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Rockmag (french) October 2005 - Interview with Till

BENZIN AND NITROGLYCERIN

One year only after the multi-platinum Reise Reise, Rammstein are coming out with heavy artillery once again, with their album Rosenrot which will blow up by October the 24th. Thanks to the single Benzin as a scout, this 5th album is going to be a major hit, the evidence of which is the nine songs we have already listened to.

On Monday, September the 5th, 9.30 A.M. we had an appointment at Place de la Bastille to discover the new Rammstein sound during a little sight-seeing. Since Rosenrot was to be released soon, a few priviledged european journalists were invited to drive around Paris on a doubledecker adorned with Rammstein colours while listening to exclusive album extracts. When the journey was over, we went down to the Banks of the Seine to meet the band on the red Batofar boat, surrounded by a PR and managers security line. As usual the use of English is prohibited and each member has his personal interpreter.

To begin with why did you organize this kind of promotional operation, with a bus driving around Paris ?

CS : Well that’s quite a bad start because we can’t answer your question. (laughs) What are you talking about ? What the hell is that bus going around Paris?

It’s a doubledecker, with Rammstein colours, for journalists only, and you can listen to some Rosenrot songs inside.

CS : Ah, we didn’t know about it. Did you enjoy it ?

Yes but I what I liked above all was what I heard of the record…

CS : That’s fine, we provide the journalists some entertainment, this is not as boring as the usual hotels ! (laughs)

Till, you hardly give any interview so we’re very lucky to have you here. What made you want to come to Paris?

TL: To tell you the truth, it’s a damn nuisance being here. (laughs) No, seriously, Richard is in New York to record his solo album and Flake is ill, so I had to come and help the others enduring the promotion torture. (laughs)
(While the interpreter is translating for us, Till, who wants to learn French, interrupts her)
TL : Malague ?
The interpreter : Non, non, malade, ma-la-de, comme “je suis malade” (no, no, ill, like “I am ill”) – she explains to him how the word must be pronounced in French. Finally Till will be taking notes on his notebook during the whole interview.)

You’re giving very few interviews in English. Why ?

TL : (he repeats the question in French while writing before he answers) I absolutely don’t know. (laughs) No, actually I think this is defining our attitude quite well. Our English isn’t sophisticated enough to allow us to give precise answers to difficult questions. However there are still drawbacks because interpreters may distort our words sometimes. We’ve had some problems in the past, and on some occasions we had to intervene on the interpretation that was made for they seemed wrong to us.

The interpreter (talking to me in French) : Ne vous inquiétez pas, ça n’arrivera pas aujourd’hui. (don’t worry, it won’t happen today.)

TL (in French, talking to the interpreter) : J’ai compris ce que tu as dit ! (I’ve understood what you’ve said!) (everybody laughs)

Rosenrot was presented like the following of Reise Reise. Is it really the case, and why didn’t you release a double album at the time ?

CS : Actually Rosenrot is a following for sure, because six songs were composed during the Reise Reise period : Rosenrot, Zerstören, Mann gegen Mann, Feuer une Wasser, Wo bist Du and Ein Lied. But we thought that too many songs looked the same, so we had to set a few apart. But since these songs were good, we had the idea to make a following even before Reise Reise was released. We dismissed the double album concept right away, for we don’t like making too long albums which are hard to listen to. Anyway the 6 songs we had composed were not enough for an album. Half of the Rosenrot tracks are entirely new !

Did you go back to Spain to record ?

CS : Yes indeed, we went into the studio we had used for Reise Reise (El Coritjo in Malaga).

TL : We did everything in a very cool and relaxed way, under the invigorating Spanish sun.

While listening to Rosenrot, I had the impression you were going back to your roots a little, mostly regarding the use of electronics…

CS : That’s right but electronics has always been a strong component in our music, even if it is true it was a little less important on our last two albums, because their atmosphere was less favourable for it. Since Rosenrot was not conceived for the stage, we could focus more on arrangements and details, which surely explains this heavy return of electronics.

The first single is Benzin. What’s the text exactly about ?

TL : as a matter of fact (he takes a messianic voice :) , some months ago, I had a premonition, I felt the petrol price was bound to rise. That is what the text is about, hence this is a prophetic song. (laughs)

Wouldn’t you have a prophecy for me by chance ?

TL : You want to know if you’re going to win the lottery, right ? (laughs) Well once I watched a movie called Love Liza. It’s the story of this guy who loses his girlfriend and his job, and who slowly becomes hooked on petrol. He goes to filling stations to sniff petrol pumps. It’s a kind of tragicomedy. A lot of movies were made on junkies, but never on petrol sniffers (laughs). I think it’s the starting point of this song.


Have you filmed the video already ?

CS: Yes, it’s on postproduction at the moment. In short it’s the story of some firemen who haven’t had any fire for a long time. So they desperately wait for a fire to break out, and so we see how their lives start again when it occurs. There are a lot of special effects, like destructions, flames and big cars. The video ends by the firemen rescueing somebody who wants to jump from a building top, but there’s still some misfortune happening… and I won’t tell you more about that ! (laughs)

On Reise Reise one could hear you sing in Russian and French. On Rosenrot there is Te Quiero Puta, which is entirely sung in Spanish. Why such sudden diversity ?

