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The Busters
(Welcome to Busterland)
Right in time, just as the new CD came out from Busterland, here's the interview with one of the most famous German Ska Bands...yes, The Busters. Peter answered us by e-mail.
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Well, since four days your “jubilee" CD is available to the skankers worldwide. Are you satisfied with what you produced?
Yeah!!! We all love “Welcome to Busterland". I guess it’s the first time the whole band is satisfied with their product. This is due to the fact, that we really made the CD together in studio. We got together everyday composing, arranging and trying the new songs till late in the night. Then at the end of a session we recorded the song and proofed it again and again in the next days. Some songs we really recorded several times until everybody was happy with the result. Also the artwork and the whole concept was growing at the same time parallel to the recordings.
So we got a result that really fits!
Now some history…. why did it all started? Who got first the dance-craze, and…are you all still “ruder than rude"?
Well, at the beginning it just has been a birthday surprise. Fortunately we had an audience of 300 people to this first concert on 23rd of May 1987 – so we spontaneous decided to go on with this band! The second concert was than in the well known Schwimmbad Musik Club in Heidelberg and it was completely sold out.
Of course we are still “ruder than rude" – at the moment we are looking forward to our big Germany tour (30 concerts) presenting our new CD.
What are the Ska and non-Ska bands that have most influenced the Busters?
That’s a quiet difficult question, cause we are a 12 piece band and everyone has his own idols. For sure we are influenced by the Skatalites and the bands of the 2-tone era. In fact every CD has its own influences. The band admires musicians like Frank Sinatra, Miles Davis, Frank Zappa, Charlie Parker...
In those eleven years, how much are the Busters changed and in which way?
Twelve years! [Uhm...italian imperfection]
We changed: guitar 2 times, trombone, drums and vocals.
So only five changes in 12 years! [Uhm...german precision]
What do you think of the so-called Ska-core music, so popular now a day?
There are quiet good bands practicing the Ska-core like MMB or Less than Jake but there is also a lot of bullshit around!
Where do you prefer to play your tunes, when you go out from Germany?
We love to play in Italy and Spain because of the audience, the weather and of course the red wine!
You seem to have travel a lot…personally I am quite interested in your adventures with the Illinois state police…what it really happen when you crossed U.S.A.?
Because of a computer mistake our mobile homes have been registered as stolen. So we got arrested by the Illinois State police and the FBI on the highway. The whole band was lying in the grass with pump action in the face...
There have been about 17 police cars around – it was a really interesting experience – some kind of world war 3!!!
And, apart of being arrested?
The USA tour was a great success, we’ve been touring with Toasters and we had a lot of fun and “sold out concerts". We would love to get back in the States, but at the moment Ska is not very hip over there.
Coming back to Heimat, is out there, in the former DDR, some decent Ska band? Do you travel a lot in the east?
We did travel to the DDR, Czechoslovakia and Poland long before everything changed. It was always a thrilling moment to travel the borders to the communistic countries. In Czechoslovakia and Poland we’ve been paid mostly in Vodka.
Cin Cin...and what about your average public? How many “groupies" has each of you?
Our average audience are “normal people" between 15 and 30 who want to have fun and dance a whole concert. Unfortunately there are only few rudies in our audience – I guess most of them think that the Busters play not the real Ska. The real cause is, I guess, that we are the most successful Ska band around and they don’t like the fact that so many “normal people" visit our concerts.
Groupies – well there are hundreds!!! Ha ha ha
In so many years on the stage, which is the strangest things that happened on a Busters concert?
We played in a TV show in Czechoslovakia where a dancing-contest (for standard dances) was in progress...
What do you think of the German and European Ska scene now a day, compared to ten years ago?
Ten years ago everything was growing and new bands were founded, then there was a period when nearly nothing happened. Now a days only a few bands survived (No Sports, Mr. Review, Toasters...) and there seems to be a period for new bands at the moment. As I know there were lots of new bands at the moment. And I really hope there will be a young Ska band breaking the charts sometimes.
What about your mascot…it seems you like it so much, since it’s always there in Busters’ CDs...
Yes, this man (he started as a boy and got older with us) and dog is something like our corporate identity. He is seen all around the world in our “Ska against racism" – logo which is used by lots of other bands and institutions.
What about…your “spare time"? On your web site it seems you all are quite busy, even when you don’t play Ska…
Ok! All of us are professional musicians – so nearly each of plays with other Bands or works with other bands as producer, sound engineer etc. Busters is our most important band and we all want to play with the Busters for another decade and produce ten more CDs!
And part from every kind of music playing, what do the Busters do in their every-day life?
As I told you before all are pros, so we do what professional musicians do: rehearse, songwriting, promo dates, office work and of course we love to meet each other and have a German beer or two!!!
Who take care of your web presence?
That’s me! We also answer every mail we get personally.
Which kind of feedback do you receive since you gone web? Does Internet play an important part for Busters or is it just something more that’s worth to tray playing with?
I think the web is a very important thing for the music scene. So I have contact with our fans, other bands or companies all around the world. It’s easy to take care of opinions people have all around the world and present them a part of you and your band.
I’m happy about every mail I get and sometimes it is really hard work to answer each mail. Just a few years ago it was so hard to care about other bands etc. all around the world, today it just take seconds.
Why not playing some more Reggae and Dub?
That’s not our thing, there are lots of bands (e.g. Dr. RingDing) that do that much better than the Busters.
A message to us…
Welcome to busterland!
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Web Site: www.busterland.de
November 1999
by Alessandro Melazzini
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