Back

Melodie and Rhythmus October 2005 - Interview with Schneider



The journey continues

With „Rosenrot“ Rammstein continue with „Reise, Reise“

The fifth album is going to be released. Only 16 month after “Reise, Reise” Till Lindemann (voc), Paul Landers (git), Christoph Schneider (dr), Richard Z. Kruspe (git), Flake Lorenz (keyb) and Oliver Riedel (b) add on “Rosenrot” four new songs to some other songs from the “Reise, Reise” recordings. But still the new album sounds as one piece and does not show many similarities with its predecessor. “Rosenrot” is the consequently taken next step in the Rammstein biography. Melodie & Rhythmus interviewed drummer Christoph Schneider.

M&R: Congratulation to the new album. In comparison to its predecessor it is much calmer in my opinion.

C.S.: For “Reise, Reise” we had recorded 18 songs, but on every Rammstein album you always will only find eleven tracks. On “Reise, Reise” those songs were put which fitted into the dramaturgical concept of that album at that time, others we held back.

M&R: Which now are on the new album..

C.S.: Yes, we had planned to release the songs still in this year. But therefore we had to record four new songs. It was an experiment because we did not know if we could manage to finish a record under that pressure because we only had a short period of time of roundabout three month between two concert tours for the recording. We just gave it a try and we made a great album.

M&R: Which should have been called “Reise, Reise 2” in consequence….

C.S.: We did not want to disguise that it also were recordings from the “Reise, Reise” period, therefore the title “Reise, Reise 2” would have been a good reference for the linking contents of the two albums and it would have fitted well. But a lot of people in our surrounding, esp. from the record company thought the album to be strong and independent, could stand for itself and therefore needed another name.

M&R: Now “Rosenrot” is the title, like a song on the album, too. With “Rosenrot” you automatically have some thoughts how the cover should look like, something with red. But it is blue, with a ship…

C.S.: The cover was ready before we changed the title. Now the ship has the name “Rosenrot”.

M&R: But why is the album named “Rosenrot” after all?

C.S.: We always chose the album title from a song which is on the album. And if you have a look at the songs then “Rosenrot” fits well.

M&R: “Rosenrot” gives opportunity to a lot of interpretation. While the journalist Torsten Zahn, author of the official press text for the release, says, that it combines the beauty with the ugliness, my thoughts about it are only positive.

C.S.: But that is his opinion. It is good if everybody has his own interpretation. And still the word shows the reference to the Goethe or Grimm.

M&R: How does the whole topic choosing work? Do you ask Till to write about special topics?

C.S.: There are different ways. With “Benzin” Paul asked Till to write something about benzine because Paul liked the word and thought it to be a kind of homage to our band – concerning our connection to pyros. But there are also topics connected to Till’s life., e.g. “Wo bist du?”. Till writes the texts all alone on his own and then enters the rehearsal room with thousands of pieces of paper. They are put up on the wall while we work on the music. It becomes clear then which texts fits with which music.

M&R: It is always said hat all band members have equal rights. Does this mean you vote then? E.g. four of you like a text, two don’t, but you still chose the texts because it is 4:2?

C.R.: With 4:2 it is a clear vote. But we also have 3:3 sometimes and then you have to see who will have the best endurance. The difficulty is what are the reason why you fight for your vote: is it because of musical reasons or because it was your idea? It is helpful then to look for the purpose why someone is saying what.

M&R: How does a strange idea like “Te quiero puta” come to one’s mind?

C.S.: Till likes to be in and to travel to South America, so it was only obvious to do something in Spanish. On the musical side it offered the opportunity to experiment with trumpets.

M&R: Normally you do not release a new album that quickly, normally there is always a three, four years pause…

C.S.: This is due to the fact that we tour the world after the release of a new album, and so a year or two pass. And it takes another year going back into the studio writing and recording new songs.

M&R: Do you feel under pressure with this album? Or do you not care about the reaction?

C.S: You know that a lot of people will listen to the album, so you care for their opinions. But as “Reise, Reise” has been a very good record we have enough self-confidence. One cannot attack us easily.

M&R: Have you maybe some musical ideas which you do not dare to work out because they are not typical Rammstein and will not meet with the expectation of the audience?

C.S.: We already decided with “Reise, Reise” to do what we wanted to do. There were some songs which were like those we had made four years ago. But we wanted to try out new paths. Maybe the next record again is totally different. We do what we want to do and we do not care about trends.

M&R: And what about the media? There are still some colleagues who criticize you maliciously…

C.S.: If it is done well and intelligently it hurts, but most of the times they only serve a cliché or they criticize something without any reasons, about that we do not care.

M&R: Your life has changed completely over the last ten years. Do you still have privacy? Do people recognise you on the streets?

C.S.: If it is all six of us together people will recognise us, but being sole it only happens seldom. But that is quite o.k. It is very important that everybody has his private life. How he manages this lies in his own responsibility, how much he allows the band to be a part of it. For me it is very important to separate it. I do not carry my worries with the band into my private life.

© 2005 Richiebaby