HOLLYWOOD TEASZE is incontestably the most famous glam band from Germany. They played many shows in their country, but also in Italy, Australia… and have many recordings (demo tapes, compilation cds, 2 cds, etc.) I wanted to know more about them, so I sent a few questions, and Chris (bass & vocals) answered.

So, how was the Australian tour ?
Well, on one hand it really sucked as the promoter brought us over to Australia for 2 1/2 weeks and finally we just played 4 shows. But those shows were so shitty promoted that he couldn’t pay our promised flights and so on. But apart from this we really had a great time. We met loads of cool people and bands we played with. We also hooked up with a cool promotion company which will bring us over again in March this year (tourdates can be found on our website.

Have you noticed a difference between the Australian and European  audiences ?
Basically life on the road is pretty much the same but the people in Australia are so laid back that we’ve been really shocked some time. E.g. at one show we were supposed to play at 10 pm and waited ’till a quarter to ten ’till the backline arrived. We’ve been totally freakin’ out but everybody told us to rely and not to worry.

You describe yourselves as glamour punx, so what are your favourite punk bands ?
Sex Pistols, Ramones, NOFX, Damned, etc.

In Germany, the punk rock/hardcore scene is quite developed, do you feel  close to this scene ?
Have you already played in some squats ?
Definitely, So far we received loads of great reviews in all the german major punkzines and also the crowd we draw in Germany is mainly into punkrock. In Germany we haven’t played in many squats so far but as we’re touring Italy quite a lot we’ve seen loads of squats there.

More generally, do you like any German bands ?
Well there’s many bands we all like a lot but also tonz of bands we can’t stand or just don’t care about.

What do you think about the glam/sleaze scene nowadays ?
Hmm, guess there is not a big scene anymore, as far as we know. When we’re touring Italy we often play together with local glam/sleazse bands which are very good (e.g. Basted or Crackhouse). Talking about glam and sleasze in Germany i think the scene is pretty much dead. Basically we do what we do and don’T care too much about what’s goin’ on in what scene.

Do you live off music ?
Would you be ready to make big compromises in order to become more famous, or would you prefer to keep a kind of punk integrity ? Right now no one of us has regular day job anymore as the band takes too much time with touring and stuff. Unfortunately it is still impossible to live off the music right now but we’re really looking forward to get somewhere somehow. Talking about compromises. Guess it depends on what compromises. We definitely won’t change our style just to make some major company happy, but if we had a producer who would like to ad some weird keyboards or loops for example we’d do it as we like to expand or style. MAybe on our next record we’ll have some of that anyway. Let’s wait and see.

What are your projects ?
In January we’re on tour with Kevin K from New York. guess this will be really cool as two members of Detroits Trash Brats are playing in his band. We’ve been touring with the Trash Brats across Germany 2 years ago and had a killer time so we’re all looking forward to this tour. In February we’ll be playing some more gigs in Germany and also write some new songs as we have some offers to do split 7′ with various bands in Germany and Italy. In March we’ll be touring Australia again and so far it seems to be really a cool tour. As right now we get loads of airplay on various german radio stations and also some kindo of major label interest we’ll write new songs and see who will release our 3rd record.

Anything else to add ?
Thanx a lot for the exposure in this zine. If you can’t get our albums in a record store near you check out various I-net mailorder or our website for further information about Hollywood Teasze. You can also download some mp3files at http://www.mp3.com/teasze         C-ya