#flake interview

Since i suffer from podcast withdrawal symptoms (and got a friendly dm about it 🌺), here a few takes on the recent new Flake interview published on MagentaMusik in the series 'Rockcraft on tour' part 1 and part 2 So no direct literal translation (AI is probably loads better than that), but i'll try to write down the gist of it 🌺 Imterview is filmed at in 'rehearsal room in Brandenburg' and Flake's dog Roger is there too 🐕

The interview is divided into different chapters, so i'll go by those 😊

part 1:

Music - a living being (part 1)

Playing live and recording in the studio are like sleeping and being awake. When you've done one for a while, you're happy to start the other, and vice versa. When you've been in the studio for a long time, having done loads of work on every note, you're happy to go on tour and just play; when you've been on tour playing the same music a long time, you wish to go in the studio to create new music.

(01:20) Radio was like God

Flake is convinced there is a lot in life that happens by chance; you deliberately choose far less than you think. When Flake was a child, he didn't go the pre-school (Kindergarten) but stayed home, which gave him a chance to listen to radio a lot. Radio was like God, because first a voice in the radio that explained the world, and then all styles of music were played: classical, Sonny and Cher, Reinhard Mey, german 'Schlager'. He loved music, and it really touched him. At first young Flake didn't even realise that there were people who made that music. Only after his brother got a friend who had a brother with a piano, Flake learned that people can make music themselves. It was an ideal instrument for Flake, with a piano you can make music on your own, not like a hobo (Flake demonstrates that that just plays a few notes). With piano, where you play with both hands, you have melody and rhythm and no need for other musicians, for Flake, who didn't have many friends, it was great to make music by himself.

(03:40) Bach has everything

When Flake started piano-lessons he didn't have a piano, so drew the keys on a piece of paper and practised with that. Only at the lesson he would know if he actually played it correctly. He started with classical music, and really, everything you need is there. Take a prelude by Bach (Flake plays a bit); that is almost like a normal 'rockmusic' sequence (after this we get piano 1-0-1 lesson, teaching us a 'Terz'). With these three chords he plays you can play 80% of rockmusic

(05:50) The Third (Terz) has something

Flake plays us another bit of Bach, that really has everything in it that you need, at least for Flake this was all he needed. He just wanted to play a bit different style, but didn't really know how. Someone told him rock&roll basics, so Flake tried that, but didn't know what to do with the right hand. But that's how he started, except he didn't think it was interesting enough to just use the classical Thirds, and tried other variations.

(10:10) Punk and piano don't fit

So Flake tried to create his own music, starting with Blues music, because that was the easiest. Punk ofcourse is even easier, but punk and piano are not a good match. So he tried to make a Blues piece, with one note that kept coming back (a bit like a riff). He improves a bit for us, saying he can play like this for ages. It was however a bit difficult to create a song from it, because it is difficult to sing to (Flake says he can't sing himself, had a friend join him once to sing along) and also not easy to play along to in a band. But he enjoys playing themes like these.

(14:55) Everything boiled with just water

Playing the same theme with both hands is ofcourse mundane, you need to vary to make it more exciting. And when you play something a bit different the piano starts to sing by the sound of the interference of the piano strings. No other instrument can do that, on a guitar this is not possible. The piano creates notes that aren't even played. That's where the fun starts. And it's not like Flake invented that, Bach already did that. Flake emphasizes the importance of the deeper tones (the left hand), of the bass. People are always much more taken by the deeper notes. What the right hand does is just birds twittering in the background, you follow the music of the bass.

(19:45) First gig for 20 Ost-mark

Flake frustration is that he finds it difficult, still, to play something really skilled pianists play, like Boogie-Woogie. And so via Punk and 'Neue Deutsche Welle' he started to play Casio, because in the end what was more important to him than very advanced pianoplaying, was playing in a band. Playing in a band he thinks is the greatest thing there is. And not just playing in a band, but travelling together, spending the night somewhere together, playing for different people together, prove yourself. That is the most exciting thing Flake did in life. Piano is inconvenient: if friends came to his place, it would be too loud and bothering the neighbours. In a practice room he didn't have his piano, so just would get beer for everybody. Played one gig at his brother's school, which was a flop, but from that he did get invited to play with a band ("it was embarassing, so that bodes well" 😊). For a concert they'd borrow a piano for 50 mark (so the fee for the concert was spent). So in the long run that didn't work.

part 2

Music - a living being (part 2)

Flake's dad bought him a 'Weltmeister' organ, huge thing, almost as big as a piano, with switches Flake swears he saw in a museum once at a space ship 😊 In the early years of Feeling B that organ was too big to take to a concert, so the guys would hop on a train and go to a concert of another band, preferably one with a keyboard or organ and asked to play on their instruments. One band even had a Weltmeister organ, unfortunately for them, some sold it to them as an english Winston organ and they paid way too much money for it.

(3:45) The Casio is the best

Aljoscha bought Flake a Casio that he got in West-Germany. Flake was originally supposed to play bass in the band, because they didn't have a bassplayer. Flake plays us a few bits of what he played at Feeling B. That was all it took to play in a band, travel the village and perform.

