[Interview by Stefan Stardumb for No Budget Creations Magazine - June 2001]

NBC: Please introduce yourself and tell me what you do in the band?

ToMo01: My Name is ToMo01 and I do the drum-job and some backing vocals. I'm in the band for about 4 years now. Then there is Eric J. President, who does the lead vocals and guitar, Frankie Disco who plays bass guitar and Peter Doll who plays 2nd guitar. Only Eric is left from the original line up, in this combination we play together since November 1997.

Yeah, the band has been around for quite some time now. Do you know anything about the start?

As I am not a member of the first days I can't tell you much about this period. The Sonic Dolls started in 1994 with some local shows. After some months the first singles and the first lp 'Boys' Night Out' were released on Radioblast Records. People got interested in the band - not only in europe but also in the US. The Sonic Dolls have been to the US twice. During the first years the line-up changed pretty often. There were too many musicians to mention all of them. In 1997 we recorded the 2nd lp 'Real Takes On Body Fakes' on Radioblast Records. Peter already played guitar here, but Frankie and me were not in the band at this point. Some months after the recordings we joined, while Christian, the former drummer and guitar player left the band to give all his power to the Jet Bumpers, where he played guitar, too. As a band now, we started touring regularly and wrote songs for the 3rd lp 'Bionik' which came out in early 2000. So there have been a whole lot of line-up changes over the years.

Do you think this is still the same band as back in the days?

Well, I can't tell you, actually. But I can imagine that it's different now. Right now the Sonic Dolls are something special for all of us. While the line-up changed that often in the past, we cannot imagine to run the band if one of us would leave now. It's like a girlfriend you're in love with. You don't wanna lose the band and you can't live without it. I spent a lot of power, work and time on the Sonic Dolls and this band is not only a band. It's more like a family of 4 very good friends and a lot of other friends we made over the past years. It's a very huge part of all our lifes.

You recorded 3 full lengths, a live LP and a whole lot of singles so far. Which record is it that you guys are most proud of and why?

Hmm, I think it's 'Bionik' for all of us. We had a great time in the studio in the Netherlands where we stayed for about 10 days. Joe Klank, our producer, did a great job and Mass Giorgini did the mix and master in the US, and that's also fantasic. Although the songs are somehow different than on the first records they are part of the best we ever did. We really love everything about this record; the cover, the sound, the lyrics, really everything.

You just mentioned the record is mixed and mastered at the infamous Sonic Iguana Studio. By producer Mass Giorgini (Screeching Weasel, The Queers, Groovie Ghoulies, etc.), right? How was that?

Unfortunaltely, I can't tell you cause I haven't been to Sonic Iguana. It was Eric who was there to do the mix and master for 'Bionik'. It must have been a great experience, I think. I met Mass for only 2 times when we played together with one of his bands Squirtgun, and I must say, that he's absolutely great.

Punk rock is sometimes described as kids music, but some of you guys are already 30-something... What's your opinion about that? Do you feel you are growing apart from your audience or don't you see any problems at all?

I do not think we are growing apart from the scene, so there are no problems at all. It's more like the audience is getting older, too. Unfortunaltely there are not many enthusiastic kids doing things as you do in NL. I do not know how long we will run this band, but at the moment the age is not a reason for giving up.

Tell me about some other German bands. Which ones are really good in your opinion?

That a difficult question, one of my favourite German bands ever are Die Aerzte. Their humor will never been reached by another band. Then there are the Donots, they are good friends, and one of the most ass kicking live bands of the past. Although they are very popular here, they are very cool. Other still existing good punkbands are Steakknife, Boxhamsters, ea 80.

What do you think about the European pop punk scene at this moment? Do you think it's growing and/or doing well? And what are the changes you've seen over the years?

As far as I can see it, the European pop-punk scene is growing enormous, and I love to see that. There are so many good bands from many countries and as many releases as never before. I think of The Apers from Holland, The Yum Yums from Sweden or the great Italian bands like The Manges or the Retarded. In Germany there is a certain stagnation. There are the bands like the Backwood Creatures or the Dirtshakes, but nothing changed since many years. At concerts you always see the same faces getting older, but there are no kids, keeping that spirit alive in the future.

