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Deathstars: Flamingos in Uniform

Stalker loves Deathstars. And Deathstars are very stalkable even more than they are lovable. Deathstars love girls and girls in uniform they love more, but Russian girls in uniforms they love the most. It´s all inseparable and it´s hard to concentrate now: the Swede Andreas Whiplasher in front of me is tired and pale, yet very calm and confident, with a deep voice, fine sarcasm and hardly traceable Swedish accent.

You look so tired!
Yeah… this interview should´ve been yesterday, I was just walking around happy-happy, but then this trip from St Petersburg here (Helsinki, the ed.) was… brgh! The concert was very good, about 8000 people, almost every show with Korn is sold out. I feel much more comfortable and it´s easier to play when there are so many people. Russia is always great, we love Russia – it´s so depressing, we love it! Everything about Russia is very inspiring! It speaks well with us… The best country in uniform. Russia and Deathstars walk hand in hand.

The people are pretty great too!
Russian fans are crazy! Night train to St. Petersburg is crazy, we need a lot of security there! The fans just run after the train… And Russian women are so beautiful, that´s very true. Very characteristic check bones and all, I don´t like a model type, but Russian girls are gorgeous!… all very enjoyable for healthy boys like us.

What about the new album then, how much work have you done for it and what should we expect?
Expect to get undressed, I guess, because this album will rip your clothes off! But for you I´ll get undressed any day… (whispers, as he pulls off his hoody). It´s not finished, we´ve started to record it in New York, and then we´ll probably continue in Sweden but we´re not sure, we´ll see. Yeah, it´s a Deathstars album, it´s really-really dark, but it´s hard to describe. Emil is producing it and he´s been living in New York for a while.

What exactly will be in it?
‘Termination Bliss´ was a personal album and this new one is more about situations. I wrote all the songs as usual, but it´s not ready yet so it´s hard to talk about it at this point.

Then how come you´re touring so much already if the new album isn´t even near being finished?
We aren´t playing any of the new songs and it was Jonathan Davies of Korn, who likes Deathstars very much and who chose us himself as the support for his band. He asked us personally and it´s a big honor for us. It´s been fantastic and the crowd is amazing – a bit different for us, but still. And there are always people in uniform in the audience…

Must be getting quiet boring and repetitive for you already…
NO!!! (becomes very alert suddenly) There are always many people coming in army hats, so…

Do you actually like this kind of stuff or is it just a band´s image?
No, I love it! I really appreciate it when people get dressed like this, especially women often come in uniforms and you can immediately see who they came for.

Which country´s people have impressed you the most?
Well, because we´re so much bigger in England than anywhere else, people are very hysterical there and the uniforms too…

With the new album, will your image change?
We´ll have something new, sure, but I don´t want to talk about it, you´ll see. The makeup we do ourselves… You better ask Cat about all those things, he´s the one usually running around, shopping for those things… He´s like a girl! Always buying this shimmering MAC stuff that he needs, I think he spends 2-3 hours every day on makeup… And L´Oreal, because we´re worth it!

What´s the best hangover cure?!
Oh?! I never usually even get those… I´m actually very curious how am I going to solve this now, just a few hours before the show. I usually drink a lot of tomato juice, like Virgin Marys, but today´s different ‘cos we´ve been up the whole night, now totally afraid to play tonight. It´s terrible – the whole night at the boarder and Finnish customs, and they were so rude! Just smashed the door open – hit Skinny´s eyebrow, it was bleeding and they didn´t even apologize!

Now that you´ve mentioned him, we´ve to ask you something about the band. What´s the most romantic thing about Skinny?
He´s very reliable and very sophisticated and he´s almost always happy, he´s very social guy – he´s like the spine of the band.

And that´s romantic?!
Yes. I won´t go into the detail, but we all sleep together every night.

Ah, that´s boring, everyone knows this! Tell me more about how reliable he is…
But of course he is a very attractive man when he´s like flamingo style…

What´s the weirdest thing about Cat?
Everything, absolutely everything! As long as he has a mirror, he´s happy. He thinks of himself as the most beautiful person in the world, he´s just watching himself in the mirror.

And one of the band members couldn´t come on the tour…
Yes, Adrian. He just had a son, so he had to stay home and take care of that.

What´s the most annoying thing about Bone Machine?
He´s really extreme and dark and smart person, so he doesn´t think at all before he speaks to people he doesn´t know and people get afraid if they don´t know him.

What´s the cutest thing about Nightmare?
His penis looks exactly like mine, I must say this! We have exactly the same penises.

Is ‘cute´ the right adjective here?
I think it´s pretty cute…

Maybe in Swedish…
He´s my best friend of course, I know he´s very caring and that´s very cute.

What´s the funniest thing about you?
Nothing right now, absolutely nothing. For me ‘funny´ doesn´t even exist, I just cannot take myself seriously, so…

You once said that Deathstars are like Angelina Jolie of music, so who´d be the Brad Pitt then?
Sahara Hotnights.

Whom did you want to marry when you were little?
I was always fond of women who are over 35 in their careers, who are so independent… I was once very interested in this one woman, over 30 and she worked in the bank…

What´s the meaning of life?
To enjoy it to the full and to worship death. It´s a nice thing – life, but it´s so dependent on death too, so you´ve to really enjoy it right now, because I don´t believe in soul transformation or anything like this. I´m thinking every day what would be the perfect way for me. Deathstars are of course one and it´s a big reflection of me, but it´s not the only way…

If you had another life and Deathstars wouldn´t be in it…
…I´d probably do something with sports, I was very good at that. The reason why I quit everything else because music became such huge part of my life, so I left everything else so it won´t have to compete. So my music is a reflection of my own self-expression and I was told it´s the biggest competition of them all, which is pretty cynical. Sport is limited, there are rules and standards. Music as art is boundless. I don´t know if I agree, but music is free…

What kind of sport were you in?
It was skateboarding, snowboarding and football. I haven´t had any time to go to the mountains, for years now… it would be fantastic to go! I did all the tricks and flips and so… I love to be on the move.

Are you happy?
Me?! Ah… I… I think I… I am… I am happy… but it´s always like this, like you can get something better. With touring and all, it takes a lot of energy, and I´ve been working a lot, so right now I´m a bit worn out to say the least. I want to go home, to Sweden, go to a spa for a week and start running again, get back on track, it´s been an extreme amount of partying the past weeks… Today´s really not the best day, for interviews also.

Author: Marina Sidyakina, Photos: Deathstars

GastmitarbeiterInnen / guest contributions

Regular guest contributors e.g. Melanie Kircher, Tatjana Tattis Murschel, Grit Kabiersch, Marina Minkler, Jasmine Frey, Maria Levin, Elvira Visser, Nina Ratavaara, John Wisniewski