Q&A with Chris & Mama Harms
Chris: Well, hello, welcome to the Q&A with Mama Harms and me, with Chris Harms. For many years, you have been asking if we could do something like this one day. Now after many years we thought we would just do this, and you sent us questions, to… my mother. That sounds so strange, to say, “to my mother” – to my mum and me. And we’ll just go through these. We can’t answer all of them, because there were actually hundreds of questions, but many of those questions also were partly pretty similar, so possibly your question may be answered, too, indirectly.
*reads * “If I’m not mistaken, you also play the guitar yourself. Did you study music, or was the guitar just a hobby?”
Mama: For me?
Chris: Yeah. The question is for you, not for me, so…
Mama: Ah, I see, of course. No, it was a hobby, and I also taught myself some of that or together with good friends. Later on we also used sheet music, as Chris’ dad also played the guitar, then we did that together for a bit, which was a lot of fun. And I also wrote, and I still have that in my notebooks. I wrote lyrics, songs, too, just for myself.
Chris: If I remember correctly, you already started to play the guitar as a child.
Mama: I was 15, yes.
Chris: Because you have... I still have your first guitar.
Mama: Exactly.
Chris: Unfortunately, it has become pretty moldy in the meantime.
Mama: Unfortunately.
Chris: Because it has been standing in the basement for a long time.
Mama: Some girl in the boarding school that I attended had a guitar, and I thought that was really great, and I always liked to sing. Sometimes I also sang something to myself. I even sang on the restroom, no matter where, I just liked it. And also different things, I was not committed to anything particular, it could be sad, it could be funny, exciting or whatever. Anyway, I could try to play the guitar there for the first time – and that was my wish to my grandfather then. He gave me a guitar for my 15th birthday then. The music store is still here nearby.
Chris: And we often sang together in the evenings.
Mama: Yeah!
Chris: When I was a child, when you said good night to me...
Mama: Always!
Chris: You came to me with your guitar, and we sang something together.
Mama: Yes.
Chris: Or you sang something to me.
Mama: First thing was the lullaby...
Chris: “Bajushki baju”.
Mama: “Bajushki baju,” right. And then we sang it together.
Chris: And “Muschikatze wird zu Bett gebracht” (“Pussycat is tucked in”).
Mama: Very important, “Muschikatze wird zu Bett gebracht”.
Chris: I also sang this to Mika, when he was a baby.
Mama: So sweet! Yeah really, so sweet. My mother taught me this, and I googled once, if that song actually exists.
Chris: It does. There are different versions of it, it’s a traditional Russian lullaby, or a children’s song.
Mama: I did not forget anything about that, and it was also really important to you. I was the one with the guitar on your bedside, while daddy would rather read something to you.
Chris: But I do recall that he sometimes also played the guitar, but that were rather – I dunno ‒ Beatles songs or the like. He also sang songwriters stuff, such as Hannes Wader.
Mama: Yeah, he also played that with his friends.
Chris: There has always been a guitar standing around at home, and that was also the reason why at some point I picked up a guitar; as you know, I had actually played the cello, but there was also a guitar around at home. And my sister’s piano, a violin...
Mama: Exactly.
Chris: And our class teacher was a fabulous blues guitar player, and he always had a guitar with him.
Mama: Yeah. And then you played together.
Chris: Every night, the two of us entertained the whole dormitory together.
Chris: This one is interesting. * reads*: “Would you ever have thought that Chris would one day earn his living as a musician?” – I can understand why you would ask this question, as this is a difficult path, after all.
Mama: I did not think about safety, I rather thought about your other preferences. You always read those Medizini-magazines (children’s “magazines” about medical topics), and you wanted to become a doctor.
Chris: I actually at some point wanted to become a dentist or a surgeon.
Mama: Exactly. Yes, you have…
Chris: “Dr. Harms, cardiac surgeon” *laughs*
Mama: You have … that was really serious, you literally gave us lectures about what you had read there, and I was like: “Oops.” “Aha.” “Hm.”
Chris: You see: I was a nerd already even as a child.
Mama: Christian was always the one who didn’t rest. There was always life in the house; he was always lively.
Chris: I like this question very much. It would be very difficult for me, as I just can’t do that, but: *reads*: “Which Lord Of The Lost song do you like best, if you have to decide?” Or I’ll put it differently: “Are there any particular songs that stand out for you, of which you say that you find them especially beautiful?”
