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Rammstein: ‘A Burning Stage" Metal Hammer-Poland-January 2001

Certainly many of you awaited this event. Rammstein once again on the Vistula! Well, maybe more like on the Rawa, but on the whole, what difference does it make? They both stink the same...

Anyway, one of the greatest showmen that have been carried by the rock scene visited Spodek in Katowice on the unlucky day of 13th November. The fact that the 13 doesn’t influence Germans at all was certainly noticed by everyone who decided to spend that memorable night in the company of the Industrial-Pop-Metal sextet.

Shortly before the mentioned concert, I managed to cross-examine one third of the band in the shape of Christoph Schneider and Richard Kruspe...

Metal Hammer: I heard that tonight we can expect more special effects of all kinds than on the previous Rammstein concerts in Poland?
Christoph: Indeed. A few days ago in Germany we performed a show. That was at the same time a first night for many new solutions in the field of pyrotechnics and backdrops of our concerts. And in fact it was probably the greatest show in Rammstein history and today we brought with us something like 80% of that. So maybe it will not be any special event for us as we already had the chance to get aquainted with those novelties, but for the audience it will surely be a big surprise.

MH: I was wondering, with that amount of pyrotechnics, have you ever had any serious accidents?
Richard: Accidents happen. We are lucky that they usually weren’t serious things, but sometimes we have had situations in which our hair stood on end. Fire is still an element that you cannot underestimate. No matter what precautions you will make, it still tries to govern itself by its own rights. The most dangerous accident took place 5 years ago in Berlin, when a part of the backdrop burst into flame, but one can say at those times we had just started to experiment with pyrotechnics. Anyway, since then, we have been hiring the whole group of professionals who are responsible for the safety of our shows.

MH: How would you describe Rammstein’s music?
Christoph: Heavy and EVIL (laughs)
Richard: And it kicks ass (laughs) but seriously, it is hard to describe our music in any reasonable way. Rammstein is a band with more than one face. Moreover, everyone could describe it with his own words and I think he wouldn’t make any mistakes. For example, I would define our music as pop-metal. And that is because indeed we play it quite heavy but on the other hand we include in our music a lot of melody too, and those melodic parts can be associated with pop for me.

MH: Anyway, each album of Rammstein is very different from its predecessor.
Richard: That’s for sure. Let's take Sehnsucht and our latest album. The main difference is that on our second album you can hear a lot of computer and on Mutter we went for the more natural sound. There are more live instruments and I think one can hear that.

MH: Have you ever thought about your popularity? I mean, you achieved a position of an international star, recording your albums in German.
Christoph: Indeed this situation is quite unusual. And I can tell you that it is not at all easy to gain international popularity singing in a language other than English. You have to work really hard. Firstly, you have to go to a great deal of countries trying to convince the promoters and labels that they will not lose their money investing in you. Of course, at the beginning, everyone is shaking his head with distrust. The reason? The language you sing in. But the whole trick is to find at least one man who will believe in you in each of those countries. And that person should have connections. Then you start to play concerts. At first, the small ones, and then bigger and bigger and finally maybe someone will decide to release your album. You always have to remember that by singing in your native language, you stem the current. The eyes of all are turned towards the US, the US music is the one that floods the market. So, except persistence and skills, you also need a bit of luck and ... well, we made it.

MH: Speaking about the US, how is your situation in the market there?
Richard: Four years ago, we really achieved great success there. I am talking about the Du Hast single. The song “caught" and the video was liked too, so in MTV we were played almost till people could get sick and tired of it. The interviews started, then the visits in Radio and TV stations, and then the concerts. Everything was really nice, but unfortunately lasted for a very short time. I mean, at some point, we decided to come back to Europe and record the next album, but at that time we still didn’t realize the difference between the European and American music market. We just thought that we will leave for some time and then after coming back, we will find everything in the same state as it was before we left. But it turned out that we were all very wrong. It is just that Americans forget really fast... then we all decided that we must have someone there who will continually care for our business. In the US, to keep near the top, you practically CANNOT disappear from the stage, especially when you are from Europe. So practically, we had to start everything anew. Luckily enough, it worked. We just had the tour with Slipknot and System of a Down, and we are very happy with it. But the thing is, it really cost us a lot of trouble and effort. It’s not that you just come back and everyone is waiting for you. Nothing of the kind!
Christoph: Four years ago we were something new there. We were some kind of phenomenon. I would even say that we were fashionable. Everyone was fascinated with us, as something almost exotic. And practically the only thing we found there after coming back were our fans. Media disappeared somewhere, and were not really eager to find that we had come back. It was just that three years ago we were a kind of vanguard. And now it would be difficult to shock anyone with us. Anyway, almost all artists from non-English speaking countries experience similar stories. Now we have to make up for this by playing concerts. As American bands do. They spend most of the year touring. So the never ending tour awaits us (laughs). So, as for now, concerts are on the first place, this way we plan to reappear in the media in the US. Maybe not on TV yet, but a very important thing for us is to once more be accepted by radio stations. Anyway, I think that radio is more important than TV as through it you can get to a larger number of people. Richard: Also you have to realize that in the US, the market is completely divided and therefore, you have the heavy part to which bands like Slipknot fall, and you have a soft part. Whereas we are in a difficult situation, because we stand somewhat in the middle. So from the promotional point of view no-one knows were exactly to put us.

