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Heavyjam.dk October 2005 - Interview in two parts with Schneider


Rammstein interview part I
Heavier and faster Rammstein-album approaching? Exactly that, according to drummer Christoph ”Doom” Schneider, who also kicks ass to the new video Benzin.

In our first of the two interviews with Rammstein-drummer Christoph ”Doom” Schneider, the contents is about the current Rammstein single/video “Benzin” and about the coming album “Rosenrot” to be released on October 31.

- It seems a bit quick and weird that you already release a new album only one year after “Reise Reise” and I can understand that this new album consist of songs you recorded when you recorded that album. Is “Reise Reise” and the new album “Rosenrot” your answer to “Guns N’ Roses’ “Use Your Illusion” and Metallica’s “Load” albums?
No I don’t really think so. Some of the songs were recorded during the “Reise Reise” sessions and we had lots of songs that didn’t fit on that album. When we published “Reise Reise” we had already decided that we quickly would publish something new, so when we returned from the tour we hurried finishing up in the studio. It is a mixed album with old and new songs.

Silly new video.

- When you see the video to the new single “Benzin” you can see that you haven’t used that many resources. Can you tell anything about the video and why all that CGI-violence and all those monster trucks?

Let me say right away, that Benzin is a song from the new album that I really like a lot, But to say the least, the video isn’t one of our highlights! I really shouldn’t say that but I wont sit and tell you stories about how great the new video is, because I don’t like it much.

- Because of the many computer effects?

Precisely. We had no influence what so ever according to the effects, it was the producers who decided that. We just said that we wanted some action and we had that idea about our selves as fire fighters – an idea that I also liked, but I am far from satisfied about the final result. To my reckoning the video is a little too silly, so I wont sit and praise it and say that it’s a fat video. I don’t like it and I don’t really want to talk abut it…(laughs)

Heavier album.

- Can you tell anything about the new songs on “Rosenrot”? I have only heard “Benzin” and think it sounds a bit heavier than the songs on “Reise Reise”. Is the new album heavier – musically?
Yes that is correct that “Benzin” is heavier than what we presented on “Reise Reise”. On that album the songs were more homogenous and suited each other better. On “Rosenrot”, I sould say, the songs are somewhat heavier and there are songs in a faster beat which was something we didn’t experiment with on “Reise Reise”

On the next issue of Heavyjam.dk we talk some more with Christoph “Doom” about Rammsteins toruplans – or lack of the same – and about the bands large stage show and about playing in clubs.
- Mathias Nielsen

(04.10 2005 13:19)



Rammstein interview part II
If it was up to Rammsteins potbanger Christoph ”Doom” Schneider, there sould be more music and less show.

In the last number of Heavyjam.dk we talked to Rammstein-drummer Christoph Doom Schneider about the coming album Rosenrot. In this second part of the interview we focus on Rammstein as a Tour- and liveband.

-aren’t you about to be exhausted after having toured for over a year?

“Yes it has been hard and we are exhausted. We haven’t got any plans about touring after the release of the new album. What we are going to do now, is take a break and we are not sure at all, if we are ever going to back up on this album by going on a tour. We all think we have been everywhere we wanted to, and there’s no need for another tour right now. The new album finishes off a cycle for us, that started with the release of Reise Reise. Now we are going to take a break and later we will decide whether we will tour again or if we will begin to work on another album right away.”

Show vs. music.

- most critics of your band,is accusing you of using too many calories on costumes, fireworks and scene-sets instead of the music whn you play live. What is your opinion of that criticism?

“We.., you know when first you have stepped into the part as a band with an enormous show, then it is hard to get out of that part again. And it is a little dangerous because it can easily get out of control and end up with being more about the show than the music. I agree with the critics about the music often is being neglected compared to the stage show. To Rammstein it is important that everybody has something to say and that it is obvious that there are some in the band that would rather make a huge stage show than music. It is important that there is some sort of balance between music and show or else it will happen that some think that now it is to focused on costumes and show, while others think it’s super entertainment. So you can’t satisfy everybody.
If I might say so myself, then I think that there at the moment should b focused a little more on the music.”

-would you be able to perform a great concert on a small club without the huge stage show?

“We actually do that sometimes. For an example as warming up before going on a big tour. And I enjoy that quite a lot because you don’t need that entire firework and the contact to the audience is so much better. The problem is that the request for our band requires a place with room for more than 10.000 people, instead of playing ten concerts in the same little club for 1000 people.”

Ambitions and Apocalyptica

-which ambitions do you have as a musician, what is it you want with the music?

“If you had asked me ten years ago I might have answered differently, but now we have reached further than we, Rammstein, have ever expected. We have never had a bigger plan about what we want with the music. It has never been about bringing German culture to the world or something like that, ha-ha. But it has been our goal to mix hard music with German music tradition; to give the music a German aspect and we had succeeded well with that, if I might say so myself.
We have reached a lot of corners of the world – right from New York to Japan to South America. We have discovered that there is an interest in different and experimenting music instead of everything ahs to be in English and American. It has given us plenty of self confidence and made us stronger to know, that we are creating something a lot of people enjoy and find interesting.

We will continue to create our stuff in German. Off course some have asked us if we aren’t going to sing in English now that we have foreign fans, but the reason that we have reached so many different people is exactly that we sing in German, so it would make no sense to us to change that recipe now.”

-how did you get in contact to Apocalyptica (who has amongst others mixed the new single Benzin)? I know they have had the deal as support to you at a number of European concerts but Rammstein/Apocalyptica seems like a very special cocktail.

“Both bands have been fans of eachother for a longer period of time and Apocalyptica are quite big in Germany so it seemed as an obvious choice for us to have the as a support in our home country. I don’t necessarily mean that you need four or five metal bands right after each other, to have a great concert, like you for an example had at Giants of Rock where we played a few month ago.

It was also a great challenge to Apocalyptica to play in front of all these Rammstein-fans who normally aren’t very open to other bands. But it was a pleasure to tour with them and we even invited them on stage to play with us at some of our numbers.”
- Mathias Nielsen
(10.10 2005 14:40)

© 2005 Gitte