Look, this is 100% going to be mostly evidence of me being a crazy person and not prove anything further than that, but bear with me.
So a while ago, I actually google Engine 55 because that’s Richard’s studio. He doesn’t talk about it much directly, but Evidence a) A Million Degrees is said to be recorded “here in my studio except the drums”, and in the Booklet it says “recorded at Studio 55”. Now, as it happens, that’s an old fire department in New York. This it was it looks like.
Now first I thought this was just a reference. Maybe he found it interesting, maybe firefighting = break from Rammstein, etc. etc. but then a few days ago this ghost story popped right up and like:
“The residence, a former firehouse in SoHo, apparently revealed its spiritual energies to Kruspe soon after he set up his home studio there.”
Engine 55 is not in Soho, but in lower manhatten, but we’ll chalk that up to “close enough.” Who understands city districts anyway. Further:
"I went online to research the history of the house, and I found a picture of it from 1874," Kruspe said a week before heading back to Germany to continue work on the next Rammstein album, which doesn't have a name yet. "I printed it up, and when I looked closely at it, I got goose bumps all over my body. The picture is of three guys standing outside the building, and one of them looks exactly like me."
Now, the fire department in question wasn’t build until 1879 the earliest, but again, we’ll chalk that up to human error (on Richard’s side, or the journalist), but there is indeed a historic picture from it’s early days with three guys infront of the building, and yeah, guy to the right kind of looks alot like him, if that’s what you want to read into it.
Call me Sherlock, but I found Richard’s ghost.
