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Rockhard (1105) November 2005 - Interview with Schneider



The new melancholy


Faster than expected Rammstein, Germany’s most successful band, honours us with their fifth long player. The epic, released end of October, is called “Rosenrot”, and it will contain some surprises. We listened to the album during the official press appointment in Paris.

Rammstein never was short with original ideas. For the listening session of Rosenrot press was invited to the French capital and then packed on a typical London bus plastered with Rammstein advertising for a sightseeing tour through Paris; of course no normal sight seeing tour..
After handing over all bags and left only with a pen and paper every journalist was given a sealed discman with a copy of the new album. This precaution measure on behalf of copyright before the official release and on behalf of avoiding the spreading to the internet can be understood well. The duration of the sightseeing tour is an advantage: one can listen to the album for quite some time. And most of the journalists do not have time to watch the sights of the Seine metropolis, because one is too deeply into the surprising sound of “Rosenrot”. A short review of the nine songs which were completed to listen to at the time of the press appointment:

First “Benzin”: a song which already should have been on “Reise, Reise” and which the record company suggested to be the first single. When you have listened to it you know the reason: the song is a real hymn with hit potential and fast pace, danceable as well as well as usable for headbanging. The lyrics don’t have any deeper meaning – or it is so obvious that I have missed it after the first listenings.

“Spring” with its construction and pace reminds a bit of “Stein um Stein”. Easy listening and with a nice piano melody in the background. The text begins with a “misfortune is going to happen and I have to watch it – story” but will change in the end to be really evil.

“Rosenrot” is about the eternal woman’s lure-call and the text ends (of course) tragically: “One has to dig deep dwells to find clear water” one deep meaning laden phrase goes. The song is not pompous at all, only bass and drums in the stanzas, nearly no synthesizer. Ace!

“Zerstören” speeds up like the title promises already. Classic Rammstein beat with heavy guitars, even a short solo part and an ending with an unexpected break. Take it as a surprise. The message clearly is stated with the line “I want to destroy as long it’s not mine”.

“Mann gegen Mann” also is quite hard with a nearly exploding refrain. The only lyrics which could stir up any criticism. Homosexuality is the topic, but of course with raw and witty lyrics.

“Feuer und Wasser” is the tragic story of desire and unfulfilled love. Accompanied with a slow, relaxed beat. A good song!

“Wo bist Du?” also has a relaxed beat with a simple but effective melody. A song with a basic melancholic feeling, once more about the topic of failing love and loneliness.

Then it is “Te quiero puta” and as the title already indicates: the song is sung completely in Spanish with a hard, superb and danceable groove and some Mexican trumpets joining in from time to time. The favourite song of most colleagues.

“Ein Lied” can be described easily: take the calm beginning of “Mein Herz brennt” and stretch it to a whole song, that’s how you could imagine the song could sound like. The text is an homage to the legions of Rammstein fans.

Even if the final version of the album will contain one or two more songs one already can say that “Rosenrot” will be the most unusual and the calmest album of Rammstein.

But first the question occurs why Rammstein have made a new long player that fast, when normally three years pass between two studio releases. Drummer Christoph Schneider answers our questions.

“Well, we had recorded too much good material in the production of “Reise, Reise”” the drummer laughs “ and as we do not really like double cds we decided to store some songs for a quick follower in the studios and composed some new songs. “Rosenrot” is a mixture of left-overs from “Reise, Reise” and brand-new material.”

But didn’t you have had already left-overs of other studio productions which didn’t make it on an album? Or did you have a special phase of creativity this time?

“In general there is not much material left after the strict rules we have set four our own quality management and if we have more material than needed we release it as b-sides. But this had been a waste of good material in this case, as b-sides do not get the required attention.”

One could assume that you had followed a masterplan with the arrangement of the two cds. After the release of “Mutter” a lot of time had passed by and therefore it was reasonable to come back with a loud, hard album like “Reise, Reise” to show the world that you were back. Had “Reise, Reise” been full of hard songs and provocative texts (just think of “Mein Teil” with which media interest was guaranteed) “Rosenrot” gives room to relaxed aspects, and there is only one text, i.e. “Mann gegen Mann”, which could cause some trouble.

“On the one hand we knew we had recorded too many calm songs for “Reise, Reise”. We couldn’t put them all on one cd. Therefore we knew when we were writing the songs in this year’s spring that we had to compose some harder songs to find a balance. On the other hand I must admit that we never would have dared to suggest “Mein Teil” to be the first single release, and we wondered quite a bit that the record company picked this song. So it really wasn’t our plan to provoke as much as possible right from the start.”

Do you want to tour with “Rosenrot” or will you have a break?

“We will definitively tour again, but not with this album, even more as we have toured a lot during the last months and as we have played a lot of festival gigs.”

Is it possible that you did not tour abroad that much this time?

“No, quite the contrary.”

But you didn’t tour America. Did you fear the Americans would take “Amerika” as an offence?

“No, not at all. I don’t think the song had a big resonance over there and some fans have thought of it as a “pro” America hymn. We were supposed to tour there this autumn, but we had to cancel it as well as the shows in Mexico and Asia due to the illness of Flake, our keyboarder. He has caught a very bad infection and we still do not know when he will have fully recovered.”

Our best wishes to him. Thousands of fans would appreciate more Rammstein concerts, even more so as the six Berliners are known for great entertainment. Their outfits are also always very originally. For example Schneider’s boots from the last tour didn’t look very comfortable for kicking the drum pedals or were they made of a special material?