Mama: I just hold on to one song, as I like almost all of them: “See You Soon”.
Chris: Aww, that song is so incredibly depressing.
Mama: Yeah – no. That’s…yes, of course, but then there’s this video for it and you’ve also combined it with classical music and the ensemble, so it’s really, really…There’s also this “Gothic Meets Klassik,” in Leipzig. And there’s also the recording of that. Google it, do it, listen to it.
Chris: I think, all our listeners/spectators know “See You Soon”.
Mama: They all know it, but for those who don’t know it yet… and there also has been … in Leipzig, when you performed it there with the orchestra, the audience… they… jumped up… so it was really… they were so enthusiastic…
Chris: After the performance, not during it.
*both laughing *
Mama: No, not during it.
Chris *jumps up and lifts his arms *: “See You Soon, YEAH!”
Mama: No, afterwards.
Chris: This one is quite nice as well. *reads*: “How many concerts of mine have you attended?” And you have to include performances with the school orchestra also. So, how many?
Mama: No…
Chris: 300-400 or 1000?
Mama: Something like that, yes.
Chris: So, how many concerts? Can we agree on 200?
Mama: But that’s too few. Okay, 200. Okay.
Chris *reads*: “Did you” – the question is for me – “did you get along well with your mum during puberty?”
Yes, too. I think, there’s not even one child who doesn’t clash with his or her parents during puberty, or vice versa. And of course in our home, too, doors were slammed shut, and I smashed things, because I was angry and yelled around. That’s what you do in puberty.
Mama: I don’t even remember that. I would have to take an effort to remember that.
Chris: But that was later.
Mama: There have been various … yeah, you were later.
Chris: There were … at about 18 or 19.
Mama: Yes.
Chris: That was still puberty for me. Some might be done with it by that age.
Mama: No, that’s true.
Chris: To me the difficult phase, when I became stressful and when we also argued, was when I was around 18, 19.
Mama: Yeah, I think so, too.
Chris: It was not that there was a fundamentally bad mood between us, never has been. But for a young person growing up, and when you are confronted with things that are difficult, parents are just not cool for a while then.
Mama: Yes.
Chris: And everything the parents say is just crap then. And no matter how good it is or how well it is meant, what the parents say – sometimes even, the better it is meant, the more shitty you perceive it. It’s the natural defense reaction; it has got to do something with cutting the cord and creating your own path.
Mama: Right.
Chris: Unfortunately, strangely for many kids, this always works with this “hurdle.” And we all know that. So, I don’t know anyone who doesn’t know that. So ‒ yes.
Mama: I think so, yes.
Chris: Yes, we got along well during puberty, but not always, of course I also...
Mama * laughs* Sometimes, not always.
Chris: – I also was stressful.
Chris: *reads* “Where does Chris have the musical side from? Are there other full-blooded musicians in the family?”
Mama: Yes, there are some on my mother’s side. But that was a long time ago, and they also weren’t entirely unknown, but they were abroad.
Chris: In Sweden or Norway.
Mama: In Sweden.
Chris: What was his name again?
Mama: Hans Biengang, he had an orchestra and...
Chris: Big band stuff, right?
Mama: Well, yes, originally, he came from classical music. Before that, he used to live in Potsdam, and then he got to know a Swedish woman and married her, moved there, and had an orchestra then.
Chris: Ah yes. *reads*: “What do you and your husband think about your son taking part in the national preliminary at the ESC?”
Mama: What we think about it? *shakes her hands * Tremble! I said: “Oh Christian, on the one hand, I’d actually love to be there, but on the other hand – no, please, not.” So, I don’t think I could stand it, because then I would keep my fingers crossed so hard for our boys – they are all “our boys” ‒ this one is mine, and the band, and the crew… They are all my boys, so we are always welcome there, and I know how they work really, really hard and that is…
Chris *laughs *: It’s so nice when you say: “They are all my boys” ‒ meanwhile in the Lord Of The Lost crew and band we have the term “mother of us all”.
Mama: I noticed that already, too… But I like “mum” more.
Chris: When my parents come backstage, we always say, “watch out, people, the mother of us all is here!”
Mama: Well really, here it is… I am not used to this. When we go to concerts, we enjoy that and are happy about it. And when we see THIS HERE now, when it’s “do or die,” woah, that’s something new, there I would have a little bit of…
Chris: Then we go to another question, which has been asked more frequently, so I’ll put it in general words: “How was it in the summer last year with Lord Of The Lost at the Iron Maiden show in Berlin?”
