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Rockzone (Spain) October 2005 - Interview with Till and Oli

RAMMSTEIN: Putting the fire out with gasoline


Only one year has passed since they published Reise, Reise, but the mighty Rammstein have already a new album to go. Even though, in the meantime, they have not ceased to fire up half the world with their incendiary concerts. We went all the way to Paris, to listen and discover the origin of Rosenrot, their new creation.
Text: Jordi Meya Photos: DR/ Carles Rodriguez (direct)


If there is one thing that I hate in this world it is waking up early. I know there are people who do this every single day of their lives, but for me a ringing alarm clock at five o´clock in the morning is a torture, that I´m willing to endure only for very special occasions. This one, on September 7th, is one of those. We´ve been summoned to be at the exclusive first hearing of Rammstein’s new album at 11:30 a.m. And it’s not about me living in a forgotten cave in the middle of the mountains, it´s because the appointment is in Paris and to be on time we´ll have to catch the first flight that goes there.
On our way to the airport, I listen to a radio broadcast where there is a debate about the problem of education in Spain. A journalist says that the main problem is that parents have no time to be with their children. But a sociologist remarks that with two basic concepts, as discipline and organization, all those problems would be over. Mmmmhhh… discipline and organization. Those two words are really present for the members of Rammstein. Only that way it´s understandable that they could complete an album with whole new material (we’re not talking about a compilation or a live record of the Reise, Reise’s tour). Although in their case there are no merits. After all Rammstein is German.

French Connection.

We arrive at Paris Airport promptly. There we meet a colleague from Heavy Rock Magazine and the translator sent by the record label, because, as experience has shown that, with the exception of Richard Z. Kruspe, the rest of Rammstein’s members do not speak English or feel more comfortable with speaking German. Nothing further to say here.
The cover of Rosenrot (Universal) shows a big ship stuck in between the ice, and that’s maybe why the appointment with the media was coming from all Europe was set at a docking pier placed in Seine River. Like in a spy movie, the taxicab leaves us at the river bank, where a press person asks us to get on a boat, on its deck we’re given a CD player completely sealed and a sheet of paper in which we make a commitment not to copy its content. Naturally, inside this CD player we find Rosenrot. Or at least nine of the ten or eleven songs it will contain. The ship leaves the pier, and as we put on the headphones and to explore how the new creation sounds like, we enjoy a nice sightseeing of the Eiffel Tower from the river. Maybe the soundtrack is not the one that a tourist guide might choose, but having seen the reaction of the journalists –some of them banging their heads back and forth, another ones hitting their pens as drumsticks, and some others following the beat stomping their leg- it seems that the album is being very well liked. Possibly the Rammstein fans will feel the same. Rosenrot, which will be in the stores at the end of October, goes deeper in Reise, Reise’s working line of looking for more organic strands for their sound. Here we can find typical Rammstein songs as the single ‘Benzin’, ‘Spring’ or ‘Mann Gegen Mann’, and another ones where we find a bass line that reminds of Depeche Mode (‘Rosenrot’), a high speeding song with a female voice introduction (‘Zerstören’), and even a couple of slow ones, ‘Feuer & Wasser’ and ‘Ein Lied’, the latter having a dreamy air like Mercury Rev. Although the song that comes to our attention the most even from its name, is ‘Te Quiero Puta’. It’s a kind of ‘mexican corrido’, melted with slashing guitars which are trade mark of the band, all arranged with mariachi trumpets and clearly sexual lyrics, which end up in the most politically incorrect chorus of the year. The record finishes and the boat leaves us next to the bridge of Alexander III, where a little snack has been arranged as we wait for the band. Due to the work up to this point, I’m expecting even that Till Lindemann (singer), Paul Landers (guitar), Richard Z- Kruspe (guitar), Christoph Schneider (drummer), Oliver Riedel (bass guitar) and Flake Lorenz (keyboards) might arrive to the interview session in parachutes. Nevertheless, the band gets here in a more conventional way, but also spectacular. Two black vans come out of the blue, as if they were from the A Team, and park 50 metres from a boat were they climb out. As we can also see in their concerts, this people really pay attention to the stage design.
After a little waiting we’re told that we’ll be the first ones to interview them, and that we got Till and Oliver. It’s curious, since we have never had the chance, before this, to speak to the lead singer, who is unlikely to give any interview. Lindemann, almost as huge as he seems on stage, shakes our hand tightly, clumsily speaks four words in Spanish and immediately asks us which are the three songs that we’ve liked the most, and writes the answer on a piece of paper. Discipline and organization.

