Information
Date: November 2005
Source: Veronica
Interviewed: Till
Translator: Translation to English from Dutch by
DragonFly
Interview
The popularity of Rammstein is rising faster than the gas prizes. With the new single Benzin and their new album Rosenrot, the band is heading for a destructive course to the international hit lists. We talk to the singer Till Lindemann beneath the Eiffel tower, but the spoken language is, of course, German.
Veronica:Your last album Reise Reise has been released just a year ago. Why a new record so soon?Till:Reise Reise almost became a double album, we had written so many songs. It would be a waste to leave them be. They are not leftovers or something, no songs that we didn't find good enough for Reise Reise. But after this, we will take some time off.
Veronica:Many of your lyrics often refer to dark fairytales. Is that the child in you?Till:Could be...I never think about it. My lyrics come straight out of my guts. But I like to make people think and to make them fantasize.
Veronica:You are the most successful German band ever, worldwide. How is your relation with the German press these days?Till:Everyday I am grateful for our success. Isn't it great that you can buy our record even in, for instance, Madagascar! And the press... they always had problems with us and they always will have. I really don't want to think about it and definitely not worry about it.
Veronica:Well, with that being said, you guys did tie a German journalist down to a chair once, because he wrote something that you didn't like.Till:(laughs) That is right! But he wasn't a real journalist you know, it was some idiot who was playing for a journalist. He made up some story in which he made us look like a bunch of weirdo's. We punished him for that, yes. I think that guy has now started a new profession.
Veronica:On the new album Rosenrot you are singing about the still waters that run deep. What is beneath the tough surface of the Rammstein world?Till:Nothing. We are very superficial. You put in one finger and you immediately touch the essence.
Veronica:Your colleague Schneider however is comparing you with Jekyll and Hyde.Till:Yes, well that is also true. We are performing a play every night and you shouldn't bring your work home. In the old days we often used to believe in our role and sometimes a hotel room was trashed because of that. But well.. you get older and wiser... Now we are relaxing after a show and then all of a sudden you realise that it has been a while since you have been trashing something. Even that is getting boring and predictable after a while.
Veronica:You call yourself a fireworks expert. Is there a training for that?Till:Well, it is like a driving school. You go there, learn the manual by heart and than you try to drive some. You will hit some things in the beginning but soon it will go better and better. That is the same with our fireworks. The theory is very important with that too. Of course it is very boring to put all the rules and regulations in your head but you do need them in practice. In the beginning we just did things without knowing exactly what. The stuff we buy for the shows are very standard by the way; people like Tina Turner use them too. The trick is to use the effect slightly different every time, so you do a show that people have never seen before. And every time it is a challenge to stay within the laws boundaries.
Veronica:How does a former swimmer come up with the idea to work with fire anyway?Till:I was bored on stage. You do nothing in between two guitar pieces. When I was younger I used to have longer hair to swing with. That at least looked like something. People like it much better if there is something happening on stage. You could hang a banana on a fishing rod to make people snap at it.... it doesn't matter. It is all about what you do on stage. Anything better than just standing behind a microphone doing nothing.
Veronica:An other subject that keeps coming back in the songs and the show of Rammstein is gay-erotica. Also in the song Mann gegen Mann. Do you like it to mislead people?Till:Yes, we like to play with that. And we are simply fascinated by the way that gays interact with each other. Things are different in a hetro relationship. If you go, as a guy, to a bar and you want to make a pass at a woman, than you better hope that she is either in a good mood or that she drank enough alcohol so that she wants to have a one night stand with you. You know, the courtship rituals. Gay people look at each other and in that one second it is clear if they go home with each other or not. And the next day they go their own ways again. Sex isn't such a big thing between gay people than it is with hetro's. That's weird, right?
Veronica:Is there any romance at all in the life of the Rammstein men?Till:But of course! Everybody who says that he isn't romantic doesn't know what it is or tries to be cool about it, in a very stupid way.
Veronica:You already published a poetry book. Can we expect another one soon?Till:I need time for it so I don't know when that will happen. I just want to take some rest for now and to travel. Maybe after that, there will be time again.
Veronica:What is the best German word?Till:Ficken (fucking) hahahahahaha.....
Veronica:You've always said that you will never sing in English. But there is a Spanish song on the new album. Can we expect a Dutch song in the future?Till:Te Quiero Puta is a homage to our Spanish speaking fans, who are always singing every word along with us. Even if it is just phonetic. It will be a lot of fun when we will play that song. And a Dutch song... No offence but I really dislike your language. Especially when you don't understand a word of it, then it really sounds scheisse. Ganz Furchtbar! (Very appalling)
Veronica:Mein Teil, one of your earlier singles, is about a notorious internet murder, in which a man ate the penis of an other man. Have you been influenced by current news events again?Till:When I heard about that murder, I didn't know if I had to laugh or to be shocked. I really wanted to write a song about that because you cannot imagine something like that really happening. And yes, Benzin is of course about the roaring gas prices.