TOCOTRONIC "GOLDEN YEARS"

Young people used to start playing the guitar by learning the riff from Smoke On The Water and the chords for the traditional House Of The Rising Sun. Today, when they start playing instruments, they like to be inspired by songs by Tocotronic.

This rebellious and cheerfully creative band exerts a noticeable influence everywhere in this country. Musically and fashionably, they provide boys and men with the self-confidence that Madonna still passes on to girls and women today. Guitarist Rick McPhail finds concise, narrative tones with ease. He places them like dots and commas on and between verses and choruses. This is how he transforms a sketch into a song.

Bassist Jan Müller has a romantic relationship with music that is distinctly out of time. He is the most open-minded rock fan in the band. His bass sounds like the eye of the storm in the songs of Tocotronic.
Drummer Arne Zank sometimes travels to the other side of the globe to discover sounds like rare butterflies. He then returns as a musical antipode to present interesting, strange soundscapes in pleasant bars in Berlin-Kreuzberg.

The singer Dirk von Lowtzow gets up in the morning and has one song ready. He has breakfast and has a second song ready. Then he walks around the block and maybe makes a quick phone call. When he returns home at lunchtime, the demo version of a third song is as good as recorded.