Back

Metal Hammer UK - May 2006

Interview with Richard


"Our first choice for producer fell asleep when we played him the songs! Obviously he wasn't the man for the job" Richard Z. Kruspe-Bernstein.



With their marching beats and German words, Rammstein are the most unjsual success story of recent years. Malcolm Dome tracks back to the beginning and gets the story on their classic debut album, 'Herzeleid'.

THE STORY SO FAR: Think about how unusual this sounds. Rammstein were a band from Germany - from east side of Germany, no less - who were arrogant-slash-stupid enought to think they could make a career out of singing songs in - get this! - German! Not meaning to be funny, but are they taking the reise?

But think about it now... are you laughing? Rammstein have faced so much prejudice in the 12 years since they first emerged on the scene, but it has had about as much impact as a lettuce leaf slapping a giraffe. Theirs is still a really remarkable archievement.

The band - vocalist Till Lindemann, guitarists Richard Z. Kruspe-Bernstein and Paul H. Landers, bassist Oliver Riedel, keyboard player Christian Lorenz and drummer Cristoph Schneider - got together in 1993. Despite all coming from the former East Germany - specifically East Berlin and Schwerin - they got their name from a town in West Germany called Ramstein. In August 1988, 67 people were killed on the US airbase there, when three planes involved in an aerobatics display collided in mid-air.

It was Kruspe-Bernstein who proved to be the driving force behind Rammstein (the extra 'm' in the name means a literal translation of 'battering ram'). Having failed to get the heavile American-influenced Orgasmic Death Gimmicks off the ground, he decided to stick to his German roots, getting in Lindemann (who'd been the drummer with First Asch, and was a basket weaver by trade) to sing. Slowly the line-up took shape.

They recorded a batch of demos in Berlin during 1994 - these have subsequently been released as the cunning titled 'Demos-1994'collection - before finally getting the chance to record their debut album, 'Herzeleid', a year later. And this is where our story takes off...

"The title 'Herzeleid' is an old German word for 'Heartbroken'," says Richard Z. Kruspe-Bernstein. "To understand what we went through to make the album, you have so appreciate what was going on in our lives at the time.

"I was breaking up with my girlfriend, and it was very tough. I'd never experienced anything so emotionally hard before. It left me frained. Unless you've been through something similar, then you can't get to grips with the way I felt.

"Till was going through something similar, and as he was a good friend I stayed with him for a few months. I suppose we helped each other out. In fact, the rest of what was to become Rammstein were also suffering personal problems of their own. So the title of the record really said it all about our states of mind."

The six members of Rammstein poured their anger and frustration into the music, determined to make it a cathartic experience. Their first demo was recorded at Kruspe-Bernstein's tiny flat, under almost impossible conditions. But this process was to prove vital.

"We entered the tape in a local competition, and won a week's studio time! We used that to get a better quality demo done, which included and early version of 'Rammstein' and 'Weisses Fleisch' [both of which were to turn up on the first album]. Our aim from this was to get both a manager and a record deal."

With the former in mind, the band started to hassle one Emanuel Fialik, their first choice for the management job. But, initially he wasn't interested.

"He saw us live, and didn't get what we were about. However, we gor a lucky break when a gig the band were supposed to do out of town was cancelled at the last minute. We went back to Berlin and nagged a local club we knew to put us on; we didn't care where we were on the bill - all we wanted to do was play. We persuaded Emanuel to come down again, and this he was impressed to say that he'd do the job!"

With a manager now in place, Rammstein then set about getting a label deal. Again, it would have been easier to make noise in a vacuum...

"Nobody wanted to know! But then we got a lucky break with Motor Music, and finally we were away."

So, things now took a turn for the better. The path was eased, and from hereon in, it was gonna be calm waters. Right, yeah, sure! Unforunately, folks, this is where the going got tougher.

"Right, our first job was to get a producer. What did we know about production? We thought the best way of getting together a short list was to look at who produced some of our favourite bands. Logical? We thought so, but our first choice was so wrong."

The man they went for was Greg Hunter, who'd collaborated with Killing Joke. But he wasn't what they expected.

"His name was there. He'd worked in a production capacity with a great band. So, Greg came out to Berlin to watch us rehearse. He was really nice guy, very friendly. But then we took him down to a rehearsal studio, and he sat on a couch while we ran through the songs for the album.

"Anyway we got through several, and he'd made no comment at all. That worried us. Now, the way thing were set up, Greg wasn't actually in our eye line. So we made a point of looking up at him after the next song - and he was asleep. Snoring! Great. I think at that point all of us realised that he wasn't the man for the project."

Their next choice proved rather more successful: Jacob Hellner, who'd worked with Sweden's Clawfinger.

"We liked the technology they'd used on their albums, so we met up with Jacob, and he was much more in tune with what we were after. But he wanted to work in Sweden, and that prevoed to be another problem. He also had an assistant, Carl-Michael Herloffson, who ended up doing very little in the studio. But that's another part of the story."

Initially, the band worked at Polar Studios in Stockholm, which was built by Abba. But they were only there for a week ["In that time, we did the drum tracks," recalls the guitarist], before moving to Hellner's own studio, which again wasn't exactly a change for the better.

