Turbo A.C.´s - Weltturbojugendtage 2006

Am 8. und 9. September fanden in Hamburg bereits zum dritten Mal die Weltturbojugendttage statt, auf denen, wie bereits im Vorjahr, die Turbo A.C.’s auftraten. Die Jungs waren von Anfang an mit Vollgas dabei und feierten bis über den offiziellen Ausklang (Fischmarkt) hinaus heftigst mit.

Dieses nette Interview wurde anlässlich des neuen Albums am Freitag im Bitzcore-Office vor Beginn des offiziellen Programms geführt. Enjoy!

It’s not that long since our last interview (with KC and Tim). Can you tell what happened around the Turbo A.C.’s since then?

KC: No, it’s been a long time. A year ago, or?

Tim: No! I wasn’t in the band a year ago. It was like April.

KC: Ah, yeah. I thought about last time we were in Wiesbaden. We finished our new record. That’s kinda new.

It’s great! I already listened to it and it’s great.

Kevin: Cool.

KC: Cool. Thank you. There is that and of course Mike left the band and we have these two new guys and things are going really good. It’s been a lot of fun. Other than that, I don’t know. That’s all the new stuff. Business as usual.

Tim: I think when we talked then we hadn’t confirmed that Jer was in the Band. We said we might, but…

Oh, you said that you already played a show together.

Tim: Oh do we? I’m a little bit confused.

Kevin: He passed the test. So he is here!

Jer: I’m here.

One thing I read in your News was that your appartment got robbed. What’s that all about?

KC: Yeah, it was terrible! Actually I was home. It was at summertime and it was really hot. Actually I had just gotten back from the beach, I had just gotten back from surfing, and I hung my wet suit and stuff out on my firescape to dry and came back inside. It was too hot in the house so I turned the aircondition on and I was talking on the telephone and I thought that my roommates came home, cause I heard someone in the house. That doesn’t mean I was gonna go out of my room to welcome them, it usually means I lock the door and make sure I don’t talk to them. (Laughter) So I just came out later and I realized that everything was gone. This was pretty bad. They came in from the roof. I live in Chinatown and all the roofs are connected and everything, pretty much in all of New York it is, but these guys were coming around in the summertime. They do this come around the roofs and then jump down to the firescape from the roof on the first flat, come through the window and then go out the front door. So they did every apartment on the entire block.

But nobody got harmed?

KC: No no no. Oh well, my feelings were hurt.

Tim: Oooh.

Would you tell a bit about the new album?

KC: The new album. It’s awesome, it’s great.

Jer: We are excited about it. It’s ..

KC: People ask what it sounds like, and (Pause).

Kevin: We don’t know.

(Laughter)

KC: We do know, cause actually I will quote Tim. It’s one of my favourite things. I said „What does it sound like“ and Tim says „Have you heard of „awesome“?“

(Laughter)

We had a lot of fun making it and I’m really happy with it.

Kevin: Yeah, I think it was a lot more working, a lot more thought. Kevin had the songs already in his head. When Mike left it was just him and I and then Tim came in and Tim brought another element to the table right away and then when Jer came in, Jer also had ideas of things that he could do, what he can tribute as well, so it was great to have two fresh ideas on the table. I mean not like we try to mimic every album, but we also don’t try to differ every album. It’s just we do what we do. To have two other points to look at was kind of refreshing. You know I’m getting me excited again. I was like „Look at that, alright, cool.

KC: And then we took it way back and got the „Fried chicken“ out.

Tim: That’s right.

KC: Which is a crank beat classic.

When I listened to it, it reminded me much more of the older stuff, like „Damnation Overdrive“.

KC: Alright! See, that’s whats up.

Kevin: So it comes full circle.

(Laughter)

KC: So you know what’s up. I mean that’s good, cause I think there is a lot of Damnation Overdrive elements in „Live to win“.

Jer: Including a blatant reference.

(Laughter)

Tim: An absolutely blatant reference.

KC: It’s just three or four blatant references.

Tim: Yeah, I only picked up one more.

KC: Overdrive, Freeride, that’s blatant reference.

