Interview

Q: When did you start with the TWINS and how did you met each other?
Sven: Ronny and I had known each other from school where we had played in various bands. After we had finished school we lost contact for a while. I met Ronny a few years later and I asked him if he would like to play drums in the band that I have just joined. We were not really satisfied with the music that we made in these days and when the band split up after two years, we thought about a whole new concept of making music together. We gave up on playing guitars and drums, we spend all our money on synthesizers and drum-machines and we started making the music we always wanted to make. In the early 80’s our music was influenced by the “New Romantic” style which was very fascinating for us. The whole TWINS concept was a very logical step for us because it represented exactly the style of music we liked in these days.

Q: What’s the story behind your name THE TWINS?
Ronny: The TWINS concept is based on the idea to have a powerful band with just two people. Just two guys who are responsible for everything that’s neccessary to come up with the finished music product. In the beginning we composed, arranged, played and recorded everything by ourselves. We have tried to find a name that describes the way we work and when I came up with this name, Sven also found it very suitable.

Q: Which musical role-models did you had when you first started with the TWINS?
Sven: Gary Numan was the one we really liked back in these days. He had his own typical and unique style. We also liked OMD, Ultravox and the early Depeche Mode.

Q: How do you work together when you are composing your songs. Was there a difference when you started with your first album?
Ronny: When we started working together as THE TWINS we were composing the first songs together. We did a lot of experiments because we had no idea what the final result should sound like.During the preparation for our second album each one of us allready had his own little studio and both of us started separately to collect musical fragments and ideas. When we had enough material we came back together again to turn the best of these ideas into songs. In general we still work in this way today.

Q: How do you write your lyrics?
Ronny: We have written all the lyrics for our first album on our own. As you can imagine, this is very tricky and cumbersome if you are not raised in an english speaking country. Just by accident we met Tim Dowdall who was born in England and moved to Germany to study Philosophy. We liked his lyrics right from the beginning. He is helping us with the lyrics since our second album. In some cases we come up with an idea in german language and Tim puts everything in the right form. Without Tim’s lyrics it would have been very difficult for us to have success outside of Germany.

Q: How long did it take until you had success with your music?
Sven: Our first Single “The Desert Place” was released on the LP “Passion Factory”. When we decided to make a 12″ Remix of that song, it turned out to be a real dancefloor smasher. We had no chart entry with this song but it was played in disco’s all over Germany.

Q: In which Country do you had your first big success?
Ronny: In ’83 we had our first chart-entries in Italy. In 18 months we had 3 top-ten hits in a row over there.
In ’84 we also started to hit the charts in Germany and other countries with “Ballet Dancer”.

Q: Isn’t it a bit difficult for you to play Live?
Sven: That’s right, as a “two-man-group” you are not very well prepared to play all the neccessary intruments in a concert.
When we had our first success with “Desert Place” many concert-agencies called us and we had to come up with a minimal set-up very quickly. We made a couple of gigs in small venues just as a duo but it turned out to be a bit boring for us because we wanted to have more action on stage.After a few months we decided to put a band together with two more keyboard-players, and a drummer. We played a few shows with this line-up and it was much better for us and for the show.When we started touring with our third LP “A Wild Romance”, we added a saxophone player and two girls for background vocals. With this band it was possible for us to play all songs on stage and make them sound like on our recordings.

Q: Your concerts are very rare today. Are you planning to go on tour in the near future?
Ronny: The “problem” with the TWINS and their touring situation is that we (and this includes our band as well) are not just full-time musicians. We are involved in so many other things that it is not very easy to bring the whole band together very often. Nevertheless we are going to play a few gigs in summer ’97.

Q: During the end of the 80’s there was a rumour that THE TWINS had split. What happend?
Sven: During this time we had worked together more then ten years. We went through all the up’s and down’s that a musical group can go through. It was about time to hold on and take a deep breath.This was very important for us and the three-year break gave us the opportunity to think about and to re-invent our musical ideas. If you listen to our album “The Impossible Dream” you can tell that it sounds fresh and relaxed.

Q: First thing you did after your three-year break was a Remix-Album. What was the reason not to start with all-new material?
Ronny: During the break we had enough time to think about our music. Everytime I heard one of our songs in the radio or in a discotheque, I thought how this particular song would sound like when produced with the typical musical elements of the beginnig 90’s. I was very surprised when Sven told me that our record-company HANSA is planning on a “Best-of” TWINS album. We immediately told them that we would be more interested in putting together a remix album. They really liked the idea and we started to work on the remixes immediately. The “Classics-Remixed” album was very successful and a good inspiration for us to carry on with some new material.

Q: What is the average age of your fans. You must have a lot of old-aged fans compared to the fact that you have started with THE TWINS in the beginning 80’s?
Sven: When we released the “Classics- Remixed” we thought this album would only be interesting for the fans who had been with us since the early 80’s. We were very surprised to see a lot of very young fans during our concerts. I would say the average age is between 20 and 40.

Q: How will your next album sound like. Are you influenced by any new music styles like “Techno”?
Ronny: The TWINS music always had it’s own style. The next album will sound like a real TWINS album, but it will also be influenced by todays music styles and this includes “Techno” and “House” as well.

Q: How come that the first TWINS albums have been re-released?
Ronny: During the last couple of years we had so many requests from all over the world regarding the “old” records that we had to find a solution, because the our record company was completely out of stock. We have managed to get a permission from HANSA/BMG to re-release these albums on our own record-label.

Q: Wich albums are going to be re-released?
Sven: The biggest problem was that most of our material was released on vinyl back in the 80’s. First we had find all the old tapes with the original recordings. Fortunatly we found all the neccessary tapes to continue with a complete digital remastering of the old stuff.Finally we had enough to release all of the first five albums on CD. Some of them also include B-sides, Long-Versions and tracks that have never been released before. On top of that we were able to put all the 12inch mixes on one CD called “12inch Classics”.

Q: Will there also be some new remixes?
Sven: Definitely not. All re-releases will be the original recordings. Some of them are digitally remastered to make them sound a bit better.