(5:55) A sad piece of plastic

Flake loves simplicity. The Casio has all he needs, and has the greatest sound, a bit sad...lost..(fumbles around with some effects). And when the battery is running low, the sound gets a bit distorted and that's even better. The smaller keys make it possible to play faster. Flake played that all the way until a tour in the USA. In Atlanta they climbed a skyscraper, couldn't get back down in the elevator, so had to take the stairs, and when they finally got back to their car, that had been broken into and their instruments including the Casio were gone. The concert organizer got them some replacement instruments, brought the keyboard of his son, turned out it was exactly the same type Casio Flake had. So they could do the show after all, and it didn't sound worse than with their own instruments 😊

(10:10) Alone in Mexico-City

Playing a concert is a job and is fun, but real enjoyment Flake gets from unexpected things; going walking before a show and ending up at a funeral in Mexico, bizar moments like that. A toy museum in Mexico City, or a guy on the street who had American oldtimer cars; Flake is sure he wouldn't get to see that as a tourist, but when he goes for a walk before a show, he comes across situations like that. Because he is there as a musician, playing a show for people, he feels he has a 'reason' to be there and feels much freer than he normally would. In places like Mexico, if he needs to go to the loo, and there isn't one, people invite them in their home to use theirs, and that's okay because he has a job to do there. The concert itself is a concert like every other, nowadays with the big stages, people are so far away, they hardly recognize he is up there. There could easily be someone else in his place.

(13:55) A song is like a train

A song is like a train, in that is starts, rolls along, maybe passes a bridge, or a more fragile bit in the rails, sometimes it starts to fly a bit, goes on by itself. Music is a living being. He doesn't see a musical piece as something played by humans, but a independent entity. When does sound become music? The ringing of churchbells can already be considersd a song.. And again, people are touched first by the deeper sounding bells. Similar to the bass-drum, that sets the rhythm, your heartbeat follows it, tension builds, until the snare drum brings the release. The hi-hat gets the people to follow and brings them along (Flake turns to the piano) either down, or up, sometimes it halts, and then you wait for the bass to pick you back up again. Music does more to a person than you'd think. Techno does it even more directly.

(19:00) Like a relationship

Flake talks about the excitement he feels listening to White Stripes live, Jack White playing music and what he doesn't play, you imagine yourself. As a listener you really take in and digest a song. To Flake hearing a bad song is like eating something bad. Flake loves to listento an album more often and at some point a song he hadn't really noticed before grabs him and gets more interesting, and the 'hits' he knew first get more mundane after a few tries. It's like a relationship, where you meet, like eachother, spend time, and get to kmow eachother better. Flake is not sure what he has to offer back to the album in the relationship, but hey. In german songs, music for him gets slightly less important, it's more about the lyrics, take for instance Konstantin Wecker who he likes a lot (he also has great music though) or Interzone, from which he loves to lyrics even though the music is a bit less. The opposite, german bands with good music and bad lyrics are not interesting to Flake. English lyrics he often doesn't understand, so for those he sees the vocals as another instrument. Flake thinks it's best not to understand or translate the lyrics, because with the bit he does understand he has his own imagination of what the song is about, and when it turns out to be about something else, it's usually a disappointment.

(24:05) Flock of Birds or Tank

When Flake plays piano he doesn't think about lyrics, he thinks he doesn't have much to say. That's why he never really wrote lyrics. When he was young he sometimes took poetry from a book to use as words (when the phrases didn't fit to the music, he'd just skip a few words). He did feel even back then that music was there to support the lyrics. In good german songs, the music is just a vehicle for the lyrics, like a train or a plane; when Hannes Wader plays guitar it's like hangglider, like a flock of birds that take the lyrics with them, when Rammstein plays it's like a tank.

(26:45) Under no circumstances a dogtrainer

When Flake was a kid he imagined he was the singer for Dead Kennedys, but what he has now is better. He loves playing in a band, doesn't know anything he'd rather do than that....Aquarium fisher..? Dog trainer...? There's a lot he could do, but he's not interested...

spotted on rammwiki IG ❤️

in Japanese

Interview/Text | Yoshiyuki Suzuki | December 2022, photos by Matthias Matthies and Jens Koch

Some bits googly translated... but please read the entire interview, it's nice and long

🎹

――How are you doing now? Until RAMMSTEIN's tour resumes, can we take it easy for a while?

　“Right now, I am preparing various things for Christmas for my family. In January 2023, a reading tour of this book (“Today is the World’s Birthday”) is scheduled in Germany. Because this plan had been postponed for about two years due to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, so now it's time to do a reading tour as if the book had just been published. It's supposed to happen."

――"Today is the world's birthday" has a very unique composition, and it's a real-time depiction that starts from the waiting time for the live, and various recollections are inserted one after another. What was your intention in writing it this way?

　“At first, I had some ideas and interesting things that I wanted to write down. There were only loosely connected parts and it still didn't quite come together, so I had the idea to write about myself spending time in the backstage area before a concert. I got the idea to write what happened, and I was able to finish it in no time.I wanted to explain even a little to people (laughs), the band. What it's really like to work in. It's usually very different from what people imagine.When I was a kid, I listened to Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson. To me, musicians like them are like gods, and those gods just walk up on stage, sing, and the whole world bows down at their feet... I don't even think that they are also living human beings. But even they have to go to the bathroom, they have to sleep at night, they have marital troubles, they're sick and in a bad mood... I only know shining songs. So I never imagined that a star like that [laughs] has to make music, how much work there is behind that short amount of time in a concert. "

--

――Well, you wrote in the book that you were a punk. Could you be a little more specific about this?

　“In the old days, of course, punk meant being able to make music without being able to play an instrument well. It gave me the freedom to do whatever I wanted, even if I didn't have the background to play the piano or the guitar, and even if I didn't have a musical education, I had the courage to say, ``SEX PISTOLS is cool, and I want to try that kind of music.'' That's how I was lucky to be in a band with someone who didn't have a musical education, because it opened up the possibility of making a good band. Punk has changed now, and when I say 'I'm punk' now, I mean my inner attitude... I don't care about the details... that kind of thing. It's about attitude, like what kind of impression do you make on strangers? You can't do that, it's forbidden, it's not right, you can't do it... but I laugh and say it doesn't matter. When I say, 'I'm still punk at heart,' that's probably what I mean."

