Swimming practice is a pretty lonely, monotonous thing compared to the collective experience of a show. Till, what do you think about when you do laps?
Till: My days are full of appointments, so while I’m swimming I often think about what needs to be done in the next few hours, who I have to call, how the evening plan looks like, etc. I’ve already made up a number of Rammstein text passages while training. ‘Feuer und Wasser’, for example, is such a “swimming pool song”.
That sounds like relaxed work - but most musicians develop their ideas in extreme emotional situations…
Till: Psychologists call this phenomenon “the sublimation of drives”. If a person is feeling bad, he has to deal with it somehow. Some people then hit pensioners. But it is better if someone converts this negative emotion into a creative process. It doesn’t matter whether it ends up being a picture or a song.
In your opinion, can a completely happy person be creative?
Till:Sure, because happiness is also an instinct. Or a kind of addiction, an addiction to harmony. When feelings boil over extremely high, you have to deal with it somehow. Or you take it out on a woman — in a good way, of course.
When are you more productive — when you’re happy or unhappy?
Till: I must be heartbroken. But of course I don’t really want to feel like that.
Drawings based on the amazing suit Till Lindemann used during the Sehnsucht era, specially in the perfomance of the song “Spiel Mit Mir”. I’m in love with EVERYTHING this suit has, mainly the goggles.