"It was so hard for me to get the right guitar sound in there. The place was cramped, and very different to where I'd been used to rehearsing. It was a real change, and one I didn't appreciate. We also had a problem being in Stockholm. You see, the way Jacob worked was almost office hours. So we'd be left on our own during the evenings and at weekends. We didn't speak Swedish, or that much English, and felt very alienated. We couldn't go anywhere, nor do anything. So, our mood wasn't the best."

There was yet another situation that the band had to face.

"When Jacob started to work with Till on the vocals, we soon realised that his German wasn't up to the job. And, as the lyrics were all in our language, things got very confused. Can you imagine a Swedish producer working with German songs, when he doesn't actually understand what we were on about? That was very, very frustrating!"

As everyone will doubtless by now, sticking sharp blades in you're abdomen would have been more fun that being in Rammstein at this juncture. Misery was definitely a constant companion - and it was about to cosy up even more intimately.

"So, we'd been working on the album for three months, when it came to the mixing stage. Now, we let Jacob do it. Why not? It made sense. He'd recorded the thing... but it was a major error on our part. I was really the only one from the band there when we started mixing stage. And I soon understood that Jacob didn't know what he was doing. We began arguing, things weren't getting done, and I wasn't happy. What could I do?

Eventually, there was only one thing left. I called everyone together in Stockholm for a conference - Jacob, the band, the management and the label. We had to sort it out. Carl-Michael was, by this time, out of the picture. He was having his own personal problems, and hardly did anything on the record anyway. We decided that someone else had to come in for the mix, and that's when we came across Ronald Prent. He was Dutch, althought we did all the work in Hamburg. I have to say that Ronald wasn't easy to work with, and we did have some disagreements, but he really saved the album. I dread to think what might have happened without him!"

The 'Herzeleid' record was finally released in September, quickly making an impact on the German charts, clawing up to number eight. But there was still one more obstacle to overcome after it crawled into the shops.

"The bloody sleeve! What a crazy situation that was. We approved the photos in a car park without thinking what we were letting ourselves in for. When we saw what the designer had done, we freaked! We looked so... gay! All of us stripped to the waist. It was like an ad for a gay porno film. So we had to say, sort it out. Make us look straught again. Change the sleeve."

Inevitebly, the guitarist doesn't exactly look back fondly on the album. In fact, to some extend he'd like to quietly chain the memories to a stake in a dark cellar, lock the door and throw away the key.

"I don't listen back to the record now at all. No. And I don't think it's one of the our best albums - not even close. It was a very painful time for all of us. Imagine going through all the personal shit we'd had, and then having a hard time getting the music out. They do say what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, and in a way I am glad to have gone through so much. When you face up to the sort of crises that I was having in my personal life - which led to me starting Rammstein in the first place - then you learn lessons from these, you admit where you've gone wrong, and you try to put things so right. So, I have to say there were some good reasons to be grateful to 'Herzeleid'.

"Actually, the process of making every Rammstein album is very hard. When you have six people, all of whom have strong opinions, then nothing is easy to resolve. And you have to compromise a little to make progress. But I appreciate this is better than working alone. It's good to be in a band, to have a good sense of togetherness and a shared sense of archievement. The pressure isn't so intense, and other people'sinput can be vital."

Despite the obviously garish shudders from Kruspe-Bernstein. as he recalled the dark, dense days of 'Herzeleid', he concludes on a positive note.

"How would I sum up that period in our lives? We had to go through it to get to where we are today."



WHAT HAPPENED NEXT...

Remarkably, Rammstein have overcome all prejudices against the band's non-English lyrics to archieve major international success. They're now the biggest selling German language band ever on the international scene. To date, the Rammstein have sold over 10 million copies globally of the albums 'Herzeleid', 'Sehnsucht'[1997], 'Mutter'[2001], 'Reise, Reise'[2004] and 'Rosenrot'[2005]. And, with the exception of the debut, everyone has topped the German charts, while both 'Reise, Reise' and 'Rosenrot' made the Top 40 here.

Much of this has been due not only their incredibly catchy, self-styled 'tanz metall' songs, but also thanks to a ridiculous live show, which is so OTT it makes Kiss seems like an end-of-season puppet show on Blackpool's South Pier.

Their motto has long been: other bands play, Rammstein burns! This lot more than live up to that claim, with a show so packed with pyros that fans have been carried out suffering from heat exhaustion. Lindemann sets himself on fire, Lorenz is roasted in a cauldron, there are exploding drum sticks, simulated acts of sodomy and a squirting giant dildo.

Rammstein's reputation has also been bolstered by the fact that the Pet Shop Boys and Apocalyptica have both done covers of their songs, while they've also had two Grammy nominations in the past six years, for 'Du Hast' in 1999 and 'Mein Teil' last year.

Their strinking stage presence has also got them notices in Hollywood. They appear at the start of the thriller xXx, while cult director David Lynch used the songs 'Rammstein' and 'Heirate Mich' in the 1997 movie Lost Highway.

A couple of years ago, their lyrics even inspired a classical piece called 'Mein Herz Brennt', which was performed in November 2003 by the Dresden Symphony Orchestra. Rammstein - big even with the cultured classes!



© 2006 MetalHammer