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Metal Hammer 19th October 2005 Interview with Till



Paris in September. Sun is shining and warms the hectic heart of the French capital city.
Rammstein has chosen a place of culture and vitality for their album release of “Rosenrot” (28.10.2005). Near the Eiffel Tower lays the ship where Rammstein give interviews to the world-press; the atmosphere is relaxed and happy. Whereas Till Lindemann (vocals), Paul Landers (guitar), Christoph Schneider (drums) and Oliver Riedel (bass) are attending a three-day-interview-marathon, Richard Z. Kruspe (guitar) and Flake Lorenz (keyboards) are not in Paris; Flake due to the disease mumps which can be very dangerous for adults. This was the reason why Rammstein had to cancel all their live concerts and their tour in South America for 2005.
But no reason for Till Lindemann to be sad. The 42- year - old vocalist is very relaxed and happy today. His t-shirt with the print “goatish” which he wears with blue jeans and black sneakers says nothing about his mental attitude. “I only wear it because it’s a present from my girl-friend” he says grinning. Then he offers beverages and the comfortable leather chair while he takes place in the wooden lawn chair. A gentleman who likes politeness and hospitality.
He opens the interview very polite and asks for our favourite songs on ROSENROT as he creates “journalistic charts of Rammstein songs for each album”. After our choice “Te Quiero Puta”, “Spring” and “Ein Lied” his face lights up. “Unstained! “ he is happy. “Today is a “Ein Lied”-day. Yesterday, the journalists have not chosen it, today it is the 4th time!” But before Till feels too good in the role of an interviewer METAL HAMMER turns the tables and ask the vocalist in one of his rare interviews during the release time of ROSENROT . Till tells some secrets: The background of the album, his procedure with his lyrics and his plans for the free time.

Till, in former interviews you have always pointed out that there are two Tills: the private one and the Rammstein-Till. You seem to be very relaxed being the Rammstein-Till now….
I am relaxed! We will have a break for 6 months, “Rosenrot” will be released soon , we have produced a video right now… I have already my house-slippers on (laughs). I feel wonderful at the moment!

The calm after work – so to say. “REISE REISE” is only 1 year old, then you release the next album. Very particular for Rammstein, you have never worked so fast…
Yes, right. But I would not do this again. It was rather hard at the end, rather annoying. We had time for two months, almost three, but we had no time at all to think about other things,
everything shoot from us. We went to bed with the songs, dreamt of songs. Very exhausting story indeed. But we do not want to have a break without a new album. Because after the break we want to do a new album and this means that we have to do a pre-production etc. etc. This will takes some time. So we want to lay a bunch of roses at the door of the woman before we scram.

This bunch should have the name REISE REISE VOL. 2 first. What is the reason for this change of mind?
REISE REISE VOL.2 sounds too trivial! Even though nobody would care about these things in two years. Then it is set and it’s done.

With ROSENROT you have chosen a title which separates from REISE REISE to make clear that ROSENROT is no semi-selection of REISE REISE. But a lot of fans could worry about that the new album is a selection of b-sides or wastrel. What do you say to them?
I say to them: listen to the new album first! ROSENROT is no waste material, in no way. Despite of the rather short time the album was produced with a lot of love. Furthermore we
always needed 3 – 4 weeks for recording an album. The formula is: you need approx. 1– 3 days recording a song. With ROSENROT only the time of pre-production was a little bit shorter. In the past we needed nearly half a year, this time not. We have concentrated seven/eight hours a day in the studio on our ideas. Everybody knew: we have to go in the
studio on May 1st! It was kind of fast motion, sometimes not so nice but in the end it worked.
Now it also works with the release of the song “Rosenrot” which was born during the last production. Why it has not fit to REISE REISE in your opinion?
Very simple: it is a clear single for which was no further place on REISE REISE. It would have been a pity to squeeze a further track on REISE REISE. A song with so much potential like “Rosenrot” needs a special own frame, a good place on the wall to be effective. And we can not put it on the wall before this wall is built.

