Sibling rivalry has never sounded this good: Otto & Astrid return to the Edinburgh Fringe

Otto & Astrid: The Stage Tour sees Berlin’s gloriously dysfunctional sibling rock duo Otto & Astrid bring an irreverently side-splitting musical comedy packed with Europop, sibling rivalry and pitch-perfect pop parody. To Fringe. Otto wants an emotional stadium spectacular inspired by Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour. Astrid just wants to get through one song without a meltdown. Fresh from a sold-out US tour, the cult duo arrive with international acclaim in tow for a glitter-smeared rock gig. We chat to Otto Rot about family, chaos and co-dependence.

Otto wants an Eras Tour-style emotional epic, while Astrid just wants a straight-ahead rock show. How did that clash become the starting point for The Stages Tour?

I want a rock show as well. I just also want to share the workings. What the songs mean, how we made them, what was happening when we wrote them. Astrid thinks none of that needs to be said. She wants it to be mysterious. She does not want to answer questions. Whereas I could talk about this stuff all day. Sometimes I think we should do a Q&A before the show. And then another Q&A after the show. And maybe a small one in the middle. Astrid has banned all sharing of feelings during the show.

The show is presented as a greatest hits jukebox musical, but it also has an ongoing story running through it. When did you realise the songs could support a larger narrative?

Astrid chooses all the songs. I have ideas about which songs I would like to play, but the process is usually: Astrid says what she wants, I say what I want, then Astrid talks louder, and I try to talk louder, but then Astrid talks louder still, and because she has the loudest voice, she decides. She has also argued that in any band the oldest member chooses the set list, and that alphabetically her name comes first, so she has two additional reasons why it should be her. There are also certain songs of mine that Astrid has banned outright, which she calls unauthorised. They are on the albums. I did not sneak them on. We needed enough songs for the album and we did not have enough, so those are my songs, and they are real songs, and they are part of our catalogue whether Astrid acknowledges them or not.

Audience members are recruited into after-parties, friendships and running jokes throughout the night. What do Otto & Astrid look for in an ideal audience participant?

I do not think we are looking for anything specific. I just love being in a room full of people who want to be there. When the music is happening and everyone is feeling it together, that is everything to me. I have wanted to be in a band my whole life, and I get to be in a band with my sister, and people come and watch us, and they are happy. That is more than enough. That is actually everything.

The show is described as deliberately chaotic while being precisely timed underneath. How much rehearsal does it take to make a sibling meltdown look convincingly out of control?

I do not think it is fair to call it a meltdown. I am expressing my feelings. There is a difference. At Glastonbury, for example, I wanted to play one of my songs and Astrid said no, and then eventually she said yes, and then I got some feelings about it, and I needed a moment somewhere outside, and Astrid came and found me, and we talked about it, and then everything was fine. That is not a meltdown. That is processing. I would also like to say that Amyl and the Sniffers were still playing when we got back, so I don't know why Astrid keeps bringing it up.

After twenty years of performing together, are there still moments on stage when one of you genuinely surprises the other?

Astrid plays things on the drums that I have never heard in rehearsal. Sometimes she hits the drums. Sometimes she hits other things that are near the drums. Sometimes she hits me. These are all different sounds and you cannot predict which one is coming. That is genuinely surprising every night. It is also why other musicians find it difficult to play with us. Nobody else wants to. That is partly why we are in a band together.

Songs about burger-store dinosaurs, robots mistaken for lions and unnamed second-best friends sound completely ridiculous on paper. What makes a song worthy of joining the Otto & Astrid canon?

I don't see what's so ridiculous about a herbivorous dinosaur working a minimum wage job flipping burgers when his dream is to go to art college in Spain. That seems completely relatable to me. We have always loved bands that sing about interesting things. Devo singing about Whip It. The B-52s singing about Rock Lobster. Talking Heads singing about Slippery People. We just write about things that happen to us in our lives and it makes sense to us. I think that is all a song needs to be.

You've built a following across multiple countries and recently completed a sold-out US tour. Have audiences in different places latched onto different parts of the show?

It is going very well everywhere we go. In New York we played Joe's Pub, which is very fancy. Adele has played there. Pete Townshend. Amy Winehouse. They have silverware. And then in Philadelphia we played Nikki Lopez on South Street, which is the former site of J.C. Dobbs, where Green Day, Pearl Jam, Nirvana and Oasis all played when they were starting out. That was a very punk rock show. Both were great. I think the show just works wherever we take it.

The relationship at the centre of the show is full of arguments, sabotage and rivalry, yet also co-dependence. Has performing as siblings for so long changed the way you think about that dynamic?

I still love Astrid as much as I ever did. And the best thing I get to do in my life is go out on stage with her and play our music. Otto & Astrid: The Stages Tour will be performed at 9:20pm at Assembly Roxy from 5th – 30th August at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival Booking link: https://assemblyfestival.com/whats-on/otto-astrid-the-stages-tour