When you published Reise, Reise, a year ago, you also said that it would be likely to have a Reise, Reise Vol. 2. When did it start to be Rosenrot?
Till Lindeman: In between Mutter and Reise, Reise there was much time, so we had lots of compositions stocked, much material. We had at least four really good songs which didn´t fit into the Reise, Reise concept, so we thought of making some kind of sequel or second part of that one. On the other hand, as we started to work on it we realized that we had a new album, with a being of its own. Is like having a bathtub with lots of water and then you fill up another bathtub with the same water (Note of the writer: that might be a very German metaphor). In fact when we started to work on Reise, Reise we even pondered a double album, but we had already committed to make a tour and it was impossible to finish it. What is really important when you put out a record is that is has a feeling of its own, reflecting the time when it was created. In that sense, Reise, Reise and Rosenrot do share something, but are completely different.

Did you write and record the album during the last tour? Isn’t that very complicated?
T.L.: During the touring season the creative process stops, we don’t do anything but concentrate on the concerts. The album was recorded after we finished the winter tour, and before we began with the festivals. We had about three months to do it, which is not much. But we put ourselves under that pressure to make it, because after that summer tour we wanted to take a long time out and we didn’t want to fade out from public view without leaving them an album. The album was recorded in Berlin during those three months, with a very strict and rigid schedule. There was a lot of discipline, about 10 to 12 hours a day for pre-production, and after that the recording process.

This album sounds less to a machine, and more to people playing together. Is that your way to follow, to try and humanize Rammstein?
Oliver Riedel: Well, it´s a path you can turn the other way around. Today you get more resources and possibilities, with the computers. It is true that now we`re looking for a more human sound, but maybe someday we`ll be going back to pure and hard industrial sound.

But Rammstein’s sound seems so defined and determined. How do you try to evolve without losing the essence of your sound?
O.R.: It`s not that hard. We`re the same six people playing together, and the same guitars which have a most characteristic sound. Our characters determine our style. But we do evolve in our way of playing our instruments and our attitude towards the music. I think that’s something that was shown with Reise, Reise. We were a little bored of playing always the same way.

The feeling is that Rammstein only listens to Rammstein. It is difficult to appreciate new tendencies or fashions with you.
O.R.: That might be true, but I think of it as something positive. We’re open to many external influences, but not to a leading one. We listen to different and various music. Before the concerts we listen to Mexican music, because Till loves it. That’s where ‘Te quiero puta’ came from.

We read in the Press Release we were given at the hearing that the album’s lyrics were born from a union of children’s tales and German poetry. How have you worked in that concept?
T. L.: All that concept thing is complete rubbish. It’s something that a journalist or someone at the record label came up with when they wrote that release. They might be trying to find a thread in order to make it look more interesting, but they have made up that. Our songs come from the stomach, they are individual songs, each one has its own story. There is no concept at all.

Is there going to be a Rosenrot tour, or you’re going to disappear?
T. L.: As I’ve told you before, we’re taking a six month break. There will be more Rammstein tours, but we don’t know when they are going to be. The only thing that’s clear is that in the next one we’ll be playing songs from Rosenrot.

On your previous tour you had the most spectacular stage, with lots of special effects. That requires a lot of money and a huge manpower. Aren’t you stressed out by having such a big machinery?
O. R.: It is stressing indeed, but when everything’s on the move and we’re on the road it is also more rewarding. It has its disadvantages, as for example when we have spontaneous offering for us to play somewhere, we can’t react to that because we haven’t the appropriate flexibility. Everything requires a long term planning. But in life, blessings come along with curses.

With your last tour you have conquered the United Kingdom for good, perhaps the only European market that was reluctant to you. Do you think that there were language prejudices until now? Do you feel any kind of special satisfaction about achieving this?
O. R.: Of course, we’re very pleased with this. It might have had something to do with the record label because they weren’t very supportive at the beginning. It’s not that we’ve bugged them but the people that are now with us understand us better. We knew there was a potential audience and it seems that now we’ve made it.

Rock world is monopolized by English language and Anglo-Saxon bands. The fact of not only singing in German, but doing all the press and publicity in German, is your way to indicate diversity?
O. R.: Yes, it’s our calling for all cultures to look after their own identities. There’s no need to look to USA so much and try to copycat them, and the world would even be more colourful if there were more international music, in different languages. It would be prettier.