TL (he starts humming the Amour Amour refrain, and starts some insane debate with the interpreter about the likeness of the words “Amour” (love) and “Un mot” (a word).)
After several albums sung entirely in German, we wished to experiment a little bit more with languages, above all to make our music less boring. But the choice wasn’t left to chance, actually it’s a tribute for the countries in which we’ve enjoyed great experiences, like the Mutter recording in France and the Reise reise and Rosenrot recording in Spain.

And would you like to try some other languages in the future ?

TL : but there isn’t any other language ! (laughs) No, in fact, what I want to say is that for us, German, French, Russian and Spanish are the four most important languages. But I still have the idea to do something in some African language, but nothing’s definite at the moment… I also think it would be really interesting to experiment animal languages and sounds ! (laughs)

Can you do me something in animal language ?

TL (laughs) : No but, you know, animals have their own languages. Besides, our next single will be in crocodile tongue. (laughs)

A live DVD should be released soon. I noticed some cameras in Nimes…

CS : Finally we decided not to concentrate on a single show on the DVD, but on several, for there were so many great moments on this tour we would have been sorry to exclude some shows. So there will be some Nimes moments on the DVD, but also London, Birmingham and Moscow.

Will there be some bonus on it ?

CS : The project isn’t totally definite by now, that’s why we can’t tell you much more about it unfortunately. Maybe there will be some videos on it, but I can’t confirm it …I can’t even tell you when it will be released. (laughs)

Apart from Nimes I also saw you in Paris, and I noticed everyone in the group looked happy. Was it always the case on the Reise Reise tour ?

TL : Yes, this last tour was exceptional. We really came all together again, and we could see we were really working well together ! Harmony is back again with Rammstein at last !

The tensions that arised after Mutter was released are totally forgotten ?

CS : You know, the post-Mutter period was very hard for us. The band was about to break up. It was really serious, arguments came one after the other. As a matter of fact there was a problem with Richard, our guitar-player, who wanted to have his own way and do everything by himself. For some time he’s been working on a side project which enables him to channel his creative energy, instead of harassing us like he once did. Now everything’s ok.

Did you listen to any bits of Richard’s project ?

CS. Yes and it’s not bad at all. I think it should be released next year. Musically speaking it sounds very much like Rammstein, but the singing is in English. Richard does everything in the group.

You’ve just said the album wasn’t designed for the stage, this means there won’t be any tour or any date to present Rosenrot ?

CS : No there won’t be any tour for this album, for we do need a break. We’ve been on the road for more than a year now and I think we will need a 6 to 8 months break to recover.

TL : But each of us will be working on his own, for, after 3 months , it will start itching again. As for me, I think I will take up writing again quite soon.

CS : Most of all we need to go away from one another for some time, in order to be able to start over on a good basis.

Private discussion with Till

A former DDR professional swimmer, the Rammstein singer is also a passionate poetry lover. 4 questions for the bodybuilded and romantic leader.

You had a poetry book published, Messer. Will it be available outside Germany sometime ?

TL : I really wish there will be translations. I even found the translators, but the editor is a bit reluctant for he mostly wishes me to do reading tours, but that’s not something I really like. I wish to publish the book in Russian, Spanish, French and maybe English. The editor doesn’t really go for it, so it would be nice if Rammstein fans could write to him to complain about it ! (laughs)

The Rosenrot text refers clearly to the Goethe poem Heidenröslein…

TL : I really do love the old masters of poetry very much. I’m a big admirer of old German language, and besides Goethe, I particularly appreciate Heinrich Heine, Gottfried Benn and Conrad Ferdinand Meyer.

You had begun a very promising swimming career which you unfortunately abandoned because of injury. Do you think you would have turned to music had you not been injured ?

TL : I think each of us has his own destiny we can’t escape, still I am convinced I would have turned to music even without that accident. To tell the truth, I might have become a fisherman as well (laughs) The most important thing is not what you actually do, it is to make yourself happy by doing it, and music made me a happy man.

Which artists made you want to sing ?

TL : There is none… Or it would be the contrary rather, some of them might have put me off singing forever ! (laughs)


Meisterklasse interview

Both drummer and historic member of Rammstein, Christoph Schneider talks about his beginnings… as a guitar and trumpet player !

What made you want to start playing the drums ?

CS : There’s always a moment in life when you know what you really want to do, and, as for me, I knew very early I wanted to become a musician. I started playing the guitar and… the trumpet ! (laughs), but very soon I had to admit the trumpet wasn’t the ideal instrument to play rock ! And I didn’t find myself really handsome holding a guitar whenever I looked at myself in the mirror. So I chose the drums which suited my complexion better. (laughs)

Is it you that played the trumpet on the song in Spanish Te Quiero Puta ?

CS : No, unfortunately, I wouldn’t be able to anymore. It’s been too long since I picked up a trumpet !

What was your first musical shock ?

CS : The Wall, the monumental Pink Floyd album. It’s the very first rock record I ever heard and I was blown away.

© 2005 Aeon