Interviewer: Sonja Kristina

 

Pi: Hello Class!

Class: Well?

Pi: Heheheh. We’re doing a fanterview again today. I am the third, and I’m here with…

Class: What’s your name anyway?

Pi: …the charming Sonja Kristina. I’m excited, this is my first time. I’m still an interview-virgin. I will be de-virginized now. We’ll see how many questions await me and what type of questions await me.

 

(intro)

 

[0:36]

Sonja: The first question refers to your first experience on stage. What was it like for you to stand on stage for the first time with Lord of the Lost?

Pi: That was quite a lot for me. From the first second I was a bit overwhelmed cause it’s something very very crazy for me or rather something very very big, cause I was on a stage before of course, but not to that extent. Especially on the Eisheilige Nacht, which is a bit bigger still. And that was totally crazy. It was…intense. But totally awesome. It was everything but negative.

 

[1:22]

Sonja: Did you first have to ease down a bit afterwards?

Pi: Yeah. But you have to do that after every concert. You’re on a really crazy adrenaline rush after every concert. And then you sit down for a moment and have to think over what just happened, and then things are normal again.

 

[1:36]

Sonja: What was the first autograph session like for you? To suddenly be surrounded by fans who want an autograph from you?

Pi: Yeah, it’s weird for me and it was…or rather, it was weird, and it is still weird for me, cause I was of course still completely new. And first: How will I sign at all? A Pi-sign. How do you write a Pi-sign cool? Not just line, line, line, but different sort of. Those are the sort of thoughts, totally banal thoughts, but which run through your head. I was very excited, and wondered why people want an autograph from me, but that subsided eventually. I’ll probably never get used to it. But that’s a good thing.

 

[2:20]

Sonja: What did you do before you joined the band?

Pi: Also something for the band. (beeping in background) Telephone!...also something for the band. Some might know that I was the guitar tech before. So I was working the guitars already, just differently. I was a crew member. That was one thing I did. And, what I still do beside the band: I also come from the SAE-Cosmos. Like quite a lot of us. And there I also work as a lecturer, supervisor, in the lectureship of the high school you might say. And I’m an audio engineer too. So, I work in a sound studio. Not in the Chameleon studios, but in a different one in Hamburg. So it’s not just band. But only music, only sound, only media, the whole junk.

 

[3:19]

Sonja: How did your life change as a result of joining the band?

Pi: Uhhh…oh. (She laughs, he smiles) Thank you for that question.

Class: (off camera) It brought a man into his life who cooks for him regularly now

Pi: Exactly. A man came into my life…that gentleman is sitting there. Exactly. I’ve got someone who cooks for me now. (Camera turns to Class) He cooks quite well. My life changed partly, cause I no longer have a private facebook profile. (they laugh)

Sonja: That’s true.

Pi: But that’s just a change you have to deal with. It’s been said: “Why don’t you just make another facebook profile just for yourself?” (shrug) No, I’m not a different person all of a sudden who needs so unbelievably much privacy he never has. No, there’s just no…hi Chris!

 

[4:16]

Chris: Hi. I wanted to watch the lego building.

Pi: …So that’s something that changed, no more private facebook profile. I have a lot of…oh look he wants to say hi to you.

(Chris is holding his hand out to Sonja)

Sonja: Hi!

Pi: That’s Chris.

Chris: (whispers) I know I’m not supposed to distract.

Sonja: Hi Chris.

Pi: Um…I now fill even more of my free time with what I find totally awesome, that is, making music, standing on the stage, playing the guitar. So everything changed for the better…that sounds like everything was negative before… It wasn’t, but it got even better. Totally cool. What’s a bit weird for my family is of course that I’m supposed to give autographs now after the concert. Which is totally awesome, but it’s totally unusual for them. For example on this tour in Kiel, my mother was at the concert, and my sister, and my brother-in-law, and friends of mine, and for them it was totally crazy to see how after the concert, when we go out to the signing session, that there are people standing around us wanting autographs. To me it’s totally awesome, and to them it’s totally unfamiliar.

Sonja: A situation they first have to deal with.

Pi: Yeah, they need to warm up to that.

 

[5:39]

Sonja: Speaking of developments: What do you wish for your future? How do you imagine your life in 20 years?

Pi: My life in 20 years…..uh…..well, I imagine it…that is, my desired life?

Sonja: Yeah.

Pi: Well I wish for it to be as awesome as now, and that I have the freedoms I have now, that is, that I only do what I feel like doing. I hate the thought of doing things, or spending the majority of my time with things which rob my time and don’t get me further. I hope that in 20 years I’ll still be doing the things that make me happy now. Yeah.

(Camera man sniffs)

Sonja: That’s a nice goal.

