TOCOTRONIC

In the past, young people started playing the guitar by learning the riff from “Smoke on the Water” and the chords to the traditional “House of the Rising Sun”. Today, when they take up instruments, they are often inspired by songs by Tocotronic. This rebellious and joyfully creative band exerts a palpable influence throughout Germany. Musically and stylistically, they provide boys and men with the kind of self-confidence that Madonna has been giving to girls and women to this day. 

Guitarist Rick McPhail effortlessly finds vividly storytelling tones. He places them like periods and commas on and between verses and choruses. In this way, he turns a sketch into a song. Bassist Jan Müller has a romantic relationship with music that stands intriguingly outside of time. He is the band’s most open-minded rock fan. His bass sounds like the eye of the storm in Tocotronic’s songs. Drummer Arne Zank occasionally travels to the other side of the globe to discover sounds the way one might collect rare butterflies. He then returns as a musical antipode to present fascinating, peculiar soundscapes in cozy bars in Berlin-Kreuzberg. Singer Dirk von Lowtzow gets up in the morning and has finished a song. He eats breakfast and has finished a second song. Then he walks around the block and maybe makes a quick phone call. By the time he returns home around midday, the demo version of a third song is practically recorded.