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Metal Hammer.de Special 2004 - Interview with Emanuel Fialik - The Idea-maker

Emanuel Fialik (40), called familiarly just Emu by everyone, is the man behind Rammstein. He has worked for nearly ten years as the manager for the band, avoids publicity and loves control. For the METAL HAMMER-Special Fialik opens for the first time the gates to his management-firm Pilgrim and gives exclusively his interview-premier.

Q: Emu, you are as the manager of Rammstein an unknown personality. Even after thorough research there was no information of you to be found; the earlier requests for an interview you have categorically turned down. What made you decide to do this talk?

A: Yes, the requests thus far I have always refused, that’s true. But it is also not so, that a journalist wants to talk with me every day. Still, after ten years of work with the band, it is now worth the try for me. But of course now it depends also on the questions...

Q: In your special case there are lots of questions, but let’s begin with the basics. You have worked with Rammstein since 1994. How did you become interested in the band in those days?

A: The guys knew that I was active for the band Bobo in White Wooden Houses, furthermore I had worked half a year as a booker in Knaack-Club in Berlin. I knew Richard Kruspe from his band of that time, Orgasm Death Gimmick. Additionally (I knew) also Paul and Flake from Feeling B, who wanted after the Turn (Re-Unification), that I would arrange 150 concerts for them, which I had to refuse with thanks. And even though in retrospect it maybe sounds succinct: Rammstein simply came to me in 1993 and asked me, if I’d wish to become their manager. They played me four demo-songs – and I refused. The beginning pleased me though, because it impressed me that the band was not even then stuck in its way of thinking. It was important for them already ten years ago, that you could dance to Metal music. That I liked very much. But I could not imagine still then, that I’d work for a band with that kind of music, because in the end I was not a Metal-fan.

Q: But then you took the deciding step.

A: I took the demo-tape home and listened many times to songs such as Feuerräder, Schwarzes Glas and Rammstein. My girlfriend of those times, a French woman, thought that the music would sound wonderful because of the language. Then I was taken aback. The initial spark was still the concert that Rammstein gave in 1994 in Knaack. That blew me away. Because the band was still equally interested in co-operation, I virtually admitted my defeat and risked the try.

Q: It sounds as if you let yourself be talked into the job?

A: Little bit, yes. Additionally I was somewhat uncertain. I did not know at all, how I should approach this music as the manager. Still after I had seen the band live, I understood Rammstein. For me it was less to do with the music or the texts, instead predominantly of the first attempts at staging. While working with Bobo in White Wooden Houses I had always tried to work this out, but I encountered strong resistance and reached therefore my limits. Only with Rammstein was this nearly endless horizon found. I saw the band in a club in front of 80 people and felt the will to play beyond these few listeners all the way out to the street.

Q: Following this have you developed a vision for the band that you would like to realise together with them?

A: I knew that one needs also visions for the work. Our desire to create something shared has merged in this place. I think that was the most important thing when we met with the band. I am not like the guys, I have often different opinions as they do, I don’t like the publicity. These differences are a good breeding ground for a perfect co-operation of this kind. Only in this way it is possible to constantly take stock of the situation and to direct the look at the future. To that belong a lot of little things: staged interviews, clarification of the question what is provocation, dealing with the accusations and lots more. Still so as not to give rise to a wrong impression: in doing so I do not represent the side of the record company. Many people from there have completely their own opinions about what all an artist these days has to do for success. Just the sentence "But that does no harm" is for me an abhorrence. You should not do things that do you no harm, only things that are to your advantage.

Q: Would you refer to yourself as part of the band despite all the thereby assonant differences to the Rammstein-members?

A: One should be careful as a manager with these kinds of statements. You have to take a clear position as a manager, or otherwise you’ll lack the necessary distance. Sometimes a band would wish that you’d feel like a member of the group, but yet often not. The best thereby is really to have a clear stance. Rammstein is an extremely strong and closed group with a connecting link to the outside world – that’s me. Six band members, 50 men around them, that’s a long list. Whether lawyers, the record company or the merchandiser - I decide and choose who takes what position. I see myself therefore more as an "occupier" or an "intendant". This is naturally not a static job, but extremely versatile, because my role is forever changing. Earlier I have been more strongly involved in certain areas than I do today. An example: my interest was directed more at the music during Herzeleid, during Sehnsucht only partly. I talked with the band about that and noticed that they deal with their own music very sovereignly and do not need my advice in this respect.

