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Metal Edge - Paul Landers - January 2005

America Braces for the Return of RAMMSTEIN by Paul Gargano (Executive Editor)

"Long before they made "Du Hast" a catch phrase, German industrial-metal furors Rammstein blazed a trail to America with a stage show that lit a fire under the domestic hard rock and heavy metal scenes. Literally, lit a fire. Sparked by frontman Till Lindemann's explosive stage antics, the culmination of which saw the frontman lighting himself on fire onstage, Rammstein became the stuff that musical legends are made of -- An incendiary stage show, and music that was red hot to the ears, sending shockwaves rippling through the sonic mainstream. It was Sehnsucht that introduced the German six-piece to American audiences in 1997, the band's sophomore release making an unprecedented mark on America -- With vocals solely in German, and the band speaking hardly a stitch of English, they co-headlined a Family Values tour, their "Du Hast" -- "You Hate," in English -- lighting their way across America. While Mutter followed in 2001, the band's first album of the new millennium, it's the November 16 release of Reise, Reise that marks their most dynamic steps forward. After noting the obvious studio sidebars -- Reise, Reise is the first album that the band recorded in Spain, the first to feature bassist Oliver Riedel on backing vocals, and the first time they recorded songs that the entire band weren't in agreement over (more on that later) -- the glaring devil in the details comes in the form of second single "Amerika." Never known for their politics, Rammstein venture into uncharted territory with the track, making a political statement that, in the face of the current Presidential election, sparkles with sentiments Rammstein have never previously expressed. "Basically, Rammstein has never been political before, or ever, but while recording this album, the Iraq war was going on and we were confronted by the flood of media images and coverage, and thought that we could make a statement that things are not black and white, like you're made to believe sometimes," says Riedel. "People should realize that things are not black and white, and people should look at their own country to see what they think, and look at how America has influenced their own country, how they've Americanized the world, and what about America is good and bad." Is this the dawning of a new era for Rammstein? One where politics fan their creative flames? "No, that is the only song on this record that is making a political statement," assures the bassist. "Anybody who has been to a Rammstein concert has seen that there are things that we do that are humorous and comical, and there are things that go on onstage that are quite funny. We don't view ourselves as a serious band at all..." But it was on a serious note that guitarist Paul Landers phoned Metal Edge from Berlin, Germany, to discuss new release Reise, Reise (in English, Journey, Journey, or Voyage, Voyage) and the process -- or journey, if you will -- that led to the new release, and what it holds in store for America.."





Metal Edge: After the year apart after touring in support of Mutter, when Rammstein got back together, did you approach their music any differently than before?

Paul Landers: After the break, we took the approach that now, when we record an album, we're going to do it by our own free will, and we're going to do what we really want to do. After a while in the music business, you get into a routine, things happen automatically, and you start to function almost like a robot, and we didn't want that. We realized that we can do whatever we want to, and work freely, however we want to.

ME: Did you take a step back from the label?

PL: It's not so much directly to do with the label, it's more of a personal feeling you have because you've signed a contract, and feel that you have to do this or that. So it's more of an inner freedom we're looking for. As an example, you like to sleep with your own wife, but if someone gives you a lot of money to do that, and you're under contract, that changes the whole situation, and you don't do it of your own free will anymore. [Laughing]

ME: Was there a newfound sense of freedom on this record, then?

PL: Yes. In principle, all six band members work to make the album and the songs, and we work like building blocks putting them together. But now, the people that used to work more in the background, are in the foreground. We all always had input, but everyone was more clearly heard now, within the band.

ME: So it was more of a band effort than the previous records?

PL: It's important to point out that every album has been a band effort, and all the members of the band have put their effort into each album, it's always been like that. But on this album, it was made with a different constellation, or arrangement, of band members. An example of how this album was different from earlier albums is that we weren't all in the practice room at once -- If you wanted to go jam, you'd go jam, but we didn't all have to work on songs at the same time. Also, this time around, two of us always went on summer vacation at the same time, so there'd be four left in Berlin to work on the songs. When those two people who were on vacation came back to town, and practiced with the band members, they'd all be surprised by what we'd come up with. The result was very beautiful songs, and very creative.

ME: The band have referred to Reise, Reise as a more experimental album. How is that?