Mama: That was unique. So, first of all, we had never had so many people around us. We were very nicely taken care of by Nasa, the light tech, who took care of us, so that we wouldn’t get lost. *laughs *
Chris: She always dragged you along.
Mama: She always dragged us along, showed us our spot...
Chris: You were very close to her spot.
Mama: Yes.
Chris: In front of the lights and mixing desk.
Mama: Exactly. And that’s where we sat and meanwhile we are used to getting looked at by the other spectators, who usually are younger than we are, as one can think. Our generation...
Chris: How old are you now? In your late 50s, right?
Mama: Christian, then you’d be really sweet, too, this little! *shows how little Chris would be* – No, that’s something …we can cope with it, but there we all were… This stage, and then… and they do it there, and they do it so perfectly!
Chris: The interesting thing about the Iron Maiden show was, though, that the audience was extremely mixed concerning ages. Okay, there were only a few of your age.
Mama: Barely.
Chris: But still, you had…there were a lot above 60.
Mama: There were a lot of them.
Chris: There were a lot of them there; some also close to 70.
Mama: As that counts for Iron Maiden, too.
Chris: Exactly, but there were also teenagers. That’s the interesting thing about Iron Maiden, that they are a band, where the fans “regrow,” so it’s not like both the band and the fans are getting older, but you also have really young metal fans, who listen to Iron Maiden. That’s totally … like with Die Ärzte (German punk band), they also continuously gather new fans.
Mama: Of course, it’s the music as such that fits exactly.
Chris: I still find it interesting about Maiden, as they are a band who have not kept up with the times that much, the music has developed in different directions and Iron Maiden still sound very “classic,” the way they sounded back then. Of course, there were always different influences coming in, but it’s not like Iron Maiden have adapted to the musical development of the time. But they still have their very classic sound, and I find it really cool that this is still something that young people jump at, and I find that totally awesome, and I am happy about it.
Mama: Yes. Yes. And there’s hardly anyone who doesn’t know them.
Chris: Absolutely.
Mama: No matter how old they are, whether young or…
Chris: At least you know the name or the logo, once you’ve seen it. Maybe not everyone you’d ask in the street knows a song, but hardly anyone would say: “Who’s that?”
Mama: When I saw that logo for the first time, I thought: “Oh God, that’s what they look like?”
Chris: You mean their mascot, not the logo.
Mama: Well, no.
Chris: You mean that...
Mama: Exactly.
Chris: Yeah, well no. That’s Eddie, that’s their mascot.
Chris: *reads* “Can you remember a song that has been played on the radio on repeat back then, when you were young, like in the 60s or alike, or maybe when you were a child, in the 50s?” And a follow-up question to me: “Would you do a cover of your mother’s favorite song?” – I know one song…
Mama: “Are You Lonesome Tonight”
Chris: No, there was another one: “The Great Pretender”.
Mama: Oh, yeah.
Chris: By The Platters, I think. And I actually did…
Mama: Whoops, now I got goosebumps.
Chris: I actually did cover that one. *sings* “Oh, yes, I’m the Great Pretender”
Mama: Yes, yes. I was at the boarding school then, of course, I have got it here, too.
Chris: *keeps humming* … right. I have covered that 20 years ago or something, and gave it to you for a birthday gift.
Mama: Exactly. Now the penny has dropped.
Chris *looks at camera *: But no, you won’t get to hear that, it’ll stay here exclusively. Now I have a question, I actually don’t know that – I got from you – at home, or rather at the “Lost Place”, your vinyl singles collection, all of your vinyl singles… Can you remember which ones were the first ones? That you or both of you bought back then?
Mama: I would love to tell, but there also were some jazz records among these.
Chris: Yes, exactly. There’s jazz, but also a lot of Stones, Beatles...
Mama: Yes, exactly.
Chris: And other super weird 60s stuff, like “Popcorn”.
*both singing “Popcorn” *
Mama: Exactly. Yeah, we had these for our cellar bar. We had a cellar bar, and we played records there and friends of ours built some microphones and loudspeakers, and then… Yes, your dad and I got married at a very young age, and as young as we were, we kind of made up for our youth, which we didn’t really have beforehand.
Chris: And, very interestingly – you actually could have married later, but you married so early, so that you would even be allowed to move together.
