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"Rammstein - we all are a little bit gay" from Yam - October 2005



An old transport glider rocks gently in the water at the foot of the Eiffel tower. On board: Till (42), Paul (41), Oliver (34) and Schneider (39) – just in the town of love the four hard boys of Rammstein will give interviews.
But firstly the reporter of YAM is going to be interviewed.

Yam: thank you, Paul, for this spontaneous audience…

Paul: You are welcome. Did you once interview Nu Pagadi?

Yam: Several times!

Paul: And how are they? They are only three now aren’t they? I only have listened to one song (sings “you are my sweetest poison”).

Yam: They are a band formed in a casting show, they did not write the song on their own.

Paul: That doesn’t matter. Even Elvis did not write his own songs; I can live with hat. So how were they like?

Yam: Cool, sociable, smart.

Paul: Not difficult? O.k. then, because some of such acts tend to get detestable when a bit wind comes up….But now it is you turn.

Yam: In your song “Spring” you criticize the whole mankind?

Pail: We seldom criticize. We just say how things are in our humble opinion.

Yam: To ask concretely: Is mankind mad?

Paul: Yes! If somebody is going to jump from somewhere high above, they all gather and pretend to care. But in reality they want to see him jump. They want to see action. Things were already like this in the middle ages: burning witches and public executions were the horror and action films in those times!

Yam: With “Mann gegen Mann” for the first time you pick the topic homosexuality…

Pail: I think we are all a bit gay! We already have made three “gay songs”, which were never released. Probably we would have been criticized for them immediately. But the lyrics from “Mann gegen Mann” we gave to Peter from Rosenstolz (German pop duo, a man and a woman), who is gay, to check and he did not think they were against homosexuals. We kind of asked for his permission. But still there will be some specialists who will discover something not being p.c.

Yam: Not being p.c?

Pail: Politically correct. But we do not want to be politically correct.

Yam: But you had the lyrics checked. Do you not want any trouble anymore or do you even fear trouble?

Paul: no, on the contrary. We even have a bit of a desire to cause offence. But we do not want to be labelled as hostile to gays. To be called daft, stupid or ace I can live with, but some other things you just do not need.

Yam: And how do you judge yourself?

Paul: Every band believes to be ace and better as all others. But in general musicians are not that smart guys.

Yam: Pardon?

Paul: In my opinion many people thing that musicians do not have the brains. But not all are that stupid and secretly we count us in that group. But if we are right, I do not know!

Yam: Psychologists have checked your lyrics; they have been a phenomenon, scientifically studied, but still only you know what it is all about…


Paul: As a band we are a wild bunch. We do not eat children, but we also do not sit at the nicely decorated breakfast table, drinking tea and then saying: “Oh, today is a good day for provocation”.

Yam: So you do not just pretend to be bad guys. Like some of those gangsta rappers do; they even admit to be only acting, and only doing it for entertainment.

Paul: To be the villain in a movie you must have something of it; otherwise you will look ridiculous. With us, there is something behind it. Although we do act on stage, we still have to be a bit like those characters we play on stage. You would recognise immediately if we were only faking.

Yam: You are German’s most successful music export. Do you as stars now feel like god or do you still know fear?

Paul: It will still take a lot more time until we realise what we have achieved as a humble German pop band. Sometimes you think: that is too good to be true. But our strength is that we still are normal, bound to the ground. That helps a lot in every day life when you have to bear anything else not connected to Rammstein.

Yam: For example?

Paul: If you, as Rammstein-Paul, have a girl friend, and you leave the dirty dishes and the washing up to her, then it does not matter at all if you are a member of Rammstein or U2 or if you want to fly to the moon! She just says: you filthy pig! I now quote: “but I am such a nice guy and I am going to play a concert in Japan tomorrow!” she will only reply “But before you will leave you tidy up your stuff!”

To be continued next week with part two.
Translation will follow right now:

Headline:
Paul: we have created a monster!

In the first part of the interview Paul (41) told us how bad the boys are in private and which reactions they therefore have to face from their girlfriends. Now we are going to reveal if rumours are true that behind closed doors Rammstein are not hat nice to each other

Yam: Does democracy really reign in the band or do sometimes some members think they are more important than others?

Paul: That sometimes was a problem in the times of the “mutter” recording (released in 2001, note of editor). Back then some really thought they were that important

Yam: Next question: who?

Paul: I would not name anybody because this can happen to anybody sometimes.

Yam: But there is a good balance now?

Paul: Just imagine this: We are an essence made of six different liquids in different percentages. Only if all six liquids are contained the whole thing will shine brightly. If you put in too much from one in it and therefore reduce another liquid it will not shine anymore. W were lucky to reinstall the balance and so we were able to provide the good quality of Rammstein for the future. We had luck.

Yam: What do you mean?

Paul: Well, quite easy: give a lot of money, success and affection to a band and the character is ruined for sure. I tend to be interested in the fate of people who had won a lottery. After they have won most of hem ruin their life. We kind of have won a lottery, too, and had to fight the related difficulties. But we survived (knocks on the wooden tale in front of him).

Yam: But honestly; doesn’t the thought that you have achieved a very big and important thing together, which you are not willing to let die, also force you to stick together?

Paul: A good question. Respect! I won’t deny that it is also a part of it. How important?
Well, should see a psychologist for this…But concerning me, I would not know what else to do. Selling paddle boats? I like to play music and I am I this very cool band in which I can realise my ideas to a 100 percent. But that we have created a kind of monster which marches on independently, like a kind of industry on which many people depend, is important, too.

Yam: So you will continue?

Paul: Definitely! It couldn’t be better than now! We are a band for ten years now. Quite normal that some stress occurs. But after “Rosenrot” we will become invisible for a while

Yam: To put it in other words: you need a holiday?

Paul: I just say: The one who has a good job does not need holiday. We do not have holidays we just have a time without appointments.

Yam: How long will you remain quiet?

Paul: That depends on our mood and motivation. We appreciate our career but in-between it is really important to breathe and to recharge the batteries.

Yam: And before this you want to make some easy money? Evil question, sorry. But nearly all songs from the new album are from the times of the “Reise, Reise” recording. And the cover isn’t new either, it already was used for the Japanese issue of “Reise, Reise”.

Paul: You are well informed. But already with “Reise, Reise” we had plans to release two albums, because we had written twenty good song sand it would have been a pity to throw ten of them away. We also could have released a double cd. Now “Rosenrot” is a new, independent album. We want to give a little toy to the fans for the time we regenerate, to ease their sadness.

Yam: “A little toy” does not sound like a trigger for buying….

Paul: To make this clear: we are a 100 percent behind every song on the new album. The only difference is we have not taken a step further in our musical development. Most of the songs are from the recording to “Reise, Reise”, but they are for sure good Rammstein songs.




On the right side of the interview it is said:

Rammstein and death

Again and again Death plays an important role in the industrial band. Yam shed same light upon the backgrounds:

“Creepy”: the cover of “Mutter” shows a dead born baby, the one of “Reise, Reise” a black box of a plane which was the grave for innumerable people. Also in the songs death plays an important role, best example: “Spring” from “Rosenrot”. Yam has asked for the reasons and these are the results: Rammstein were fascinated by the peacefulness the baby radiates. Even more as death is understood as something horrible in our society. In the opinion of Rammstein it will take some more time and “cellular units” to really understand death. But Rammstein opt for death as a topic because it is an essential one like fire, sex and violence and therefore has a big potential for song texts.

© 2005 Richiebaby