#rammstein interview

Sometimes the Beast named Rammstein is hard to control. As humans, we're very quiet and calm by nature, but when it comes to music, videos, and the entire Rammstein enterprise, we get immense pleasure from creating this Beast named Rammstein.

We won't even take on a project if we don't enjoy it, if it doesn't bring us any pleasure... We were dealing with a stupid song, uncharacteristic of Rammstein.

About "Pussy":

We didn't know what to do with it. The song itself is very catchy, but it's not what listeners expect from Rammstein. We were lucky with a director who suggested the wonderful idea of ​​making a pornographic version of this song. This is because the video perfectly complements the music.

We're capable of doing things that ordinary musicians wouldn't sign up for, wouldn't dare to do, but we, Rammstein, are perfectly allowed to do them. Rammstein is the only German band capable of such a feat.

At the time, I was an ordinary young man, standing in the crowd, holding a candle and chanting "no violence, no violence" at the police.

I remember some people dancing on the Berlin Wall. I didn't like them... too pretentious. And when the Wall was torn down, I didn't rush to the western part of Berlin immediately; I adopted a wait-and-see attitude.

Rock Hard : During our recent interview with Richard Z. Kruspe and Christoph Schneider, they spoke at length about the tensions that arose within Rammstein. Did you feel them yourself?

Till : When you live in community, like married people, for more than ten years, that you come from five very different bands... When, in fact, you spend more time with your "coworkers" than with your family, what do you want ? In short, it's been ten years that we have always been together, ten years... And when we are on tour, it's not as if we were working in an office and that, in the evening, we could find our little families. A lot of things are open to discussion, things that are of a different nature than who is going to get the bread when they get home from work. So, quarrels arise in the studio, it's obvious. And let's not even talk about the promiscuity of the tour bus : there are heated debates to determine who will be entitled to the top bunk and the largest closet to store his clothes (cynical laugh). More seriously, there were indeed, in the rehearsal room, clashes as to the share of investment and commitment of each within the group. And at the end of ten years, we know very well what can annoy the other : so, when one of us wants to make his rock-hard head, he does not need to hollow his head for very long to annoy his victim. These are nice little games... In the specific case of Richard, he is a workaholic and, in general, in the past, it is true that he often tended to want to do everything. In fact, there wasn't much left for the others and we just filled in the gaps. But we have an advantage : we come from the former GDR, were educated according to the precepts of the community and, unconsciously, we are always very united to form one : we talk a lot, which acts in a therapeutic way. Besides, I have the impression that we spend more time discussing than making music...

© Frédéric Batier — Völkerball live

RH : What is your part in the pure composition. We know you're 100% responsible for the lyrics, but what about the music ?

Till : The part of my job that interests me the most is, of course, the lyrics writing. But it is normal that I also intervene on the content of the music : my words must be able to adapt to it. Sometimes the other five are convinced that a riff is good, but if I don't agree, if it doesn't inspire me, I explain my point.

RH : Rammstein is a collective but, for most fans, you are considered the leader of the band...

Till : Singers are often seen that way, but since I don't know how to do anything other than singing... The public sees things a certain way, but we are like workers on a construction site : there is the mason, the surveyor, carpenter, etc., each plays his part for the collective effort. And as proof of our unity, unlike a lot of groups, we share all our financial gains equally.

RH : Could you describe the Till Lindemann that we do not know the one that appears as soon as he leaves the stage...

Till : It's something very private and very difficult, a subject I don't want to well on. It is not in my character to talk about myself. To find out more, you would have to ask this question to my ex-wives. And I doubt they have a lot of good to say about me. I'd rather you ask my friends, my pals, about this. And again, they would surely be positive on me, but this type of judgment is so subjective...

RH : Your daughter is now a teenager. How does she perceive her father ?

Till : Our relationship has evolved a lot over time and today looks more like a sincere relationship of friendship between two individuals, more than the classic and austere father / daughter. We vacation together regularly and this year we went to Costa Rica. Besides, I think she likes me because I always manage to get backstage passes for her friends.

RH : Your texts are rarely gay. Are you yourself a dark and pessimistic person ?

Till : My texts are dark, but not pessimistic. On the other hand, I am indeed a pessimistic individual...

Found a long interview that i took screenshots of 

I was reading that and the question about the paper bag got me surprised by pauls answer  (especially bc we see that photo of him being used as a meme here)

from “Rosenrot” promo interview from Motor.de translated here by @countess-mina:

Motor.de:  I don’t really want to talk about this too much because I think there’s been enough talking about it in the past. But do you simply accept that people misinterpret your songs if you take a song like “Zerstören” which is about the desire to destroy a strangers’ property and introducing the song with arabic harmonies? One could see it as a call-up to racist brutality.

Paul Landers: Interesting. I’ve never looked at it that way. But I would assume that there’s a frequency in your mind which reacts to it this way. We are basically holding up a mirror. The lyrics we written during the war in Iraq. We were interested in the parallels between a marauding pack of kids after a game of soccer who roam the street and destroy everything, and states which invade other states and destroy everything there. Our main thought was that there is no difference. We perceived it as boldness, that the Americans simply bomb a country and get away with it. At the moment George W. Bush is nothing else but another disgusting hooligan. You don’t have to think that we mean such things in a wrong way.