First Arsch - Big Dong (fur Saskia S) and Crowded House, the two songs sung by Till. Big Dong also features some Paul vocals and you can also hear Richard on Crowded House.Big Dong might be the song Flake is referring to in his book, here.
Fromm OOR, November 2005, interview with Schneider:
When the interview can begin on the boat, drummer Christoph Schneider and singer Till Lindemann walk along the railing. The two have an animated conversation in which Lindemann in particular reinforces his words with many gestures.
Do you feel that Rosenrot is more consistent? Ultimately, these are leftovers from the experimental Reise, Reise.
“Those aren’t leftovers, but good songs that just didn’t fit Reise, Reise. Many songs had the same character. There were three ballads and you can’t put them on one CD. Two records seemed the most logical thing to do.”
Rosenrot does indeed hatch surprisingly quickly.
"We only had to write five or six new songs: Benzin, Mann Gegen Mann, Spring, Te Quiero Puta and another pop song that was not presented at the listening session. I don’t think the new songs are very different from Reise, Reise. There is not much time between these two albums. If you wait and leave songs on the shelf for too long, you lose the feeling. Maybe you don’t like them anymore or they belong to a different time. Of course, such a song like Te Quiero Puta is also very different… That song would stand out on every CD of ours.’
Whose idea was that anyway?
"Till, though for a while the song was an instrumental that the band loved. We’ve been pushing Till, ‘can you write a text please?’. For us it was a very important song; nice and fast. However, he could never come up with anything appropriate, even gave up. Only at the end did Till suddenly come up with a Spanish text.
What the hell is it about?
Schneider laughs amusedly. "Ask Till…”
(About Mann Gegen Mann) Another typical Till brainchild?
Laughingly: “I can easily say yes. After all, we have already described every form of love. I think it was time we had a discussion on such a subject. Now you can of course ask me if we are all gay…”
Rammstein is not averse to leather, witness the last show.
"None of us are gay. But Mann Gegen Mann’s text does have an interesting approach. It throws a whole new perspective on the subject - at least I never thought about it that way. I mean, Till also came up with a song about hermaphrodites. He always point out a few intriguing things.”
During the recordings of Mutter, the band democracy turned out to be a problem for you.
“It has been this way from the beginning: everyone has the same rights and obligations. There is no leader in the band or anyone whose voice weighs heavier for doing more. When we started we felt that it was possible to write songs together in the rehearsal room this way. Somehow, though, that balance shifted, making certain people… [looks aside] so unmanageable that we had big fights. Some members even placed themselves completely out of it; it didn’t matter anyway. The power struggle within the band was just too bad.”
It was mainly between guitarists Paul and Richard, I understand.
"No, Paul wasn’t the problem. Actually, it was all about Richard, he wanted to control the course of the band. Tried to make all decisions, to contribute his ideas everywhere. Richard was no longer open to changes. He came up with a lot of material and wanted to push everything through. In the end, no one listened to his ideas anymore. Not even to hear if they were good or bad. No, Richard’s ideas were fired in advance because they came from Richard.’
You never had the urge to take control?
“Everyone at Rammstein has that potential in a way, which is very difficult. For example, you may come up with something, develop it and deliver it accordingly. But yes, then the rest will hear it… You can have two men who say that your idea is beautiful and two who don’t like it at all. Then they try to change your idea so that they like it too. During that process you notice that the original concept becomes less and less recognizable. You lose it. But that’s just Rammstein. And that includes this attitude. For some it is easier than for others. The fact that we are a unit is good, everyone feels good about that too, At least for eighty percent of what we do.’
You always look very calm on stage in the midst of all the chaos, and the calm way in which you now tell the story also gives the impression that you are the stabilizing factor within Rammstein. The cement, so to speak.
“I see myself as someone who always guards harmony. I can find myself in that cement; In the end, I’m the drummer that holds everything together. On a personal level I try to understand all the extremes within the band. Sometimes opinions are so far apart that some members can’t make a decision or talk to each other at all. Because I understand both sides, that can sometimes help. I’m a harmonizer, haha!’
Interview with Richard for METAL HAMMER N°12 - 1996
It goes on restlessly: While Rammstein’s debut Herzeleid is currently aiming for the 100,000 units mark, the Berliners are busy working on the second stage of their plan for world conquest - new songs, new fire, new power.
They were just testing some new inspirations and new music in the battlefield of the concert halls - starting with a relatively chaotic concept concert in Berlin, where classical music, Moby, contemporary art and Rammstein entered into a creative symbiosis in front of 7,000 people for the purpose of reorientation. “The thing was definitely too big in the end,” remarked Richard Kruspe, the Rammstein guitarist, a few days later. “Unfortunately we were already in the pre-production for the next record and therefore couldn’t take care of the organization at all. The idea was to work together with completely different people, to get new impulses. If you always work in the same environment, you fall asleep, dumbed down in a certain way. The tour we’re doing now (early October) is to try out live new songs that we have together in pre-production so far. Usually you write songs and record them without ever having played them outside of a rehearsal room. Certain things only work on stage and I want to play every song live once before I sign off on it.” Which in itself is just a copy of the long road from Rammstein to the first record. “That was a good principle. I don’t think you can just sit down somewhere and make a song.”
