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Hamburger Morgenpost - Till Interview 04-Jan-03

“I can easily imagine myself being the victim”

Till Lindemann is the singer of the internationally successful German Band Rammstein. Since appearing on the sound track of David Lynch’s film “Lost Highway”, they have cult status in the USA. Lindemann is responsible for the often-controversial lyrics. Content wise, he has remained faithful “Messer” the published poetry book. Florian Maaß spoke with the singer.

MOPOP: You sing and write about sodomy, necrophilia or murder – can you still be scared by something like the cannibalism case?

Lindemann: Yes of course, but in a way this case is a classic: the respectable man who turns into a beast at night.

MOPOP: Will there be a song about it?

Lindemann: Yes, there’s sure to be lyrics soon.

MOPOP: As which one could you more easily imagine yourself: the victim or the cannibal?

Lindemann: I can quite easy imagine myself in such events. I can easily imagine myself being the victim. However, the other part I find much more gross.

MOPOP: Do feel proved right when the weird things you write about in your lyrics take place?

Lindemann: At the very least, I have to smile and I can’t resist saying: "You see? It happens. “The world is more terrible than anything I could write about.”

MOPOP: You were attacked because the perpetrators of the school massacre in Littleton were fans of your music.

Lindemann: The Americans with their bigotry. They are like little children, who immediately look for a stranger to blame.

MOPOP: The accusation was that some of your audience take the theme of your topics too seriously.

Lindemann: That’s moronic! Is there anything today that a 12-year-old teenager has not yet seen? From severed limbs to murder, rape and pornography. With all that, how then could I manipulate young people?

MOPOP: Is any topic taboo for you?

Lindemann: I don’t know, I’m still looking.

MOPOP: Happiness, perhaps?

Lindemann: Perhaps. But if I wrote: "I’m so happy, so in love", that would be ridiculous.

MOPOP: In your poetry you combine happy moments with dramatic and bloodthirsty situations. Is that your concept of fulfilment?

Lindemann: Not of fulfilment. It’s my concept of life. If something good happens I am pleased, but I can immediately count on the next misfortune.

The Book
: Already Lindemann’s Rammstein lyrics have raised questions. What did he want to say with songs such as “Mutter” and “Du riechst so gut”? One does not know. Now his poetry book “Messer” has been published. Some things also remain unanswered here. An example? “We float coldly on eye showers/hunger-gladly in heavy barrels/they cut deep, eat around me/and therefore I have a fear of knives.”
Eichborn Publishing.

© 2005 Sue Lindemann