Mama: That’s right.
Chris: As you were not of legal age yet, back then you were of age at 20.
Mama: At 21.
Chris: Oh, yeah, at 21 – and you were 20, when you got married; my father was 23.
Chris: But now listen, here – here: *reads*: “You can rightfully be proud of your son” – someone says here...
Mama: That’s sweet!
Chris: And now you’ve got the chance to shower me with compliments, as the question is: “Which quality do you value the most in Chris?” So, I’m listening.
Mama: That can be actually put in just one sentence: the openness, i.e. the openness, that we actually tell each other everything so far, what is, in a certain area, concerning us, possible and permitted. And above all, it never, never gets boring. It was like that from the beginning, he could not even walk yet, but it was never boring from the beginning.
Chris: Actually, I have never been bored myself.
Mama: Exactly.
Chris: I often get the question: “What do you do when you’re bored”? Then I always say...
Mama: “What’s that?”
Chris: “I don’t know.”
Mama: Me neither.
Chris: I don’t know boredom.
Chris: *reads* “Chris mentioned in a cooking live stream that he was in a kindergarten in Bavaria, in Munich? For how long have you been living in Bavaria, and if it was Munich, in which district?”
Mama: Ehm.
Chris: Sometimes a few numbers come up here. I think I still know the numbers… and the districts.
Mama: We were living in Munich-Gräfelfing. We had built a house there, too.
Chris: But the first house in Munich, wasn’t that in Lochham?
Mama: In Lochham we firstly…
Chris: That was very short.
Mama: That was very short, as we had to move quickly for professional reasons because of daddy. And while we were living there we were building a house, and actually while we would still be there, but unfortunately he got transferred again. Whatever.
Chris: But it was from – we moved to Munich – that was from 1983-1987/88.
Mama: You were in second or first grade when we…
Chris: I started school in 1986. So I was in second grade in 1987.
Mama: 1987, exactly. And you had not been three years old yet, you had not been going to kindergarten yet.
Chris: Exactly. This means, we moved about 1982/83. So my first real memories are all from Munich, actually.
Mama: Yeah, and also great friends, some of which you still have as friends.
Chris: Yes, of course! I actually have my “oldest” friend, Johannes...
Mama: Johannes
Chris: He had always wanted to become a pilot, so he became a pilot.
Mama: Yeah.
Chris: Tillmann, he is the artistic director of the state opera in Hamburg.
Mama: Yes, right
Chris: Without Tillmann the cover artwork for Swan Songs II (Chris said “III” by mistake) wouldn’t exist, because that was our “door” to the state opera, as we took the photos there.
Mama: Oh, there, yeah right, yes, yes. I would have liked to see them again, too.
Chris: And these are the most direct contacts I still have, actually. And they are…wow, awesome, I know… I started kindergarten when I was 3 years old, I…
Mama: I am still in touch with the mothers.
Chris: Yeah, but I went to kindergarten when I was 3 years old, so I can actually say that I have had some particular friends for 40 years already.
Mama: Yeah.
Chris: Woah. I suddenly feel incredibly old.
Mama: Now what should I say then? Do we want…?
Chris: You are in your late 50s, relax!
Mama: You know that…No let’s leave it out here.
Chris: You will be 80 this year.
Mama: Yes! *shows thin hair*
Chris: You don’t see that! Just look at you! 80!
Mama: Yes. Everyone thinks I’ve dyed my hair. I haven’t.
Chris: Just look into the mirror and…
Mama: If I look into the mirror without my glasses on…
Chris: Everything looks better! That’s the same with me.
Mama: Exactly. I always think: “No, I really don’t look that old!” And then I put these glasses on – and they are even new and better fitted – and then I go: “Huh!”
Chris: Don’t put them on then.
Mama: While looking into the mirror. *laughs*
Chris: Exactly.
Chris: *reads* “Do you remember, what Chris’ first attempts at singing were at home, and did he practice his screams back then?”
Mama: No, I really can’t remember that.
Chris: Woah, I’m glad you can’t remember that.
Mama: I also don’t remember screams. Did you go to the basement to…?
Chris: NO! When we were living in the first house in Hamburg, I loudly … with my Gibson Les Paul guitar and with that fat Marshall amp…
Mama: Ah, yes, yes, yes, yes!
Chris: But I’m glad you repressed that, that I screamed around that much. But maybe I did that on purpose, when you were not there.
