Tokio Hotel Family: Gustav interview (it's an old one)?

I'm bored (once again) & going through random interviews & this one made me sad & it made me smile :D

Gustav Schäfer: "I've made the right choices".

Behind the sometimes sulky face of Gustav hides a captivating and sympathetic personality. Together with the others bandmembers the young drummer enjoys the sweetness of success, a success build around his passion for music and friendship.

Is the success of Tokio Hotel the best reward?

Yes I'm so happy to see how our efforts have resulted in this. Drums came into my life when I was 5 years old and I've put all my energy on it. When all the other kids were outside I sat inside alone in my room and practised on the drums for hours. I'm born to do it. The day I ran into Bill and Tom practising in a shed in Magdeburg 7 years ago, it felt like I had a epiphany. I knew that day that my destiny would be to play with them. And i wasn't wrong.

Doesn't the huge success sometimes make your head spin?

I play because of the passion for music and not for the limelight. The cheering and applauds from the audience makes me happy but as soon as the concert is over, my head is completely clear again. To play a concert or in a TV-studio demands big concentration. If I'm not serious or disciplined I loose focus and can't play correctly.

Are the other bandmembers as strict as you?

We all have different personalities, but we all share the same ambition and determination for what we do. From our first

tentative steps on a stage we knew how hard we had to work to succeed. None of us is lazy when it comes to this, we all work as hard as we can to be as good as possible.

People say you're a perfectionist?

For me everything has to be planned ahead and organized. I leave nothing to improvisation, not even tiny details. For example, I place my chair and drums exactly on the centimeter where they are supposed to be on stage, always at the same place. If then someone moves them, even a tiny millimeter, I get superpissed. Except my assistant no one is allowed to go near my drums.

Not even Bill?

Not even. He has already faced my wrath, so he doesn't dare to sit on my chair anymore. When you're in a band you have to follow some unspoken rules and respect the others freedom and space. If not there will be conflicts and tensions.....

Does the band have crises?

It happens but it's very rare. I'm easily irritated so I get angry very quickly. I scream and get superpissed and leave the room for awhile. When I come back I'm calm again and all is forgotten.

When did it happen last?

A few hours before a gig. I was testing some rhythms that had to come in a quickly after one another. The exercise was pretty hard and I was tensed and wanted it to be done. Then in comes Georg, Tom and Bill and shouts "That doesn't sound very good". I roared up and got immidietly superpissed.

Have you ever toyed with the idea to give it all up?

To quit Tokio Hotel would be extremely unprofessional and would be more then anything a unforgivable mistake. That we sometimes argue and are in a bad mood never affects the band in itself or how it develops. That's a basic principle. That's why if I get pissed I disappear before the show to calm down.

Would you prefer to be more cheerful?

I am by nature a discreet person. That's why I prefer to be in the background. Unlike Bill I can't live with everybody's looking at me all the time, it's not my thing. Even if I appreciate the short moments of attention in the limelight, like at the end of every concert when Bill and the others left the stage I go and touch the audiences hands and take a bow. That little ritual gives me great satisfaction.

Do you suffer from bad self esteem?

I have, I have to confess, hard to meet a lot of people, not because I'm scared or embarrassed. Let's just say that I'm introvert. That quality my family and friends usually "bully" me for and call me repressed and sulky.

Are you a sulky person with a bad temper?

I have to say yes, I'm pretty grouchy, even sulky. One wrong word, an ironic remark, and I'm sulking. I know that it's a character flaw, that's always a good beginning. Now I have to correct that and that's a heavy task!(Laughs)

Were you alone a lot when you were younger?

I suffered from so many complex that I became antisocial as a kid and always held a distance to other kids.

What were your reasons to feel so bad?

Life hasn't always been kind to me, especially when I was a teenager (Laughs). To begin with, I have always been pretty small. When I was in the 9th grade I was only about 1.19 meter (Mollie: 3.9 ft) (grimace) and I had also incredibly bad skin. When school was over for the day I ran home and locked myself into my room and prayed to God I wouldn't meet anyone I knew. In the end I was so ashamed that my complex forced me to isolate myself and become alone and that didn't help me to get over my problems with shyness.

How did you get over your complex?