BIOGRAPHY
Oomph! [umf] slang = energetic, sex appeal, punch, vitality, exciting
In the beginning, there was an idea: why not fuse completely different influences? OOMPH! follow
this idea up to today, with the difference that the number of influences has increased steadily in
proportion to their creative skills. Dero, Flux and Crap stand for new beginnings and continuity.
For more than two decades, the trio has renewed, expanded and deepened their music
repeatedly. Meanwhile, the constant process of innovation caused followers of completely different
camps
to
become
fans
of
the
band
based
in
Braunschweig
today.
The OOMPH! story reaches back to the fateful year 1989 and started in their hometown
Wolfsburg. From influences like EBM, rock and new wave the three rookies created a new sound.
Hotspots of the electro scene at that time were Berlin and Frankfurt. “Back then we would perform
impromptu actions like taking the car on Friday night to get to the “Linientreu”, Berlin or the
“Dorian Gray” in Frankfurt. There we’d go all night, eat breakfast in the morning and drive back
completely tired“, Crap tells amused. “It actually was in the “Linientreu” where our first single “Ich
bin du” (“I Am You”) was played for the first time – and the people danced”, Flux remembers, “at
that
time,
we
handed
over
the
track
to
the
DJ
on
tape.”
The stylistic openness is already reflected in the name. „Those were times when bands liked to
call themselves like computers. You saw a name and knew the group would play EBM”, Crap says.
“We didn’t want that, that’s why we chose OOMPH!. We didn’t want to belong to a certain scene!”
The mandatory question what “OOMPH!” actually means, singer Dero answers as clearly as quickwitted: “Marilyn Monroe had OOMPH!” “We can’t be pinned down”, Dero continues, “we’ve done
crossover at a time the term didn’t even exist yet. Already very early, metal magazines as well as
electro magazines wrote about us. Our second single “Der neue Gott” (“The new God”) made it to
the American College Radio Charts.” Flux drops a few names: “In our younger years we listened
to AC/DC as well as Kraftwerk, DAF, Depeche Mode and The Cure.” For Crap it were bands like
“Laibach, Krupps, Nitzer Ebb and Front 242. Additionally we had German and English lyrics, apart
from
us,
nobody
else
did
that.”
In the beginning, a Berlin indie label distributed OOMPH!’s records. In 1998 the band switched to
a Munich major label, landing first hits with “Das weiße Licht” (“The White Light”) and “Fieber”
feat. Nina Hagen (“Fever”). A dream came true in the beginning of 2004, when the single “Augen
Auf!” (“Open Eyes!”) reached No. 1 in Germany. The album “Wahrheit oder Pflicht” (“Truth or
Dare”) went to No. 2 of the Media Control Charts and was decorated with a gold award, the single
even received platinum. On top, the Lower Saxonians even obtained the respected radio award “1
Live
Krone”
as
“Best
Band
of
the
Year”.
Highlights were followed by setbacks. Like OOMPH! were excluded from the TV broadcast of the
Echo 2006 and were not allowed to present their song “Gott ist ein Popstar” (“God is a Pop Star”).
It was the time of the Mohammed caricatures – the TV producers lacked the courage to advocate
the freedom of opinion and belief. In 2007, OOMPH! won the German TV music competition
“Bundesvision Song Contest” with the single “Träumst Du” (“Are You Dreaming”) featuring the
female
singer
Marta
Jandová.
Shortly after, the band participated in the German “Wok Championship” in Innsbruck, where
singer Dero sustained a severe brain concussion as result of an accident. One year later good
news returned, their album “Monster” (“Monster”) went Top 10. OOMPH! wrote the follow-up
album “Truth Or Dare” (2010) completely in English. During their career, the Germans visited all
parts of the world: the trio played concerts in Russia, the U.S. and nearly every European country.
Musicians of numerous scenes and regions call OOMPH! their idols, amongst them Berlin’s
Rammstein.
With “Des Wahnsinns fette Beute” (“Completely Nuts”) the three marathon men round of the
dozen, twelve albums in 23 years – only a few bands manage that. For the current opus, new
rules were established. “Let’s allow ourselves everything, like we had just founded a new band.