Richard quantifies the current level of creativity with “twenty ideas that we’re going to rub in with the old things.” Although he can get the effect mentioned from the endless touring activities, he sees them more as lost time from a purely creative point of view: “It’s completely impossible to work on new material on tour. From time to time there’s a little something going on at the sound check, but then the time isn’t there. Most of the time we do other things: stay healthy, go swimming…” In short: times have changed. “More than us anyway. When we started with the first Rammstein songs back then, we never thought about success. We were a lot more naive, we went a lot more gutsy - but that’s the only difference. Rammstein on the second record will be the same Rammstein as before, just more mature.”
Richard is excited to work with new material now that ”there’s a story to every note of heartbreak.“ Nevertheless, Rammstein’s music has something strongly ritualistic, stageable right from the start - was that a mental help to play ‘Du riechst so gut’ even after the 300th time with pleasure? “I see it more like this: Our songwriting suits that. It’s very monumental, rather… well, simply structured; we do not attach importance to distinguishing ourselves through virtuosity. The problem isn’t that you still feel like the songs, it’s just that you’re totally overwhelmed if you keep playing the same thing. No more enthusiasm: Everything used to be great, today you play a riff that is maybe much better than on the first record and still think five times whether it’s any good. In the last four weeks of pre-production, we’ve all noticed that music doesn’t really appeal to us anymore.” Of course, pressure also plays a role, “quite automatically, unconsciously, you cannot deny it…”
In this euphoric rather subdued creative period, Rammstein helps the proven parallelism between lyrics and music in songwriting. “We’ve noticed that our creativity basically only comes from the meeting of these six constellations - all six of us have to be there when mixing, for example, otherwise it sucks. The basic ideas always come from the individuals, but from a very early stage people talk about them and work on them together. Of course, a hard riff usually comes with hard lyrics; a lot arises from simple associations, especially in the relationship between music and text. There are always a lot of quarrels, but that’s what makes it special: Rammstein is democracy with creative scratching and hair-pulling. If everything was always straight it would be boring and we could all do solo projects.”
The plans up to phase two of the world conquest are already set: “After this tour we will do a second pre-production in Berlin, together with a producer. We’ll be recording in Malta - we thought, let’s treat ourselves to some sun. But just heard that it’s not supposed to be that great there… Anyway: recording runs from mid-November to the end of December, then we’ll take a break for a few weeks and then, from February 1st, just like with the mix for the first record in Hamburg.”
What remains after a hundred Rammstein (that’s the motto of the Berlin event)? Thousands of other German bands who upgraded with 'Rammstein guitars’? A new sound? “I don’t think anyone reinvents a sound. There is a kind of development: a certain artist becomes popular with a certain sound and then logically get copied. There must have been a bunch of grunge bands before Nirvana, but Nirvana were the first to succeed - not without reason, of course, but because they were good. They were then copied by thousands. It’s similar with Rammstein. There are already many bands that wanted to combine techno, modern music elements with hard sounds - we were lucky enough to be successful with it, which is why such attempts are now associated with our name.” Of course, the reduction to catchy sound clichés is a bit annoying, “but of course it’s also a compliment for us when people emulate us - which is also a form of development.” Richard doesn’t necessarily want to admit higher musical authorities, but “the interesting thing is to be inspired. I’m listening to a lot of Prodigy right now; for me an electronic band that tries new things, is courageous. They take sounds that don’t exist yet. That’s important to us, also when it comes to our outfit: we don’t want clichés! Musically, we are not interested in things that were already there.”
Outfit, lived out pyromania - all things that success has made more and more feasible. ”Sure, that’s a double-edged sword. It’s fun, there’s variety, and people want a show, they think it’s cool: 50 percent good music, 50 percent good show.” Whereby Rammstein, in contrast to the American model - all entertainment - do a blatant balancing act between provocation, fetishism, extremeness on the one hand and entertainment. “Both are included. It’s fascinating for me to look at the people listening to our songs. It starts with the cop asking our truck to stop traffic and with a 'Rammstein? Then see you tonight!’ goodbye. And how many children are on the shows!” Although the predicate 'pedagogically valuable’ is certainly anything but appropriate for some texts… “I also constantly think about what makes our attractiveness to them. Maybe it’s because we’re a very easy-to-understand band in terms of musical style elements. The problem is rather that we are becoming more and more the slaves of our effects - according to the motto: once a pyro, always a pyro. The most we could do is change the element…” Add a few cold showers? “Like this. We still have opportunities and it’s exciting. We also sell a few records, so it can’t just be the fire.“ Or else, albeit in a metaphysical sense: Jugend forscht, part 11 - playing with fire. But it is certainly true that, as Richard says, above a certain mass effect, fire, monumental music are perceived. If there’s a future for a mix of Kiss and Einfallende Neubauten in the German music scene, then Rammstein are about to get seriously mega. As for you personally: It’s progressing! And we keep at it…
“Komm näher, ich hab etwas für dich.” (”Come closer, I have something for you.”)
——–
Drawing based on Rammstein’s video “Du Riechst So Gut ‘98″. All of them are beautiful here but Richard’s dress, that resembles a dying rose, it’s so beautiful. The first time I saw this video I fell in love with the whole aesthetic of it; horror, victorian-era, fantasy… and the song itself is amazing as well. I get this song in my head randomly way too often, it’s super catchy.
I really can’t love Rammstein’s videos enough, all of them are so artistically well made.
seeing rice krispies on stage looking delicious and then juxtaposing that with seeing him dressed like a 90s skater boi in selfies with fans… the duality of man
