00s icon was ‘really stressed’ he’d become a one hit wonder after breakout song

It’s been over 30 years since Scooter first burst onto the scene with their irresistible techno tracks and energetic stage performances.

While they may be icons now after earworms like The Logical Song and Weekend!, frontman H.P Baxxter, 60, confessed fears of being a ‘one-hit wonder’ plagued them.

‘We always feared after the first big hit, “Oh, this might be a one-hit wonder”,’ H.P told ahead of their 30th anniversary tour; Thirty, Rough, and Dirty!

The German group saw numerous artists in the 90s and 00s struggle to secure that essential second hit after they stormed the charts with a breakout song.

He continued: ‘After the second hit, [we still thought] “Oh, god, it’s a two-hit wonder”. So we were really stressed to keep on and prove we were not just a short-term act.’

That ‘keep on’ mantra has propelled Scooter, with the group releasing a whopping 21 albums – including 2024’s Open Your Mind and Your Trousers which reached number two on the UK Dance Chart.

Scooter became synonymous with the dance and rave scene after single Hyper Hyper unexpectedly stormed up the German charts in 1993, peaking at number two.

The group is now the most commercially successful German single-record act with 23 Top 10 hits to their name, including the number one track Nessaja.

It wasn’t until the Eurodance takeover in the 00s that Scooter found their UK breakthrough with their cover of Supertramp’s The Logical Song.

This 2001 cover propelled Scooter to number two in the UK after almost a decade of fame in Germany, followed by Nessaja at number four the next year.

Scooter enjoyed four more Top 20 hits in the UK after this but have continued to see success globally on dance charts.

H.P is still the driving force behind the band, which he initially formed under the name Celebrate the Nun in 1985 with Rick J Jordan and Ferris Bueller (real name Soren Buehler).

They also met manager Jens Thele during this new wave era, who has remained with the band ever since.

‘Before Scooter, we really tried hard to be a successful band with the new wave stuff,’ he shared, adding that they missed the boat with the genre which was prominent in the early 80s`.

‘That was eight years without real success, and then [with Scooter] we were surprised by what happened, suddenly we had a really big chart hit.

‘We feared [dropping off] because we made it without expecting to, and suddenly we had to continue.’

That stress began to ease as the group landed more and more chart hits, with six UK Top 20s during an 18-month period in the early 2000s.

They have been consistently performing or recording music ever since, with their Thirty, Rough, and Dirty Tour kicking off on October 30 in Scotland.

H.P recalled how jarring the chart hits and fame could be in their early days when critics would ‘make jokes’ about their music, slamming them as ‘ridiculous’.

‘On one hand, you are number one but you read all this negative press,’ he explained. ‘It was sometimes really heavy in the early days. Sometimes [it was] a bit too much.’

Despite negative reactions, it is exactly that quirky identity that has propelled them to international fame, with their wacky lyrics often being praised online.

The Nessaja hitmaker believes you have to have a thick skin to survive in the industry and it can be difficult to find the ‘balance’ between the ups and downs.

‘I always was dreaming about being famous one day,’ the One hitmaker continued. ‘I thought, “Don’t complain, you wanted it like this”.

‘You have many advantages but everything can’t be only good things. There is always balance.’

A firm sense of self and band identity helped the group push through the negative responses in the early days and carve out a name for themselves on the rave scene.

‘If I knew that 30 years ago, I would say, “Oh, H.P, calm down. Everything is going to be good”,’ he laughed.

‘I think our secret is that we never had a big plan, we just continued. Sometimes things just come or happen and if you plan too much, there’s the danger of being disappointed afterwards.’

This article was originally published October 28, 2024.