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Krone.de - Interview with Olli June 2004

Three years have passed since the release of the album “Mutter”. And fans have to wait for the new album “Reise, Reise” until autumn. But Krone.at was allowed to listen to the new album and was granted an interview with the fire-fetishists.
Unexpectedly Austria was the first country given the opportunity to listen to the Rammstein long player and even after the first listening one can say: it was worth waiting. Rammstein have improved audibly and they won’t only appeal to old fans but gain new ones as well.

We listened to the following songs: “Reise, Reise”, “Amerika”, “Los”, “Wo bist Du”, “Mein Teil”, “Dalai Lama”, “Keine Lust”, “Morgenstern” und “Amour”.

The new songs in detail

The most remarkable song is „Los“, an unplugged played song. Bass guitar player Oliver: “We also have a classic Rammstein version of it, but the unplugged version became suddenly the favourite.”

With “Mein Teil” Rammstein will again polarise, because it is a song about the notorious German “Cannibal”: “You are what you eat, and you know what he eats” (wrong quote of the author, not my fault), would be enough to make the critics feel sick. The opinion of the band is quite relaxed: “It is only one song and not the theme of the whole album. Therefore we do not fear to be put into a special category.”

We were a bit worried with “Dalai Lama”, but “Keine Lust” is typically Rammstein: hard stuff, headbanging ‘til you’re done – well, long hairs will be flying in the air!

At the end the song “Amour”, beginning very calmly, then accelerating slowly and ending in a furious staccato.

“Which songs will be on the album?”

It does not have to be all nine. “In the mastering (process) a song can become better or worse – so we wait until the end of the mastering” says Oliver. But they certainly can choose from 17 titles; eventually eleven will be on the album. Why only such few? “After 45 to 60 minutes the listener’s concentration vanishes. If you have a very long record mostly nobody knows the last songs. Therefore we stop earlier, before the listener does.

Krone: Why has there been such a long pause after the last album?
Oliver: The last album was our third record and it is always said that this is the most difficult one. So it happened to be and we lost a lot of energy; we were on tour for a long time and therefore just wanted to pause a bit. This took nearly a year but then we felt ready to start something new. We spent another year in the rehearsal room and the rest of the time with recording.

Krone: Is there already a title for the new album?
Oliver: Certainly “Reise, Reise”.

Krone: We have listened to nine songs, but the management said, it’s not certain if all the songs will be on the new album. Is there any provisional tracklist?
Oliver: The songs are in the mastering process and there things can change a lot; a song can gain a lot or lose extremely. Thus we wait until the mastering is over.

Krone: How many songs have you taken into serious consideration?
Oliver: In total we have 17 songs, but only eleven will be on the album.

Krone: Why only such few?
Oliver: If you are listening to music, the concentration is gone after 45 minutes; and that is the time we go for. We do not appreciate such long records, because nobody really knows the last songs.

Krone: So before people switch off…
Oliver: ..we better do it!

Krone: Before the last album it was said you wanted to do something differently, but in the end it was a typical Rammstein album. What about this time?
Oliver: In principle it’s always the same. You always want to do something which is different, but in the end you do, what you can do best, and therefore you do it. Each of us can play his instrument well, so there is no change in the instruments. If the sound of the guitars is fixed, the rest follows that sound.

Krone: But the songs we have listened to varied a lot more than the old songs. “Los” for example.
Oliver: We also have a typical Rammstein version of this song. But when we did it, we already were a bit tired and then thought about doing it as an unplugged version. And we liked it better. We really try not to stick only to the old standards. And we have reduced the electronic elements.

Krone: The song “Amerika” shows some criticism…
Oliver: We could not leave that out. The war in Iraq took place while we were recording and therefore had some influence.

Krone: The first single release will be “Mein Teil”. Are you trying to stir up a scandal? The text is quite hard…
Oliver: Obviously the song is about the “Cannibal”. The record company thought it to be a good song for the first single, but not in regard of airplay or selling figures, but rather to do the fans a favour. We liked that idea.

Krone: And you do not fear to be put into a category? In former times you were told to be right wing; now you show solidarity with a cannibal…
Oliver: Well, it’s only one song and not the theme of the whole record. Therefore we do not fear to be put into a special category.

Krone: But maybe the media will do so?
Oliver: Than it’s the media, not the fans. It’s not so easy to put someone into a special category, only because he deals with that topic. Maybe we like to play with that topic.

Krone: What do you expect from the new album? Rammstein clones like “Ooomph” recently had a number one hit – is this now your minimum, too?
Oliver: We felt glad for “Ooomph”. If we will hit number one, I cannot say. Of course we know that a lot of people will buy the record, but the ranking in the charts? It will not be sufficient for number one. “Ooomph” had the great advantage that no other band had a song like theirs at that time.

Krone: What about videos for the new album?
Oliver: The first is already shot. It wasn’t easy. We asked some directors, let them send their stories but all were so classical, usual stories, we normally do in our videos. But we did not want to make it the “safe” way, we wanted to do something experimentally. So each of us had an hour to perform in front of the camera whatever he wanted to – we put that together and it went into the right direction.

Krone: Will there be a tour for the new album?
Oliver: Certainly we will be on tour in Europe in November and December – we will definitely play in Vienna.

Krone: How about Rammstein in private life?
Oliver: A lot of us have a family and love the family life. Private life is totally different from our shows.

Krone: Are you totally satisfied with the new album?
Oliver: There is always something you could have done better, but a deadline is good for ending something. At the beginning of the recording of the album we made a lot of calm songs and we thought “Oh, shit, where is this going?” But then some we added some harder songs.

Krone: What about the band itself – everything o.k. or do you have an argument?
Oliver: Of course there has been a bit of an argument, but now we are all relaxed again.

Krone: How long can you play this kind of music with credibility?
Oliver: You can change, too. We don’t know, how long we will go on like this, but I think, we will be able to play that music for some more time. Metallica and their music are credible, aren’t they? At this time, e.g., we still do not know how important the pyro-effects will be in the future. Now we are not keen on having them, but when the time comes, we want them.

Krone: Do you have plans for the USA?
Oliver: We certainly will do some promotion concerts in America. The album will be released there, too, but later.

© 2005 Richiebaby