――Does that mean that it has a lot to do with inner freedom?

　"Yes. Freedom and not letting other people's opinions sway you. Go your own way, whether other people like it or not."

――It takes courage to stick to such an attitude.

　“It also means that you can’t meet people’s expectations, so there are times when you can’t meet the expectations of your fans. "

--

――Regarding “Dalai Lama”, although it is a relatively old song, the Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek recently wrote an article that highly praises it. Did you?

　"No, I do not know"

――Zizek is a big fan of yours, and you often refer to them in your critics.

　“It has been 30 years since RAMMSTEIN was formed, and we are part of the cultural history, and we are sometimes quoted. But we rarely read articles about bands because we want to make music free from other people's opinions. I don't even search the internet about it.

--

--When you read this book, you will understand that you are an "observer". In my opinion, the keyboard part tends to have an "objective stance" even among rock bands. What do you think?

　“Standing at the back [of the stage] and not being in the center definitely makes me feel at ease. It doesn't have to be.There are times when I can calmly stand behind and watch.And I like the time to move around with the band.That's the best part of touring life, more than concerts, being able to go to different countries. I like that there is so much to see and observe.”

--

――(about coming to Japan for a book tour) It is possible to solve the problem of interpreting. Please come!

　"Well, after the next RAMMSTEIN tour is over. After that, I'll have time to do that."

--thank you. Next year, except for the reading tour in January, are you planning to focus on your activities as a band for the rest of the year?

　“Next year, we will start the tour from May. We will perform on the same stage as this year, but we will add some new songs. We plan to play songs or want to play them.As for next year's tour, it's only in Europe so far."

――How long do you plan to continue working as RAMMSTEIN?

　"As long as it looks cool, we'll keep going. We're always checking the footage, watching it, and deciding if it's still going."

――All the Japanese fans are working hard to go to America and Europe to see RAMMSTEIN live, but I also want to experience your live a few more times.

Flake interview with Austrian magazine Profil 2021-11-20, by Phlip Dulle, Stephan Graschitz

attempt at translation:

---------------------

Flake von Rammstein: "Women should get double pay"

Christian "Flake" Lorenz, Rammstein keyboardist and autobiographer, reveals that, contrary to the image of his band, he can actually be very good. What is beating him down? The music his children hear.

"Tagchen", says Christian Lorenz cheerfully on the phone and asks to call again in a few minutes - he needs a little more time. The time delay cannot be interpreted as a star allure, when talking to Flake, as the 55-year-old calls himself as an artist, you quickly forget that he has been playing keyboards for one of the most successful rock bands of today for over a quarter of a century. Their last tour took Rammstein across Europe's football stadiums in 2019, and in 2022 the Berlin band will again play in North America and Europe - including twice in the sold-out Wörthersee Stadium in Klagenfurt. The reason for the conversation is comparatively quiet: Flake actually wanted to go with his biography "Today is the world's birthday" on a reading tour through Austria. A virus intervened. The four dates have now been postponed to autumn 2022. Based on his GDR memories (“Der Tastenficker”, 2015), Flake not only tells of the difficult early days of an often misunderstood Ossi band in his second book, but also deals with existential questions, writes about alcohol problems, bullying at school and his Living with stuttering.

profil: With your second book you broke with Rammstein's aloof image. A conscious turning point?

Flake: It would be implausible if we were to hold onto this evil devil image. Today we are old men, we have families and we have responsibilities. If you get inauthentic as a rock band, then you'd better stop - then it doesn't matter if you can play well or look good. Our fans like us because we don't fool them.

profil: You write openly about your fears and phobias. How have you survived the corona pandemic so far?

Flake: The pandemic was a wonderful time for me privately. I was able to spend time with the children that I would not otherwise have had. Whether we play with Rammstein this year or next makes no difference to the world. Also, I've found that Corona life is pretty similar to my normal life. I didn't even notice the nightly curfew, as I go to bed at nine o'clock anyway. As an old man you don't see me in clubs either, that would just make me look ridiculous.

profil: Are you not afraid of infection?

Flake: I'm just afraid of things that I can't judge. A virus, I'll or won't get it - and I know that I can protect myself from it. A real confrontation with a problem is the best remedy for fear. If you are afraid of flying, the best remedy is to just fly.

profil: With Rammstein you are always looking for a provocation. Didn't you feel like rebelling against recommendations from experts and the government during the pandemic?

Flake: I kept to the rules very obediently and think that our government coped well with the crisis situation. In all of my rebellion I have no problem submitting myself to an authority. If someone is smarter than me, it would be stupid if I did the opposite.

profil: You have had to postpone your stadium tour twice because of the pandemic. Doesn't that mean the business model is blown up?

Flake: It was really tough for our co-workers who had no income. As a band we supported them financially in the first year. Until we can play live again, we have the opportunity to reorient ourselves. The pandemic is forcing us to simply accept situations that cannot be changed. I take a very pragmatic view of this.

profil: Your readings also had to be postponed several times. Are you missing the confirmation on the stage?

Flake: On the contrary. I realized how irrelevant my books and my statements are. There are really more important things than satisfying my ego with a reading. My motivation are the people who want to experience something normal again and enjoy the banalities.