“No, no, it really were heavy boots.”

You are having me on.

“Well, I do. I wore normal sneakers with big tops. Looked really heavy but was easy to play with. As a drummer you are limited in the choice of costumes as you need space to move.”

Well, you then must have a direct influence on that. I remember having read some years ago that your sister is a part of the team of costume designers.

“She took part in it in the past, that’s correct, but as she didn’t have the time anymore she left a few years ago. With the last tour the basic idea with the costumes was traditional Bavarian style. The Bavarians are the only ones who still care seriously about such customs. But the clothes had to look a bit “industrial” and they have to be made of a special material due to the pyro effects.”

And who decides who is allowed to do what? Or are you not limited anyway? It is obvious that Flake always seems to be the one with the weirdest costume.

“There are no regulations, everybody decides for himself.”

I ask this on the purpose that already from the beginning Rammstein was created as a collective and nobody should stand out, a solid union without a “star”. But already for quite some time it is obvious that Flake seems to have liberties and stands out from the collective – e.g. in the videos or with his solo stage performances in the shows. Is the union slowly going to be undermined?

“We are totally different characters. Some concentrate on the show, some on the music. I couldn’t do at all what Flake does in the shows. I am not the type for such things and I wouldn’t be half that funny. And for some parts he is perfect. I could be mean and say that he is overdoing it a bit and that he should concentrate more on the music, but the most important thing is the balance between show and music. Till and Flake are the show types. And that’s quite o.k. as long as it doesn’t affect the music. Well, some times we even play small clubs without the show and it still works, but some band members would not do such small gigs without show forever, they don’t have fun then. And the show effects actually are a trademark of Rammstein.”

So you seem to be the one responsible for the music. Don’t you feel limited sometimes because the sound of Rammstein does not leave much space for breaks and fills and instead you have to play only the rhythm?

“In the beginning exactly this “machinery” style was fun to do and I have learnt a lot. But of course the point was reached when I was bored. You want to develop as a musician. In the beginning my colleagues were against my suggestions, but when the songs were finished they realised that Rammstein does not necessarily had to have such a straight and simple beat.”

But in the live shows you are damned to play with the “click” because of the show structure. No room for improvisation in Rammstein’s music.

“We all suffer. The sound determines a kind of structure and discipline, anything else would not fit with Rammstein. Sometimes, on tours, we have some space in the songs for improvisation – but the funny thing is that slowly but surely after four concerts we all know what the other will play and we end up playing the usual stuff.”

As far as I know you play with an In-ear-monitor. Do you still get something of the concert feeling and the reaction of the audience?

“Yes, I do. The mix I will get on my In-Ear-monitor is with audience and stage sound. But it is the best for me and to protect my ears.”

In a mean way one could comment on that that Rammstein only very seldom has interaction with the audience. Fortunately Till does not do the usual “Hey, are you all right tonight?”-stuff and such, but on the other hand a lot of your fans would like to have more communication with you.

“I agree. Till cannot and does not want to do such things, and that should be respected. Some think that’s arrogant, but it isn’t meant that way. We cannot force Till to anything. And it doesn’t do any good if he doesn’t like it. Our music does not provide much room for trifle. But if we do it we realise how grateful the audience reacts and that they like it.”

And you already have the image of a “distant” band, also due to the fact that as a very successful band you only play big venues. After a small club gig you can go to the tour bus to meet the band, that’s not possible with you.

“Yes, and sometimes it’s a pity, because after a while the touring can get boring. You drive to a concert, hang around a bit after the gig, move on to the next town and you nearly have no contact to the world outside. You are always together with the same people, and the hotel bar is boring, too, in the long run.”

As boring as tv in which you appear only seldom – or only in exceptional cases like the ECHO awards.

“Only at these big events we are able to present us like we see ourselves. You can built a special stage or do something else special. You can’t do that in a normal tv show. We did such shows twice in the beginning of our career and realised it sucked, So we don’t do it anymore.”

You actually played live at the Echo awards show? I ask because you wore the ”Keine Lust”costumes.

“Yes, it was live and it was a lot of fuss. The make-up needed six hours and we needed ten make up –artists for that short five minutes appearance.”

How did you change into so reality-like 150 kilo(gramme) monsters? O.k. to enlarge the body is no that difficult with the usual tricks, but the rest….

“The most difficult part was everything with the skin. Special body prints were made, then a mask of silicon was made you then put on and which is pasted in a complicated way to 100 % to you skin so that the whole mimic is real. The changes between the suits and the skin are disguised with make up. And of course you sweat like hell in all this…”

So no chance to use it on a tour. And now I want to ask a question I have asked already in the past: after the show one always leaves the venue with the feeling that this show can’t be topped the next time – and you always succeed in doing better. You have to go mad with all that pressure on you to be better every tour, because everybody is exactly expecting this of Rammstein.

“Well, it really gives us something to chew on. Of course you always can use the latest light and pyro stuff on the market, but it is quite expensive.”

The German pyro industry would nearly be ruined without Rammstein. But sometimes the small things, besides pyro and such stuff, are the ones the audience likes, e.g. the part when Flake is thrown into the over-dimensional cooking pot and jumps out with a burning back side.

“We have quite a lot of such ideas, which are the results of group dynamic – but you always have to check out what can be realised technically and what not.”

© 2005 Richiebaby