Press
Information
Date: 2001
Source: Metal Eagle
Interviewed: Unknown
Interview
A NEW ALBUM and world tour from Berlin's most explosive export, Rammstein, is very much a red-letter event in the international rock'n'roll calendar; this fact, plus the extended gap since last studio outing 'Sehnsucht' (a two-million seller worldwide), means that come April 2, 2001 - the confirmed release date for LP Number Four - there is sure to be excitement amongst those who take their music with a healthy dash of spectacle...
Titled 'Mutter' and produced by Sweden's Jacob Hellner, a regular on Rammstein recordings, this forthcoming release sees the band - Christoph Schneider (drums), Oliver Riedel (bass), Christian 'Flake' Lorenz (keyboards), Paul Landers/Richard Kruspe (guitars), Till Lindemann (vocals) - continuing to deliver the kind of precision-built material that their worldwide fanbase thrives on.
With the last album, 1998's 'Live Aus Berlin', being an in-concert affair supported by video & DVD formats, there might have been the expectation that this would serve as a chapter-closer in the history of a group who first joined forces back in 1994; as it's turned out, however, the recently-completed follow-up is less a radical departure and more a case of band & producer honing the trademark 'Stein sound to the finest point possible. If its studio predecessors - 1995's 'Herzeleid' & 1997's 'Sehnsucht' - were the sound of Rammstein hammering out a style that felt com-fortable to them, then the lovingly-crafted 'Mutter' sees this style taking on subtle new shades & textures...
With the likes of, say, AC/DC or The Ramones, part of their appeal is that they haven't changed too much, but when it comes to Rammstein - and especially with this latest album - we have tried to find a way of retaining particular elements of our sound, the key parts, and then developing other areas around them... - Rammstein.
Followers can rest assured, however, that the forthcoming LP is Rammstein through & through; the chiselled groove of the guitars, the heavy drama of the vocals (delivered as ever with mother tongue defiance), the general shape & symmetry of the sound, this is clearly the band that audiences from both sides of the Atlantic have come to recognise as rock'n'roll's answer to an active volcano, with the odd dash of S&M (more tongue-in-cheek than hardcore) thrown in for good measure.
Over the past few weeks & months, a process of evolution (rather than revolution) has indeed been taking place, with certain areas - i.e. the vocals, the rhythms, the electronic 'icing' - being infused with a greater sense of ambition than ever before; this, quite simply, is Rammstein on a roll, pumping out songs that veer from the deeply stirring ('Nebel') right through to the tightly commercial, with tracks such as 'Links 2 3 4' and 'Feuer Frei!' hitting their mark with heat-seeking efficiency.
Metal E@gle: So is this a more commercial record generally..? Rammstein: Well, the thing is, we don't make a conscious effort to produce 'commercial' songs or 'hit' songs - we don't write our material to appeal to this person or that person. It is our belief that the only way to deal with these issues is to look deep inside yourself, which means that the tracks for the new album - and we've been working on around 14 from which the final 11 have now been chosen - are bound to be a reflection of where we are today, both as people and as musicians... Rammstein: If when you listen to these tracks you can hear some slightly different things, then that's simply because we've developed as a band; we are all aware of a broader range of music these days, and our songwriting skills have moved up a notch, too. You could say that this is a more song-orientated record...
Metal E@gle: FOR THE 'Herzeleid' & 'Sehnsucht' albums, Rammstein opted to relocate to Sweden & Malta respectively, but neither of these countries was seriously in the running when it came time to push the 'record' button for the new LP. On this occasion, with a full six weeks of dawn-to-dusk activity stretching out ahead, the band decided it would be better to gather up their hard-disc recorders - used for the first time on this album - and head for Miraval Studios in South-Eastern France: a legendary setting that has played home to musicians such as Pink Floyd (who recorded 'The Wall' there in the late '70s), Sade and the Cure.
