Let us introduce ourselves: Thee Twangjackets are a two-piece band from Mannheim, Germany, that has kindly been adopted by the psychobilly music scene since 2019/20. We like to describe our music as a raw and trashy mix of psychobilly and garage punk with a fair amount of of twang, of course.

We are Jürgen on guitar, vocals and theremin, and Dan on drums and part time shouting. Both of us had played in different bands in the late eighties and early nineties in Mannheim and in Denmark, where Jürgen used to live for many years.

For various reasons we both quit playing music for many years. We missed it badly but couldn’t find the right people for new projects. 

Fun fact about how the band started: In 2018 we met at a FRENZY show in Mannheim. I (Dan) had quit smoking years ago but after a lot of booze I thought it would be fun to have a cigarette that evening. Call it a bad idea or call it fate, that’s how I ran into Jürgen in the smoking area. We started to chat about music and instruments and about how much it sucked not playing anymore. Turned out we were almost neighbors and had been living in the same street for years just on opposite sides, without ever meeting before. So we decided to stay in touch and to play some tunes in my 7m² drum room without any ambitions other than drinking beer and jamming.

In the beginning, the fact that we couldn’t find a bass player, [which] kinda sucked. But very soon we realised that it’s a lot easier as a two piece in many ways: [we] wouldn’t want to change a thing.

We always loved going to live shows but before we started our own band we felt a bit jealous and wanted to play ourselves. It always felt like we should be up there on that stage.

Now we love listening and watching other bands even more. There’s always stuff to see and hear that inspires us for own shows.

We both are influenced and feel inspired by different types of music and always had a thing for mixing genres. We like [anything] as long as it‘s loud and kicks ass.

If you listen to our music, you will find traces of The Cramps, Powersolo and Hasil Adkins along with most old school psychobilly bands, but also, Sonics, Raymen, Iggy Pop, Link Wray, Sort Sol, too many to name them all.

Jürgen grew up with the Beatles, Beach Boys, fifties and sixties stuff influenced him as well as later The Birthday Party, Joy Division and a wide range of other music, even classical music. Dan grew up as a punk rocker who transformed into a Psychobilly and Rockabilly after being infected with this friggin virus as a teenager in the 90s.

The Courettes and The New York Wannabes, both not psychobilly obviously, had a great impact on us trying to do this as a two-piece. It took some effort to convince Jürgen that it could work. Showing him those two bands made it a lot easier. He figured out and created his very own style of playing his guitar and writing songs. Playing without a bass makes his job as a guitarist more difficult. You don’t want it to sound as if there was something missing.

We’ve already been very lucky to share stages with great bands such as The Brains, King Moroi, The New York Wannabes, Demented Are Go, The Rusty Robots, Thee Flanders, The Griswalds and we played PKB Germany with KINGS of HONG KONG, Scum Rats, The Highliners, Evil Daltons, The Diggerz, Psychonauts etc. in Wuppertal.

We can take playing with Powersolo off our bucket list. We opened for them in our hometown in April last year: great experience, fun guys. Batmobile and Frenzy were on our bucket list, too. We happened to play “with them” at Psychomania Rumble in Potsdamned in May 2024. To be repeated, of course. ;o) Opening for Oi/Street Punk/Ska legends such as Loaded or Los Fastidios shows the wide range we are open for. 

Guana Batz, and Philip “Doyley” Doyle, Long Tall Texans, the fabulous Courettes are still on the list. We would love to play Bedlam Breakout and, of course, Pineda/Santa Susanna one day. Playing with The Earls of Satan and Ugly Fly Guys would be rad, too. Psychobilly Kicks Back in Camden, London was fab: lovely crowd, top notch acts. loved every second about it.

Releasing a song on vinyl for the first time felt like a million dollars! In June 2020 we contributed our track ‘Two Headed Shark Attack’ to the Sick Taste Records Label Sampler. Just a year later STR released our first 7“ Vinyl Split EP together with The Earls of Satan from England. We also dropped a track on ‘Psychobilly kicks back, Vol.3’. In February 2022 we released a limited batch of 7“ Vinyl Singles with the Japanese Label „Dirty Trash Fuck’n Show!!! Records“. The compilation ‘Psychobilly-The Dark Side of Rocknroll’ has one of our songs on it, too. 

Hearing our songs on Zombie Dog Radio was also a highlight we will never forget. 

Of course opening for Demented Are Go, one of our favorite bands for decades, was truly one of those “somebody pinch us, please” moments: done that three times now, it’s always a pleasure. Love the guys. And playing a sold out show in a club in Copenhagen with Java Skull was quite an experience, too. Psychomania Rumble No. 16 in Potsdamned  was the biggest one for us, so far. Thanks again for having us, Norman.

 We are even playing in Japan in October 2026! Stay tuned.

We also have some pretty interesting collaborations coming up. Let‘s see where this crazy trip takes us. 

Fans becoming friends is also most certainly a highlight and means a lot to us. After our first show people came to talk to us and later commented on Facebook that they really enjoyed our stuff. Getting positive feedback and hearing kind words from other bands and being welcomed in the scene always feels great. Many people have been amazingly supportive. We appreciate that a lot and wish to say thank you. You know who you are. And we hope to see y’all somewhere. Check us out on facebook and instagram and stay tuned for more shenanigans. Love, stay psycho, twang on. 

Dan Henry (as told to Kate Allvey)

Buy a copy of ‘Whack Tales For The Not So Blessed’ here