Bonaparte - "Sorry We Are Open"

New Album – August 17th 2012

The Bonaparte crew is now releasing the 3rd album of the band in their studio in Berlin, and it promises to be a total awesomeness bag. They just came back from a crazy U.S. tour and are sharpening their knives for the summer festivals. KALTBLUT´s Fleur had a little chat with lead singer Tobias Jundt.

He’s been called the ‘King of Party’, the ‘Emperor of Coolness’ or ‘His Trashal Highness’, but Bonaparte is the one name really sticking to Tobias Jundt. Leading the Circus since 2006 pretty much everywhere fun can sparkle, he’s one of those dudes without which Berlin would be Neuruppin. Now let me remind you that the end of the world is coming soon, and see them live is really a must-do before leaving for a better place.

Interview by Fleur Helluin for KALTBLUT. The interverview is part of Collection 2

QUARANTINE

first single on itunes NOW: clk.tradedoubler.com/click?p=23761&a=2139677&url=http://itunes…

new album: “SORRY, WE’RE OPEN” – August 17th, 2012 – preorder here at Amazon: http://smarturl.it/bonaparte

KALTBLUT: What was your first esthetic schock?

Tobias Jundt: It must have been guys with the weird hairdos of the time and dressed in tight washed-out jeans and jeans-jackets and chains in my brothers room in the 80ies…

KALTBLUT: What is your first music memory?

Tobias Jundt: I think waking up in the morning hearing my mum play the harpsichord… That is something quite magical… because it never comes back. It’s like a dream sequence of an black and white old movie – except that you were in it.

KALTBLUT: Did you have any important teacher?

Tobias Jundt: I had so many… Basically all of my youth I would travel around europe meeting with musicians that I thought were cool… like old jazz guys from the 40ies, 50ies and 60ies, who could hardly be able to walk but would tell me stories and I’d play for them and they’d tell me more stoires. Or they’d say that it was great or that I sucked and so I knew where I was at, haha…

I also tried “normal” teachers, that I would go see once a week. My first piano teacher was an old lady in our village who was into classical music, it was terrible and my last piano teacher I had as a teenager in town eventually shot himself, so I never had another one. With guitar there were different guys. One I would always see in the hotel when he was traveling through town and the casses usually moved to the hotel bar quite fast. My favorite one lived in a farmhouse outside of town. I later found out that he actually was a doctor, but when you are young, you only see the adventurous cool part you like about someone and you blow that up to 200% and that inspires you to become like them. I think I was very lucky that older people always took the time to pass on their knowledge when I was just a little fart interested in music.

BONAPARTE – MY HORSE LIKES YOU

Tobias Jundt: I really was fortunate to have met many legends of music history, people who I could hang around with an copy what they were doing in the studio, and then eventually creating my own ways of how I produce or write music. But eventually you go into a bubble and just experiment yourself.

In the end it’s all about learning from others and the history of art but then translating it into a language that works for you. Your own accent within the language.

KALTBLUT: You are going to release the third Bonaparte album, but you’ve been doing many other musical projects. Do you feel that there was an evolution in your creativity or inspiration?

Tobias Jundt: I am a bit of a chameleon – or a bitch. Depending on how you look at it. Since I love, love, love so many different types of music, I basically just move to a place and then I react to what is happening there. So my music is always an answer or a mirror to the surroundings of the moment. It gives me an angle to write and create and have some sort of a communication with the listener. It is somewhat reactional in that sense. And I live for the moment to perform live. That is my number one drug. Playing music live. Of course there is constant evolution. Also because it is different when you are an artist creating while trying to find a place in the universe and defining who you are as a person or wheater you create trying to get a full club of neo-hippies on LSD to go crazy or wheater you have to feed a family with whatever you are doing. It goes through stages of what you are interested in, in the process of creating art on one hand, and what the purpose of your job actually is on the other.

Anti Anti

KALTBLUT: Is there another art than music that particularly feeds your creativity?

Tobias Jundt: I like the paintings of you and marianne, yes! I have an original marianne hanging in my toilet at home – best place for art! Of course i like visual arts, paintings, photography. Not only but also rather classic stuff. Picasso and Klee are called masters for a reason.