The kids in Europe have always been really USA-minded when it comes to music. Do you think because of that it's harder for European bands to release records, get shows and stick around in general?

Yes, that true. For a European band it is very hard to get all this. Many venues have closed in the past years in Germany, you do not have the possibilities for live shows as you had ten years ago. You have to work harder than ever, but it's still possible to make records and play live. From my point of view the money thing is an important fact. Labels like Lookout or whatever have the money to make bands popular, also in Europe. Often people go to the shows because they have read the name of an american band in a fanzine-advertisement. I don't know why, and I have no idea how this could change.

You are coming to The Netherlands in June to do 4 shows with The Apers. What can people expect from you?

People can expect to have a great night and to get a kick in the ass. We will play old songs and new songs as well and we are very excited to come back to the Netherlands again. We've been there twice and it's always been wonderful.

On www.sonicdolls.de I saw you have all songs you ever recorded online as free downloadable mp3's. That's 79 songs! It's pretty amazing you guys do this. What made you decide to give all your music away for free?

The reason for this is very simple. We released 3 studio LP's and many 7"s but everything on vinyl. We prefer vinyl, but there's a lot of kids, that have not grown up with records but with CD's. We want to offer our music to everybody. As we do not have the money to press CD's of the records, we decided to give everything away for free on our homepage. Another important reason is, that we have a fast server which is totally free for us. Otherwise we could not afford this. And: those people that have record players usually buy the vinyl in any case sooner or later. Most of those songs are still available on LP or 7" and some of them have yet to be released.

What do the labels who released those records about that?

Actually, we do not care about what the labels say. Most of the older records, like the first LP, have already been sold out. The Sonic Dolls are no commercial band, and labels will not become rich by releasing our records. So, I think nobody really has a problem with this. If you want to get a record then you will buy it, if not you will record a tape or whatever. And people seem to enjoy downloading Sonic Dolls songs from the website. Last month there was a little article in the German 'Visions' magazine and within 1 week more than 2400 songs have been downloaded from our site. Free mp3s are a brilliant way to to get people's attention and and that's cool.

Your last 7" was released on All Star Manufacturing. That's a new label you run yourself together with your good friend Hugo, right? What are the plans with the label?

Yeah, that's true. 'Seeing Double' is already the 2nd release of this label. Hugo is a very good friend of the band for many years now. As often as possible he joins us on tour, there's hardly any Sonic Dolls show without Hugo around. When we come to the Netherlands in June Hugo will come with us again, that's for sure. About the label; we were selling records of various bands on our own concerts and on others as well and we could safe some money over the years. After recording the 'Live at the Puked' thing we had nearly enough to release the record on our own. With labels it's nearly always the same. Often they just release your record and that's it. No promotional work and no support. You are just one band among many others. At the moment ASM only cares about the Sonic Dolls, which does not mean that this could not change in the future... we thought about releasing our latest studio LP 'Bionik' on CD in a very limited edition, but that's just an idea and another expensive thing. And I also can imagine that there might be releases of other bands, which have to be close friends of course.

What's up with the Sonic Dolls in the future? Anything new coming up?

We are working on some new tracks, about 8 or 10 are already finished. There will be some songs on various compilations this summer, like 'Dance with me tonight', which is an unreleased track, on the Stardumb Records compilation CD. There are also tracks on the Suckerpunch Records Sampler or on the Las Pezia Punkrock Compilation and there will also be some German compilations. And as I already mentioned, maybe 'Bionik' will be out on CD. We would like to do a bigger tour, but it's always difficult to find the time. Each one of us is very busy doing a job or going to the university. But we won't give up, maybe that works at the end of the year.

Any last words for the Dutch people?

We would like to thank everybody who supports the Sonic Dolls. Please come to our shows and let's have a great party. Fell free to e-mail us at band@sonicdolls.de and visit our website to download mp3s. Have fun - thanks.

Thank you!

Listen to The Sonic Dolls (song taken from The European Poppunk Virus Compilation CD):
The Sonic Dolls - Dance With Me Tonight (1.7 MB)