Did you choose this track because of its strength as title of the album?
We always argue when we discuss about the album details! Which single should be released, which artwork is the best, who will direct the video, what is the best name for the album? Six people sit together like idiots, go into a hot huddle – with no result. Then each of us ask friends, people of our record-company and often the situation is so strongly built that we only can say:”Okay, somebody else should decide”. Emu, our manager, for example. We also couldn’t find a decision regarding ROSENROT. But now I am content with the result: the title ROSENROT and the tank ship, which is on the cover, is pure antagonism. But it really shows a cool aesthetic. If somebody has fantasy you can think a lot about it!

Whereas the tank-ship – like ROSENROT – is no new idea but the edition of REISE REISE for the Japanese market ….
Right! This is why we had some concern to use the cover again as the fans know of course that it is an old picture. But we said after we have seen the cover for the Japanese edition:
‘Wow, we will take it for our next album-cover!’ It means to cast pearls before swines to use this cover only for the Japanese edition.

Your decision to use the “old” cover shows some particular about Rammstein: you manage to change the image of things, to issue them with new values.
We simply experiment and nobody of us know during pre-production if this will work or not.
Other bands are doing the same. Metallica was smart with LOAD and RELOAD, this was genial. But it did not happen all the time. Finding the name for our album we have played with words on and on .. REISE, WEITER, REISE for example. Looks great in graphics.
But in the end “ROSENROT” fits our style. We like to take a song from the album to use it as
title of the whole album. Like “Herzeleid” or “Sehnsucht”. It is our tradition.

It’s also a tradition that there is a thread on each Rammstein album. Is it different now on ROSENROT?
No, not in view to the structure of the album. When the first songs have been mixed and the
order of songs is defined I sit down and compare the new material with former albums. There is always one provoking and controversial song. “Mein Teil” on REISE REISE, “Mann gegen
Mann” on ROSENROT. Then, every album has a firework, on ROSENROT it is “Te Quiero Puta” which resembles “Sehnsucht” from its feeling and flair. There is also one ballad: on ROSENROT “Stirb nicht vor mir”, on REISE REISE “Ohne Dich”. The song “Rosenrot” for me is like the song “ Amerika” – same beat, a song for dancing, for wiggling. We try to get this structure on every album.

Talking about the songs we have to speak about “Te Quiero Puta” – the firework as you named it. Did you write this track in the glowing sand of a desert?
No, in Berlin! (Laughs out loud). The track is fun, but also has a serious background: The gringos are riding to the house of pleasure, making party and noise. But our hero has fallen in love with a bitch, of course, he do not want to admit this to himself “Not with the heart, only the ‘lemon’, says the text. Nevertheless he declares: ‘I love you, bitch’!

This song will be great as the new single – not this Winter but next Summer!
Yes, right. And you definitely need an excellent video for this song. We have to be careful there. The text needs something funny but we do not want to be comedy-clowns. Although the fans will forgive us when we are not black-dark but sometimes a little bit more easy.



Beside “Te Quiero Puta” there is another very intensive song on ROSENROT
“Ein Lied”. The song is dedicated to your fans and you are reflecting your situation
as musicians. What is the idea behind it?
No matter what has written or said about us: the fans can be sure that we appreciate them – we want to show it with this song on ROSENROT. But we don’t want to slime and to chum up. We often asked ourselves if we want to say something to the audience during the concert as it might seem to be arrogant when we say nothing. In the meantime we do not care about this anymore. Even when we do not speak at all or only a few words I imagine that the fans feel the bonding while we are playing live. We feel a great and huge feedback of the audience and I think it is the same the other way round.

Which influence has this bonding regarding your lyrics?
None. I am very honoured and proud that my lyrics are accepted so well. But everything around has never interested me. However it happened that people said to me: ‘Hey, you are a tough guy! Come around to the “Sado/Masochist-Club”! I simply answered them: ‘No thank you, leave it like that’. I just use stylistic devices – on our records and of course on stage. Nobody stands on the balcony the whole time only because he read ‘Romeo and Julia’.