Let’s work self-ironically and not so serious. Before others laugh about us, we rather do it
ourselves”, Dero phrases their intention. Additionally they had musicians that they were friends
with come into the band-owned studio, who also threw in their ideas. “We wanted to re-discover
ourselves. Away from gothic and melancholy, colorful instead of dark!”, affirms Crap. This way,
the most diverse, most catchy, and funniest work of their career so far was created. Along the
lines of “anything goes”, it became a motley selection of multiple styles, without losing sight of
the roots of their beginnings. This way a guitar track like “Unzerstörbar” (“Unbreakable”) stands
next to “Zwei Schritte vor” (“Two Steps Ahead”), a song with Sixties feeling and a horn section.
“Such mich find mich” (“Look For Me Find Me”) is pure dance floor, “Bis der Spiegel zerbricht”
(“Until the Mirror Breaks”) a yearning synth ballad. Accompanied by 80's pop like “Kosmonaut”
(“Cosmonaut”), straight forward rock like “Komm zurück” (“Come back”) and a cabaret song with
Reeperbahn
flair
like
“Seemannsrose”
(“Sailor’s
Rose”).
Musical wealth is combined with loads of witty humor in the lyrics. “Unzerstörbar”, for example, is
about megalomania and self-delusion, things you often find in the music business after all. “Zwei
Schritte vor” deals with the worldwide economic crisis and its wolves (banker), lambs (main street
investors) and herding dogs (politicians). “Such mich find mich” revolves around love, while “Bis
der Spiegel zerbrich” is about casting shows and disposable culture. “Aus meiner Haut” (“Out of
my Skin”) deals with a favorite topic of singer Dero: “Every human being is bi, am-bi-valent and
bi-polar. In my opinion, it shouldn’t be reserved for gays and bisexuals to write songs about
homo- or bisexuality. Because I can act it out in lyrics and on stage, I am quite relaxed in that
sense”, says the family man and father of two children. Flux sees the lyrics as “a metaphor for all
the other areas, in which you might want to jump out of your skin, but don’t dare to do it. Maybe
we should just put on a dress sometimes, take Marilyn Manson for example. He might like to
make a cuddly album one day, but obviously can’t escape the tight-laced bodice of his own
cliché.” With “Seemannsrose” OOMPH! stay on topic and even up the ante. In this sultry harbor
honky-tonk track, almost every scene cliché is served. (Excerpt: “Komm mein schöner
Leichtmatrose / lass uns bummeln gehen / lass herab die Seemanshose / alle soll´n uns fummeln
sehen”, “Come on, my handsome sailor / let’s go for a stroll / let down your sailor’s pants / they
all
shall
see
us
groping”).
One more highlight of OOMPH! poetry is the title “Bonobo”, where you can literally hear the fun
the three of them must have had. (Excerpt: “Die Bonobos sind vorbildlich / sie teilen alles
brüderlich / zu zweit, zu dritt sogar zu viert / bei Stress wird einfach kopuliert”, “The Bonobos are
exemplary / they share everything like brothers / between two, three or even four / when
stressed they simply copulate”). “Sometime on tour we watched a documentary about Bonobos.
Us humans derive from two arteries of primates: Chimpanzees and Bonobos. This makes the
ambivalence of the human being, on the one hand we are able to steal, murder, rape – probably
our chimpanzee genes; on the other hand we are relatively needy in terms of harmony and don’t
mind stress management through sex”, Dero explains. “We wanted to reduce fighting within the
band,
so
the
Bonobos
became
our
running
gag.”
Every member of the trio is smart, eloquent and quite disputatious. That raises the question: How
did OOMPH! manage to stay together for more than twenty years? “In a constellation of three,
there is no tie when it comes to voting”, Flux knows. “We aren’t very resentful and make up
quickly. After all, we also are a community of interest”, Crap responds. “Method Bonobo”, Dero
laughs, “meanwhile we have figured out the right mixture of proximity and distance.”