Article
The Broilers from Düsseldorf have landed in the charts again with their new album. "Puro Amor" is about love. But also about what is currently politically and socially inspiring people. A conversation with frontman Sammy Amara and bassist Ines Maybaum about lateral thinkers, sexism, and equality.
The new album by the Broilers is called "Puro Amor," pure love, and features two fighting roosters on the cover. How did this interesting mix come about?
S.A.:
I had the cover idea when I was walking through Los Angeles with my girlfriend. Through a Mexican-influenced area. At a wall, I saw the two fighting roosters and thought, "What a cool tattoo motif!" Because it's somehow a symbol of the band's history.
Because the Broilers, the chickens, always fight among themselves?
S.A.:
No, not always. But: Fighting is part of a band, part of a family, part of a relationship – indeed: pure love, "Puro Amor" – that too. Hence the title. Furthermore, "Puro Amor" sounds very nice with rolled "r's". And: Everyone really understands this title. Even if someone is not proficient in Spanish. And all of this makes so much sense together that it could even be an accidental concept album about love.
Is there such a thing as a concept album by accident?
S.A.:
There wasn't this overarching theme. It wasn't planned. But the more I listen to the songs or the questions others have about these songs, I realize: Damn, somehow every song is about love after all. Even a song like 'Alice and Sarah'.
In which you – underlaid by a ska beat – describe the person of the AfD politician Alice Weidel from the perspective of her partner Sarah Bossard and ask her singing: "Pick up your wife, Sarah. She's talking Nazi garbage again?"
S.A.:
Exactly. And even such a seemingly funny political song has love as its theme.
Such a thing must have a reason: Are you currently overly longing for love – or are you rather overwhelmed by it?
S.A.:
Rather the former. In these times – and social media amplifies this – it is becoming clear: All this hate, this anger ultimately leads to nothing. And even if I myself repeatedly – Hehe! – complain about hippies: At the end of the day, it would indeed be a very pleasant world if everyone were to act in a hippie and "Peace & Love" manner. Love is always more important than hate. But I know that this is also a utopia. Because we humans are indeed just that: we humans. And if we humans are already failing to pull ourselves together and wear a piece of cloth on our face to protect others – how can such a big word as "love" hold any ground?
And that the time is ripe for a concept album about love – of all things from a punk band?
S.A.:
If I have learned one thing during this time of the pandemic, it is a certain calmness. Or rather: It came over me. After 25 years in a band, I understood certain things, such as: I will never make everyone happy. And that is a liberation. It allows me to deal with negative criticism more easily. That it doesn't gnaw at me as it did before. And that I can also make an album about love.
Peace, Love, Puro Amor, pure love. Without condition. And without limits?
S.A.:
I would rather have no hostility at all. But even my love has its limits. For example, I have no desire to sit at a table and drink beer with right-wingers. I would much prefer to – and I really want to do this – sit cross-legged in the park with 15 hippies and play acoustic guitar.
Sammy, you recently said you promise the people out there "naked in the hand" that "Puro Amor" will please them all. That speaks of confidence and an impressive conviction to hit the nerve of the listeners.
S.A.:
I don't know why myself, but: I feel as comfortable with this album as I rarely have before. With "Puro Amor", I told myself: Don't think! Screw it! Do what you feel like doing. It is what it is! The Broilers are the Broilers and not the Ramones or Motörhead, who always made the same records. The rule is: Just let the Broilers do it.
Do we now hear the band sound that is definitively set in stone on "Puro Amor"?
S.A.:
This actually sounds too final to me. Let's put it this way: This album is in many ways a quintessential Broilers album. There’s a lot of us in it. And there’s a lot of us to see on it. Just look at the chickens on the cover. The Broilers. Of course: This band name is annoying, dreadful, and has always been shitty. We don’t need to discuss that. But: That’s our band name. And in a way, for the first time – at least after our first band shirt, which I painted with a roast chicken a week after founding the band – we dared to show a chicken or a rooster on one of our products. And that proves: We are completely at peace with everything we have done.