Flake grew up in the Berlin district of Prenzlauer Berg, completed an apprenticeship as a toolmaker and in 1983 joined the legendary Eastern punk band "Feeling B". Flake has an exceptional position at Rammstein. A large part of the satirical elements of the imposing stage show puts it at the center. For example, singer Till Lindemann grilled it in an oversized saucepan for the song "Mein Teil"; with "I hurt you" he bathes in an open fire. During the concerts he also covers several kilometers: Most of the time, Flake uses his keyboard from a treadmill; his dance performances are legendary among fans. With his actions he breaks with the ostensible heaviness of the band.

profil: In 2019, after ten years, you released a new, untitled album. Rammstein became a stadium band. Didn't that spark discussions within the band?

Flake: Yes, I had concerns myself. Only bands that have passed their zenith play in the stadium. You never see a young punk band in the stadium, nor did the White Stripes, Sex Pistols or Dead Kennedys play there. Artists like Phil Collins or Bruce Springsteen play in the stadium - and these pensioner bands just before the end of the day. But you don't choose it, it's more of a logical development.

profil: The band waved the rainbow flag at concerts lately, a “welcome” sign was shown. Have you become more political?

Flake: Definitely. We used to think: politicians make politics, and rock bands make rock music - and everyone knows what our position is. But that was seldom the case. Today we know that it is safe to express ones point of view clearly. The idea with the rainbow flag was a spontaneous solidarity action at a concert in Poland when we saw how the queer movement was being dealt with there. In Russia, where homophobia is much more widespread, we continued that.

The interplay between breaking taboos and undivided attention has a long tradition in the band, which was founded in Berlin in 1994 and still has its original line-up. In 2009 the studio album "Liebe ist für alle da" was indexed in Germany. The indexing was later lifted by a court. Internationally, however, the success was smoother: the US-American director David Lynch accompanied his film "Lost Highway" in 1997 with songs by the band; the prestigious New York Madison Square Garden was sold in about 20 minutes in 2010. The Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek once explained the Rammstein phenomenon as follows: "Just as Charlie Chaplin in 'The Great Dictator' only lets Hitler say 'apple strudel' and 'Wiener Schnitzel' between babbling, Rammstein obscenely sabotages the fascist utopia."

profil: In your music program on Radio Eins in Berlin, you talk about women in the pop business, among other things. Has the situation improved in recent years?

Flake: That is a great injustice. Even if something has changed, the proportion of female bands and artists is still far too low - including the proportion of women in record companies and boardrooms. Actually, a couple of men would have to make room for a couple of women's bands to be on stage. Basically, women would have to get double the pay to make up for all the injustice.

profil: What does Rammstein do differently?

Flake: When we started out, we were very lucky that the music manager Petra Husemann was the head of Motor Music. She gave us a chance and a record deal. Today I can say: Rammstein was chosen by a woman. We have women in pyrotechnics and there are female truckers who work for us. Actually, there is no need to mention it at all. But of course we hold up a mirror to society and try to tap the sore spot.

profil: Your biography "Today is the world's birthday" was published in 2017. Did you use the pandemic to write something again?

Flake: We recorded a new album with Rammstein, which emotionally absorbs me 100 percent. I can't write a book at the same time. There is more to a new Rammstein record than going to the rehearsal room. In principle, I'm busy with it 24 hours a day. I often lie in bed at night and then I remember a line that I would like to change. But it didn't turn out to be an epidemic album.

There is a common saying about the Rammstein phenomenon: The band has done more for the German language in the past 27 years than the Goethe-Institut has done since it was founded. Whether in South America, the USA, Australia or France - everywhere people sing along with the lyrics almost flawlessly.

profil: After two biographies: As an author, do you have other ambitions?

Flake: That stupid topic. I would love to write novels, but every time I start I realize how difficult it is. When I try to write a novel, I think: It's a hundred times better in other books. Any idiot can smear a biography, proper writing is something different.

profil: You like to hike or stroll through foreign cities. Never wanted to write a travel guide?

Flake: No, I hate advice and know-it-alls. You have to go through all the important things in life yourself, you have to get lost ten times to reach your goal. This is the only way to experience this feeling of happiness when you have arrived. It's no different in a relationship. There are things in the world that nobody can do for you.

profil: Are you thinking about what should remain from Rammstein?

Flake: No, not really. We used to be avoided by the media, we weren't even mentioned. You have no control over your legacy.

profil: Rammstein has been spared the so-called cancel culture to this day. Do you have an explanation for this?

Flake: In itself, the provocation is not a bad thing. We give children the music with which they can annoy their parents and untangle themselves. For many people, Rammstein is what the Rolling Stones or Sex Pistols were in my youth. Prince's “Sexy MF” is also provocation.

profil: What music do your children use to provoke you?

Flake: Techno, for example. Miley Cyrus is also hard to hear, or the rapper Pitbull. These high pitched voices and autotune experiments wreck me.

-----------------------

Der Tagesspiegel, author David Ensikat, about Rammstein, Feeling B, Magdalene Keibel Combo, being watched by the Stasi, what it is like to have the parents visiting a Rammstein show, what happened when they first rehearsed Till cooking him a pot on stage and how fans react to Till ejaculating on stage (and much more).

"Flake" Lorenz "Evil has an absolute energy"

As a keyboard player in the band Rammstein, he let himself be stewed in a saucepan. Christian "Flake" Lorenz about clapping the beat and his time as a dirty punk in the GDR.

You play in the internationally most successful German band. In the two books you've written about your life, it's as if a small-footed creature ended up in very large shoes by accident. An amateur who doesn't even know what he's doing.

I'm an amateur, but I know what I'm doing. I can play what I deem necessary. That's probably a lot less than what many people would expect from a real keyboardist. But you don't have to be a virtuoso to make good music. The fact that I ended up at Rammstein is a logical result of my life, I would say.

You seem like the opposite to Rammstein's music: rather funny and modest. Do you think any of the thousands of Mexicans or Russians who admire the fire show and the harsh sound at concerts have any idea how you're feeling?

