"Another Word, Another Author" - ...TWR talks to Philipp Rottgers about his recently published, Genesis Song By Song book.

Books about Genesis seem to be a bit like buses these days, wait a minute and two will turn up at once! We have already covered Mario Giammetti's book on Tony Banks elsewhere but here we have a chat with the author of Genesis – Every Song, Philipp Rottgers...

TWR: Before we get to the book, Philipp, tell us how did you become a Genesis fan, what attracted you to the band?

PR: I was born in Germany in November 1989 so I was quite late to the Genesis story. My mother hasdbeen a Genesis fan since the 1970's – her favourite album being Seconds Out – and my father got Phil Collins' ...But Seriously for his birthday in December 1989. Another Day In Paradise became my lullaby and so I was raised on a diet of Phil and Genesis from early on.

As we all know, in 1991 We Can't Dance came out followed by The Way We Walk live albums. During that time my mother recorded the Genesis MTV Rockumentary and the Knebworth gig from from 1992 on VHS and I remember watching both to death! Also I was mesmerised by Phil Collins playing the drums. I had started my own drumming career quite early on; I used to bang on pots with a wooden spoon and I remember using buckets, toys, and tambourines to set up an improvised drum kit in my room. I basically learned to play the drums to Genesis' s music, especially The Way We Walk albums.

That was the start of my journey and it never stopped. Genesis have been my favourite band ever since I can remember and I think they probably always will be.

TWR: When did you seee the band live for the first time and do you have any favourite gigs/tours?

PR: Having been too young to see them in their prime, my first Genesis concert was actually the Dortmund gig of the Calling All Stations tour. I was eight back then and went with my uncle and some of his friends. Of course, I was a big fan of Phil, but I still enjoyed the gig and I was happy to see Tony and Mike but a bit disappointed not to see Chester or Daryl with them. I liked Ray Wilson and I really got to appreciate Calling All Stations when I was older. By the way, the other people in the audience must have hated us. My uncle is about 6 foot three ad he and his friends had me on their shoulders for the entire gig so that I could see the band. The people behind us must have hated us!

Afterwards I saw Phil twice on his First Final Farewell tour (including The Mechanics) and was more than happy when Genesis announced their Turn It On Again tour so I finally had the opportunity to see my heroes the way I got to know and love them in Dusseldorf in 2007. It is still the best concert I have ever been to, not only musically but also because it gave me everything I had wanted to see in an Genesis gig.

TWR: Have you met any of the band members?

PR: During Phil's solo tour back in 2019 I got to meet Leland Sklar and Daryl Stuermer in Cologne and interviewed them for a music magazine I was writing for at the time. That was special for me and they were really friendly. I sat and chatted with them for about an hour and it was really like a conversation between old friends. Tony Smith passed by and we waved at him but I didn't talk to him.

The following year I had planned to interview Chester Thompson for the same magazine when he was due to come to Germany for some drum workshops here. We exhanged some emails and he was very friendly and supportive. Unfortunately COVID struck and the workshops didn't happen so I didn't get to meet him... not yet at least. But maybe there will be another opportunity. I would like to tell him how much he influenced me as a drummer.

In preparation for the book's release I also had emails with Steve Hackett and Anthony Phillips – or rather his assistant – Jonathan Dann who replied for him . They were also very suppprtive and encouraging regarding the book.

Of course, it would be a personal highlight for me to meet Tony, Phil and Mike. I know they are not getting any younger. Perhaps I will get the chance to meet Tony and Mike. I don't know about Phil because ofhis health issues. He is still one of my heroes and I would like him to know that I incorporated much of his playing style into my own. I cannot express my gratitude for the influence he has had on my life. Thank you, Mr Collins!

TWR: This is a masssive effort – every song Genesis have published! What made you decide to take on such a task and what are the difficulties associated with it?

PR: To be honest I was approached by the publishers Fonthill Media (they belong to the Pen & Sword Group). They have this series “Song By Song” abiout rock and pop acts. I had written my bachelor's thesis about Genesis and it has been relesed as a book (please don't red it, the new one is much better) and also I had started my own Genesis blog : www.genesis-band.com . So they stumbled on to me and asked me if I was interested in writing Genesis Song By Song.

Of course I was! But as you say, such a task comes with challenges. The first one being the size of the book. I had too much material way more than the planned length of the book. You have to remember there are guidelines by the publisher. You just can't write a thousand pages. In the end I had to edit and leave out a lot of what I had written and intended to write but it probably benefited the book in the end.

As for the approach, it was clear to me that I had to deal with the music chronologically instead of just writing an A to Z of Genesis songs. I think it is important to understand the context and so I went album by album. I know some of the songs that ended up on compilations did not get an individual review but that had to do with: 1. the size of the book, and 2. I wanted to use, whenever possible a quote or two by the bandmembers for each song. Sometimes that was quite easy, and sometimes rather difficult. In some cases I was surprised about which songs they had spoken about in detail and which they had not.

So, sometimes I had to just describe the song a bit which became especially apparent for example on From Genesis To Revelation but overall I tried to avoid that. That is why some of the early songs (for example on the fourth disc of the Archive 1967-75 set) did not get their own reviews, I would have just described them.

TWR: How long did it take you to write the book?

PR: Good question. I signed the deal back in early 2023 and had to hand it in by the autumn of that year. I completely missed the deadline because I had so much material and I had to tell the publisher that I needed more time. They agreed but obviously postponed the release. I kept pushing back the deadline and there were periods of heavy writing and editing and some, where I did not work too much on it. I think I handed the finished manuscript in to them sometime in the autumn of 2025. Then there was the editorial process and detail work on the manuscript.

The final version was finished in early 2026 and the book was finally published in March of this year. Also I am currently writing “Phil Collins – Song By Song” but please don't ask me when it id going to be published! I have to try and hand it in by late April/early May and I am trying to keep to the deadline.

TWR: Writing about songs we all know so well how did you go about trying to say something new about them whilst remaining objective?

PR: Another good question Alan. As I say in the preface to the book : Writing a book for Genesis fans is no easy task because they already know everything about their favourite band and love and hate each aspect of the band's career with equal intensity.

So, of course, there will be hard-core fans that will complain about not learning anything new or about information that was not included on certain tracks. I mean, for example there is a brilliant book by Kevin Holm-Hudson analysing the entire Lamb... albunmn so obviosly you can't put all that information in one chapter And that is just one album!

To remain objective I tried to include quotes by band members whenever possible on a song. If not, I tried to describe it rather than intepret a song. As I said, I had to do a lot of self- editing. So sometimes a review of a song can be short even when there were more quotes about it. Sometimes I also had the case that, for example, I remembered Tony Banks saying something about a certain song but I could not find the source. So I had to structure the whole thing and give it concise form. I think in the end I managed to produce quite a good book – I like it.

Thanks Philipp for giving us an insight into how such projects are created.