Q: Does that mean that your interest in Rammsteins music has diminished and therefore other components have come to the fore?

A: No, I’m still interested in the songs, but I don’t say my opinion out loud anymore (laughs). When the musicians present to you the new record after the recording, sputters one about indeed with one’s comments, but the musicians are basically not at all interested in that, because they rather want to hear an outsider’s opinion. During Sehnsucht I did say, what could be a single and what not. Today I would at most still fight against one or two titles, if they would in my opinion disturb the album’s balance, but I would not anymore hold forth about the making of individual songs. Also on Reise, Reise there is one title that does not appeal to me, but that caused no quarrel and it would no longer be battled to the end because of that.

Q: It quite sounds as if your approach would have changed. In the beginning you were more authoritative, now you are more diplomatic?

A: These days I have nightmares, that no-one comes to the shows and no tickets get sold. I feel in the meantime that the responsibility has become greater, and that changes also my relationship to Rammstein. With some individual actions of the band I think that these perhaps could not find general approval "out there". With the music it’s not the same, I consider only whether the songs appeal to me personally.

Q: In principle though it can be one and the same to you as the manager how the music sounds.

A: It cannot be that for me; otherwise I would work for ten bands and not just for this one.

Q: That sounds as if you had the feeling that the band already has their peak behind them...

A: Rammstein’s success depends on their complexity and tension. Also their humour now becomes even more visible. However when this mixture of the band is easily seen through, it becomes less interesting. I don’t know, if that would mean that the band has crossed its zenith.

Q: But still you don’t actually have to worry about their status – neither financially nor in creative respect.

A: Germany alone is not big enough to preserve us this freedom in a long run. But we are lucky to be able to count Europe as our target area. Therefore it was important for me from the beginning to have success also abroad. Especially England developed into a sort of hobbyhorse. Until Mutter the band, which by this time already enjoyed a good reputation in Europe, had not played live there. This holding back had caused great curiosity especially in the journalists, which then made the people quite crazy about the band.

Q: You were in charge by this action. Still also in the normal everyday life of the band you must certainly often act as a leader, and indeed in different roles: kindergarten teacher, father, friend etc. Who are you most frequently?

A: Father by no means. The term "kindergarten teacher" I don’t particularly like either. Manager and friend remains simply a difficult mixture, but sounds naturally flattering. Let’s leave it at that. Among ourselves we have tried it earlier with football-terms: coach, goalkeeper, libero – but that applies only partly to the entire situation. I believe that the co-operation is so successful, because the characteristics of certain musicians within the band are often so familiar to me and also as a manager I have remained a big fan of the band. All the same our relationship is a continually difficult story. As a manager I have naturally a lot under control. I would love to know what happens. It interests me who does something with Rammstein and in what fashion. There are things from which I knew hundred percently in the past that it didn’t pay off to brood over them. Paul (Landers) claims often therefore that I would be the big no-sayer. So I have adapted to being "The No" of the band.

Q: Does that please you?

A: That’s a question of a psychotherapist... No idea, I cannot tell you that. But already as a child and a teenager the idea of deliberately entering an event through a back-door appealed to me. I still hate it today, going through security controls. With Rammstein I know, how lots of it have developed, how it could have been and what kind of dangers the whole thing holds. I am deeply inspired by having found myself a job, which has to do with this music and these six protagonists. I am the strong arm of this band. The executive, papal instance of divinity Rammstein (laughs).

Q: Before you started as a manager, you were yourself a musician in a band called ATA. Would you love to switch sides with the Rammstein-musicians?

A: Hell, no! ATA was part of a close friendship with a musician who later took his own life. I would not want to be on stage anymore. You should witness once a band-meeting of Rammstein. What the six do to themselves in democracy, I could not bear. That is so painful.

Q: Are you then a "lone warrior"?

A: No, no that. I like hierarchy. If I were an employee, I would execute exactly the assignments that were given to me. Whereas as self-employed I would like to call a thing my own. In a band like Rammstein I could not survive with my mentality.

