Campino has to be used in the interview because you can’t say Mr. Campino very well, and certainly not Mr. Frege, because he wouldn’t know that you were talking to him. The front man of the Dead pants Birgit Fuß has known for a long time.
SZ: Campino, your agent said that you are not currently giving any interviews. But you agreed to this interview about Birgit Fuß. That’s a compliment, isn’t it?
Campino: It is. Because I really appreciate Birgit’s work. There are only a handful of journalists with whom I have developed a good relationship over the years. With whom, as with Birgit, you have the feeling that you can agree on something, even if only on one agree to disagree.
How did she earn this respect?
We got to know Birgit as a very young editor at Mopo in Hamburg. We noticed her right from the first interview, as someone who reproduces the conversations fairly, without twisting anything, who is never out for scandals, but remains very objective. But above all, Birgit is a passionate music fan. I like when people do their job out of love for music. As we do too. Even if they are different spaces in which you and we move: In the end, it’s always about music.
And how do you recognize them?
You can tell by the way she conducts the conversations – but above all before and after. On such occasions you always talk about other bands! And then you will immediately see which evaluation criteria someone is applying. You can tell very quickly whether a journalist is tired of what he is doing. Whether it’s not really there. But I always felt this idealism with Birgt. He never left her.
She did a lot for your standing at “Rolling Stone”.
I don’t know much about that. In any case, she is not a vacillating person. Just because something is suddenly trendy doesn’t mean that anyone else simply drops it. Once she has decided on a band, she defends them too. At times she can be downright stubborn, I could imagine.
What happens if the journalist, who was always on your side, no longer praises – the end of the good feelings?
It’s not like Birgit praised us about the green clover for 30 years. There were also things about which she complained: Listen, I don’t really understand this now, it’s not mine. The decisive factor for people like Birgit: You know that they have understood your career for many years, and when they say: There is a problem – then that makes you think. As a reflex, I don’t have to take a defensive stance immediately, because the decisive factor is that Birgit never let her passion for her topics be taken away. That is still the case today. And I hope that I have received that for my part too.