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Orkus November 2005 - Interview with Schneider

Romantic journey into Rosenrot

It’s only a year ago that Rammstein took their fans on a „Journey, Journey“. At that time the predecessor “Mutter” had been made three years ago. Now another album is available in the shops surprisingly fast: Rosenrot. The title was taken into consideration already for the last release but didn`t make it. But the quality of the song was not the problem, it was great. Only it would not have matched musically with the concept of the cd. Additionally Rammstein limit the lengths of their albums on purpose. A double cd? No way! Instead they considered already during the recording of “Reise, Reise” not to put the unreleased material to rest in a cupboard. Having a look at “Rosenrot” this was a good decision. Because it was not, as some might think, a way to make easy money with brushed up left-overs, as can be easily proved with the aggressively forwarding “Zerstören” or the monumental “Spring”. Only one question remains: what are the reasons for such a creative eruption which seems to have happened already in the working phase of “Reise, Reise.”

“After “Mutter” we all needed a break” Schneider reviews the time passed by, searching for an explanation. “With this we had, on the one hand, the opportunity to sort out some internal things, but on the other hand we just had a lot of time to experiment with some stuff. The phase of composing took quite some time. If we had made full use of it we would have had thirty songs in the end, but that would have been nonsense. Even more so as we had decided in the past not to produce unreleased single b-sides. In our experience only a few insiders know these tracks when we play them life. It would have been a shame to make no good use of a great song. So we directly went to the studio after the end of the “Reise, Reise tour to work out some of the existing ideas and to write new songs.”
It is easy to imagine that time can change the point of view of the own work. Additionally records are ideally created in a special mood which cannot be easily reproduced later. The conditions for “Rosenrot” therefore were not without problems. “Choosing this way to work definitively was risky” the drummer admits. “Maybe it would not have worked out when the pause between the recordings of the old and the new songs would have been too long. Maybe we would have had distanced from the songs so that we would have started to change them because they would have been from a different era then. To avoid this we went for a fast completion of the album.”

It worked; and even if “Rosenrot” is independent you will hear it is another step on the development which had begun with “Reise, Reise”: to be freed of the stylistic limitations to the inevitably Rammstein typical mix of styles of techno parts and sharp cutting metal riffs, which were a guarantee for success all over the years. Schneider definitely is satisfied with the musical evolution of his band: “Certainly playing together like a well-oiled machinery was a big fun for quite a long time. And it still is. But in the end you have to answer the question if you only want to repeat yourself or if you want to try out something new. There was some reservation, because we did not know for sure if we would sound like Rammstein in the end. But when we started experimenting with other rhythms and sounds we recognised rapidly that it always would sound like Rammstein when Till starts singing. We have benefited of the increase of dynamic and of the stressing of the human touch in our band – in my opinion.”

A lot of other people obviously were of the same opinion: “Reise, Reise” could be called the most successful German album of the year only one month after the release. In foreign countries the cd also stuck at the top of the charts and four songs of the album were released as singles, on which well known artists like Clawfinger, Front 242, The Pet Shop Boys or Laibach did remixes. This tradition will be followed on the new single “Benzin”with remixes of the song done by Apocalyptica and Meshuggah. Having a look at those well known names it only seems to be a question of time until a tribute sampler will be done to honour Rammstein. “Not a bad idea” Schneider nods, laughing, and jokes that the remix of “Benzin” by Meshuggah actually is the better a-side. “Bad, that it was not our idea what they had worked out. But to be serious: We really can be pleased with the remixes which are offered to us. It wasn´t always like that. Over the years we were offered a lot of mediocre stuff. But now we are in the lucky position to be able to choose. In case of the current single the remixes are more like cover versions, certainly they are not the typical remakes for dancing with a bit electronics and bum bum added. But I, personally, believe that you can forget about these kind of remixes.”

