With the sheer force of their arrival on the scene, it’s as if Jo, Mäx and Fabi are truly prophets—especially considering the title of their hit major label debut. After all, their album title “Invasion der Killerpilze” (“Invasion of the Killer Mushrooms”) was a self-fulfilling prophecy if ever there was one. And things really took off from there. Their first single “Richtig scheiße” (“Really Shite”) dealt with the drama of relationships in precisely the way that the youth of today think and feel. “We write about our life and our experiences. And it seems like so many young people can identify with us,” as Mäx describes the secret to their success.

“But it isn’t only an advantage to be young, because there are many skeptics out there who say, ‘there’s no way these kids could have done it all on their own.’ But converting the skeptics to becoming our fans is a something really special. Because it just proves that we can do it after all,” opines Mäx self-assuredly and pragmatically. As is so often the case, their journey has been their reward. Their first album was their ticket into a world where their authenticity has been rewarded with success. It has provided them with the space to do what they want and continue writing songs of meaning for their generation. Jo sees things similarly and maintains, “Actually it’s totally OK to have skeptics, because otherwise there would be no challenges.”

The identification factor—without this, there would be no fans. And what distinguishes the Killerpilze from other young German bands, is that they have this quality in spades. Their fans can truly identify with their music and lyrics. By writing about their own lives and experiences, about growing up, the band has remained authentic. Jo notes, “We have a healthy and supportive environment around us …” “And this allows us to remain ourselves,” adds Mäx. “After all, one of our core beliefs is that we will not allow anyone else to change the way we are. It all begins with the ‘home stories’ that we’ll never do and it ends with our clear decision to never allow other people to write songs for us. We know that we’ve got enough talent to do everything on our own and I also think our new album proves this.

And yet not everything went well in the last year—after all, the loss of founding member Schlagi was a hard cross to bear. “It was a real shock because we were together for five years and we always got along,” Jo emphasizes. “At the same time, if you want to play music you’ve got to enjoy doing it and, by the end, Schlagi was definitely not enjoying it anymore. He’s just a different type of personality.” Max adds, “You’ve got to be able to deal with the hustle and bustle and if it gets to be too much for a person, the whole thing is just not fun anymore. And the only reason we do all of this is because it’s fun.”

Five years of searching, finding and becoming. In stark contrast to the casted boy bands with their flashy clothes and bright little voices, this is a group of school chums who met in their little home town of Dillingen, Bavaria and who began early with music lessons in piano, trumpet and guitar. In the beginning, drummer Fabi was just 10 years old and the other two were between 14 and 15 years of age. Even at this early age, the boys were into punk and melodycore and this is the type of music they wanted to make. And back in July 2004, they released their first self-produced and self-released record “Nach vorne durch die Punkallee” (“Onwards Down The Punk Avenue”); a record that now fetches high prices amongst the band’s fans. The rest is history … and the very speed at which their history has unfurled has often overtaken its protagonists.

But the situation was different for the new album. Differently from before, there were no time constraints and no pressure to succeed, and this was something they used to their advantage. Jo elucidates, “We completed the songs over a much shorter period of time. All our live playing experience helped immensely because we’re just much better players now. That’s something we noticed in the studio.” The band had their first jam sessions back in August 2006 but recordings did not underway until December, with producer Corni Bartels behind the controls again for the new record. “The new album is much closer to who we are. Our main problem was that we had so many ideas to begin with and we had to find out which ones were the good ideas. Jo still has tons of good song and riff ideas that we recorded spontaneously here and there but that we weren’t able to use,” laughs Max.

Similarly, the band’s lyrics continue to address their target audience directly with topics that are touching and demand attention. “These songs and lyrics are simply things that we have internalized because we have been doing this for as long as I can think,” clarifies Jo. “But still, it was not necessarily easier for us. For example, girlfriends have always been a key topic with us but not right now because none of us even have enough time for a girlfriend these days. That’s a whole lyrical area that is simply non-existent right now.” On the other side, the band has increased their social engagement with songs such as “Ich will Gerechtigkeit” (“I Demand Justice”). The origins of this song can be traced back to two engagements that have meant a lot to the band. Firstly, the band has been involved with the “Kein Bock auf Nazis” (“No Time for Nazis”) initiative for quite a while now. Secondly, a recent visit to Ethiopia on invitation from established Third World activist Karlheinz Böhm has left the band with an expanded sense of social awareness. Together with Böhm, they founded the “Punk macht Schule” (“Punk Sets The Example”) initiative and are helping to raise money to build a school in Ethiopia.

Jo continues, “Our trip to Ethiopia was unbelievable. It was a complete culture shock. When you see the living conditions for people over there, you immediately have a guilty conscience. You can’t help but want to help out and it’s unbelievably beautiful to see how much pleasure you can bring into their lives. That’s why we’re trying to collect as much money as possible by this September. There’ll be many school concerts this summer and we're going to hold a large benefit concert in our hometown. Still, we need 190,000 euros and that's a pile of money. But we won’t give up.” The band is going back to the roots of punk and the very music they have devoted themselves to: Stand up, have an opinion and bring awareness to social injustice. “For us, punk is more than just a style”, says Jo. “It’s not just about clothes or simply being ‘against everything’. It’s much more about having a positive effect on our many young fans and giving them something to think about.”

The question remains, ‘who are the Killerpilze in year 2007?’ What has stayed the same and what has changed? “We’re still just a band that simply enjoys the moment and no matter how much we try to reflect about what’s happened to us, it will never be fully comprehensible to us. We’re totally excited about what’s happening now and what’s in store for the future,” asserts Jo. Mäx adds, “It’s really important that when people hear this record they realize that we’re not a flash in the pan and that we’ve continued to develop. Right from the beginning, we knew that we’d rather make five albums than have just one top 10 hit. Of course, we’d have nothing against five albums and a top 10 hit!”

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