MH: I know that while being in the US you played with the Misfits...
Christoph: That is in New York. There was a concert during which we played the Ramones covers because of Joey’s death. During this performance we were helped by the Ramones and Misfits members.

MH: I have to tell you that I talked about Rammstein with some bands from the US and I got the feeling they consider you really big stars.
Richard: Big stars in Europe. And that is a different thing. I mean, we are not an unknown band there. We play concerts for an audience consisting of three thousand people. That is not few. But still, as for the US conditions, it is also not any huge number. But we want to grow. All that I told you doesn’t mean we had to start from the same position from which we had started a few years ago. No, the fundament already existed, even in the shape of fans. The exceptionality of the situation was that we had to work to gain the same position as in the time we were leaving the US. In Europe we are continually climbing higher and higher and in the US we fell down from quite a high shelf. So the situation was new for us, even shocking I would say.

MH: Anyway, I heard a few times some people proudly saying ‘we played with Rammstein!’.
Christoph: Really? We didn’t know that! Hey, give us contacts to those guys! (laughs).But seriously, artists there, as opposed to media, treat us as their fellows. For them, we are equals.
Richard: Moreover, the wonderful thing is that except musicians, also film directors appreciated us. I will mention for example, David Lynch, these people do us a really good favour. Firstly we feel really valued as artists and secondly those compilations remind the people about our band in a way. Not to mention the fact that there is always a possibility to enlarge the group of fans.

MH: In your career, you have played with many great bands. One of them was AC/DC...
Richard: This was one of the bands I value the most. I started to listen to them when I was thirteen or fourteen years old. So imagine what does a man feel, when he is to play on the same stage with his idols. This is one side. The other is, we realized that our bands shouldn’t really play together. It’s that Rammstein needs special conditions to fully express the message. We really care for the visual side of the gigs. We need lights, we need pyrotechnics, generally we need atmosphere. And it is hard to achieve that at noon. Moreover, most people came there to see AC/DC and we could feel that...

MH: So what would you say, if I asked about the band you would like to play with?
Christoph: To tell you the truth, I prefer to play alone. And certainly I wouldn’t like to support anyone again. We did it far too many times. It’s true that you only play half an hour or so it isn’t really tiring, but it’s not what it is all really about. If you go on tour, you go to play and not be thrown off stage when you haven’t warmed up yet.
Richard: I have a bit different view on this. I mean, when you play with each other, very good musicians, they in some way mobilize you to work. I’m talking for example about our last tour with System of a Down. These guys are really great artists, and looking at them you can see your own flaws. I like to play on festivals, where it is possible to meet people on completely different music shelves. And from those meetings, one can really get interesting experience. A very interesting and inspiring event would be the tour with Depeche Mode, but I think their fans wouldn’t really like to listen to our music.
Christoph: If only Depeche Mode would support us, I have nothing against it! (laughs)

MH: Still, playing with bands from different areas of music you can gain a few fans...
Richard: I realize that, but it doesn’t always work. For example, we played with such bands as Korn or Limp Bizkit, and for people coming to those gigs, Rammstein were too difficult a band to swallow.

MH: And real problems may appear when some band will not let you put all the canons on the stage.
Richard: And I will tell you how it is. We make money mostly on selling CD’s. On the concerts we are too expensive. And it is exactly because of those effects.

MH: And this is exactly the other way round than most of the rock bands, who make money mostly on the concerts.
Richard: I know, but we spend too much money on the organization of the show itself. Our concerts consist not only of the musicians and technicians, they also consist of a whole crowd of people responsible for visual effects and tons of equipment, which takes up more than a few trucks. So the truth is, we play concerts practically without any gain, if we don’t lose on them of course.

MH: So you play out of pure love for the music?
Richard: We make our living of the sold CD’s. And we are against Napster! (laughs)

MH: What would you like to achieve as musicians?
Christoph: We like our job very much and we would like to keep it as long as possible (laughs). Of course, I wouldn’t like to support any band again. I mean, being a support is fun, but we have already done it. (laughs)
Richard: For me, the most important thing is that your job should give you pleasure. If only you do what you like and no-one tries to exert any pressure on you – and that unfortunately happens in the music business – you are a happy man!

© 2005 Sue Lindemann