Is it annoying for you that people read your lyrics, interpret them and come closer to the character of Till Lindemann?
This is not the rule. The fans often interpret the lyrics in a totally different way as I do and that’s very good. I do not like to talk about the lyrics giving them a certain meaning. Chewed meals are not tasty! Everybody should have his own thoughts.

To have your thoughts is your main task in the pre-production and you have to decide which lyric fits to the song. How long do you require to find the adequate lyrics for a song?
It depends. Sometimes five minutes, sometimes three years. What helps is the “Rammstein-technical - inspection-agency (German: TÜV – note of translator)”. I give my ideas regarding the lyrics and the band members say their opinion or have their own proposals regarding the words. There are songs with 40 different schemes. The other band members really are extremely hard reviewers, sometimes they are so rude that I could barf. But after I calmed down I realize that their objections are qualified. Because I have written simply too much. I want to tell a story, like in the song “Spring”. The other members say: ‘Till, it is too much. We have removed one verse” I am totally down then “WHAT? You have removed one verse?” Then I have to try to put the information of the one removed verse in the remaining verses. Everything is huddled. Work for months and months which goes to hell in a handbasket!
Sometimes I go nuts then. It’s not a bed of roses.

Do you have to experience the situations and emotions which you describe by yourself to put them into words?
This is the best that can happen – at least for the song not for me personally (laughs).
In the pre-production of ROSENROT something not really nice happened to me and
during this time I have written most of the quiet songs.

One of these songs is “Feuer und Wasser” for example. Does it contain memories
of your boyhood as you use synonyms of swimming?
Partially, yes. The song contains autobiographical scenes from my boyhood but also elements of other occurrences which happened lately.

Do you write such occurrences and other ideas down?
Yes I have a file for all the words, battle calls etc. which I hear in my life. Looking for a good
phrase/word I go through my file and sometimes I can do something appropriate with it.

A kind of “Rammstein-kit” so to say?
‘Kit” is not the right word. It is more kind of a form, as the question form in the driver’s license exam.

This ‘form” assists you well on ROSENROT. You once more emerge as master of
metaphers, for example when you set words like “Tiefe Wasser sind nicht still”
(deep waters do not run still). You change the meaning of words and give expressions another direction. How do you manage not to replicate yourself?
I don’t know. It’s simply coming out of me. But I have to confess that the complete refrain of
“Rosenrot” is from the “Rammstein form” – and lucky me every word fits perfectly to the song!
This was one of the coincidences I pray for. Nevertheless it was not easy: also this verse has to pass the Rammstein-technical-inspection.

Do you read a lot to widen your treasury of words?
Unfortunately I have not much time to read books! I try to read more. I don’t have much time and I sadly watch too much T.V.! When I am at home I lie on the couch, bum around and call the pizza-service. A long weekend can fall apart like this.

You want to tell us that you don’t assist your creativity but everything is pure ability?
Well, I don’t do so much for it… sometimes I drink a little bit wine and then I write some words… (laughs). No seriously: I got always some notes and a pencil with me. And these two are also laying beside my bed. Sometimes I dream interesting, lunatic things and I immediately write them down after I woke up. Because otherwise I will forget the dreams after one or two minutes.

You won’t forget the tours with Rammstein all over the world. Did the tours help you to broaden your horizon and to get new ideas?
Yes. In the sense of more experience from which I can acquire! But I am not permanently in the “writing mode” working intensively on lyrics. I do this mostly during the pre-production for an album. All my senses are sharpened then.

A ship comes along. Lindemann pointed out to the ship, its name is “Europa”. He continues to talk:
This ship is called “Europa”. Eu-ro-pa. This is a nice word, sounds good, but a little bit
banal. But suddenly an idea appears: “Hey . there was something. Yes, it is also the name
of the concubine of Zeus”. Then the history has another direction, a subliminal second meaning. But I only mention this during the time of pre-production.. otherwise I only use my free time to write poems now and then: in the plane or in the car when I am not the driver. It does not work so well for verses as I need the music for my work.

