The Plums interview: Thanks so much to Schorschi for answering these questions! Too bad the band had to break up! But such is life... -Mikki 1/03

Schorschi: THE PLUMS was founded in 1997 by CJ, Silch and Schorschi. Before we all had played together in a band called DUST BOWL. In 1999 we recorded our first demo-cd "samba united". We played some good concerts but also one which was incredible bad! This was in summer 1999, I think. After that we didn’t play together for nearly two years and CJ left the band after all. In 2001 we finally started with a new drummer, Jogi. We played some great shows with him and recorded our second demo-cd "Bitte! Nur zu!". But from time to time we all wasn’t really motivated anymore. So I (Schorschi) decided to leave the band some weeks ago. Well, so THE PLUMS dissolved in january 2003.

DML: Do you still describe your music as "Sexykinderzimmerrockhyperpopfloppiger Melodicplumpunk"? What exactly does that mean???

Schorschi: You could read this in our first band-info. But it didn’t make much sense. We thought that it might be funny, but it was just inane, I think.

DML: What bands would you say had influenced your musical style?

Schorschi: Well, we didn’t try to copy any other band, but our music was definitely influenced by bands like WIZO, TERRORGRUPPE or THE WOHLSTANDSKINDER.

DML: Who came up with the name, "The Plums" & why? Did it have some special significance?

Schorschi: No, the name didn’t have any special significance. At the time we founded the band I had violet hair and this hair-color was called "Plum". So CJ and I had the idea for the name.

DML: You have 2 songs on "Millennium Madness" & 1 on "Street Attack". That makes me wonder... how does one get their music on a sampler? Did you submit music to them or did they contact you?

Schorschi: We had sent demo-cds to some record labels and one day Vitaminepillen-Records wrote us because of "Millennium Madness". Noisegate-Productions who published "Street Attack" asked us if we could submit some songs to them and finally we was on the sampler.

DML: Who exactly did what when writing songs & where did your ideas come from?

Schorschi: The songs were "written" by me and I told the others how I would like to perform it. Then we just played it, sometimes with little changes. I don’t really know where the ideas came from. It was very different. Sometimes you tried to make a new song for days but you didn’t get anything. And suddenly while sitting on the toilett you’d got a new melody in your head.

DML: The song, "Fuck You" from "-samba united-" certainly says it like it is! Who wrote that song??? And who writes the song descriptions in the booklets?

Schorschi: I made that song. Think it didn’t take more than a minute to "write" it. I was strumming on my guitar and then just had the music including lyrics. The song descriptions were also written by me.

DML: Your songs seem more about life in general than having an agenda, such as purporting political messages (for the most part)... what percentage of your songs are actually based on personal experiences & what percentage are just imagination gone wild?

Schorschi: There are many people in the "scene" who reproach you as a german "punk"-band with not singing about political topics. But we deliberately didn’t want to do that. The problem was not that we didn’t like to manifest our opinion, but THE PLUMS just should be a fun band. I think the only song which was based on a real story was "Bitte! Nur zu!". But we neither had been beaten up in school ("Wenn ich gross bin") nor I was left by so many girls it may seem in our songs ("Schluss gemacht", "Der Himmel weinte").

DML: Your music had really progressed since the "-samba united-" CD! It's much more "catchy". What were you doing during that 2 year pause (when you had broken up)?

Schorschi: Nice to hear that! We also think "Bitte! Nur zu!" was much better than the first one. But we didn’t really change anything after the "comeback" in 2001. Just made some new songs. And after we had recorded them we were very suprised but also happy about the result. But there were also people who liked "samba united" more...

DML: One day I noticed some sounds coming from my headphones... seems about 8 mn after the last song on "Bitte! Nur zu!" there's some additional activity, what was that all about?!?!

Schorschi: Oh, that’s just some "mis"-takes while the recordings.

DML: What was the response to you guys getting back together? After 2 years, were they like, "Yeah!!!! The Plums are back!" or, "The Plums? Who the hell are they?"?

Schorschi: 99 percent: Who the hell are they???
1 percent: "Fuck, they are back!"

DML: I noticed the CD by your previous band, "Dust Bowl", had alot of sponsers. Do people still sponser you? If so, who are they & how do they help? Is the tissue industry now a proud sponser based on your Schlussmachen songs (which I rather like, btw :))?

Schorschi: No, THE PLUMS didn’t have any sponsors. With DUST BOWL we first just wanted to record a demo-tape and then we had the idea to make a cd, but we didn’t had the money therefor. So we asked in some shops and restaurants in our hometown if they wanted to sponsor us and they surprisingly did! That’s it.

DML: What were some of the best shows you've played at & why?

Schorschi: Youth club Leutkirch, december 1998 with YETI GIRLS. The audience was just great and YETI GIRLS were one of the nicest guys we ever met. Also a great show I remember was at "Go-In"/Isny in summer 2002. I think we never played better than this evening.

DML: What's the scene like in your town? What do you like about it & what would you like to see different?

Schorschi: There was a big alternative-/independent-"scene" in our home town at the beginning of the nineties. It was at that time bands like NIRVANA, GREEN DAY or OFFSPRING went big. In our youth club we listened a lot to RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE and NOFX for example. But today most of the young kids espacially in our youth club like hip-hop-music and they dress like gangsta-rappers. If I could, I’d change this because there is nothing bigger than wasting your youth as a punkrocker! Of course today there are still young people in south germany who like punk-music, but it were much more ten years ago, I think.

DML: What do you do when not making music?

Schorschi: Sleep, drink, go to parties and watch TV.

DML: Now that you have left the band, what are your plans for the future? Do you want to start another band or just hang out & re-evaluate things for awhile?

Schorschi: Well, there aren’t many things which have to be re-evaluated. But I didn’t start anything new, yet. But I think I will do some day because playing in a (punkrock)-band is still one of the greatest things in life for me.

DML: The generic question, one we ask everyone: What is your favorite band & album?

Schorschi: The generic answer, I think: There is no special, that can change every day. At the moment I’d say ZSK. Very great bands who made great albums are TERRORGRUPPE, WOHLSTANDSKINDER, TAGTRAUM, RAMONES, NOFX, LOST LYRICS, SCHROTTGRENZE, MUFF POTTER, WIZO, THE CLASH, SEX PISTOLS, DIE AERZTE, DIE TOTEN HOSEN til mid of the nineties, LAGWAGON, RANCID, SUPERNICHTS and many others. Yeah, one of the best albums ever definitely was "Schweineherbst" of SLIME. But there are also relatively unknown bands we played with or who are friends which are very good like STIFFKICK, REVIVAL INCH or BLOINK 110.

DML: Anything you'd like to add?

Schorschi: Now, as we have dissolved, a big thanks to all great people who supported us in any way! A special thanks of course goes to you!

More at:

• DML bio page