Primetime Failure have done some records the latest years which is among the best records for a long while. They come from Germany but sing in english and when it comes to this band it´s ok that they sing in english. August 2023.

Please tell me a little history of the group, members and what you do when you don´t play music, what do you work and which ages are you in? 

-First of all, thanks for the opportunity to answer all these questions for you! From what we can remember at our biblical age, Primetime Failure startet around 2016, because we felt it was time to play some Pop Punk / Skatepunk again and we never really made any other plans besides getting together and writing and playing, just hanging out as friends. Everything else that happened just fell into plays and we couldn’t be more happy about it!
We’re all between somewhere in our thirties and “slightly older” hahaha … that’s all we can say about that, but we might have witnessed the glory days of Epitaph and Fat Wreck, so you might have an idea. Two of us work in IT, one of us is a photographer and one works at the hospital, so in case you hurt yourself while angry about some computer stuff, we might solve that, take pictures of it and get you to the hospital alive.

Have it been the same members all the time, or have it been many lineup changes? 

Please tell me a little about every member? Earlier bands?
-Primetime Failure has basically been the same bunch of whatever you wanna call us haha. Tobi, Jan and Daniel started it all and “the other Tobi” joined a little bit later. We all have grown up on tons of music and we all have been in a ton of bands, most of them you might not ever have heard about from Krusty Crew to Sec.100, Pointless and Me to Getaway Drivers, Skipjack, Modern Saints, Übergangsregierung and others.

Our bass playing Tobi is the one writing most of the music and in his free time he’s brewing some of the most delicious beers around (check out https://bielefelderregen.bigcartel.com/ ).

Our drummer Daniel recently became a dad and to be honest, that might give us a chance to beat him in a computer game at least one in the foreseeable future, since we hope that he might not have time to practice. If you ever played anything against him online, you most likely lost … oh and he’s the one writing a good chunk of the lyrics, too!

Jan also recently got an Xbox and we might never hear from him or practice again.

The other Tobi might be busy losing online games against Daniel or listening to some of his obscure vinyl he hoards for the inevitable moment his nieces and nephews will give them all away to charity when he’s gone because of something stupid he might have done … not that that would ever happen. We’re all responsible adults!

Primetime Failure  is the name, where did it came from and you wasn´t afraid that some other group would be named so? 

-I might not be the most competent person ever to answer this one, but from what history books and memory tell me, it might have just sounded nice or it was on a list of names and it was the least shitty one … guess a quick google search prevented any legal trouble when it comes ot other bands named Primetime Failure … otherwise we challenge you to compete in any online game against Daniel to fight for the Name.

What´s best with playing live ? Where is best to play, which country, town, place?

-Oh, that’s a difficult one, since there is not the one place, or the one town, but we usually had the best of times, while playing small, sweaty rooms filled to the max with a bunch of folks ready to party, but we also had the chance to play on boats twice and damn, that’s fun, too! Big reminder here: If you ever have the chance to visit the Booze Cruise Festival in germany, don’t miss out, good times ahead!

Is it important to give out the record as physical releases do you think? Would it feel like you have released a record if you only release it digital?

-Good question and I think it really depends. We grew up in times, before digital and some of us even before CDs were around, so I guess we care a lot more than younger bands. We always wanted our records out on vinyl, CD and Tape, since we love to have something in hands and we all love to listen to records, artwork in hands, reading the lyrics and we grew up in times, when you found new bands from reading thanks list in record sleeves.

Do you play any covers when you play live? If you do, which then?

-At the moment we don’t play any, since we can’t decide which ones to do and our lifes don’t leave as much time to practice to us as we would all like, so we prefer to write and practice new ones. From what I remember (don’t sue me), we might have played a cover of a german “classic”, “Verdammt ich lieb Dich” by Matthias Reim and we might have done Sk8ter Boy by Avril once.

