Biografie: Fotos (English)
23.01.2008
“Nach dem Goldrausch”
Release date: 28.03.2008
What makes several, and we do mean several thousand people, brave the pouring rain of a wet festival afternoon, despite the days first dose of alcohol not yet having kicked in, but the yesterdays hangover still hanging around like an unwelcome guest, go a watch a band?
It had nothing to do with rock-star posturing, nothing to do with a bombastic stage set-up, nothing to do with a worldwide household name. The above scenario happened at the Hurricane Festival in 2007. In front of the stage that Hamburg’s Fotos were standing on!
And not just at the Hurricane Festival – at more than 100 shows across Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Holland, France and even England (although no one there even understands a word of the lyrics) Fotos have been turning heads, in some cities even two or three nights in a row, as in many places people just couldn’t get enough of their songs.
True: Fotos are not yet rock-stars, they havent really worked out how to do all the posturing and posing. And anyway, their music is much too honest for all that. With their debut album “Fotos”, Tom Heßler (vox/guitar), Frieder Weiss (bass), Deniz Erarslan (guitar) and Benedikt Schnermann (drums) have set themselves a tough standard to beat. Now, the second album hits the shops on March 28th under the name “Nach dem Goldrausch” (meaning: “After the Goldrush”)
What do you say?
“Nach dem Goldrausch” reminds you somehow of… come on, spit it out! The new record sounds so different to the last album., is that what you wanted to say? Such a virtually complete change of style is supposed to be “honest”? Two years ago the debut album sounded like a British post-punk band and now this?
Exactly. To be frank, what is more honest than discovering that that was all history, the past. That between then and now lie two years that have clearly left their mark. That have changed things. The aim was to write an unpretentious, an “unmanly” album. And if you listen closely, maybe you’ll discover that “Nach dem Goldrausch”isn’t all that different after all. But maybe that it is actually a typical (if after 2 albums one can use the word) Fotos album.
As before, Fotos write and sing about personal things. It’s that simple. And for a change we dare to suggest the word SINCERITY. When Tom sings on single “Nach dem Goldrausch” “Ich bin ein Thomas und kein Thomas Mann” (I’m just a Thomas, not Thomas Mann", he does it with absolutely no intention of pricking up the ears of culture section readers or turning the band Fotos in bohemian hipsters. Just as the four-piece would find it equally as wrong to become a German-language band playing slapstick punk to beered-up village fairs and uni parties. Thankfully, the many people who’ve heard Fotos and come to see them in concert have categorised the band more as credible, honest. But not pigeonholed. At the end of the day, it’s all pop.
Here we have a German guitar band, that has no fear of frugging away to French house and R’n'B beats, the Neptunes or all that Timbaland stuff. In an age where less and less records are sold, and in which the genre you belong to becomes more important than ever before, in which the music industry is imploding with a whimper rather than a bang, you can hardly ask for more sincerity, more honesty.
What Fotos have conjured up since last summers festivals, holed up in a house-cum-studio with co-producer Berend Intelmann, you now hold in your hands.
Any questions?
If so, why not talk to the band yourself?
HIER NOCH DIE PROMOKONTAKTE REIN
Fotos live:
Presented by WOM Journal, VISIONS
28.03.08 (Fr) Lüneburg, Asta-Wohnzimmer
29.03.08 (Sa) Neubrandenburg, Zebra Club
02.04.08 (Mi) Berlin, Postbahnhof
03.04.08 (Do) Hamburg, Übel & Gefährlich
04.04.08 (Fr) Köln, Gebäude 9
05.04.08 (Sa) Münster, Gleis 22
09.04.08 (Mi) Dresden, Beatpol
10.04.08 (Do) Erlangen, E-Werk
11.04.08 (Fr) Augsburg, Ostwerk
12.04.08 (Sa) Bruneck (ITA), Ufo
14.04.08 (Mo) Wien, Flex
15.04.08 (Di) München, 59 to 1
16.04.08 (Mi) Innsbruck, Weekender Club
17.04.08 (Do) Stuttgart, Schocken
18.04.08 (Fr) Frankfurt, Cookys
19.04.08 (Sa) Hannover, Cafe Glocksee
25.04.08 (Fr) Rostock, MAU Club
26.04.08 (Sa) Bremen, Tower
10.05.08 (Sa) Linz, Linz Fest (FM4)
11.05.08 (So) Passau, Pfingst Openair
24.05.08 (Sa) Dardesheim (Sachsen), Rock im Mai
30.05.08 (Fr) Neustrelitz, Immergut Festival
22.08.08 (Fr) Elend, Rocken am Brocken
Ticket sales GERMANY www.kartenhaus.de
Ticket sales AUSTRIA www.musicticket.at
www.fotosmusik.de
www.myspace.com/fotosmusik
www.emimusic.de