Don't underestimate the fans. If you are interested in our music, you do follow what we do.

But no one plays with misunderstandings like you do. This martial, absurdly sexualized ...

Oh, there were so many bands that were much more provocative than us. The Rolling Stones did a lot crazier things in their time than we do today. Sure, it was easier for them to shock. But the content is actually the same.

Couldn't it be that the Stones were more concerned with the music and Rammstein more with the provocation?

I do not believe that. I only think that if you do something, then you should do it right. When I see a band lighting a small gas fountain in the background on stage, and it doesn't even get warm at all, I ask myself: What's that about? You can make an actual fire. When the air is on fire, literally, that's great. A hot, evil force.

But why does it have to be evil?

Because bad doesn't have to be bad. Evil is only stronger. Everyone knows it. Evil has an absolute energy that beauty does not have. Beautiful is intangible.

When the masses clap to the beat, that's bad.

This is perverse! Like 'Im Kessel Buntes'!

Exactly! The big music show on East TV, like hell. The Rammstein song "Ich will" is about this perversion. And in the concert, the audience claps wildly to the beat of the march. How do you feel when you see that from the stage?

Oh, people are really happy when they hear the song they know live. They know that it's about seduction.

But no one who claps along does it ironically.

Not ironic, but reflective. It's not the first time people have heard the song. Anyway: what happens in the concert is the less important part for me as a musician. What's important is when the music grabs people's hearts like music used to grab me. When it changes the life of a young person . That's how I felt when I heard the Stones or the Sex Pistols. Before that I was a child, after that I was an adult. And I thought all who listened to this music are my friends. That's what it's about. We reach people and they are happy together.

And clap instinctively to the beat.

Is that an instinct? To clap to the beat?

But sure. The liberation of no longer being yourself, but a selfless community. That's the terrible thing.

If you want that, do yoga. When I go to a concert, I don't want to clap along. I stand on the side and want to hear the music.

How did you actually join Rammstein?

After the reunification, like all the other Eastern musicians, I wandered around, had an ABM position and ran through the practice rooms to see what they were doing there. Then the people from Rammstein invited me to a rehearsal, two of them knew me from the old days of the punk band and they probably thought I was good for the band. But above all: I had a sampler, an Akai S900. And then immediately there was a tremendous energy that I had never felt before.

What kind of lyrics were there back then?

English at first. "Weisses Fleisch" was still called "White Flesh". I, with my bad English, believed that means "white lightning" and thought it was about the nuclear strike. I thought that was totally cool.

Did the band have a plan? Provocation? Fireworks?

Not at all. We only knew what we didn't want to do: imitate Americans, suck up to the audience and shout: "Is everybody happy?! Hello Magdeburg!” Or long solos, such a musician's fuckery.

Although one or the other of you would be capable of a solo.

Naturally. But making good music doesn't mean playing a lot of notes. Good is not complicated. The attraction lies in the reduction.

Rammstein is often accused of not making original music. March-like, heavy sound, walls of sound, rolling R.

It's a matter of point of view. For my grandmother, the Beatles and the Stones were the same, Hottentot music. If it's monotonous, then the hypnotic effect is intended. Besides, it's all a lot harder than it looks. Every break, every speed is extremely carefully timed.

Exactly the opposite of what you did in the east in the eighties. Your band back then, “Feeling B” …

... that was punk. Nobody really kept up with that, not even us. Our singer couldn't keep the beat at all, and we musicians had to react to that. That often didn't work at all. But it was always fun.

And not exactly inconspicuous. It's something special that that was possible in the GDR, isn't it?

We were very lucky. The punk bands before us have migrated. They went to jail or had to join the army. But if it had been that dangerous for us, I probably wouldn't have played. I also can't imagine what I would have done if they had asked me to join the Stasi.

Was someone from "Feeling B" involved?

Sure, but I don't blame anyone for that. Especially since the IMs made life possible for many bands in the first place. The Stasi couldn't lock up their own people.

With Paul Landers, who now plays guitar with Rammstein, you had a band with the nice name "Magdalene Keibel Combo" for a while. The Stasi was on Magdalenenstrasse, and the People's Police on Keibelstrasse. Even then there was no trouble.

We were happy about how subversive we were, and then the organizers always asked us where our singer, Magdalena, was? Also, we've been friends with so many IMs, and none of them talked us down.

You know that from your Stasi file?

Yes. People said such nice things about me that I was very touched. Even the ABV...

... the section officer of the People's Police ...

... he reported that I was a very friendly man and always wore clean clothes. And I looked like the sleaziest punk.

You were lucky.

That's how it is. Even with the army thing. when I was 16 I said that I would definitely not go there. Which was stupid, of course, because they couldn't let me do my Abitur anymore. But I was punk. I thought that's how you do it and wanted to be cool for five minutes. And now all other paths were blocked for me – I actually wanted to become a doctor. That's how I became a musician and was relaxed enough for "Feeling B".

Are you proud of your Ost biography?

Nah. All I had to do to grow up was breathe and eat. I can only say that it was an incredibly good time for me .

No longing for the west, ever?

It was so far away that it didn't even seem like a real world to us. I know I can't go to the moon , so I don't care. It wasn't until I saw people fleeing there that I realized there was a real country over there. Then it was like a little back door: If something goes really wrong in the east, I'll run away there too. Like a paradise: there is a world where the grass is really green and where they drive around in Mercedes and not in Trabbi.

So a longing after all.

Not really. Our singer from "Feeling B", Aljoscha Rompe, was allowed to drive over there because he was half Swiss. He said to us: You think the people in the East are crazy. Over there, they're a hundred times crazier and more narrowminded, with their fences and paved paths. People in the west, he said, are degenerate and stupid.

