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Till interview - Focus 02-Dec-02

Rammstein singer Till Lindemann on soul searching, paying for anarchy and Roland Kaiser

FOCUS: Mr. Lindemann, just as the Rammstein lyrics follow the morbid verse your recently published book “Messer" sends a shiver down the spine. It concerns dying, death, necrophilia, incest and soul searching. Are you depressed man?

Lindemann: Great suffering was always a good topic that found it’s way into literature. Possibly I am too sensitive for life and therefore must write from the soul. Last evening, when I read some my poems myself, I went to bed happy and exhilarated.
FOCUS: No calculated play with the taboo subjects?
Lindemann: Since the invention of video games, Hollywood Entertainment and Boulevard TV there are no more taboos. The more extreme a thing is, the better it can be sold

FOCUS: Does that also apply to Rammstein?
Lindemann: Rammstein is the work of six people and with management; record company etc forms a small company. I draw a clear boundary line between myself and the Band. My book is a solo project, which is not subject to the same regularities.

FOCUS: It sounds almost as if you are weighed down to have your poems associated with the Band.
Lindemann: No. But I am like the son of a famous actor who himself wants to be on the stage and everyone says: “He has it easy"

FOCUS: You raised a child as a single father. How did your daughter Nele find the poems, some of which also concern her?
Lindemann: I could hear how she commented on the poems with her friend: “iiih, that is disgusting." Or even: “Papa, what is the matter with you?" (laughs) She knows my ironic side.

FOCUS: Do you have one?
Lindemann: Of course, only nobody believes me.

FOCUS: One critic wrote: “Lindemann simply has to open his mouth, and the public automatically becomes afraid" Untrue?
Lindemann: I was recently at the dentist. Joke aside: When I am on stage, it’s a performance, its theatre. As soon as the Show is over, I tell jokes again. It took years, until I could change in such a manner. I could never go on a reading tour with my poems and read before 100 people. For that I am much too shy.

FOCUS: How did you come by the title: “Herzeleid" for your first Rammstein record? Borrowed from the Legendary German hero – Parsifal’s mother who was called Herzeleide...
Lindemannn: “Keep each other from heartache" is an old saying, which one can find carved in wood or in the bark of an oak.

FOCUS: One reads that your hit “Sonne", is inspired from the second dance song mentioned by Nietzsche “Also sprach Zarathustra". Each line of verse is also counted in that...
Lindemann: For God’s sake, no! The interpretation of our texts is often fantastic. Many fans hold very high expectations and are disappointed if we did not give it to them. "Sonne” was simply a marching anthem for Vitali Klitschko.

FOCUS: On stage you appear highly-strung. Do you lead an excessive life?
Lindemann: No, I live rather moderately. I want to drive to the lake with my grandchildren when I am 50, therefore I must pay attention to my health. If I come from home from tour, I notice, how exhausted I am. To relax I go with friends to listen to Free Jazz or listen to Roland Kaiser.

FOCUS: I beg your pardon?
Lindemann: Yes, I am particularly fond of hearing: “Es kann der frömmste nicht in frieden leben” or “Manchmal möchte schon mit dir". Lyric lines such as: “Du verlierst den mann ich verlier den freund" with a bad guitar riff and an Industrial sequencer would be the best.

FOCUS: Apropos evil. After the massacre at the Columbine High School in Littleton, where two pupils ran amok, Rammstein were placed beside Marilyn Manson at the whipping post because the perpetrators had heard your music. Did that harm you?
Lindemann: As Manson is American, we were mainly held responsible for this misfortune. Unfortunately the press were not concerned with a discussion of the content, but only headlines. Nevertheless, it did not harm us, completely the opposite.

FOCUS: Anyway, you and your band are not considered particularly cheerfully intelligent, particularly if it concerns playing with fascist symbolism.
Lindemann: I do not answer these questions any longer. Enough is enough.

FOCUS: Are you interested in politics?
Lindemann: Not at all. I do not vote either, I am conscious that I’m not a representative role model.

FOCUS: What does material wealth mean to you?
Lindemann: Actually, I live very modestly. From time to time, I manage to park on the pavement or exceed the speed limit. I permit myself some anarchy, as it were, which one can pay for (laughs). The only extravagance, which I will permit myself, is the purchase of the bankrupt Zwickauer Zoo together with my friend and publisher Gert Hof. We hope to be able to buy the complete Zoo so that the animals do not have to be separated.

FOCUS: At present you have another hit in the Charts with “Feuer Frei", the Title song to the action movie “xXx". However you would rather promote your book than travel to the MTV Music Awards. Why?
Lindemann: I know that at sometime the literature will become more important for me than the music. As for the party I had simply no desire to go. It’s nothing more than another Show with a red carpet. Why bother?

© 2005 Sue Lindemann