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Rocksound - Trivial Pursuit with Ollie & Schneider

Rocksound – November 2004
Rammstein – Oliver Reidel & Christoph Schneider
Those former serious men of rock Rammstein claim to have lightened up of late, but rock sound decided to test their patience anyway with a round of Trivial Pursuit.

Pyrotechnics:
Oliver: Our singer (Till Lindemann) started using pyrotechnics because he got bored on stage. The most complicated one we dud was when he wore a burning suit. It was important to ensure the right balance between the time allotted for the burning and how long Till could last in it. He was supposed to give a sign and I got really tense wondering how much longer he could last. But to prevent injury we always have a pyrotechnic crew who test everything thoroughly.

Languages:
Schneider: We had English in school for five years but we never had a chance to use it because we didn’t have any contact with English-speaking people in East Germany. But then we met a lot of English-speaking people because of our job so we learned automatically. Our songs are still in German, although the song ‘Amerika’ on the new album has an English hook line in the chorus. That’s just because the song called for it. I thing it’s a pity that English fans don’t always get the meaning of the songs but they usually try to imitate the German words.

Injuries:
Oliver: There have been occasions when injuries occurred. One happened when a member of the crew tried to put the anti-burn cream on Till too soon and another one was when someone who wasn’t authorised lit the fire too soon and Till’s hand was hurt quite badly. He’s got lots of scars.

America:
Oliver: America has this split-personality thing, On the one hand there are a lot of good things about it but there are also a lot of bad things. Our song ‘Amerika’ is much about the love/hate relationship we have with it. Schneider: Germany is influenced by American culture a lot. It was a natural development after the Second World War. It our song isn’t a political statement, it’s more ironic.

German Music:
Schneider: (laughing). It’s getting better! I did an interview recently where they accused us of taking over the whole of Germany so that people only know us when it comes to German pop music. But there’s so much more going on. German rap music is very popular and it’s good because they’ve found their own way of talking. I can’t follow it but it’s god for the German language because German is usually very stiff and stale.

Journeys:
Oliver: It was very difficult to find a name for our new album but ‘Reise Reise’, or in English “journey”, talks about the whole element if travel, which is reflected within the songs, ‘Reise Reise’ is what you might say to a sailor as he disappears off into the distance, like waving farewell. You could say we see ourselves as going out and spreading the word then returning home. Plus seafarers live by similar rules to musicians.

Swimming:
Schneider: Till was part of Germany’s swimming team in the European Championships when he was 13 or 14. They went to Italy but it was still Communist times and he left the hotel without permission to buy some porn magazines and got caught. I think they excluded him from the team for that.

Business Suits:
Schneider: We’ve been doing some photo shoots wearing business suits recently. It’s inspired by the movie Falling Down with Michael Douglas which is about this high-flying businessman who goes mad. It’s a really cool movie so we decided to dress like him with short-sleeved shirts, baseball bats and broken glasses.
Interview: Victoria Durham
The album ‘Reise Reise’ is out now on Universal.

© 2005 Sue Lindemann