And in 1990 you yourself became a Westerner.

I resisted this for a long time. I threw my ID away. But this is a fight against windmills. Completely useless. Now when I travel to eastern countries, I know that I have changed sides. In Budapest I walk through the streets and smell the coal ovens. Then I feel like I did back then, at home.

You once called the GDR toy country.

And there I am insulted as an East-lover, because I play things down so much. For people who openly opposed the GDR system and went to jail, it was definitely not a toy country. What I mean by that is that things happened in this country that were completely irrelevant to the course of the world, just like a game. With very little tricks, we have managed to lead a wonderful life and largely ignore the system. We moved around in a friendly and inconspicuous manner and thus enjoyed a freedom that, for economic reasons alone, does not exist in the West.

That's no longer your problem. You actually made enough money.

In the meantime, it's almost like being in the East again for me. I knew then that I would always be taken care of. I don't have to work part-time, I can do what I'm good at and what I enjoy. You don't have to be poor to make good art.

But now you have to be extremely careful not to burn yourself at the concert.

Especially when we play open air. Nowadays we put up little flags up to see where the wind is coming from, which then blows the flames back and forth. If you stand half a meter too far to the left, it gets warm.

Your hair used to be long.

They burned down recently during a rehearsal in Leipzig. The worst things happen at rehearsals. We're doing a lot of things for the first time. There's a number where I'm in the cooking pot and our singer is roasting me with a flamethrower. We rehearsed it all morning. Cooking pot day. When I wanted to get out, I grabbed the edge where the metal was still almost glowing. I then went on the tour without fingertips, but with burn blisters and excruciating pain.

Do your fire games go down well everywhere?

Nearly. When Till's whole body was on fire on a tour for two minutes, that was maybe a bit too harsh. He dropped and the stagehands put him out with fire extinguishers. We thought it was funny, but people thought it was a real accident, and after that the atmosphere in the concert didn't get back up again. We didn't do that anymore on the tour.

It was also difficult with the ejaculation. During the song "Bück Dich" the singer takes a rubber cock out of his pants and sprays a milky liquid first over your bare bottom and then over the audience. It used to be milk.

And it always went bad. That's why we're taking Pernot now. Mixed with water, it looks perfect, has a disinfecting effect, and the audience is happy because it tastes good. To my shock, there are often older people in front of the stage and beautiful girls, all cultured people, who open their mouths when Till tugs at them. Seems to be a hidden need that they live out in a very cultivated way.

Rammstein pays homage to a rather grotesque image of masculinity, hard, dirty muscle types. You're not quite as steeled. Have you ever thought about going to the gym like the others?

The thought is so absurd. That would be ridiculous.

Aggression and anger play a role in Rammstein. That doesn't seem to be your issue.

I don't make the music for myself, but for the young people who need something like that. They're fine when they hear something violent and angry.

Now you sound like an editor from the children's channel.

I do not care. I used to listen to the Dead Kennedys when I was little. The main thing is that my parents thought they were stupid.

What was it like when your parents came to your concerts for the first time?

Visiting parents are always a nightmare for all of us. We don't make music for parents.

By now you do.

But not for our own. Admittedly, of course I thought it was good when my parents saw that I was doing a serious job and hadn't become an anti-social, as one would have expected from my lifestyle. That they could see that there were people waiting to see us.

And did your mother pat you on the back?

Get off. That generation doesn't treat praise the way parents do today, who dance for joy whenever their child puts their foot in the water once: You can swim!

And your father?

I think he's still a bit disappointed that I didn't pursue my toolmaking career.

You are a father yourself. What is it like when your own children come to the concert and see what funny things dad is doing there?

They don't give a damn about Rammstein. They like completely different music. I wouldn't have gone to my father's concert either.

Your band plays a completely different role abroad than it does here. There you are, the original Germans, a little bit scary, tough, technical.

I've listened to bands from other countries all my life - partly because I didn't understand their lyrics. The Stones, what nonsense they sing! The voices were just the voices. I think it's the same for those abroad. When the French hear a German band, they say: Man, finally something different.

Something very German!

Nonsense. For young people, Germany is no longer a country of marchers. For them, this is Technoland , where gays stroll across Alexanderplatz and where the Loveparade takes place. Only the Germans themselves always ask themselves: is that allowed? Abroad they say: There's a band, there's a fire on the stage, all hell's going on, we've got to go there.

You wrote: "Actually, I shouldn't make great rock music with my attitude."

I'm more the type for soft tones, for loving interactions, for going to bed early. It's quite possible that there are quite a few people who would have more ambition to play in a band like this than I do. All that rock 'n' roller stuff : there's a lot nicer in imagination than in reality. But that applies to almost everything in life. Whether it's the first sex or the birthday you've been looking forward to for so long. Then it's there and you say: It wasn't that great really.

How does it feel to be a world star flying from city to city in a small plane and drowning in the applause of thousands?

Like every day is your birthday. But a birthday is awesome because you only have it once a year. Everything else is normal. And normal is normal.

No anticipation for a next tour?

2018-01-22 interview by Juliane Liebert, in the series 'What is homeland' for newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ), photo by Olaf Heine

"There are now a lot of unpleasant people living here"

Rammstein keyboardist Flake returned to live in his childhood home in Prenzlauer Berg, "in a bubble of rich people". A conversation about home, national property and combine harvesters.

