Move over Jonas Brothers, the Kaulitz twins are moving in.
The 18-year-old Kaulitz brothers comprise half of Tokio Hotel, a German glam-pop quartet that is creating Beatles-like hysteria among the teen set in their native land. They’ve sold close to 3 million CDs and DVDs in Germany, and are hoping to replicate that rabid fan base in the United States.
For Tokio Hotel, the visual is as vital as the vocals and is propelled by lead singer Bill Kaulitz’s anime look: straightened, teased black hair; heavy eye makeup that accentuates his delicate, androgynous, doll-like features; chain necklaces and vintage rock ’n’ roll T-shirts. He’s so thin he appears almost one-dimensional on stage, adding to the cartoonlike appeal. Tom Kaulitz, the older brother by 10 minutes, developed his hip-hop/ dreads look when he was 7 or 8, in part as a way to differentiate himself from his identical twin.
The Kaulitz brothers began playing guitar when they were 7 - the instruments were gifts from their musician stepfather. By the time they were in their mid-teens, they were playing in clubs.
Their mother’s backing was not only desired, but vital: “We needed the support of our parents because we had no car, no money,” Bill Kaulitz said.
Mom has long since stopped driving the band to gigs; they have people who do that for them now as they have accumulated a team during their meteoric rise. The group’s first single, “Through the Monsoon,” went to No. 1 in Germany in 2005, a pair of No. 1 albums and sold-out European tours followed.
After witnessing the spectacle at the band’s February appearance at New York’s Gramercy Theatre, Amy Doyle, MTV’s senior VP of music and talent, became a convert. “I could not believe the line outside of screaming teen girls,” she said. “It reminded me of the audience of the late ’90s and 2000 for Backstreet Boys and ’N Sync.”
But the band has a long way to go before they reach Backstreet- or ’N Sync-like sales - since the group’s CD was released in April, it has sold approximately 23,000 copies.
“It’s so cool that we have fans already here. But we are at the beginning,” said Bill Kaulitz. “We really want to be successful in America, we really want to try it. There are not so many German bands who get the chance to come to America to play.”
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