Touring sometimes lets you discover artists. Either you meet them backstage or you have time to go to the museum. We went to an exhibition at the LACMA in Los Angeles while on tour in the US for an exhibition of surrealist painters from Mexico and the US, and we discovered a woman called Remedios Varo who is pretty amazing. I also like the art of putting word after word after word to create stories. Writing. Reading. But I can also see art in other things, like cooking. When I eat something and I feel that the cook is really an artist, I start making funny noizes while I eat because it moves me, the creative combination of things like fireworks in your mouth. I can see art in nature. That is a pretty naive thing to say I guess, but nature creates so many questions for me. So many questions. And good art does too.

KALTBLUT: What’s on your desk at the moment?

Tobias Jundt: I thought you’d never ask. I love desks… It is a bit of an old school thing, but a nice desk facing the room… it’s great.

At home there is a pile of CDs I want to listen through. I get lots of music sent and I usually say: I will listen to every work at least once – even if I don’t like it. Yes, that’s is a bit optimistic, because the pile does not get smaller. There is a photo of my beloved ones of course. Then there is a piece of wood with a squirrel on it, a big ceramic bust of napoleon bonaparte facing the door (if you name your band bonaparte, that’s what people bring you as a present), a few books, a secret old brass-box, an omnichord (one of my favorite instruments) and an old 1920ies reading-lamp. Unfortunately there is also a pile of papers that remind me of the real world, too.

KALTBLUT: Where is your favorite place to listen to music?

Tobias Jundt: Hm… I hardly get to listen to any because I have been in the studio these past month trying to create my own.

I enjoed being on the road in the US. Because you drive these long distances or just drive a lot in general, you actually get to listen to music. But i remember that riding on a train and listening to music as a teenager was the best.

Quarantine (Housemeister Club Mix)

KALTBLUT: When you get old, do you like to lose first your hair or your teeth?

Tobias Jundt: Without teeth I could still communiate with my cats. Because “meow” is a great sound, you don’t need any theeth for it. Without hair i could still wear a wig (made of cat-hair). If I lost my hear first, I could take out my teeth and put them on my head, and look really fierce with a crazy teath-hairdo. That’s cool. But can I still kiss without teeth? Well, that’s a tough one… Let me think about it a bit longer. So, what about you. tell me about yourself now…

Tour 2012 part 1

03.08.2012 A – Lustenau – Szene Open Air
04.08.2012 B – Lüttich – Micro Festival
08.08.2012 HU – Budapest – Sziget Festival
10.08.2012 CH – Zürich – Lethergy Festival
11.08.2012 D – Rothenburg/Ob der Tauber – Taubertal Festival
12.08.2012 D – Dresden – Filmnächte am Elbufer ( + Die Ärzte )
17.08.2012 D – Grosspösna/Störmthaler See – Highfield Festival
25.08.2012 D – Wiesbaden – Folklore im Garten Festival
08.09.2012 D – Berlin – Berlin Festival
21.09.2012 D – Hamburg – Reeperbahnfestival
22.09.2012 D – Wismar – Campus Openair
05.10.2012 PL- Wroclaw – Avant Art Festival

25.10.2012 D – Bremen – Schlachthof
26.10.2012 D – Hannover – Capitol
27.10.2012 D – Dresden – Alter Schlachthof
28.10.2012 D – München – Kesselhaus
29.10.2012 A – Salzburg – Republic
30.10.2012 A – Wien – Gasometer
31.10.2012 A – Graz – Listhalle
02.11.2012 D – Würzburg – Posthallen
03.11.2012 CH – St Gallen – Casino Herisau
04.11.2012 D – Karlsruhe – Substage
07.11.2012 CH – Basel – Volkshaus
08.11.2012 F – Marseille – Le Moulin Club
09.11.2012 ESP – Madrid – Caracol
10.11.2012 ESP – Barcelona – Music Hall
12.11.2012 F – Paris – Fleche D´Or
13.11.2012 D – Köln – Live Music Hall
14.11.2012 D – Dortmund – FZW
15.11.2012 NL – Amsterdam – Paradiso
16.11.2012 D – Frankfurt – Union Halle
17.11.2012 D – Leipzig – Werk 2