As the only East German band that has ever achieved real world fame - and that with German lyrics - Rammstein are unique, purgatory in the shape of an art performance that with a rolling R, their martial demeanor and the morbid lyrics of their homeland drives out folksy kitsch. Flake, 51, whose real name is Christian Lorenz, has written two books, the last one being "Today is the world's birthday", which, in addition to the formation of the band, deal a lot with the Berlin district of Prenzlauer Berg. The other band members also live there. Actually, he says, they are his true home by now.

SZ: You live in the house you grew up in, in Prenzlauer Berg in Berlin .

Flake: Yes, again since a few years. I spent my entire childhood here and I can well remember how we all played on the streets back then. I have fond memories of this neighborhood. Although it's state must have appeared very gray and dreary to an outsider back then. There were whole streets where there wasn't even one open shop. There was crumbling plaster that had fallen off og the facade of the house. Everything was a single shade of gray. There were few cars and a lot of war damage. When I was born, in 1966, the war was just 21 years ago. That is shorter than the time that has passed since the fall of the Wall.

The war was more present for you then, than the GDR is now?

Yes. When I was a child, you saw many widows who sat at window sills in their black clothes and complained that where a house had been bombed away, grass, flowers, and corn grew. I thought that was beautiful. That was my feeling of 'home' as a child in Prenzlauer Berg.

Did the dilapidated state of the city open up playroom for the children?

Everything was freer, because nothing was forbidden because there was so little, there was no need to forbid things. We played soccer on the roofs. Opposite is a cemetery where we also played as children. Every morning I watched the funerals from the window. One had the feeling that people were dying all the time, that death didn't just happen once in a lifetime, but was always there. The district now and the streets of my childhood have nothing to do with each other. It is as if the residence has been moved to another city.

To which city?

Nuremberg maybe. There is a lot here that reminds me of a small West German town. I had to end the idea in my head that this is the Prenzlauer Berg that I know and love. There are now a lot of unpleasant people living here. The workers are gone, the old people are gone because they could no longer afford the rents. You live here in a bubble of rich, well-bred people. You can skip "well-behaved". They do things that I would never have dreamed of. Talking loudly into your cell phone at the cash register. We are fortunate that we can afford an property here thanks to the band.

Are Berliners more homeless than they used to be?

I think rather that the term home is not yet defined in such a way that many can do something with it. On the one hand this is the place where you grew up, but on the other hand there are also circumstances that can make a place your home. There are many places in the world that I would call homeland without me being born there. When I go to the Czech Republic or Poland and walk through the streets on a winter evening, it smells like it used to smell here because they still use coal stoves. And that coal smell, the ash, the potato smell from the cellar, it smells just like it did in my childhood. I feel at home there - despite the different language.

For many, home is closely linked to smells. The sense of smell is the most directly effective sense.

When you say that "homeland" is where you come from, home for me is the GDR. Less as a place, but more as a state. The ideology of the GDR is my home. We grew up believing that society was evolving, from primitive society, slave-holding society, feudalism, capitalism, socialism, communism. That was a clear path for us. The field is public property, you don't go there. The machines belong to everyone. Seemed logical to me as a child, who's that stupid and buys a combine harvester for himself. I have internalized this so much that I feel at home in this system, although it no longer exists.

Isn't the longing for the childhood home always a longing for something that has disappeared ?

There are many places for me that feel like home. The place where I grew up no longer arouses these feelings.

Is music a home for a musician?

The crazy thing is that music is the only thing that can effortlessly overcome boundaries. We were able to listen to west stations in the GDR because we lived in Berlin. When the SFB played Sex Pistols, we heard it in the same second as the West Berliners. As East-people we were ten years behind in everything, but in music we were on the same level. We were free then. There was a crazy phenomenon as a musician in the GDR.

Which was?

That it was like an imaginary world. The western bands didn't come to the east. We didn't get to the west. The real rock bands didn't exist for us. They were like from a fantasy world. As a band, we never had to measure ourselves against the "real" bands. Since it was impossible that the Stones would ever come to East Germany, anyone could pretend to be the Stones - or even better. A musical world of its own developed that was completely bizarre because it had nothing to do with the real world.

A bubble.

In addition, there was no regular record sale. Records were pressed and sold, and the musicians were paid based on how many musicians had recorded which tracks. You could sell five records or 500,000 and as a musician get the same money. Which is completely absurd. At the same time, it was a huge opportunity because nobody tried to make music that was commercially successful. This made the East-bands very peculiar. That's why we did punk because we didn't care if someone bought it.

Did this basic attitude make bands like Feeling B and later Rammstein possible?

Yes. The everyday life of a band does not consist of the one and a half hours on stage, but rather the before and after. The moments of happiness that you have. That became my home.

So is the band your home?

Yes. It sounds cheesy and trite, but Rammstein is also home. These are the people I feel I belong to. With whom I spend my life. I've spent more time with them than with my parents or my children or my wives. With a few people from the band I've been playing in bands since 1983. My first child was born in 1995.

Twelve years ahead at least

Yes, you first have to achieve that. When you talk about home, language is also very important to me. By that I mean less German than Berliner. When I hear that, my heart immediately warms. The language is still as it was. Saxon too. Saxon used to be the language of the authorities and the police. So that the police officers did not fraternize with the young people, they sent Saxon police officers to Berlin and the Berlin police officers to Saxony. Whenever something was nasty and disgusting, it was Saxon. The party spoke in Saxon. Our lyrics are German so that we can be understood. We never thought we'd ever play abroad.

You write in your books that you enjoy walking.

Yeah, I still go for a walk every day. When I see groups of people, I change to the other side of the road. The only time that I was beaten up was miraculously here in Prenzlauer Berg. I walked through slums in America. In Detroit, the record company with wringing hands asked me not to go out on the streets. They said you won't survive this. But the guys there on the street always looked at me amused and friendly. And here in broad daylight on the doorstep, I was beaten up. 1995.