Pi: Yeah. I think everyone should pursue that goal.

 

[6:39]

Sonja: Now a question that comes up a lot: how did you get your nickname? What does it mean to you?

Pi: The first part I have to answer somewhat disappointingly cause I have no idea how I got it. That is to say, I know that someone gave it to me in 6th grade. So I’ve had it for a while. But I have no idea who got the idea, and how they got the idea, it just stuck with me, cause from then on everyone around me called me that, and I thought that was cool. And what it means to me: well, it’s just rather my name now. My real name is...what my mother calls me. But no one else. That’s why I’m Pi. So actually my ID should read “Pi” too.

 

[7:37]

Sonja: If you think back to your childhood, what’s the first thing that comes to mind?

Pi: Completely spontaneously? That my grandpa kept knocking me over when we played soccer cause he shot the ball into my face. I love my grandpa. (laughter) That just came completely spontaneously.

 

[8:00]

Sonja: Since when have you been playing the guitar, and why did you start?

Pi: Um, I’ve been playing the guitar for about nine or ten years, since I was 13 or 14. Something like that. And the reason I started to play was actually cause I thought one guitarist was extremely cool, and that was Slash. And at some point I saw a music video, the one to November Rain where he stands in the desert and…

Chris: That’s my story!

Pi: No!

Chris: It was that way for you too?

Pi: Yes of course!

Chris: I know I’m a bit old around the ears [???] [8:40] But it was that way for me too: November Rain and Estranged where he plays even more. That’s why I wanted an E-guitar. Because of that one…

Pi: This is totally awesome!

Chris: Because of that one song “I’m a creep…” that (makes guitar noises) and because of Slash, was my first guitar before that.

 

[8:50]

Pi: Slash is awesome!

Chris: The stuff I learn about you here! It’s exactly the same story!

(they hug)

Chris: Apart from that, when were you born?

Pi: 1993.

Chris: Okay, when the video came out…when I saw if for the first time you hadn’t been born yet. But apart from that…let’s continue.

Pi: Yeah. Because of that, and because I was introduced to the band Sum 41 by my sister on the one hand and by a Frenchman I met on a language holiday –which is actually a completely stupid contrast to Guns n’ Roses and to Slash cause it’s a highschool pop punk band—but I also thought they were kind of awesome, being the pubescent little Pi that I was back then…

Class: Pubescent horny Pi?

Pi: _Little_ Pi

Class: I understood “horny” Pi.

Pi: Well I was horny too, cause my hormones were going nuts. And that hasn’t changed so far.

Class: ??? [9:45] (something about wanting to fuck)

Pi: (laugh) And play the guitar, and both at the same time.

Class: That totally fits my ??? hornyness dude!

(laughter)

Pi: Yeah…mainly because of Slash. Secondly because of Sum 41. 

Class: And his hornyness.

Pi: And my hornyness.

Class: By playing guitar you get the bitches!

Pi: Totally! (a childish way of saying it)

Class: “Totally”!

 

[10:14]

Sonja: Do you play any other instruments?

Pi: I don’t know if you can call that playing. But I can play triplets on the piano. I can sort of put them together, major third, minor third. Something like that works. I might be able to hold a beat on the drums. And sort of “playing bass”. Well playing bass isn’t always the same thing, I can do overtones (?) and stuff like that…that typical “I’m a guitarist, I can also play bass.”

 

[10:49]

Sonja: Speaking of your language trip. What hobbies do you have and what do you do in your free time?

Pi: Um…my free time is now of course mainly filled with music, band etc., and it should stay that way. So I mainly do that of course. But if I have another piece of free time on the side, then I like to do sports, cause it’s really important to me to be fit. You might not think it, but, as a little boy I was really really fat, quite round. And at some point I really didn’t like that anymore, to always be last in races, and last to be picked. So I started sports, and it’s especially important to me. That’s why I do sports in my free time. Or I play Nintendo DS with Class. By the way, I’m much better at Street Fighter than Class.

Class: Yeah right!

(laughter)

Class: Sagat wins!

 

[12:02]

Pi: Class brought me Street Fighter yesterday.

Class. I gave him a present

Pi: Oh was that a present? Oooh.

Class: Sure. That’s what I said.

Pi: Well how would I know.

Class: A cool present from an even better friend.

Pi: Aww. (Sniff) Uh yeah, that’s what I do in my free time.

 

[12:19]

Sonja: Since the end of January you published regular…weekly…contests to win Meet and Greets. How did you get those great ideas? After all, every week an even better idea came out.

