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Suosikki(Finnish) - Janauary 06

Interview with Oli

Out-of-control, belligerent and grotesque, on their videos Rammstein looks like wild men broken free from their cage. However, the band members say that everything’s well though out. The videos, performances and recordings are all carried out just as planned and not paying attention to their cost.

- That’s one explanation why we never seem to have enough money, laughs the bass-player Oliver Riedel at the band’s meticulousness.

- Once the pie is divided into 6 parts, none of us can settle down comfortably in a countryside manor. Me, I hide my earnings in a sock I keep under my pillow.

When Rammstein’s album Rosenrot was released in the UK, the band decided to make their British fans happy by organizing a 3-day visit to London. Fans were ever so happy with the autographs they got in the midnight signing session, but their enthusiasm wasn’t unfortunately enough. All of the radio interviews were in danger of being called off because none of the stations were too keen on broadcasting a bilingual interview made with the aid of an interpreter. Then again, the only member of the band who spoke fluent English was the drummer Christoph Schneider. Honestly, who distinguished reporter would want to discuss with a mere pot-banging drummer?

After the negotiations Schneider had to make do. Wrestling with the bureaucracy made the musicians, all born on the wrong side of the Berlin wall, feel nostalgic.

- Starting a band was not encouraged in the DDR, because public performances could be done only if you had the permit for it. Acquiring one was not due to the band’s or the musician’s talents, the officials in charge of the permits were just ordinary clerks. The most important thing was, that the music did not question the communist party, Riedel points out.

- Most of the Germans are still ashamed about the nation’s past, but Rammstein lives in the present. We can’t be held responsible for the sins of our fathers. Most of the Germans have misunderstood our music and think of us as troublemakers. In reality our music is art, not meant to fan the flame of violence, but to serve as a venting valve for aggression.

"We don’t live in each other’s pockets"

The roots of Rammstein are in the town of Schwering, but Riedel, Schneider, the vocalist Till Lindemann, the keyboardist Flake Lorenz, who has just gotten over meningitis and the guitarist Paul Landers all currently live in Berlin. The only Rammstein member living outside of Germany is the guitarist Richard Z. Kruspe. Kruspe was missing from the London session, too.

- Richard is the only band member with any enthusiasm towards solo projects. The rest of us have nothing against it, if he in that way can get rid of his musical frustrations.

Riedel admits that the Rammstein members are spending less time together the tours.

- We all seem to be busy. That doesn’t mean we didn’t like each other’s company. It’s just that now that we seem to have a bit more wealth we don’t have to live in each other’s pockets any more.

Rammstein has assembled a good team to aid them, in which responsible for the album production is Jakob Hellner from Sweden, and for the videos Zoran Bihac, who in addition to Rosenrot has directed the videos for Mein Teil and Links 2-3-4. Uwe Flade, also known for his work to Depeche Mode and Franz Ferdinand, directed the video for Benzin.

- We’ll start working on a new album early next spring. Usually the preliminary preparations take about 6 months, but we’re planning on doing the cancelled South-American tour. Then we’ll book a studio in some warm country for 6 weeks for the recordings, and Jakob’ll mix the material in Stockholm. Putting the songs together won’t usually happen without some mutual squabbling, so it’s nice that we have an impartial referee like Jakob, says Riedel.



© 2006 Translation by MisBehaviour