Also with the pathos that characterizes the lyrics written by you, Sammy, occasionally?
S.A.:
I am a fan of pathos. My good friend Bruce Springsteen does that too.
With all due respect for the boss: Pathos is rather problematic in this country…
S.A.:
I somewhat understand this aversion of the Germans to the term pathos as well. It was perverted by the Nazis. But: I do not want to leave this term to them either.
So let's rather say: Pathos is just very human?
S.A.:
Exactly. And I am a person who simply likes big emotions. When I watch an opera, I can have a tear in my eye. Music is for me, after all, the most beautiful art form. And if it gets a bit theatrical somewhere, then I am all for it. And it's the same with movies. Those are precisely the theatrical moments that I find great. Well: In "Independence Day" that's a step too far. It's overdone and just comedy now. But for example, the "Batman" trilogy by Christopher Nolan? Fantastic!
A topic that is associated with the Broilers and is very topical: diversity. Sammy, you have Iraqi roots. You play the bass, Ines, so a woman surrounded by four men. However, when you look around the successful rock scene in this country, you see: it is, if you will, dominated by middle-aged, white men.
S.A.:
For us, this diversity is completely natural, and we would find it best if it didn't have to be a topic at all. But we understand that it is currently important and that we are in a societal upheaval. Ines always says that she was lucky to have only worked with cool men who never made her feel: "You are a woman, you are something different." And I was lucky with my circle of friends too. I am even surprised every time someone brings up my migration background. Because I don't perceive it at all. We simply don’t think about it in the band. But: It is good to talk about these things. Because perhaps talking about it helps people to dare to sniff around this topic, who haven’t done so until now. I don’t want judgments to be made based on origin or gender.
I.M.:
I also definitely have the feeling that more is generally being said about this topic. In recent years, there has been more movement in this regard, particularly in the music industry - especially concerning the role of women. Whether on stage or off, in the field of event technology or similar.
Are you in favor of a women's quota at music festivals?
I.M.:
A women's quota can at least help artists to be seen and promoted more. But we also have to ask ourselves whether women generally have the problem that they are denied access to many positions because they have children and society assigns them a certain life plan? I think that is the bigger problem and we should tackle the root of the evil so that a women's quota becomes unnecessary.
S.A.:
I am in favor of a women's quota. Because equal opportunities – that also means supporting other people more under certain circumstances. There's this image of three children who want to look over a fence onto a soccer field. And because one of the three is not tall enough, the other two put a small ladder there for it to stand on. And if I can provide someone with this ladder in a figurative sense – why shouldn't I do that? I find it important until it has developed into a normality. Just as it has always been normal for me.
To what extent have you, as a musician, experienced sexist remarks yourself?
I.M.:
These are things I have certainly experienced. And I am someone who usually lets such comments roll off my back. It doesn't hurt me. Especially when it comes from people I don't even know. That might be a positive strength of mine as a woman. That I can handle it. Only: If it were the case that I wanted to go on stage, grab my bass, and some guy would say to me: "What are you doing here? The bassist will be here any minute" – I would definitely take to the barricades. In other words: As soon as it concerns something I can't do because I am a woman. I also don't want others to jump in for me in such situations. I am woman enough to say myself: "This isn't right. It needs to run differently here!"
You are a musician, write songs. What do you think – as people who thus have a special relationship with language – about changes in language for reasons of discrimination, racism, sexism?
S.A.:
It should be normal not to use certain words anymore when one knows that these words hurt other people. Why should I continue to use them? Does it break a piece off my crown if I now call "Zigeunersoße" "Paprikasoße"? If my peace of mind depends on something like that, then I have very little beautiful in life.
I.M.:
I think about this matter very often lately. I find that when words, for example in song lyrics, are understood in a certain way that is somewhat neutral, then that is perfectly okay. Texts are always individual. You can never include everyone. As for everyday language or everyday written language: using gender asterisks will probably not cause sexists to rethink. But: I would still find it nice if there were something like in English. There, everyone can feel equally addressed by a noun.