Q: That sounds very determined, just so, as if you had learned your craft from the scratch.

A: No, I have just observed from early on my grandfathers management of the household-cash. In principle the business is often quite simple, you have to be able to count a little and you must not overrate yourself. Create yourself with the help of your records/experience an idea of profits, then deduct 30 percent. That’s the worst that can happen to you. More you need not do.

Q: Have you ever arrived at a point with you business, where you would have liked to pack in your job?

A: Sure. Basically the whole thing has something of a monoculture. Everything revolves 365 days out of a year around just one band: Rammstein. Also therefore I do not like that much to talk about my work in my free time. I ask myself often, to what extent possible changes of Rammstein would still amuse me. If the band would allow itself to be swayed too much from the outside, I would not like that. But if they would deal too timidly with their image, I would have a problem with that too. It’s a daily conflict.

Q: All the same you have never looked after another job. Could you even manage yet another band alongside Rammstein?

A: In Germany and alongside Rammstein probably not.

Q: Would you like to work with other bands still once?

A: Yes, I would like to fall in love once more. It’s purely an emotional matter.

Q: But it cannot be that you would not have "fallen in love" again in the past ten years?

A: There was a second time, but the band already had a contract.

Q: And which band is this about?

A: I saw the Queens of the Stone Age at Knaack and they were after Rammstein the second band, with which I would have liked to work together.

Q: Would there still be Rammstein without you?

A: Yes.

Q: Would they have the same status without you?

A: Difficult to say. I hope not. (laughs) I do have to fill my function meaningfully.

Q: Are you proud of what you have accomplished?

A: I would express it otherwise: I feel satisfaction over individual steps. Certain outcomes have shown that I’ve gone in the right direction and that makes me proud.

Q: Have you also had to experience defeats in the last ten years?

A: It’s a shame that a good film has never been shot of Sirs Rammstein.

Q: But that can still come.

A: There is already the Metallica-film "Some Kind of Monster" and that we don’t want to copy. It would have been exactly the right time to begin shooting before the development of Reise, Reise, when the group found themselves in their most vulnerable phase this far. But the band did not want this phase captured in pictures and I respected that. I did find it such a shame, because I thought, that I had finally found a good person for that. And what happened five years ago, that’s something one cannot capture anymore later. It is not a real defeat, but a missed chance. That’s what I call phantom-pain of a manager.

Q: In return there must be also chances that have benefited them. What was your biggest triumph?

A: The success abroad. There I see myself as a driving force, because for this task I felt such a burning passion. We began with that at an extremely early time. For me personally the most important commendation that I possess is the English silver-award for Sehnsucht. Over there it was really difficult to have success. I have always said when we began to turn over the press to us in England, that if the writers do not like Rammstein, then the whole world will read that. Therefore I wanted that the English would long for us and that in the end was the right approach. Because exactly so it has also happened.

Q: Nevertheless you have also chummed it up abroad, namely in the USA with the English versions of Engel and Du hast.

A: I wouldn’t assess that as a defeat anymore today, even though I did that then. One thought one could gain faster success in the radio with the English versions. But what did the radio-editors do? They played the German versions of the promo-singles. Then all became clear: why should Rammstein not sing in German also abroad? German is after all not your strength or your trademark, but something completely natural: your mother tongue. As a musician and a manager one still considers transferring German texts into English. Thank God we were free to discard that thought quickly again.

Q: How do you react when the band dismisses an idea that you are hundred percently certain of?

A: I am insistent.

Q: Let’s come to the new album Reise, Reise. Besides the unusual single Amerika the album is overall the most colourful work of Rammstein. Are you nervous of the reactions of the fans, who like before prefer the hard dance-metal hymns.

A: The choice of the single Amerika for example did not convince me, it was too light for me, but maybe it will become an important single for the band. If I had been asked that question before the formation phase of the songs, I would probably have advised the band to write a couple of songs according to the taste of the fans. But now, when Reise, Reise has turned out to be so multilayered, I like the album and I would not campaign for bouncy dance-metal songs. Because I do not come from the metal-sector, it is easier for me to get into the new direction. Richard explained the Rammstein-formula once as follows: hard music but still with a melodious and mystical tune. Exactly so Reise, Reise sounds to me still.