By whom?

By someone who went to jail during the GDR era and was released after the fall of the Wall. It was his first day out. He took to the streets and couldn't believe what had become of his city, what has become of the people. What he'd missed. He was so frustrated that he attacked everyone he could het hold of. I thought it was a friend of mine. Because he ran towards me. I stretched out my arms to greet him. Then he felt even more provoked and thrashed me on the nose so that I flew into the gutter and then beat me up. I didn't even know what it was about. Until his girlfriend, who ran after him, cleared it up. He was locked away again straight after. That was his only day of freedom.

The word "home" can allegedly not be translated. *)

I once wanted to translate "after work", **) that is one of the most frequently mentioned words in my book. "After work" is different from "End of work". "After work" is free time and joy. I haven't found the word anywhere in English.

Notes

*) the German word 'Heimat' is indeed both Home and Homeland (and Motherland and Native country), but maybe it's a mix of all of it

published 2017-10-23, by Philip Dulle

Flake von Rammstein: "We are not machine people"

Rammstein keyboard player Flake on the end of the big party and his new book of memories.

There is a saying that circulates about the Rammstein phenomenon: the Berlin band has done more for the German language in the past 23 years than the Goethe-Institut has done since it was founded. On social media you can read about fans who only learned German thanks to the six musicians from the former GDR. Whether in São Paulo, Sydney or Paris - everywhere people sing along almost flawlessly when singer Till Lindemann lets his baritone sound. In 2010, the band sold out their concert in New York's Madison Square Garden, probably the most famous arena in the world, in just 20 minutes.

For the Berlin author and radio presenter Marion Brasch, who knows Rammstein very well, the phenomenon is easy to explain: "Despite their superficial brutality, they make beautiful music," she says in an interview with profil. "These are great melodies that touch, even though they come across so fiercely.” In addition, the concerts are an experience without equal - “like a beautiful, colourful, evil children's birthday party”: a perfectly staged spectacle with fire throwers, SM role-playing games and absurd theatrics.

Rammstein keyboardist Christian Lorenz, who has called himself Flake since his youth, is not only his band's prankster on stage, he also has the ability to write wonderfully strange books. After his GDR memoirs ("The Key Fucker", 2015) , the now 50-year-old has now succeeded in creating another gem of oddities, which he cleverly disguised as a memoir for musicians, about the difficult early days of an often misunderstood East ("Ossi") band, but also deals with existential questions.

profile: After decades in the music business, you still don't like giving interviews. Has that never improved? 

Flake: We make music that should speak for itself. When I have to explain why a song is written this way or that way, the song obviously doesn't work. That would be like explaining a joke.

profile: You are going on a reading tour with your new book. Can you compare that to a concert?

Flake: I find a reading to be a greater challenge. I'm alone on stage, without costumes and make up, sometimes I feel naked. A band overwhelms with volume, show and rhythm. These resources are not available to me at a reading.

profile: Aren't you happy with your readings? 

Flake: It's comparatively difficult for me. Reading is a very intimate thing, not a fun event.

profile: You wrote a kind of band biography with "Today has the world's birthday" after all. 

Flake: For me the book is not a Rammstein biography, I would rather categorize it as a novel. In it we accompany a band on a fictional day. The big stuff isn't more important than the small, and being presented with a platinum record as an artist means little to me when I am om stage and need to pee urgently.

profile: How do you explain the success of Rammstein? 

Flake: The most important thing after all these years is that we get along well within the band and have learned to deal with each other. We don't argue about financial matters, we don't allow ourselves to be interfered with and we don't let ourselves be destroyed from the outside. As a band we stand together. That's the trick. An elbow society, where everyone fights everyone else, is the wrong way to go if you want to be happy or successful in life.

profile: Do you still wonder about the music business?

Flake: For outsiders it's completely absurd what musicians do all day. They hang out in backstage rooms, shaking hands with thousands of fans like a machine, every day. You can't even tell all that.

profile: In your book, the Rammstein machine noticeably begins to become human. Intentional?

Flake: We're not machine people who just work dull and stubborn, punctual to the second. I try to invite readers into our world, and that only works when you're dealing with people who are close to you.

profile: You talk frankly about escapades and backstage parties. How did that go down with your colleagues? 

Flake: They see it very differently. But the escapades weren't really the problem. Everyone has their own story about what happens.

profil: Has the band lost its attraction for you with the success? 

Flake: You lose and you gain something, it's similar to a long relationship. At the beginning you are in love, there is total euphoria. Then come the wedding, everyday life and children, you reap the fruits. Suddenly you find yourself on a new level in the relationship. That's exactly how it is with the band. It has nothing to do with sadness.

profile: Today you prefer to watch "House of Cards"? 

Flake: I don't have that much fun with lavish parties and drinking all night long anymorre. I prefer to go to bed early.

profile: Do you have a life besides music? 

Flake: Especially people who are crazy about their music have a hard time in life. These are often the ones who get into a big crisis when things aren't going so well. I'm really only a musician on stage - and besides the band I have a completely normal private life.

profile: Rammstein concerts are spectacles. Between the fire show and stage dramaturgy, isn't there a lack of engagement with the music? 

Flake: I can reassure you: I'm totally into the songs for the whole two hours and feel the music. The show is the accessory.

profil: Are you pursuing a higher goal with the band? 

Flake: I believe that we have helped many people in life, given them self-confidence. In our early years, we sometimes received letters from abuse victims who, through Rammstein, for the first time dared to talk about their trauma and go to the police. Music is also a tool that helps you distance yourself from your parents and cut your cord.

profile: People around the world are learning German because of Rammstein. Does that honor you?