Please tell me a little about following songs

a) All hope is gone

-Sometimes you get to the point, where you feel a certain sense of defeat and you get so down for a moment, that you just have to let your frustration have it’s way. We’re no ones to be all negative and we sure as hell won’t let the world get us down, but I guess we all have those moments and it’s totally fine to know you#re not alone with that.

b) Watch it burn

-Guess by now we’re all aware that climate change is real and we all have to lie in the beds we made, but not only us, we all should be aware of what we leave behind for the next generations and how our actions have consequences, if it’s the mindless consuming, all the waste we produce etc. … there are those moments, when you’re wide awake, aware of the mess we made but we’re left without the answer for all the questions that arise on how to solve this shit.

c) Songs about Mike Dawner

-That’s the one we shouldn’t really talk about or explain … just give it a listen, it’s not that long and there will most likely *cough*cough* never be a play on words on any of our records …

Is it important to get out your opinions in your music, and is it a good way to get out frustration too?  You´re not so much for singing about political stuff?

-Oh, we love to get out our opinions I guess, otherwise we would look for a different form of expression than playing music, writing lyrics we sing out loud, but we prefer to write from a personal perspective and that can sometimes be even more political than to scream in someones face. We try to sing about the stuff we know, that moves us and that we experience in our everyday life. There’s not one big topic we write about all the time. Today we might be pissed about right wing politics and people drowning while trying to escape to a safe place and tomorrow we’ll sing about naked riding our bike to the next pizza place, there’s no master plan.

Do you think that your lyrics can have effect on other people who listens to them…any example on it? Have you changed anyones mind? 

-Wow, damn good question. I have a feeling that totally depends on the person listening … we got some cool feedback about our lyrics recently, but we have no idea if we ever changed someones mind through our music lyrics. People we might reach that have opposing opinions might not tend to end up listening to us or come to our shows and we love the idea that we might change someones opinion, but we wouldn’t bet on it.

How is it to play this sort of music in Germany and which type of bands are you having concerts with? Which is the most peculiar band you have been playing together with? 

-In recent years the melodic punk stuff had “a little comeback” from what we can tell, so it became easier to play shows and mostly we play with other punk bands, but we have had the pleasure to play with scream / emoviolence bands as well as with emo bands or bands doing stuff with synthesizers. We have tons of friends bands we think are worth checking out, so if you’ve got some time to waste, we have a Spotify list called #PunkRockPandemic that has lots of them: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/14PDpkV2uzL91Bj8xtPzbB

You sing in English and not german? Why not in german?

-Good question about that, but I guess we have a feeling that german might limit us when it comes to reaching people and we all feel confident enough to express our thought’s in english. In the end we might not even have thought about it to begin with.

I like beer and also make beer.. If Primetime Failure would do a beer , what would it be named and which sort of beer would it be? Or maybe you´re straightedge?

-No edge guys in this band and it’s really a certainty we all love beer! Our Bass Player Tobi has his own little brewery here in Bielefeld, “Bielefelder Regen” with his friend Salva (shameless plug, check out https://www.facebook.com/Bielefelderregen/ ) and by now noone got poisoned and we all really enjoy the stuff he comes up with, from a great Pils to the fruity IPA and everything in between. So a Primetime Fail-Ale is always just a short trip to the brewery away!

We also recently played short weekender with our friends in Heart A Tact, Holly Would Surrender, Small State and Kings & Hurricanes and Sudden Death Brew made a special beer for that!

How would you describe your music in three words to anyone who never have heard you? 

-The three words might be three chords and that’s about that hahaha

Which is your own favoritesong among your own songs? And which song is the people choice?

-It’s hard to pick a favorite, that might change from day to day. Usually it’s one of the newer wants. You have played the old ones a million times during practice, so we’re mostly excited about playing the newer ones. It might be “I like what you’ve done with the place” right now. On the other hand (that’s according to the more than 600000 Spotify plays) folks seem to like Watch It Burn a lot …

What´s the biggest difference when you plays live nowadays if you compare when you first started to play in a band?

-The biggest difference is, that people know the lyrics by now and damn, it’s so much fun if you have folks sing along while you play and we are really thankful for each and everyone singing their heart out.

And have you opinion about punk changed through the years? What do punk mean to you, only a musicstyle or a lifestyle?

-Punk shaped a lot of the thoughts and ethics we grew up on and might have had one of the bigger impacts on us growing up. DIY ethics, putting up shows, it tought us a lot about creating and it gave us confidence and a place to belong and I’m not sure what the current scene is like for younger people now, but I hope it gives them the same sense of purpose and a safe place to express themselves.

What do you know about Sweden? What is typical Swedish?