Q: Let’s assume that you would force the band to write songs according to a particular style. Would that be their downfall?

A: Yes, because it would not be fun for any of us. No manager in the world can exert that kind of pressure with a band of this kind of strength and presence. There my influence becomes definitely overestimated.

Q: Nevertheless you have naturally a lot of power, which also brings with it a lot of work. How do you set priorities?

A: That is often easy to structure. It becomes complicated only then, when the band wants to concentrate exclusively on the music, but at the same time lot of organisational things need the band’s decision. The question of power is actually put as ever only by the opposition outside our circle. On the inside stubbornness is a virtue of a manager.

Q: How do you motivate yourself?

A: I don’t need to motivate myself. I like to come to my office, because I like the people I work with. It becomes difficult always, when I get at loggerheads with the band. Then when the object of your own ambition displays dissatisfaction, all of it becomes really hard work.

Q: You seem to have fought out the internal struggles successfully this far. How does your position look outwards?

A: I can put up with conflicts quite well and to represent alone a provocative subject like Rammstein.

Q: Have you learned in your youth in the DDR to fight it out? After all you do not embody the typical image of an East-German...

A: The east bestowed me with a relatively easygoing childhood. Still naturally beyond that my challenges, my skin colour and the absence of my father, have shaped me. Someone has once said, that I would have been in repeated "inner exiles" – and Rammstein would be yet one of these. I need to a large extent deep, often almost intimate connection to the work that I do. To Rammstein I have established that successfully.

Q: Do you have also a deep connection to a particular Rammstein-song?

A: Sehnsucht crosses my mind first of all – for me quite an important track.

Q: Why?

A: I have a quite special connection to what the song expresses. Also the text of Alter Mann should be mentioned here. Besides by that time I had become accustomed to my position, whereas during Herzeleid I still felt like an alien, well outside the family.

Q: Which kind of music do you listen besides the Rammstein-albums?

A: In the car I hear lots of children’s music at the moment because of my sons; often and with pleasure also the Queens of The Stone Age, Joe Jackson, PJ Harvey and for a few days now the new Helmet. By night drives I’ve preferred for years "Fritz Wunderlich sings Schumann’s love poems". My girlfriend melts for Depeche Mode.

Q: When for you would the time arrive, when in your opinion Rammstein should break up?

A: I cannot decide that. Admittedly I could point moments, when it would be good to make an end. That would be then it for all the beautiful moments. But there is still no reason to think about that. When I cannot see my children enough because of my work, I consider often, whether I should still continue. Should this case some day come to pass, I would like to keep a long break, and because one of my sons is at a similar age as the children of the Rammstein-members, it would be conceivable that we do this together. There is still another reason to get out: if Rammstein would go in a direction, that I could not anymore stand for or if they would expect too much of themselves. I like to call that the "Harald Juhnke" -syndrome. That means that artists should or want always to be present, even when they have nothing to give at the moment. That I find dreadful, and for all artists, not just Rammstein. For this part of the glamour – which I otherwise absolutely love – I wouldn’t be a good partner anymore.

Q: What would come for you after Rammstein – except a pause?

A: Travel, travel (Reise, Reise). I have travelled so much, without having ever seen anything. To go on a journey and to pause. I know the railway stations, the airports and the hotels. The lacking attentiveness, which results of that, is almost a sickness already. Before I actually see something on a holiday, I need the first 12 to 14 days. But before it is so long, there is already something to do...

Thorsten Zahn

The Person

Emanuel "Emu" Fialik, born 1964, raised and gone to school in Gotha (Thüringen). He studied music for five years in Weimar, played theatre in open-air groups in East Germany and worked before the Turn in the Academy of Music in Dresden as well as a sound-engineer in different theatres. Unmarried, father of two sons. From his mother’s side Fialik stems from a sternly catholic family of Polish descent. His father of African descent was a banker in Cameroon and in France and died nine years ago. His mother, a kindergarten teacher trained in an Ursuline convent, worked after the birth of two children as an accountant. Fialik is the business manager of the firm Pilgrim Management in Berlin, which has taken care of all the business and creative interests of Rammstein since 1994. He employs 11 staff members by Pilgrim Management.

© 2005 Richiebaby