CASPER: I can switch from amazingly happy to totally angry within three seconds.
Are there any things that friends keep telling you but you never listen to what they say?
That I should just relax a bit. I’m still totally dogged, I still live in that “I have to prove this, I have to prove that. I have to, I have to, I have to…” Even when I have a day off I still check everything and don’t really calm down. And to be honest: I’m really thrilled before I go on stage, since I really don’t think that people will love what we do on stage. I also don’t know if people will love Hinterland, I’m really proud of it and I’m not afraid to release it…but I don’t know what people will think about it. But still I live in the panic of going on stage, releasing a record and being broke again. I’m still very much driven to release an album that people will still listen to in many years. That’s more important to me than earning loads of money within a short time.
If there would be one thing in you’re life that you’d like to change, what would it be?
Well, bi-polar would be exaggerated, but I can switch from amazingly happy to totally angry within three seconds. But that goes away within a few seconds again. I think I’m also very unpatient. For example when I stand in line in front of the ticket machine and there are tourists in front of me that don’t get what to do, then I’m really like “booooah ey. Fuck.” and everyone is like “hey Ben, calm down.” But I really denounce that the Berlin train station, the train station of the capital city of a pretty big country, has only two ticket machines. And everytime I think “who planned this?”
How do you cope with the fact that you are the idol or role model for a lot of your fans?
Well, not at all. I really don’t think about that. I think I would go crazy as soon as I would think about that or try to cope with that. Sometimes I realize that I do or did things that I should not do or shouldn’t have done. For example being in a club with friends, totally drunk, spilling beer over our heads…and then I find a video of this on YouTube. Then I’m like “noooo. Damn, you shouldn’t have done that, Ben.” That’s when I realize how I simply don’t think about all the things. Or a cigarette in my hand on a cover. I don’t even smoke, but used the cigarette as stylistic device. I’m thinking of Liam Gallagher when you look angry and hold a cigarette in your hand. I definitely don’t want to tell anyone to smoke, since smoking is definitely nothing that should be considered as something cool.
What also pretty often happens is that I go to a concert and just want to see a band live and tons of people come to me and ask if they can take a photo with me. Then I’m just like “noooo, I just wanna see the concert.” But I’m learning to cope with that, stay friendly and say “hey, let’s do it after the show. I’d really like to see the concert first. Please.” Not everyone understands it, but if they don’t I really can’t do anything.
The last song on “Hinterland” is called “Endlich Angekommen” (“Finally Arrived”). Are you finally arrived with your new album?
Yes, I think so. It was a process with the band, it was a process to cope with that – let’s call it – pop star. And now we go on stage and say to ourselves that we might not be perfect, but we’ll definitely always give the best we can. “Arrived” also with our feelings. After years of fighting, fighting, fighting. And now we got to the point we realize that it’s going. Not only with CASPER, also with KRAFTKLUB, K.I.Z. and the other acts our management takes care of. What we do here works…and it works to our own conditions. This definitely feels like being arrived. What we have now, no matter what happens in the future: no one can take this. Even if “Hinterland” fails: no one can take what we experienced and what we have in our minds.