1. Hello, thank you for your time, please introduce yourself in a few words!
This is Tom, singer of Portmonee speaking. We’re a band of six dudes from Berlin, that have known each other since our youth. Our guitarist Leon and our bassist Vincent are brothers. That’s a close connection.
Actually, we are socialized with rock music, but we want to overcome stereotypes of masculinity in this genre. Our music is a mixture of rock, indie and pop mashed up with elemets of hip hop, wave and soul.
2. Please give us an update about – new single, new album, tour dates, new videos?!
We just released our second longplayer Gesichter ohne Menschen (=Faces Without People), ten songs from inside our heads. We also released some singles, e.g. Küss mich (= Kiss Me), a friend’s story about heterosexism and being gay in the German province. Therefore, Frieder and Marco, member of the Queerforward collective, produced an intense clip with the fantastic actor Stefan Kuk. Another very import fact: We just announced tour dates for October 2022. So join us on tour.
3. Name 5 things we all should know about you as a band?!
I’m not sure if everyone should know these things, but I will tell you.
1. We believe in creative work that can address issues that you wouldn’t talk about at a party and we believe that it’s wrong to reproduce toxic stereotypes.
2. We are completely democratic, all decisions are discussed, some people would hate it.
3. We share our wardrobe, most pieces fit everyone. There is especially a big collection of old sports jackets.
4. During the recording sessions some of us were addicted to energy drinks. I’m sorry about that.
5. Our keyboard player Paul drives our van on tour. We bought him a really awful bus driver shirt and always want him to wear it. He too rarely refuses.
4. What fashion style or brand would best describe your music?
We are a second hand look made of grunge shirts, bathing shorts, sleeveless sweaters and cowboy boots. Sometimes we wear our own pink merch.
5. What’s your songwriting process?
We start with a jam session, condense an instrumental pattern and add lyrics.
Sometimes one of us is creating a song on his own at home and we use and expand it. Depends.
6. If you could change anything about the industry, what would it be?
We need a more pluralistic mainstream. The people in the magazines are still too perfect, too beautiful and too uniform. The industry adorns itself with some showpieces, but that’s not enough. Music needs to represent many more.
Another aspect I would like to change: I would change the streaming compensation for artists. Currently, you get money per click.
But there’s another suggestion: each user could split their fee only among the artists they actually listen to. That means, for example, if you only listen to one song a month, the one artist would get all the money you spent.
7. Tell us more about your songs! Topics! Message!?
Our current songs are bipolar between light and dark, like the times we’ve experienced in recent years. There are songs like Entertainment, which is about white male supremacy. Or Perfekte Menschen (=Perfect People), which is about the bad feelings that some people cause because they never admit a weakness, and something in us involuntarily believes them.
But there are also these light songs, Immer Für Dich Zeit (=Always Time For You) is a hymn to priority management. People pretend they don’t have time for things, but in reality they don’t give things much priority.
8. A question you’d like to answer, but never been asked in an interview before?!
Okay, question: What is the current state of your hairstyles?
Answer: We have changed our hairstyles over the years, Paul had a mullet, I had a balayage, Reudi, Vince and Martin have long blond hair like angels and Leon has wild curls. The hair changes but actually long hair is the way to go.
Instagram: @portmoneeband
Credit: Frieder Unselt
