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Interview with Flake - Metalshock(Italy)- April2005

Rammstein – Beasts On Stage

With the occasion of the recent invasion of Italy by the industrial metal and loved all over the world sextet, Metal Shock, just for you, met with Rammstein!

Rammstein's "invasion" of the Italian land was anticipated and considered by everyone as an event. Expected by everyone in a fervent way – the over ten thousand people present at Forum are the tangible proof – the six Germans haven't disappointed those who were hoping for a unforgettable show. Considered by many, if not by everyone, the new Kiss for their incredible shows that manage to catch the eye, independent of the musical genre fancied, Rammstein subdued an audience turning it into a frenzied crowd for more than two hours, the best of their discography, from the debut album to their latest, rightfully praised, "Reise, Reise". These boys haven't missed a beat, and managed to present again in all and for all the feeling, the potential and all the warmth of what they've rehearsed (recorded) in the studio, like still listening to the album and not being at a concert. But the most amazing thing is the fact that the audience knew by heart the songs of the band! Kids, I've seen many concerts, really, but Rammstein's show, no matter of tastes, it was the most beautiful I've ever seen in my life. I'm not exaggerating when I say that neither Iron Maiden, Kiss, Metallica, AC/DC, nor Ozzy could do on the stage like this band, today, I repeat for the n-th time, no matter the musical genre, because we aren't talking about the musical value, but about the show as such. I hope I don't sound like some poor idiot, showing a certain ignorance, when I say that they are the band of the new millennium.

Anyway, aside from clarification, as like we'd have been offered a gift, we met on the backstage one of the "pillars" of the band, the crazy Christian Lorenz, a German all the way, that doesn't betray himself for nothing and knew how to keep a certain distance during our entire chat. Something that didn't make the interview less exciting, but made us discover a not snooty character, but aware of his status and his capacity.

Appeared later, with me, Six, the translator lady (as in private we talked in English, the band asked again to have a translator) and Christian sat together and talked like old friends meeting after a long time, and without being prepared for a single question: panic!

Ok, but the moment has come to lay aside the preambles and to start the actual interview:

Now, Christian what would you have done if you weren't the keyboarder of Rammstein?

"I'd have a more normal profession, be a gardener or a forest worker"

A gardener? But would you trim flowers always with the violence you display on the stage or with the delicacy of someone that loves flowers?

"No, in peace, normal and tranquil"

You come from East Germany and a rough region like those communist places can be. How did you start Rammstein? Were you thinking, back then, that you'll get to this level?

"Even before Rammstein I made this type of music and even before the Wall fell I was making this kind of music. The good thing about East Germany was that we weren't making music for money, but we were making music only for the music itself and we played for our pleasure. This is why we met and made together this band of East-Germans, because with West-Germans we had real problems in this matter.

A bit earlier, when we talked before the interview, you said that you aren't watching television. What about interviews for television, I've seen you doing one just few minutes ago.

"It doesn't have any effect on me, nor requires me to talk about what I do, because it is my work."

So, you hate the media, or, at least, you despise them, and I'm not talking about only the television, I'm talking about journalists, photographers, radio and others. But, when you aren't anyone anymore, because we reach the issue of the inevitable decline, what will you do for returning into fashion? I hope you'll have success for more than 100 years...

"Mah... I, when I'll finish the adventure with Rammstein, will just mind my own life and find a profession suitable to me."

Talking about the show we see tonight, made of fires, flames and others, do you think it still excites the audience/do you think it is still needed? Let me explain better, it's been ages since we see such stuff, starting with Kiss, continuing with Alice Cooper and getting to Marilyn Manson, I'm asking then, do you think, does a show of this kind still makes sense?

"I'm really sure that it still is, I saw our show and I find it interesting"

After so many years, you are the first band that made it through in Germany, in the tough rock genre, and your influences are evidently Ministry, Kraftwerk, Die Krupps and Laibach. When you think about that the bands I just mentioned and about your style, do you consider that you are becoming an international cult?

"I tell you that, talking with the other members of the band, often and freely, we are amazed that we have become a "cult", we can't manage to understand and we think that we are where we are thanks to a lucky strike, or, more directly, a single case. As regarding our influences... Personally, in my private life I listen to Johnny Cash or blues. I don't know about the bands you just mentioned because I don't listen to their stuff."

Interesting, because Ministry sounds a lot like Johnny Cash...

"Then this is what bonds us" (laughs)

The German man, as opposed to the Latin man, like the Italian, the Greek (Greeks aren't of Latin origin, you stupid reporter!) or the Spaniard, is known for being very "cold". But you, through your music, manage to send so much warmth, like you'd be of Latin origin. How do you explain this warmth of yours who come from such a "cold" people?

"One of the German's characteristic is that they aren't "cold", but a bit distant, and I like this way of being, that we meet, we don't embrace each other (heard that when R+ members met, they did hug each other, once they got off their cars:P), or jump on each other (in each other's arms), but we keep some sort of distance. But behind this separation, there's a warmth, that certainly we don't lack, but this warmth comes up when we know each other very well."

Maybe it is as such...

"Everyone can be as they want, but for me it goes like this"

Turning back, is the media interested more in your past (what you keep in your closet), in making powerful images, in the double meaning of your show or in your music?

"I don't work for the media, and I'm not interested in wondering about the media, if they are interested more by the show and the things about Rammstein, and not by the music."

Does it bother you?

"No, it doesn't interest me, not even the articles that praise us/make up on us could bother me."

First time in Italy – sold out. A reaction of the moment?

"Nah, we always have success"

In Germany...

"No, in the whole Europe."

You have played a lot, at least in the "Sehnsucht" era, with a political discourse that could easily be misunderstood and related to the Nazi era, especially in some videos that send back so explicit. This playing about the history of the Germany in the Second World War, how could it have helped you?

"It damaged us, it didn't help us in any way. Basically, we did it because we over-evaluated the intelligence of the public, we thought that the people aren't that stupid, and that they have the ability to see the irony that it was attached (to it - the image). But it didn't work this way, and, with this lesson learned, we don't do again certain choices. We had problems in all the countries, not only in ours because it is again a different relation in dealing with Germany."

How do you explain the fact that Rammstein has been well received first by a public nearing the Gothic style and then by the heavy-metal fans?

"Maybe the "goth" audience is more familiarized with a sound close to us, I suppose. But, actually, I can't give you a precise answer because I don't know the environments you are telling me about."

At this point I'd like to know how do you define your style...

"The cataloguing job is yours. We are just Rammstein."

In Rammstein each of you has his own role, and your part, at least as far as I've seen, it is a very playful one, seeming the maniac (the clown) of the situation . In your real daily life are you the same or a different person?

"I keep my private life private because I don't want the music to take over it too seriously, not to be as modern, as pop"

Sorry, but what ideas of the modern and pop (don't) fit with your personality?

"Basically, today is all fabricated and the musicians split their personalities in two, one for the real life and a fake one, for the music business. I am who I am, I'm real, and I'm not splitting. I am true"

This is a question that we ask always and we want to ask you too. Each musician is dreamer, what is one of your dreams, as an artist and as a man?

"I don't have any, I've already fulfilled my dreams"

Interview by Aldo Luigi "Zombettino Amoroso" Mancusi & Six "MazzStein" Catalano

© 2005 Running Naked In The Park