we all listen lot of different sound: Blüm
loves a bizarre mix, from Peter Zaremba's Love Delegation over the Von
Zippers to Judas Priest (!), Bubba and me are currently listening to a
lot of Country (Johnny Cash's brand new album is a total killer!) and 60's
Soul, also to some old Ska and Reggae stuff, and of cause, i listen to
a lot of Elvis. Rommel's musical taste is so widespread and strange that
even the rest of the band is scared of it! He doesn't even stop at Krautrock...
What's up with the El Fisch
Elvis impersonator thing?
El Fisch is me as a sort of
Elvis impersonator, or better interpreter, but with german lyrics (kinda
close to the originals) and backed by a trashy Punk-Rock Band. We plan
to record an album soon. Check it out at http://www.elfisch.de
Blüm and i are also playing
in a band called "Die Ruhrpottkanaken" where i don't sing but play guitar
( http://members.aol.com/ruhrpottkanaken/ )
How many people generally
attend your shows?
Between 200 and 500, depending
on where we're playing (in Germany) and how long we haven't played in that
area.
Whats the craziest/ weirdest
thing to happen at your shows?
There are so many strange things,
in fact our whole appearance is pretty weird, and so is our audience. At
our anniversary show in October, 2 guys from "ZZZ Hacker", a german Punk
Band that's even 2 years older than us, entered the stage, and one of them
pulled an axe out of his belt, much to the joy of of the security guy who
had checked him before...It hat an engraving on it that said: "To Die Lokalmatadore
for 20 years of contributions to the german Punk and Männer Rock'n
Roll Scene". Thank you guys!
How did you guys hook up
with Klamydia?
Rüdiger of Teenage Rebel
Records once gave us one of their first singles, and we instantly loved
it, especially for the strange language (Which is probably why you like
us..). We then started collecting their records, especially Bubba did,
and they were all great. So one day we contacted them and asked them to
join us on a german tour, which took place in 1994. Two years later they
came back to Germany to play another 3 gigs with us. Unfortunately we never
played in Finland, although our Split-Live Album reached Number 27 in the
finnish charts.
Where are your favorite
places to play?
Anywhere people are drunk enough
to want to see us play.
Major thanks to Die Lokalmatadore
for taking the time out to do this interview!! If you guys can think
of anymore questions for the band please email me or post it in the guestbook.
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