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Till interview - Taz 23-Nov-02

23 November 2002

God knows I want to be a poet. Rammstein singer Till Lindemann has released his first poem book. The poems in "Messer" talk about the end of the world and last but not least about growing older – by Kolja Mensing.

"Also happiness…", Till Lindemann says, Rammstein singer and recently a part time poet, "that nobody will ever take away from me. And besides that nothing else comes to mind."

He talks and looks at the November morning that stretches outside the glass front of the 23rd floor of the Treptowers and further extends to all the country east of Berlin. "Andromeda I can you see / never so near as this day" says one of the poems out of the book with the simple title "Messer". Destiny rides on white horses, and stone upon stone high towers emerge, already seized by death: "Viva Andromeda". Any more questions?

At the moment – 11.13 a.m. - in Treptowers the alarm goes off. The employees of the Alliance Insurance, which occupy the largest part of the multi-storey building, leave the building orderly. Till Lindemann remains seated: "Bin Laden is back" he says and points to a plane, which approaches Treptowers from Schönefeld Airport. Till Lindemann is a distressed man, who at times can also make light of himself. Only coffee? Or mineral water?

Ten minutes later the alarm is turned off. It was probably just a drill. So we talk about poems. "I just write from the soul", says Lindemann, and with "Viva Andromeda" there was also a bottle of rum in play, which he emptied at the beach in Venezuela. However, he doesn’t want to explain his verse: "It’s alright, when others have an opinion."

Neat poems, which are for the most part sad, at this time. They’re of death and illness, blennorrhoea, bowels and "greedy sex". From the Baroque world to Expressionist watery corpses, of blood-red romantic evening moods to the dying dancers of the Fin de Siècle Till Lindemann has brought it all together, which smells after purge and fall. Here and there a personal tone is touched upon, and some are simply not meant seriously “A small boat in a sea of flames / No land in sight no fire brigade”

Rhyme or I’ll whip you: Naturally one thinks of the texts of Rammstein, smutty, expressive and with hammer force. Bend over, Metrum! However, Till Lindemann would rather his Band holds on to his poems. Music is a "straitjacket", he says. Writing poems, is "as if you have escaped from a cage". Is "Messer" Till Lindemann’s escape from the Rock Circus? “No” The next Rammstein CD is already in production. "But one must know when to finish"

Till Lindemann is 39. That is not old, but the photos, produced together with Jens Rötzsch and the Rammstein Stage director and Lighting designer Gert Hof for the poem book, tell another story: Lindemann with bald, shaven head, doesn’t cover the wrinkles and pores with white make-up, but instead highlights them, posing beside young plastic dolls. It is the Portrait of an art figure that is coming into his years. Rockstars also become older.

So when is the finish? "When the gums recede. When the children point at you" And then? "Sit on a bench and draw a cunt in the sand with a walking stick, that’s what a friend said to me" Till Lindemann smiles. Later he can also write a few poems about the emergency.

So, to the next book. Down in the foyer of the multi-storey building, the evacuation exercise has duly ended. The caretaker has a Geiger counter in his hand; the first employees jostle back into the elevators. Young men with immaculate teeth, designer glasses and polished shoes head back up to the heavens. Viva Andromeda: "In bright armament my army stands/ oh from ten thousand illusions." It fits nonetheless. Till Lindemann is a poet, and one believing each word. And that is something rare.



© 2005 Sue Lindemann