Donots Biog engl

Biography
Bonded by blood. A story that must be older than the bible. And sometimes it ends with even more blood
sticking all over the place. Brothers. The boundless possibilities that come to mind. Brothers fuel heroic
sagas, dramas, tragedies, comedies. Brothers fight and kiss, ... and if the story doesn’t end in the same
way as that of Noel and Liam, or Cain and Abel, brothers may also use their very different natures to
create something really great together. The DONOTS are such a godsend.
Launched in Ibbenbüren, Germany, in 1993 by the brothers Ingo and Guido Knollmann, bassist Jan-Dirk
Poggemann and two collaborators, the DONOTS started from zero. Booking their own gigs by telephone
and fax and releasing two self-financed demo albums, the band finally came to the attention of a number
of record companies. The DONOTS spent the remainder of the first decade of their career with a major
label. And weren’t always treated with love and affection. Mind you, the group and everything that they
stand for and what’s important to them was basically at odds with a label policy directed purely at the
maximisation of profits.
Relics of post-punk, singer & songwriter, independent and alternative rock, along with punk, a sprinkling
of metal and lots of melodic hardcore make up the primeval soup which spawned the DONOTS. The
soundtrack of resistance. Their first show took place in a barn, smelling of DIY spirit, horse manure and
canned beer. The DONOTS had so little in common with the clearance sale attitude of many of their
contemporaries that it almost hurt.
To cut a long story short: a lot of things happened during that first decade, not all of them good. But on
the credit side, the DONOTS had six albums to their name, plus nine single releases, countless gigs
throughout Europe, various headlining tours and unforgotten victories abroad, such as the sold-out
Brixton Academy in London. In addition, the line-up had been stable since 1996, featuring Eike Herwig on
drums and Alex Siedenbiedel on guitars, both being instrumental in developing the DONOTS’ typical
characteristics.
2004 saw the final split with the label. As a consequence, the DONOTS’ universe threatened to fall apart
at the seams. Lawyers, courtrooms, lawsuits took their strain on nerves and emotions. The musicians
succumbed to a shock-induced paralysis. It took the band four years and a crucial encounter before they
were back in operation again. They returned in 2008 – with the kind of bang that Germany hasn’t
experienced often. Suddenly this band who’d been in business for some 15 years reappeared, acting as if
they’d got together only yesterday. Somewhere back there, in a garage full of junk. Okay, so the new
DONOTS came across a little too tight, punk ethics here, musician’s honour there. But even the most
faithful fans attested them a new kind of enthusiasm for their music. As if they were just itching to play,
prove something to the world … What had happened?
“It doesn’t matter how many times you get knocked down, but how many times you get up.” That’s the
ever-handy formula of legendary American coach Vince Lombardi, familiar to all Ramones fans from the
famous movie, “Rock’n’Roll Highschool.” And the DONOTS didn’t just get up that all-decisive one time,
they downright resurrected themselves! And while the band have mainly themselves to thank for this
resurrection, they feel they owe it first and foremost to Kurt Ebelhäuser (Blackmail). To the DONOTS, Kurt
is more than simply a producer. He took them to the boot camp. Nothing is sacred, every routine called
into question. Nothing is impossible, anything goes. The band felt challenged again at last and presented
themselves, provoked in all the right respects, in undreamt-of top form. “Coma Chameleon” was launched
on their own label Solitary Man Records (on which the DONOTS also release albums by Placebo,
Beatsteaks etc. for the Japanese market), making the band totally independent. Everything goes through
their own hands. Their lack of sleep is legendary. In return, the successful album spawned three single
releases, one of which – namely “Stop The Clocks” – retrospectively seems remarkable in more than one
respect: a number of radio channels in Germany and Austria played the song day in and day out and
nominated it for a number of awards at the end of the year. The fans were ecstatic, YouTube counted
millions of hits, the album sold like hotcakes.
The spectacularly unspectacular video clip features, along with the Knollmann brothers (yes, they’re
back!), only three bearded tough guys as extras, all five running along a country road at night, barechested, white institutional garb and open handcuffs telling their own story. But the most important thing:
they’re some sort of Animal Liberation Front members and carry young puppies on their tattooed arms.
Got it? Puppies! Little doggies! …
“Wake the Dogs” is the title of the new DONOTS album. As a whole, it sounds and comes across as if the
DONOTS decided to take up with this recording where they left off at the video shoot in 2008, somewhere
in the Swedish backwoods. The band had just liberated itself, and with it the brothers, and with them
their sound. The world was their oyster. And now there’s the first real payoff in “Wake The Dogs”! Okay,
the predecessor, “The Long Way Home”, already proved back in 2010 that the DONOTS still had a few
tricks up their sleeves. But these tricks didn’t fully manifest themselves before this new album, their ninth
to date. By the way, the video to support the title song features mainly: … dogs!
Their second decade started with a hiatus for the DONOTS, perhaps that’s the reason why they are so
busy making up for lost time. Their records sell better than ever, their tours have clocked up record ticket
sales, they feel so much better – in every respect. And that’s something their music reflects.
www.donots.com
xxx Appendix xxx
In the run-up to the release of their new album, the DONOTS asked Oliver Uschmann to write this or
another blurb. Strictly speaking, the ever-busy journalist and author didn’t have time. Then he put on his
headphone and … was wowed. Instead of a press release, he ended up writing a kind of love letter in
three acts. The whole thing ended with an e-mail to Ingo Knollmann. Its exact wording:
“Kiss my ass, that’s fantastic.”
It had to be. That’s how the text finished. In between a heavy workload and his enthusiasm, Uschmann
discovered countless barely disguised references which span from British punk rock through sunny
Orange County hardcore to stadium racket. But in summary, even the most eloquent can come up only
with an expression of amazement.
The confession of their own powerlessness was an indication of the right attitude even for the first punk
rockers, and here the sentence in its simplicity has become programmatic. Even the dichotomy between
contempt and sudden elation, between “Kiss my ass!” and “FANTASTIC!” is indicative of a band who have
followed their path despite all obstacles, over rough and smooth, without breaking their backs. Things
could easily go on like this for another few decades …