Mama: I can imagine that well. I did that, too, when I was singing – I used to sing in the choir, so when I practiced, I always checked whether I was at home alone, if possible.
Chris: *reads* “What feelings did you have when you first listened to ‘One Last Song,’ which Chris describes as the most personal of his songs?”
Mama: And again, it happens to me with this question – I kind of hear it in my head – tears come to my eyes, and it happens again every time.
Chris: Here is a question for me, and the question is, if I consult my mother concerning my stage personality and if I get advice from her. – Well, not per se, I don’t think I’ve ever directly asked you for an idea about what I should look like, but that happens subconsciously, as from the 60s to the early 80s my mother worked as a full-time model, and because of all those photos and the dealing with style and make-up… It was already interesting for me as a child, to look at these things. So when I showed up with some stage outfits, we did actually talk about them sometimes. It actually happened automatically that we tried things out together: “Try this,” or “Do it like this,” “This shorter or longer” or so. You also “bequeathed” some pretty good genes to me, which is very nice as well, so thank you for that also. *Mama laughs* Well done.
Chris: *reads*: “Is there a quality that annoys you in Chris, for which you’d want to send him to ‘the silent staircase’”?
Mama: *bursts out laughing* Now what’s that?
Chris: Don’t you know “the silent staircase”?
Mama: No?
Chris: There you see it, sensible upbringing, my mother doesn’t know what “the silent staircase” is.
Mama: What is that?
Chris: It’s what … when children in school had to stand in the corner, or go to sit on the stairs and shut up, for half an hour or so.
Mama: Ah, I see.
Chris: Is there something that annoys you, for which you want to send me to “the silent staircase”?
Mama: No, I think, if I for whatever reason would be annoyed, if you... *“dances” while sitting* You were always in motion, then maybe sometimes it was, that I didn’t feel…
Chris: I think, they mean NOW. Is there a quality NOW that makes you want to send me to “the silent staircase”?
Mama: NOW? NO.
Chris: I’m totally curious. I would even go to “the silent staircase” for a little bit now.
Mama: No. No. No.
Chris: Ah, okay. That’s interesting, too. Here …this question has been coming up often, so I put it generally. Many e-mails have come in ‒ mainly from girls and women ‒ who say that they were very impressed by your career as a model, and they often ask, among other things, how it came about. And also your engagement with feminism, in these times. How were you treated as models? Was it as chauvinistic as one imagines it now? Or what was it like? Did you also have negative experiences? I try to summarize it all.
Mama: Yes, I see.
Chris: It’s a bit like: tell a silly story about your time as a model. Maybe in particular the not-so-nice things. Because certainly not all of it was a bed of roses, right?
Mama: I could choose. You got inquiries, and I always inquired precisely what it was about; where it took place; who did it. Then I roughly knew about it. And I simply did not accept what I did not like.
Chris: But did you also have any unpleasant experiences with some photographers who somehow started to grope you?
Mama: I had a colleague – no, I don’t say the name of course ‒ I knew someone who took a lot of advertisement photos and was very successful. They are also among those you can see here. We also had a lot of fun and he was really nice. And then I asked him if he could take some photos for me. He had given me many for free before, and I needed new ones, and he agreed. Now I almost mentioned where it is, but I won’t tell you, where it is and what his name is. “Can you come here?” So I went there. Then he said to my face, “I’d be happy to do that for you, Marion, but you can also do me a favor in return,” and I thought, “What’s going to happen now?” “I’d like topless pictures of you.” And that was not... I had not even had my pictures taken in underwear, which was an agreement I had, after all I was already married to daddy, and... No, I didn’t want that. These were my limits; I do like this, and I do not like that. “I am happy to take your pictures, but I’d like to get some nude pictures of you. That can’t be a problem ‒ we know each other quite well already, right?”
Chris: You should have said: “Then I’d like some nude pictures of you as well!”
Mama: No, no, I was horrified. I got there. I was totally disappointed. I was wondering… I really needed new material… I was totally disappointed. He was suddenly totally different. I couldn’t really… At first, I thought it was a bad joke or something, and then he said: “No, I’m serious. I’m happy to do it. I take my time for you – but that’s what I’d want from you.” I said I wouldn’t do that, so he said: “Then you can leave.”
Chris: So you left and as one can see there have been others who took the photos.