Metal E@gle: Prior to arriving in Miraval in May of last year, the band decided to 'test drive' the new material at a fan club-only show in Berlin, putting songs such as 'Links...' (the lead US track) and 'Sonne' (the first European single/video) through their live paces before an audience of no more than 100; by doing this kind of groundwork (and more besides), they were confident that the difficulties often experienced by groups at the Third (Studio) Album Stage could be kept at bay - especially as Jacob Hellner, a producer they'd hooked up with after hearing his work on the debut Clawfinger LP (1994), was once again helming the project... Rammstein: Well, why change a winning team, right? Jacob is an ideal producer for Ramm-stein because he doesn't want to get involved with the writing of the music, but once we've come up with the songs we're happy to work with him to see if we can make them even stronger... Rammstein: He knows how to give musicians a sense of confidence, how to get the most out of them in the recording process, in addition to which he has a disciplined way of doing things, which again suits us as a band. He puts so much intense concentration into what he's doing that by the time he finishes in the studio for the day he's staggering around like he's had too much to drink!
Metal E@gle: Since the beginning, there has been a collective desire within the Rammstein ranks to steer away from the tried and the tested («You can't leave footprints of your own if you always follow in the footsteps of others...), and with second album stand-outs such as 'Engel' and 'Du Hast' - a Top 10 single in Germany & Austria recently remixed by dance act U96 - they have proved that you don't need to sing in English to make the aforementioned footprints both global & great.
Metal E@gle: Simply, there's an inherent drama here that instantly positions the band away from the chasing pack, and it's a quality that - partly by necessity, partly by design - they have successfully extended into a stageshow that consistently involves all of the senses... Rammstein: Well, with Till being anything but a typical rock'n'roll frontman, he tended to get restless onstage when he wasn't singing, so we decided to introduce some FX into certain parts of the show to help him deal with this.We started with just one thing, a simple effect, and then the other ideas followed on from that; it was really at this time that we started playing with fire...
Metal E@gle: OF COURSE, were the band's live performances to be based solely on their generous use of pyro, with a 'penis' of the seven-inch synthetic kind thrust briefly into the spotlight for the bump & grind of 'Buck Dich', then there is no way that 'Sehnsucht' would have topped the German charts for five weeks, and no way that album sales would be approaching the four million mark worldwide. Indeed, when it's necessary (and it sometimes is), then the Rammstein personnel are more than capable of delivering a spot-on live set minus all of the 'trappings', with a past no-flames foray in Chicago ranking as one of their best outings ever. A «Kiss as Pearl Jam show...
Metal E@gle: In a perfect world, however, the sonics and the stageshow are conceived to work together, which is something that comes across to telling effect on the 'Live Aus Berlin' video/DVD; naturally, there's the live CD side of this project too, but by and large the aim with 'Berlin...' was to visually preserve both the emotional atmosphere of two major homecoming gigs (attended by 40,000 fans across both nights) plus the incendiary impact of a live show sharpened to perfection in the course of three years on the road. At the Wuhlheide venue on August 22 & 23rd 1998, the members of Rammstein showed themselves to be at the peak of their powers, taking rock'n'roll performance to a level destined to wind the spring of authority figures everywhere...
Metal E@gle: On the high-profile 'Family Values' tour, for example, it was Rammstein who left the most impressive trail of empty bottles across the 28 US dates, and Rammstein who managed to stop the show in Washington D.C. by appearing naked under the spotlights (bar their instruments and a few bits of tape!) in honour of Halloween. Check back through police files, and it soon becomes clear that this is not the only occasion on which the band have raised the hackles of petty-minded officialdom, with both Till & 'Flake' being arrested in June 1999 in Worcester, Massachusetts for their live interpretation of 'Buck Dich', but it is the Halloween debacle that has them scratching their heads most vigorously... Rammstein: You know, it's just so difficult for us to understand this because getting naked onstage was our way of showing respect for an American tradition; Halloween is such a big day over there, and we wanted to do something special to celebrate it with them - and then the agent pulled the plug on us... Rammstein: Having said that, though, I think that the guitar player in Orgy was even more upset than we were, because he was going to join us during the show that night to play the part of the 'slave' in 'Buck Dich', which is the role that 'Flake' normally takes. He was so disappointed that he was virtually in tears...!