So you had this song on Damnation Overdrive „Live to win“. Did you choose the album-title because you wanted to say „Okay, we had a Line-Up change, but we are still the Turbo A.C.’s“ or is there another reason?

KC: Well, I think that that makes sense, too. Definitely! I mean that wasn’t the main reason. „Live to win“ is always the motto, it has always been, so it seems to be the right title for the record. And yes, it references again to Damnation Overdrive and to that we haven’t forgotten where we are from and …

Kevin: …But also a new beginning!

KC: Oh, that was good.

Kevin: It was so good! Wasn’t it? Oh, man!

KC: Oh no, it wasn’t actually.

Tim: You know, after every interview we say „It is“. That’s totally what it is.

(Laughter)

KC: But now, it is, well that wasn’t the main reason, there is a lot of reasons why.

What can we expect for tomorrow? Will it be more older stuff and you will save the new ones for your Tour?

KC: Definitely saving the new ones for the tour. Cause only a few people heard the new album. I don’t know, I don’t like that when I see bands and they play new stuff and you don’t know it yet. So it’s gonna be nothing but hits.

Not one single new one?

KC: No, no new ones yet. But on the tour in October we will be playing all of them.

Kevin: But you could think about playing this, the Turbojugend-Festival. For somebody, for maybe 30 people it’s all gonna be new. You know there is so many people from different parts of the world and they have never heard of us before and never had an album. Maybe they heard the name but never had an album. So if you look on their perspective it’s all new to them.

KC: And it’s still new for us, and it’s still pretty new to work with Tim and Jer, as the Live-Shows. It’s exciting for us.

Kevin: In the light perspective having the second guitar. People have seen us for the last 8-9 years as a three-piece and they will be in my opinion been blown away by the added noise.

KC: We are louder now.

Tim: And taller!

(Laughter)

KC: Thanks to Jer.

Tim: Louder and Taller.

Kevin: That was the thing we needed another person that’s in the Band that is over 5 foot.

(Laughter)

Tim: I got to be the tallest guy in the band for about three days.

Last year when you were playing the Turbojugend-Festival Avenue X was just released. It’s a similiar situation now. Do you think this could be a good omen for the new record?

KC: Almost excactly, yeah! I see a pattern. I think it’s a good omen that Bitzcore decided to release the album.

(Laughter)

So they first listen before they decide?

Kevin: Yeah, you know the fact that they didn’t throw it in the trashbin is always a pretty good sign.No they were really excited. We love working with the Bitzcore-family and it’s great for us to have the opportunity to come back here again. I mean they didn’t hear the album until not that long ago and they wanted us over here.

KC: Actually we weren’t invited to the Turbojugend-Days until the album was done. They heard the album and then they called us „Hey Kevin, you gotta come over to the Turbojugend-Days“.

Oh, so it wasn’t that Bones cancelled their show, but Bitzcore cancelled Bones?

Kevin: That’s right. The Bones were taking our slot until the album was done and it was okay, and once the album was done they said „Fuck the Bones“.

(Laughter)

Tim: This is all new to me. But it sounds pretty good.

You have not been here for a while now. Are you happy to be back in Germany?

Kevin: Absolutely!

KC: Yeah, that was the first summer we took off.

Kevin: First summer in nine years that we weren’t either in Europe or out in the States. There was a slight break or hiring a new bass-player. I don’t even know if Mike was in the band if we would be still working on stuff or whatever.

KC: But we didn’t do less, we did more! We still did tour the Northeast.

Kevin: Yeah that’s true. – It’s good to be back.

KC: Yeah, Kevin even knows his way around Hamburg.

Kevin: That’s right. It’s been a little bit about a year .

KC: You probably know your way around Wiesbaden as well.

Kevin: I know my way around Wiesbaden. The thing about Wiesbaden is Kevin and I spent a week there on our first week around Europe, so we got tired of playing for five ours a day, so we had to find our way around the city.

KC: There is the Irish pub.

Kevin: I know exactly where that Irish pub is. Good Guiness, too.

KC: I know the Videogame-places. I know where the Arcade is.