Mama: I went out. I stood there in the hallway, tears running down my face, and I thought…and I did nothing… He also never contacted me again, and I didn’t work there anymore, either.
Chris: That’s intense, right?
Mama: That’s my really nasty, really lousy experience.
Chris: Is there an advertisement job, that you remember very well right now ‒ as that was also a part of the question ‒ something that was particularly funny, particularly beautiful, particularly entertaining, a photo session, a commercial for TV or whatever? Are there a few things, where you say: “That’s particularly interesting?”
Mama: What I find very interesting is that you now do film recordings in the same studio ‒ it only has a different name now, Marken Film, in Wedel.
Chris: Yeah, it’s called Woodland Studios now. There we filmed the videos for “The Gospel of Judas,” “Schwarz-Tot-Gold,” “Blood and Glitter”.
Mama: Exactly. I immediately could locate the address. We were allowed to watch. Yes, what I remember is that I kinda “slipped in there,” it was more or less by accident, cameras and photography have always interested me, but from behind the camera. And a friend of…
Chris: *points behind the camera* You are welcome to go behind the camera.
Mama: *laughs* One of daddy’s friends had studied German language and literature and sold advertising slogans and alike. And I also wanted to do something like that. And I asked him where to go to, and he said: “Just come to the studio.” And I thought we were talking about behind the camera, but they misunderstood that and said: “Marion, go stand behind the TV. Take a glass of water, no – a glass of champagne, and laugh like *imitates fake laughter *… If you’ve never done that before; it’s not that easy.” And I thought: “Now what’s that about?” And then they took pictures and I got 80 Mark (outdated German currency) for it. And I thought: “Now that’s awesome!” And then they contacted me again, and they wanted me again, for Blaupunkt (German TV, radio etc. brand). Then I went to the hairdresser’s before that to have my long hair cut short. “One always has to look neat,” as my mother always said, totally weird, and I didn’t know anything about make-up. I had no idea about how it was done. I didn’t have any at all, and so I was there in a changing room, where there was an actual model already, and she “painted” herself and what not, and she had scattered powder on the floor. And when she left the room and said, “Hey, see you again later!” – After she had left, I bowed down and put some of that powder from the floor on my face. *Chris laughs* That was my start. And then they came more frequently and said that I also needed to apply somewhere else and there were more photographers. I told that daddy, and he said: “That’s out of the question. You are there now, you stay there! You can’t just switch from one to the other.”
Chris: Because he compared the job structure of a freelancing model with his permanent employment.
Mama: Exactly. And it was a totally loose thing, I was never fighting for it – except for behind the camera.
Chris: But you had been doing this for a really long time.
Chris: Here is a question for me among them, I will gladly answer that one quickly. *reads*: “Did you get singing lessons in the past few years? I have noticed that especially when singing live your voice now sounds much more multifaceted, more melodic, and also more secure compared to how it used to be.” – No, I actually did not, but it’s simply the lots of practice over the years.
Mama: I think so, too.
Chris: I did not spend my whole childhood with learning how to sing. I played the cello, then some other instruments came along. So, as a teenager I was really, really good at playing the cello, I can say that with confidence, but not as a singer. My first attempts at singing sounded rather meager, and if I listen to very early recordings now, I find them partly really horrible. No, I didn’t get singing lessons, but I actually have… It’s a bit like passive smoking, I am quasi a passive singing student. Because if I work with vocalists in the studio, they sometimes have vocal coaches with them, who tell them how to do things. Or the singers, if they don’t have them with them, explain to me how they do things. So, because of my business as a music producer I have caught so much technical stuff, warm-up exercises, breathing techniques, so that I, like a passive smoker, quasi incidentally, had a bit of a vocal coaching.
Chris: *reads*: “We all enjoy getting back home, and we love that particular things in mommy’s place taste, smell, and feel differently. What has to be there always when Chris comes to mommy’s place, or rather what has Mama always ready anyway without being asked for?” - I think, as soon as I arrive here – wait, I’ll show you this – *gets up*
Mama: *laughs* Yeah.
Chris: I don’t need to ask for it – when I arrive here...
Mama: *points at tea labels * Can you remove the thingies here?
Chris: Right, if someone sees that – what shall the neighbors think? *blows at the tea labels and pours tea into mug next to microphone* I go for a better sound here.
Mama: Yeah.
Chris: So what’s always standing here already when I arrive, is a little pot of fennel tea. There you can see, how incredibly “rock’n’roll” I am, here’s my fennel tea.