Metal E@gle: IN THE wake of their first-ever visit to Japan for the prestigious Fuji Rock Festival on July 30th last year, the band kicked off 2001 with a similarly far-flung outing, this time to Australia & New Zealand for a series of 'Big Day Out' festivals that also featured Powderfinger, Queens Of The Stone Age, Placebo and more. For Rammstein, the eight 'BDO' shows (plus a swift return to Japan) were very much a case of rounding off an era; the next time that the six take to the stage they are likely to be armed with a new look and a new set-list, not to mention a fresh supply of the kind of FX best viewed through industrially filtered lens!
Metal E@gle: As with the forthcoming album, though, it won't simply be a case of 'all change'...
Metal E@gle: In the same way that Kiss (a band who the Berliners Special Guested with in South America a couple of years back) wouldn't dream of performing 'Firehouse' without the fire-breathing, so when Rammstein raise the curtain on a full-blooded production number like 'Asche Zu Asche' there is a more than even chance that the mic-stands - like most of the stage gear! - will be duly warmed to the point of combustion... Rammstein: All we can say for now is that we will be Rammstein, and it's going to be a rock show...
Metal E@gle: Over the years, the single-minded determination of the band to run the gasoline-coated gauntlet has inevitably resulted in the odd minor mishap, yet to the individ- ual members the acquisition of scars & scalds is no more than a hazard of the job. Even a car crash in July '99 that left Till with cracked ribs and a wounded knee only kept the frontman out of action for as long as was absolutely necessary....
Metal E@gle: Rammstein, it's clear, have been bred for toughness as well as for speed, and there's no denying that on occasion it can be hard to break through the securely cemented perimeter of a group who are inclined to play the promo game only if they can set out the rules... Rammstein: Well, sometimes having a 'bad' or a 'difficult' image can be more interesting. If you read an interview with the Smashing Pumpkins, say, it can often be better entertainment than an interview with a band who are too worried about getting on with the journalist or putting across a friendly attitude. Let's face it, most nice bands are boring...!
Metal E@gle: Generally speaking, Rammstein like to let their actions - musical & otherwise - do the talking, with the whole interview process being something that they have yet to fully come to terms with («If you talk about a secret, then it's not a secret anymore ...).Where they are fully at home, however, is behind the studio console or out there on the boards, as it's here that these musicians of diverse musical taste (think Judas Priest, John Lee Hooker, Depeche Mode, Eminem... and keep going!) are able to pursue a mutually held vision that is certain to grow dramatically over the next few years. Already they've been involved in Remix work for Rob Zombie ('Spook-show Baby'), Faith No More ('Last Cup Of Sorrow') and Korn ('Good God'), and they are keen to further indulge their creative urges by collaborating with artists, classic & contemporary, whose music they hold in high esteem, with David Bowie, Martin Gore (Depeche Mode) & Skin (Skunk Anansie) currently topping their wish-list.
Metal E@gle: Who knows, before too much longer we might even see them working with a US producer and peppering their material with English/American lines, but all that's down the line (maybe); for the moment, they are focussed on giving the best possible launch to a Stefan Glaumann-mixed album that they hope will give fans & media alike an insight into what it is that drives the wheels of the juggernaut they have hand-built from scratch... Rammstein: We know that there's a lot of people waiting for this album - the press, the fans, the record company, whoever - but for the first time in our career we felt the need to take more of a break between releases, because we wanted to try out some different things. Rammstein: What you have to remember is that we are waiting for this record too, but we have to be really happy with what we're doing. This is the album where we get to show everyone who we really are....