Each flow has its musical icons. Dirk von Lowtzow (44) lends his voice for 22 years Tocotronic – and this time also one of the voices in your head of the Friends of intelligent rock music become: cryptic, lyrical, sometimes rebellious as a slogan, scratchy and flattering. But almost always without easy answers. A challenging program. Especially for music that still sells well.
Last, 2013 to Tocotronic had asked “how we want to live”. Now the band released on time on May 1 a “Red Album” 
The video for Tocotronics brand new single “The adults” You can at MyVideo see
All the he does so, as you would expect from a ripened the, but by no means cooled musicians: With warm but rough laughter, patient-stylish willingness to answer, settled opinions – and clear, unspoken boundaries. Will he reveal details of the inner workings of the band or autobiographical backgrounds of songs? Probably not. Maybe not even in secrecy. But because it is actually the “surface” is much more interesting than the “inner” …
When they heard that Tocotronic publish a “Red Album” on May 1, many were expecting a very political work. But actually, it’s more in a different direction, or
Dirk von Lowtzow: When we were writing the album last year, has rather quickly emerged in the group that there will be a concept album about love , That seemed to us at the moment, the most interesting topic that you can plow. Straight from the political level. Therefore, the red stands here rather for love. But of course: Without the fight against things that can spoil a love, there is no love. And insofar as the Red
stands for the fight. Why is love just the most interesting subject for Tocotronic? And why is it politically
of Lowtzow: So a decision arises out of a gut feeling. Sometimes you can be the topics about which to write not choose. That comes as a; one has to perceive as a musician or musicians at best the antennas. And I have made the experience: This also happens always at the right time. And of course, the choice of subject is the result of a long process and discussions on this theme of love. To write adequately about the subject of love, one must first of all open within the group. It was actually very nice
to write lyrics about love, without drifting into clichés – that was not the easiest choice, or
of Lowtzow. Definitely! If you decide to write about love, then you need to know: This is a minefield. But that of course inspires. The greater the drop height, the more interesting. Otherwise it would be a bit boring and without risk. If you decide to be a band for a topic, then the possibility of failure should already be there. No risk, so fun! So sometimes that is.
In the song “I open” you sing about a outside where you want to go. In which outside to get these days yet
of Lowtzow: For me it was as a demarcation from the ideology of interiority with which one is permanently molested. Everything must inwardly be heartfelt; authentic, coming off a itself out – and that does not interest me at all. I’m interested in the surface, I’m interested in the outside, I’m interested in what is taking place outside. Maybe there is some kind of sense organ, such as the skin, through which you can receive love, that is not biased so ideological, like the heart, the inside it’s in the body and the guardian of secrets.
It also sounds a bit as if growing up, or not growing up a theme on the album. Or is that just the song “The adults” who awakens this impression
of Lowtzow: Actually, I would say the issue is limited to this song
But anyway:. Something explicitly obstructive, defiant to Tocotronic have yet preserved, over the more than 20 years of band history. Also on the “Red Album”, or
of Lowtzow: Yeah! Otherwise it would also no rock music, but pop. This is also something you will constantly confronted in Germany – most of what is sold here as rock music, is masked hit. If music is not oppositional, then you can enter it in the bin. That’s quite clear
Is that the great challenge for so many years always resist constantly and to remain credible
of Lowtzow:.? I think it’s now frankly about cliché with aging. There are so many people who are young and so adapted and compliant, because you think, “Man … gentlemen, where are ye still come?” And there are very many people who are older than us, the eccentric , unadjusted thinkers and thinkers. I think so insanely much with age that has nothing to do. So of course, one is aging, it is also the tightly. But a good part of this category is also a social construction
But at least in the changing expectations from the outside getting older is but also a social reality
of Lowtzow:.. Is that it? That would be an interesting question. Not found conversely place a tremendous infantilization of society? This much-vaunted wisdom of old age, which is attested to people … I’m not so sure if that is so. I would imagine that is nowadays called for by older people, and always remain flexible young. But Tocotronic are not sociologists, but a rock band, we write songs and perform any empirical studies. And so old we are now again not (laughs).
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