Kevin: When you get into a situation like that, there is not a big language barrier, but all the directions are in German, so yeah i try to figure out my way around.

Next time in Wiesbaden your hotel will be nearer to the venue. It’s really close!

Kevin: That’s okay!

Tim: in Wiesbaden?

KC: That’s good!

Kevin: You see the charakter of Wiesbaden, when you experience it like that.

The snobby character!

Kevin: That’s right! And that’s like where I met you on the walk. You know if the Hotel wasn’t there, I wouldn’t maybe remember you, alright? There you go, so there is always a reason.

Jer, is it your first time in Germany?

Jer: Yes, it is my first time over here.

So, what’s your first impression of Germany Tim and Jer?

Tim: So far it’s awesome!

Jer: We were looking at the club we are playing, meeting a lot of people.

Tim: Our hotel-room is pretty nice. My shower-curtain has dolphins on it. I took a little time to walk around today and I’m a little anxious to play the show. I haven’t been to Germany before either.

KC: Anxious or eager?

Tim: I think it’s both. I think anxious was good enough, I don’t think you had to interrupt my story.

(Laughter)

Yeah I walked around and it was like ten times more sex-shops than I have ever seen in my life. I’m excited. This is what this town is all about. I got a table full of beer, you can drink outside, I can smoke in an airport.

Oh, you’re not allowed to drink outside in the US?

Tim: No.

Kevin: Not even in a bag.

KC: I do!

Kevin: Cause you’re a rebel Kevin! You don’t follow authority! Authority follows you.

Tim: Yeah, it’s nice here.

And the beer is better?

Tim: I almost exclusively drank Guiness until now actually. And all this tastes wonderful, you’re right. But again it’s 10:30 in the morning where I’m from, so.

Okay, let me check my list

Tim: I keep talking about beer if you want! I like the fact that Kevin opens my beers.

(Laughter)

A great part of the shows of your European-Tour are in Germany. Would you say that Germany is in some kind especially important to you?

Kevin: It’s pretty much the first place we have been to as a band outside the United States and the people here where so perceptive and very nice, so it’s a pleasure coming here and we have some great fans here. I mean, we wanna go to our fans all aorund the world, unfortunately some places like Australia and Japan are harder to get to, Canada is hard to get to, too, but we won’t get into that. Yes, it’s an easy flight for us to get here. If people want us to play we will go wherever people want us to play, so it’s a pleasure that we get received so well over here.

If you’re planning the tour do you tell your booking agency where you wanna play?

KC: We do, but they don’t listen to us. We try, but yeah.

Kevin: Sorry Finland!

KC: So we always have that problems, trying to go everywhere.

Kevin: You try to do as much as you can.

KC: If it was up to us we things wouldn’t probably balance out and we would go broke, that’s why they take care of that. But we try to make it. Yeah, we’ve been trying to get to Finland.

Kevin: And Poland. There’s E-Mails from Poland, I work with a bunch of polish guys, they know our stuff over there and it’s like „Why don’t you go to Poland?“.

KC: There were so many bootleg Turbo A.C.’s T-Shirts from Poland, I can’t believe that. Really bad quality, too.

Kevin: We give our booking agency our desires, if it will work they will do it. We went to Australia and it was great. On the minute we went down there we ran into a guy who had our logo tattooed on him and it’s like okay, to fly 20 hours, spent 1500 Dollars to go on a flight and right there that’s worth it. Anyway, it’s Germany on a whole is easy. It’s actually causes less to come to Germany than to go to fuckin’ California.

Some people told me that they’re disappointed that you’re not playing Berlin this time

Kevin: You know I don’t even.

KC: You don’t know anything about it right?

Kevin: No, i know. I saw that we haven’t any fuckin’ Berlin dates and I’m kind of pissed about this.

KC: Well, we have this one show close.

Potsdam

KC: I guess this is close enough to Berlin. They said if you’re playing Potsdam you shouldn’t play Berlin.

Kevin: I don’t know, I really wanted to play Berlin and it’s kind of perplex why they didn’t have that, but in the great scheme the agency said maybe „Hey, you played there three times last year, take a break“ or something.