At least to you, that hasn’t been a barrier…
T. L.: Usually I don’t make a distinction if I`m playing in Germany or anywhere else. The concert’s time is a moment of a strong visual impact, the sound is very intense and we do not focus on language matters. What has impressed us is, for example, seeing that in Japan the people are trying to mimic our phonetics. Anyway, people complaining about the dominion of American culture should take a look into their closets and see how many Levi’s they have or how many times they eat at Burger King’s.

Have you quit on conquering the US? During Sehnsucht you did a lot of touring over there...
O.R.: It is very hard to be successful there. You’d have to focus on them only. If you spend two years without playing over there, the record label forgets about you and you have to start from zero. It is a country with very different markets, which requires a lot of energy. And we want to do more stuff. You can’t reach everything. In Europe we’ve been welcomed so enthusiastically that it would be foolish not to enjoy while we’re touring here.

In Spain you’ve found a very faithful audience, maybe the most enthusiastic you have in all Europe.
O. R.: I think that saying that Spaniard fans are the most enthusiastic ones in Europe is not accurate any more, because the response of the audience in France is even bigger. That’s why we’re doing these interviews in Paris. It’s not that we have a special relationship with Spain. If we went there for recording is because it’s in the south and we wanted a warm place. A place where you can breathe the air and relax.


The crisis is over

Before putting out Reise, Reise the band went through a really big internal crisis, based on the fact that Richard wanted to keep the creative control of the band. The fact of you being able to produce a record so fast, is it to make clear that the crisis is over?
T. L.: We’re six people, and each one of us has his own feelings, impressions and sensations, and that means that each one expresses himself in a different way. There wasn’t really a crisis. What we had was really a period of time in which the co-working between some members of the band was not as fluent as it used to be. We had talked about it, but I wouldn’t refer to that as a crisis, We’re getting along better than ever now. But we have been together for ten years now and this is like a six-people marriage... from time to time is necessary to take a break. I like to think of it as a boxing match. After twelve rounds, you need to stop and get ready for the next match.
Oliver: The crisis, if you’d like to call it that way, is completely over. It is something that belongs to the past. It was already over with Reise, Reise, which was brought to life in a very harmonic way, and that is something that has continued with this album.

From what you say I get that the six of you are alike in the band, but for example the audience has the sensation that Flake is more a comic character than a musician. Which is his real role in the band?
T. L.: The opinion of each one of us is important. When we write a song everyone speaks his mind about what he likes and what he doesn’t like, and we share thoughts. We make decisions in a democratic way. The truth is that Flake usually speaks really only a little, but whenever he speaks he’s 100% right. There was this moment when we had to make four or five very important decisions for the band, and his interventions were the key to achieve a positive result. Besides, Flake is a master when it comes to keyboards and coming up with sounds. Everything that sounds a little bit absurd in our music is his work. Besides, we can’t picture ourselves onstage without him. He’s a vital part of our show.

Precisely Flake was the ‘victim’ of a mimic of sexual intercourse from you, Till, in your previous tours. You have always played with homosexuality as a topic in your image, and in this new album there is a song called ‘Mann Geggen Mann’ (Man against Man) that speaks about to masculine lovers. Is it that there is anyone gay in the band?
T.L.: Sissy, no (laughs). Anyway, I can’t see the fact that we’ve used the gay image that much. In that song we’re not talking about any conflict, but just the facts. Discrimination against gay people is not as strong as it used to be, but still subsides. It’s a fact, they’re insulted lots of times and that is reflected lightly in the lyrics, but what we really wanted to say in the context of a pop lyric is that, deep down, being gay is cool. Is something that Spaniards should take notice. If you think about how much time and money it takes to conquer a woman, to take her out to dinner, buying her flowers... well, gay people go to a store, they look at each other and have everything worked out. Maybe the lyrics reflect a little bit also the envy we feel for them in that sense.

It really comes to attention that, despite being very methodical and very serious in everything you do, deep down it seems that you’re having a laugh about everything.
O. R.: When we looked for our identity we decided to play along with the cliché people have when it comes to German people, that we’re very serious and without any sense of humour. But by joking about it we’re breaking with it. We just try to make things the best way possible, even to have fun.

© 2005 Mafiundommiel