Could you manage to write lyrics for another music-style?
Yes, of course.

Which proper style do you need?
Somethin gothic. Synthie-pop, totally overload with keyboards. Music which carries you, sounds like wideness and is full of melody, with heart and also a little bit sad and dark.

Do you like such music as private Till?
Depends on my mood. I like Manu Chao (franco-spanish singer), his record “M’était contéee”
in a limited edition with a song book which resembles a children’s book. A great album!
I also listen to a lot of Spanish music, but also to hard music. I’ve already discovered MINISTRY for me again.

The different tastes within the band assist you to find a new image for every album.
You all have run through interesting changes. On HERZELEID you have been the oiled machos…
Oh, the broiler picture! (“broiler” is the expression for ‘roasted chicken” in the former German Democratic Republic – note of the translator)
We have been convinced of this picture for 100 % but meanwhile we all hate it and can give us a kick in the ass for doing it! It is the most ugly cover.. very unaesthetic! Well, no matter… it was a different time and you can’t condemn it. We have worn slap-trousers … time changes.

Sounds a little bit melancholic. Do you miss something?
No. I am a happy man! Everything is well. The result is what counts. When the result is okay everything fits and you can’t complain.


Do you feel you are the same as in 1995, for example?
No, it is different especially regarding the song-writing. Let me say like this:
in former times I go to the wood, cut down a tree and drag it home with vehemence.
Today I use a technical milling cutter with a lot of high tech producing a board.
It makes a huge difference! Nowadays we know what we do. We are more professional
which has not exist at all in the beginning. We worked only with our hearts now it is more
influenced by our brain because of our routine and experience. If this is positive..? That’s something different….

Are you of the opinion that your creativity suffers from your routine?
No, not at all. I said deliberately: I want to make music and I don’t want to go to work.
But now it is work. Like a painter: we come in the early moring to work, get a task and then we paint. To make music is real work, real routine.

To you have to accept more compromise due to the routine?
On the contrary: we have to do less compromise. In former times we were forced to wear
a corset: using no nice words, nothing positive in the lyrics, no happy-end. Today we think
less about these things and it’s good.

Do you think that your fans like the less of compromise of Rammstein?
An album of Rammstein is a kettle of everything (“Kessel Buntes” – a TV-show in the
German Democratic Republic – note of the translator). Everybody will find something for
himself. For me personally I do not think that the whole thing is important but the song
itself. Every song has its own mood. In addition I combine personal feelings with each song.
For example “Amerika” I remember how Paul and me were in the studio at the mixer and tried to find a refrain for the song. Then we had the English words and they perfectly fitted
to the rhythm of the melody! We recorded and presented it to the other band members even though we had some doubts: Will they hate the English refrain? Some of them loved it, others hated it. But in the end the refrain adhered and “Amerika” is a wonderful song.

The “Rammstein-inspection”, the seesaw during songwriting – you won’t have this
during the next months. Now you have free time. This means for the fans: there will be not new Rammstein Album before 2007 – right?
Let me see… no, probably not because we will have a longer period of pre-production before recording. But after 10 years the fans will forgive us when we have a rest for half a year.
I had free time for one and a half month during this period, after the “Mutter”-Tour, this was
the longest time. But it was not really a recovery. Now we planned not to see each other for three, four, five months. To be honest: nobody of us will manage it. After some weeks we will
write ideas down and doing things.. We won’t have the routine, means: wake up, have a cup of coffee, going to the studio and return home.

What are you going to do with your free time?
I will travel in South America.. to write more lyrics like “Te Quiera Puta” (laughs).

So, we are back to the songs in the end.. which are your favourite songs of ROSENROT?
‘Te Quiero Puta’, ‘Stirb nicht vor mir’ and .. I couldn’t decide for a long time.. I think:
‘Benzin’. Or ‘Rosenrot’. The songs have approximately the same ranking.



interview by Thorsten Zahn/Metal Hammer – Oct. 2005

© 2005 Wübbi