-Oh man, don’t get us started, we love Sweden. Been there on vacation several times and there’s so much to love about it, the food, the nature, the people and there’s so much great music coming out of Sweden! 

Have you ever been here? Any good bands from Sweden that you like?

-Have been there several times on vacation, sorry, wrote that before, but was to lazy to correct my last answer. We grew up on a lot of the Burning Heart Records roster, Millencolin, NFAA, Satanic Surfers, you get the idea, but also hardcore or emo bands like Abhinanda, Refused, Shield, Starmarket and currently we really think you should check out Movin In Stereo.

Your audience when you play live, which type of people comes, age?

-Hard to answer, but most likely everyone is between 16 and 50 and is up for a good time, not exactly sure about it … (fuck I´m too old 😉/editor)

What´s the best of playing live? And where is best to play? Have been outside Germany and played?

-The best of playing life is to get a direct feedback to what we came up with “in the lab” and to get to hang out with friends. The best show to play is always the next one, but since we played Punk Rock Holiday in Slovenia on friday, damn that was a nice one. Also played in the netherlands and will play in Luxemburg soon.

Please tell me a funny thing which have happened during a livegig with your band?

-That’s the one to time we have to call our lawyer and shut up hahaha … all I can say is, at least we did never set anything on fire or got the cops called on us … but never say never.

Is there any good bands in Germany today? New bands which is good? Old bands which is still good? Are you enjoy german bands which is singing in german?

-There are tons of great german bands and even bands that started singing in german more recently like the Donots. We have a bunch of really talented friends like Heart A Tact, Eaten By Snakes, Sewer Rats, Hell & Back, Bike Age, Flick Knives, Melonball and more, just from the top of my head.

Which is the record that you always must have in the tourbus?

-Oh, we’re one trick ponies in a one horse town when it comes to that, so we really like to listen to the usual hits from the past. Give us a Blink record, old Green Day, No Use For A Name and you can see a big smile on our faces.

Do you buy much records, or is it only Spotify and those type of things to listen to music?

-Oh we buy a lot of records. There’s enough vinyl to break the backs of everyone that helps us move to another flat in the future. Spotify is a fine thing to check out new music, find out about bands or if you’re on the road, but at home that’s a different story. Spotify also helps to find out about new music to buy later on, so it goes hand in hand here and it all has it’ place.

How is it to live in Germany, racists and politics overall?

-I think it’s a little bit like everywhere in the world right now, right wing politics are on a roll and a lot of things tend to become more conservative and society becomes a lot more divided. Just hope it doesn’t end up like the american society, where there are only two parties and it’s not about facts anymore and it’s become a full on war about culture. We have a really right wing party here called AFD and the only thing to say about it is “f*ck them”. Social media and yellow press don’t make things better, too, but we’ll keep our fingers crossed. So much for politics, but germany is a damn nice country to live in. We have awesome medical care and there’s really only few things to complain about.

Do you care about reviews? Which is the most peculiar you ever had, with this band or any other band you have been to?

-Every person in every band ever that tells you they don’t care at all is lying, so much I can say. It’s mostly great to read people’s thoughts about something you poured your heart into, especially when you know, people took the time to listen and you can tell they know what you were going for. No really strange ones to tell or complain about so far, sorry.

If you could choose five bands from the past and the history and nowadays and both dead and living bands to have a concert together with your band. Which five have you been chosen?

-Oh damn, tough one … Operation Ivy would be one of them, so much I can promise and No Use For A Name, too … add Blink 182 to the line up and while we have the chance to make impossible stuff happen, give us some Sublime, too. Since we have one left, make it NOFX, since we’re cliche like that hahaha … 

Futureplans for the band?

-Between jobs an family, dogs and kids there’s only so much time, so future plans definitely include finding enough time, to write songs for a new record rather sooner than later an to get into the studio to record them and getting them out into the world. Besides that, it’s awesome the way it is, getting to play shows with bands we love and admire.

Wisdomword?

-Just be nice, it’s not that hard. Just don’t be a d*ck and the world is a better place. It’s that easy.

Anything more to add to the interview?

-Thanks so much for taking the time to write out all this questions and talking to us. Hope to play a show or two in sweden some day and hope to meet you for a beer or two!