With “Rosenrot” there will be no media uproar like it has been the case with the cannibal song “Mein Teil” on “Reise, Reise”, whose video clip was banned into the night programme by some guardians of moral and decency; it is not likely to happen with “Rosenrot”. It is no surprise that the cover in blue colours evokes thoughts of the painting “Das Eismeer- die gestrandete Hoffnung” (the Ocean of Ice – the wrecked hope) by Caspar David Friedrich. Keeping in mind this packaging Rammstein in 2005 holds up the flag of romance and pathos. But you have to be careful with such easy conclusions when it comes to Rammstein. They often have done exactly the opposite of what they were supposed to do. It is still the same: the cover for “Rosenrot” is not a rose-red or fiery motif, in the video of “Benzin” are no flames and when romance clearly is announced you will still find songs like “Mann gegen Mann”, “Zerstören” or “Te quiero puta”. But: the title track, the sad and disillusioning “Wo bist Du” or the sexual-metaphorical laden “Feuer und Wasser” shed some light onto a side of the sextet which mostly has been overlooked yet. Christoph Schneider explains: “It is true that we stress the romantic elements more this time – concerning the band photos, too. But romance always has been a part of our music. It had started with “Seemann” on “Herzeleid”, but the guitars maybe covered it at that time. If you will listen to our balladesque songs of the old times they are very hard and raw. It as based on the emotion in the band at that time. Guitar on, guitar off, nothing in-between, that was Rammstein. Now we dare to show other facets. We all have grown older and therefore have changed, we are not the same we were ten years ago. In the past we were obliged to hard music, because we felt a constant aggression. That has changed now and it would be stupid to create this aggression artificially. If it arises: o.k., if not we have to stress other parts. The measurement always should be that you as a musician are satisfied with what you do. And it feels great to be able to transpose various things adequately.”
A much wider range of emotions which are carried by the music is the consequence. On the one end of the emotional expressions you have romance, on the other humour. Has “Amerika” been of ironical humour now “Te quieo puta” with its combination of hard guitar riffs and Mariachi-like trumpets is just funny. “We have some funny people in the band” the drummer comments on this direct musical happiness of the song. “We didn’t agree on this song for quite a long time. But as we decide democratically the pro-fun voters won. I, personally, prefer the cool or serious, the tragic romantic side of Rammstein. But it is tricky with humour. It always has been there, like the romance as well. Just have a look at our live shows: we exaggerate. Besides, in my opinion Rammstein always has been most humorous when we wanted to be really tough and serious and therefore everything changed quite into the opposite. Or when funny things were performed with a dead serious look on the face. But that’s a question of personal taste. Fact is: humour is good and important for us.”

For those, who will listen to the musical artwork of Rammstein with open eyes and ears Schneider above mentioned explanation – underlined with a matching serenity – is nothing new. But it seems as if parts of the media are not interested in a change of their simplified image of the Teutonic techno machos, who enter the charts with marching pace and a rolling “R” and well exercised muscles. Maybe this was due to the cover of “Herzeleid”. But because of the musical content and the deeply GDR-rooted left-wing past of the band members there never really was any reason for fiery arguments about their political views.
Having a look at Rammstein’s following genesis one could think the six-headed musical collective had decided to play with the media purposely after the first struggles. But Schneider denies vehemently: “Basically the media was not interested in us. Maybe only in the explosive effect which had been created in the beginning of our career without any purpose of us. Same goes for television. We have avoided them, they have avoided us. We do not like those playback tv gigs, where you are told what to do and what not to do. This year’s Echo-show was an exception. We were able to decide freely and even could manage to perform our “Keine Lust” video. That was some work to do, because we needed more than six hours to do the make-up. A whole lot of make-up artists cared about us. But it was worth the result.” With good effect and maybe for some spectators even strange, especially when the musicians appeared on stage in their fat suits to pick up the award and Till Lindemann only growling “Thank you” into the microphone, and then all of them disappeared. “We do not like long speeches to thank someone and before we say something wrong we made a virtue of necessity and made it really simple. So everybody could make up his mind if Till was doing a performance in line with “Keine Lust””. Thanking this way definitively was something different concerning the normal award routine. But Rammstein will have a price to pay for this reaction of non assimilation: next time they are expected to do something even more special. The drummer knows it: “ There is a big pressure to avoid boringness. For a long time the motto was: we have to do better. Bigger, louder, more spectacular. We then realised that was not sufficient. The elements of the show do not only have to be bigger they have to be changed, too. But the fear not to have enough fresh ideas is defeated. When we play new songs new effects automatically come to our minds.” If and when the new material will be performed live still is not decided yet. After the work and tour on “Reise, Reise” and the succeeding studio recording the band has no desire to tour right now. Scneider: “We just have been everywhere, even in the European foreign countries. It was great, but people have just seen us. We still do not have any clue how to solve the question of a live performance of “Rosenrot, but we definitively will not tour in the next six month.” It will be interesting what they will do about it. But that they still have enough creative potential, they have just proofed it with the new cd.

© 2005 Richiebaby