Pi: We also thought it was really cool that the ideas were received so well. Cause they were created I think one evening at Chris’ place, when we ate together, drank beer and just enjoyed the evening together. So we figured: “Hey we need contests. Let’s crank out some ideas.” And then one trail of thought lead to the next, and we spiraled each other up and then such ideas came out. So, beer and food, and everyone together, that creates such ideas.

 

[13:22]

Sonja: Was it always your wish to become a musician?

Pi: Um…yes and no. It was my wish from the moment when I started thinking music is cool, and that’s been the case for a long time too. But I never really strongly imagined standing on stages etc., cause I thought that was totally utopian. I thought that was so utopian that I didn’t even imagine that it could happen one day, and instead I just stuck with “Yeah that would be totally awesome, but it’s completely impossible”. Kinda turned out to be wrong. I really managed it. So totally awesome. But to me it was always like: well how should that work? Also to make a living from it? No idea how that should work.

 

[14:22]

Sonja: Did you have a specific job goal as an alternative?

Pi: Yeah. Before this whole sound technology music stuff came along I wanted to become a criminal psychologist in fact.

Sonja: Interesting.

Pi: Cause I was wondering what such killers etc., such really dire mean perpetrators, what goes on in their heads, to make them do something like that. In general I think it’s very interesting what can go on in people’s heads, what moves them to certain deeds. But yeah, that’s over now. Besides, my diploma wasn’t good enough. It wasn’t meant to be.

Sonja: Good.

Pi: Yeah I think so too.

Sonja: good that it wasn’t meant to be.

 

[15:09]

Sonja: Do you have a favourite quote or a piece of wisdom that accompanies you through life?

Pi: Uh…wow…nothing spontaneously which I could just grab out of the air “yeah I live by that”. Um, no, actually I don’t. A buddy of mine always says “Just do it”. Heh, that sounds totally unemotional now and totally blunt, but it is like that after all. Cause if you do nothing you just stand still, you don’t advance and you stay in one place, and I can’t do that. Always do stuff.

Sonja: I can only agree.

Pi: Just do it. Boom

Class vaguely in background: Do it!

 

[15:53]

Sonja: Um, a very exciting question, also considering the fact that Class is sitting here: What was your first impression of your band members, when you met them.

Pi: Oh, ah! Tobi: Thinks he’s the most awesome guy. Class: extremely quiet. Chris: Very very…is there a word for that? Well, he’s got a lot of…engaging/charming/winning is the word, yeah. Chris very engaging. Gared: totally freaky. And…oh yeah, right, me. (laughter) No. Yeah so those were the first impressions.

 

[16:50]

Sonja: Are there special attributes you like about your band members or which drive you totally mad?

Pi: What I like a lot about all together is that we all don’t like stress etc. and we tell each other if something bothers us and we’re totally honest. And we’re able to be so too. You can’t be honest to everyone. Sometimes it’s like “I don’t want to say that you’re stupid or something”. But that works. I think that’s very very good. And it should stay that way. What annoys me: uuum…nothing really. I’m a very approachable guy. I don’t let anything disturb me. That’s so…(shrug)

Sonja: Unnecessary.

Pi: Yeah, I don’t know. I don’t need stress. I don’t let anything annoy me. UNLESS, what really annoys me, this is totally blunt, but: when you ride the subway and people go out who don’t know where they need to go,

Sonja: And they stand still?

Pi: They get out, and stand still. And the others just run into them. That’s totally totally inconsiderate and stupid. And bad drivers. But nah.

Class: (laughs) And…and…

Pi: AND…nothing can annoy me really quickly, but…

 

[18:23]

Sonja: If you had to describe yourself in 3 words, which words would that be and why?

Pi: That’s a very good question, a very difficult question. I always think if you say modest you totally aren’t modest…nah, not modest. Vain? Mmm…emotional…and…and and….vain, emotional…third fitting word…decision-handicapped. Yeah, that’s good. It’s obvious why decision-handicapped, cause I often can’t decide the smallest things, like what I wanna eat. When you order food, and you’re really hungry, then I can’t think straight and then I don’t know what I wanna eat. 

Sonja: I like that.

Pi: Yeah. Emotional, cause I’m sensitive very fast, also often close to tears very quickly, if something touches me. And vain, well, I’m just kind of very thoughtful of my appearance. Now everyone can say “Uh but you’re totally ugly!” Uh, no, I just like to groom myself, to do my hair, and I also hate it if you ruffle through my hair and stuff like that, I think that’s totally stupid. And, well, just vain, yeah. Those are the three words.

 

[20:12]

Sonja: Thank you very much.

Pi: Gladly. Thanks for all the question. They were really cool questions, cool interview. Thanks. Bye!

 

 

Translation: Manuela Lütolf

 Proofreading: Natalie Willum