Mama: Cheers!
Chris: Totally important - cheers.
Mama: Me with water.
Chris: It has got to be fennel tea without anise and without caraway, really fennel tea only, as without anise and caraway this licorice-taste, which I find incredibly disgusting. It has this sweet aftertaste, which I find really disgusting, so – pure fennel tea.
Chris: This question is very good. *reads*: “Is there a particular music video of ours, that you particularly like or find interesting?”
Mama: A particular music video…
Chris: It has to be something other than “See You Soon” now, as we have talked about that already.
Mama: Yes.
Chris: Or that you find especially horrible.
Mama: There are none I find horrible, that’s why I also can’t think of any ones I particularly like. I like so many of them.
Chris: Maybe I inherited that from you then, I also have hard times with that kind of question “What is your favorite…?”
Mama: I cannot do this, no.
Chris: *shrugs shoulders at camera * Now you see where that’s coming from! So let’s just forget about this question and go on to the next one.
Chris: *reads* “Have you been allowed to touch the #1-award also, or did Papa Harms watch over it, until Chris came back from his holidays?” – It really has been delivered here. The problem was, all of us were somewhere else...
Mama: Yeah
Chris: And the GFC, who “collect” the charts, needed an address to deliver it to.
Mama: Exactly.
Chris: In the studio it can happen that no-one is there, and with my parents, who are of retirement age by now, the chances that they are at home are slightly better than with other options, so we had delivered it here – So, YOU received the #1 award. Have you been allowed to touch it?
Mama: Yes. You allowed it. But – normally, you think: “Wow, that’s awesome. I’ll put it on display until Chris comes.” I didn’t do that, though. The fear that it may fall down, someone may bump into it or something may fall on it… No, we looked at it, I took the photo of daddy with it – and then daddy said: “Put it on the window sill, that looks nicely!” So I said: “No…”
Chris: What if a burglar comes!
Mama: No, but whatever could happen! It got back into the box nicely, and then I can put the box there. That’s where it waited for you. The box with its content.
Chris *reads*: “Do you sometimes look for your son’s band on the internet?”
Mama: On the internet?
Chris: On Facebook, for example.
Mama: Yes, of course! I’m sorry.
Chris: Or on YouTube. Yes, these are also generally part of the internet.
Mama: Yes, yes, of course.
Chris: My mother even has Instagram ‒ as an almost 80-years-old.
Mama: Yes, I do look, of course. Automatically, we look there. I see almost everything.
Chris: But in fact my parents don’t really need Facebook, and the internet actually, because I still - even as a 43-year-old “old man,” as a 43-years-old musician–
Mama: “Old”
Chris: Whenever I am somewhere, on tour, or shooting videos, or in photo sessions, or in the studio, I constantly tell them what we’re doing, where we’re going. I send pictures...
Mama: Exactly.
Chris: I send videos...
Mama: I am very, very glad about that. What I find special is that as soon as the band is on the road with the tour bus, and they are headed for a destination…and I had said: “You do not necessarily have to call me when you will have arrived. You don’t have to do anything big, but just send me ‘there’ via WhatsApp.”
Chris: A few words saying: “I am there.”
Mama: It’s reassuring, all kinds of things could happen while you’re on your way. Or…
Chris: Particularly funny about it is – if I forget that, or if I forget to tell you that we’re going somewhere in the first place – my parents have a calendar here, where there are all dates put in, an actual “touchable” calendar, that is hanging in the kitchen…
Mama: Exactly, where you literally write.
Chris: Sometimes they don’t even know that I’m going to – I dunno – Bulgaria or something, then they suddenly get the message: “There.” And then they ask: “Where?” and “Why?” – “I am in Bulgaria.” “Oh, really?” So you see, we still communicate, not just here in this very moment, but also in general. And we’ll end this here now. Thank you very much for your questions. There have been hundreds of questions; we naturally could not answer all of them. Hopefully it was still sufficient for you. If you still have questions, write them in the comments, perhaps I can still submit a few things in writing for you, I’d gladly do that. We’ve seen each other for the last time...
Mama: Exactly.
Chris: Before I go to Cologne for the ESC preliminaries.
Mama: Yeah.
Chris: *lifts mug* I’ll drink my fennel tea now.
Mama: Bye bye. All’s fine.
Translation: Margit Güttersberger
Proofreading: Katharina Hagen