Thanheiser interview: Heino Thanheiser plays a unique style of punk rock & is well worth hearing! Anyone interested in this type of genre should give him a listen!! I want to thank Heino for taking the time to do this interview & I didn't have to wait 6 months for it, w00t!! :) So, everyone go buy some Thanheiser & thanx again to Heino for a great interview!! :) -Mikki 12/05

Thanheiser: The past project I did was called Paranoide Syndrome. That was a mixture of punk, funk, metal and several more styles. Very - crazy music with very long songs (often over 7 minutes). So you could call that monumentally punk-rock! After that I began to compose new songs which are based on my roots: fastidiously, melodic punk-rock. I have still a tendency for a bit long songs, but the average today is about 4 1/2 minutes...

DML: How did you gain such a strong interest in the bass guitar?

Thanheiser: By everything I do I have the goal to do it perfect. unfortunately most bass players were in the beginning guitar players. They started bass playing cause nobody was found to play bass in the band. Not so I! When I decided to learn a instrument I was also not sure if I should take a guitar or bass. I knew several guitar players but no really bass player. Then a friend who played guitar showed me slapping on a bass (striking the low strings with the thumb and "popping" the high strings with the index finger- to hear almost by funky music) that was the first time that I really recognized a bass as an instrument which could do more than playing the low end! I was fascinated by that sound and so my resolution was fixed - I will become a bass player! The instrument for the underestimated people, ha, ha!

DML: If I understand this correctly, you'd like to have a band completely without guitars, just bass, but this has been hard to achieve. What are the difficulties in realizing this goal?

Thanheiser: Bass players are almost very rare to find, especially good bass players and especially more, good bass players who like punk-rock!

DML: What artists do you think have most influenced your desire to make music and how?

Thanheiser: Thatīs a difficult question, so many over the years! For bass playing I will say Stanley Clarke, Steve Harris (Iron Maiden), Carol Kaye, Verdine White (Earth Wind and Fire), Helmut Hattler, Chris Both (Destination Zero, Razzia)...

For songwriting: ...But Alive, Duran Duran, Police, Ton Steine Scherben, Inflames, Ace of Base, Toxoplasma (in the nineties), several eighties pop and many, many more...

DML: I really must know - who in the world is the song "Adelheid" (from "Wer erwachsen wird... hat verloren!") about?????

Thanheiser: This was a woman I have to work with. This woman became a megalomaniac. I have to say that Iīm really no women enemy. This song was only a valve for my hate. It could concern exactly the same a man (listen to "hau ab!").

DML: Also on this same album there is what seems to be a very personal song... Who is "Joe"?

Thanheiser: This song is for my sorely missed father, he died in 2001.

DML: I enjoy your lyrics alot!! I think "Ich will lieber ein Arschloch als ein Arschkriecher sein" from the "Bässerwisser" CD is one of the best lines ever!! What songs are you the most proud of, either lyrically or musically and why?

Thanheiser: My personal masterpiece is everytime my actual song I work on. But truely I think "Warten" is my best song, I wrote ever. Musically and lyrically as well. Itīs about the time and their relativity. Since I was a child I had a neverending dream to have a timemachine, ha, ha.

DML: I'm sensing a little hostility on "Amis Raus" - a common sentiment worldwide. If you were given the chance to speak to George "Dubya" what would you say to him?

Thanheiser: Dear Americans,

Please donīt take this lyric personal! Even when I titled you! Itīs a provocational song about my feeling and faint after Bush won the elections again. But I think a related the lyric in the breakpart of this song...

Yeah what would I tell him...? I want to tell him that he definitivly harms the regards of the whole USA and that the most people of the world (especially in Europe), donīt agree with his acting and that I know that all what he wants is: money, money, money over corpses!

But anyway Bush knows that and he gives a shit on the opinon of the world.

Please all Americans donīt vote again for this asshole!

...as the German governemet said: "No war in the Iraq with German participation". It was the first and only time that I believed something like: "Iīm proud to be German".

But serious: There is no sense to be proud of a country!

The only result for that is hate, discrimination and WAR!!!

DML: In your bio, regarding Paranoide System, it was mentioned that you were enjoying your part as a psychopath. Should we be scared of you???

Thanheiser: It would be better you love me!

DML: What do you do when not making music, either professionally or just for fun?

Thanheiser: As first priority there are my children and my wife. further i like handicraft working (see my self built bass on www.thanheiser.net), and I collect toys of the seventies and eighties ("Big Jim" or for you as example - look at the booklet in "Wer erwachsen wird...)

DML: My friend wants to know: What CD are you most embarrassed to own?

Thanheiser: ....ahhhhhhh.... Modern Talking and "Best of Diether Bohlen". Primitive and stupid melodies which make the world go round! Nasty friends call me "Diether Bohlen of deutschpunk"!

DML: What are your dreams/goals for the future (and when will you be rockin' the USA??? ;))

Thanheiser: My goal is to rock the world, not only the USA! Yeah! The only problem is, that until now, nobody consider that for necessary!

DML: Thanx so much for the interview, your music is great!! Is there anything you'd like to add?

Thanheiser: Many thanks for the interest in me and my music. I hope for many foreign CD orders. Cheapest shipping for one CD worldwide is only 2,- Euro and you can pay by Paypal!

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