PL: The basic principal that we adopted for doing this album was that if there was an idea for a song, we'd throw it out, and if one band member liked it, we'd work it out, take it to the next level, and try and realize that idea as well as we could, and see what we could come up with. Because of this process, or this principle, a lot of ideas survived that wouldn't have made it past the early stages of recording, playing and songwriting. Because of that, a lot of ideas made it into the album. The other aspect is that, as a band, we don't like to repeat ourselves musically, so there's a lot of new elements.

ME: Do you keep in mind that a lot of their popularity is with audiences that don't speak German?

PL:No, not at all -- We don't think or function in a way that has anything to do with how we think we'll be perceived. If we did that, we wouldn't be successful. It's absolutely true that we write German songs with German lyrics, the way that we like them as German songs, not for the Americans, and not for the Chinese. We stick to what we like, and don't write for foreign audiences. We never dreamed that our music would be successful to American audiences, and it only is because we stuck to our original concept.

ME: The song "Mein Teil" was based on a German news story about a man who searched online for someone to eat, and eventually found a willing volunteer. The band approach the video very light-heartedly. How did that come about?

PL: Rammstein videos, in the past, have all told a story, or been a type of short film. This video was different, though -- We wanted to do something experimental, and we had no treatments, sets or storyboard. We just did improvisational performances. The concept for the song was that each band member had no idea what the other band members were doing, and each band member had one hour with the director, and one hour with the camera to perform -- We turned on the music, and moved the way we felt inspired to move. My performance doesn't really have a concrete inspiration, I just moved in a way that I thought went well with the song and the music. A little bit of inspiration came from Kill Bill 2, when Uma Thurman rips out the other woman's eye, and the way that the other woman moves when she's getting her eye ripped out.

ME: We know about the politics of "Amerika" and the perversion of "Mein Teil" -- What inspired some of the other songs on the record?

PL: "Stein Um Stein" -- "Stone By Stone," more or less -- is about how a man builds a house for his wife, but while he's building the house, he realizes that he's encased her in the foundation of the house. A basic theme under that song is how relationships work, and how in a relationship two people increasingly cling to each other. Part of the lyrics, in German, translate into, "Stone by stone, I build a wall around you so that you will always be with me."

ME: How about "Dalai Lama"?

PL: The song is about an airplane, and the airplane flies into a storm -- The storm is so bad that the father takes his son and holds him so tight on his lap that he suffocates him. When the storm stops, the plane is fine, so you could suspect that the storm only wants to claim the boy and take him away from his father, because the refrain is about angels, they say, "Come here, stay here, we'll be good to you..."

ME: Are all the songs inspired by true stories?

PL: In general, no, but there's one story that I've heard that we might write a song about one day -- The story is about a woman, in the States, in the winter, who was driving with her infant. Her car veered off the road and crashed, and the mother died, but the young child stayed there, in the wreckage, and ate and drank for four days waiting for someone to rescue them.

ME: How about the different approach to the music itself? The different styles on Reise, Reise, like the acoustic guitars on "Los..."

PL: In the musical sense, we used even less electronics on this album, because we believe, at the moment, that there really isn't anything innovative in the electronic area. So, for the first time, guitars are not number one, it's the vocals, the singing -- All the songs are built around the singing.

ME: Has Till approached his vocals differently?

PL: I believe Till has developed on all the albums, and has improved his singing even more on this album.

ME: What can America expect from Rammstein when they come here to tour?

PL: That's a very good question... It appears to be the band's fate that we tour around the world with a lot of pyro effects, and an expensive stage show. That seems to be what we do! [Laughing] But it is reciprocal of what our audiences are like. When we tour here, in Europe, there will be like 10,000 people in the audience, and it's going to be a very big show with a lot of pyro and an expensive stage set. Depending on how many people come to see them in the States, and how big the concerts are, that will determine the tour, and what kind of show we will take on the road. Much like Slipknot, who I saw perform here last night, in Germany -- Slipknot have a much smaller show in Europe, than they do in the States.

ME: So we might see a very stripped-down Rammstein show, without the pyro?

PL: I don't know about the whole tour, but if you want to see a stripped-down show, with no pyro, you should see us in Chicago -- Since the great Chicago fire more than a hundred years ago, when the whole city burned down, you're not allowed to use pyro when you perform there.

© 2005 Minx