Tim: There is no doubt, that we are gonna there again, not this tour though.

Kevin: I think their concern was the actual citiziens of Berlin, they didn’t want them to get sated for us playing there another time.

Tim: I think they heard it was me and Jer coming and decided to close the town.

(Laughter)

Kevin: They go „No, no, not a Canadian! Fuck you!“.

Jer, you live in Canada and you’re always commuting between Canada and New York?

Jer: Yeah, pretty much commuting there for shows stuff like that, taking the time off for tours

Kevin: We cook and do his laundry.

So you’re thinking about moving to New York?

Jer: Yeah it’s kinda hard, I guess because the countries are so similar it’s really hard for Canadians to move down, so we are looking at all avenues to get me down there, but…

KC: We’re trying to get Jer to get us healthcare. We figured if we had a Canadian we would maybe be able to work out some kind of healthcare. Actually, that’s my plan!

(Laughter)

I haven’t told you about it before.

You did this show with Mad Sin in New York! Did you invite them or..

Tim: We got invited actually.

Kevin: They had the tour booked and they asked us to play.

Tim: I think Mad Sin asked the guys from the Devil Spades if we could play with them that night, that was my understanding.

KC: Yeah, excactly. We weren’t actually ready to play but we said, yeah we will do it with the four-piece. Let’s do it. So, it was a lot of fun. Koefte got his belt stolen, ran on the streets of Brooklyn and got lost.

Tim: And for me and Jer, we want to play every show thats possible. The two Kevins are doing it for a while, for us it’s like brandnew and the excitement’s there and we just wanna do it. I get phonecalls „Hey can you play this show“ and I say „Yeah, we are already there“ and „Lets go“.

KC: And then he calls me and I say no.

(Laughter)

Tim: I think that excitement that we bring definteley you can see it. We’re just ready to do it and to be here. We were so excited making the new album, it was so much fun making it and now it will be a lot of fun sharing it, going out and playing it – I’m probably drunk right now.

(Laughter)

Tim: I just gonna keep being drunk, it’s a good time.

KC: You want another one of these?

KC, can you tell something about your Hip-Hop-Project, i think this is really interesting

Kevin: With Deflon?

KC: Yeah, NC 17. I just started doing that, because… Well actually, I’ve always being doing this. When we got back from the Dwarves-tour and Mike told us „I need some time off“ so we just kind off took a break and I’ve been promising this guy to produce some songs for him. I had some time to do that and then it’s kind of kept going and going. That’s a whole other project, let’s see what happens with that. It also helped the studio, you know cause I’m building my own recording-studio, it helped get that together. Getting some money from Hip-Hop-stuff to build up the studio. So yeah, it’s cool. I don’t worry about being to Hip-Hop or anything like that, so a lot of guys actually like the stuff I do cause it’s different from what is normally Hip-Hop, like sample Black Sabbath backwards. It’s having a good time and it’s really fun. It’s really just for fun. Now I’m starting to see my connections to do something bigger. We’ll see.

Do you have any news on what Michael is doing now?

KC: Not really. I see him every once in a while around New York. He’s trying to go to school, something to get a job and other than that I don’t think he’s doing that much.

Tim: I actually ran into him two or three weeks after I joined the band and he was actually really nice, very supportive, „Have a good time and enjoy yourself“ That’s the one time I’ve seen him since.

KC: I saw him actually right after my apartment got robbed. But he was just working and trying to get something. I don’t know, I have not seen him that much.

Okay, that was it.

KC: Cool, Thank you.

Kevin: Thank you.

No, thank YOU!

Es bleibt noch zu erwähnen, dass die Band nicht zu viel versprochen hat. Der Auftritt am Samstag war großartig und nicht wenige, die mir zuvor noch erzählt hatten, dass sie die Turbo A.C.’s „ganz nett“ finden, waren hinterher dann doch vollends überzeugt!

Homepage: www.turboacs.com
Myspace: www.myspace.com/theturboacs
NC17-Myspace: www.myspace.com/thenc17

von Manuela Schon | 15.09.2006 | Kommentare (3) | Kommentar schreiben