The best parts of an interview with Till & Flake from Metal Hammer - September 2004.
They approach the media representatives with shirts and ties to signal that there are clear boundaries between them as private individuals and Rammstein musicians. “In the hotel foyer I’m the ‘private Flake’ and don’t talk about the band,” Flake begins his explanation for the visual transformation. “I am not authorized to mention the names of the band and the members in private.”
A strange staging on the one hand, self-protection on the other, because with the size of the band you have to be careful that it doesn’t determine your entire life. “As soon as I’m not working for the band, I’m private. Then I don’t talk about Rammstein, but I think about it,“ the 37-year-old admits. Privacy is also important for Lindemann, who shares a house with Flake (Note: It’s probably Flake or Till squatting the other house during rehearsals time rather than them actually sharing a house!). He works on his lyrics alone at home, but exchanges ideas with Flake when he comes home from the rehearsal room. The spice lies in the brevity. “We’ll discuss the latest developments on the songs in 15 minutes. After that it’s all about women. Or about which liquor we buy. So after a short time the band is forgotten — that’s important, otherwise we would go crazy!”
In the band’s early days there were major problems in this regard, as the band’s exaggerated male image was misunderstood and overrated by many. The band’s reaction: They exaggerated the situation by, among other things, filming videos with Leni Riefenstahl aesthetics. A treat for the press, which literally felt challenged by Rammstein. ”Some journalists really poke around,“ says Flake. “I understand that, after all they just want to distinguish themselves.” This led to the fact that there are now emotive words to which the musicians react particularly allergic to in interviews. ”Provocation, calculation, Leni Riefenstahl and neo-fascism,“ Lindemann lists, adding ”and all that bullshit“ at the end. That makes him tense, even stubborn, so much so that he would like to go home, he grumbles. It is all the more surprising that the beefy singer allowed himself to be carried away by interviews in the course of REISE, REISE. Some would even describe it as a sensation, and even Lindemann’s band colleague Christoph Schneider stated in the last METAL HAMMER interview (February 2002 issue), when asked about his singer’s rare appearances: “He doesn’t want to talk. It wouldn’t be good either, because he doesn’t have the experience to do it, because he always tries to give official answers.” A statement that Lindemann supported two years later: “That’s true. I don’t like giving interviews at all and will never do that again after the promotional tour for REISE, REISE. But the collective spirit is more important than my person. The band split into three interview groups and if I hadn’t gone along, Flake would have gone on tour alone. I didn’t want to put him into that position.”
Rammstein’s relationship with the press is also crazy. To protect themselves from misinterpretations, the band reads the written articles (including this one) before publication. That is their right (in the truest sense of the word), and this precautionary measure is not censorship, as Lindemann and Flake agree. “The bad experiences in the past force us to this control. We’ve often been pissed off because statements we made were edited together just to be able to pin some spite on us,” explains Lindemann and relates, “I was once asked if we’re proud to have our albums being number one in the charts. To which I replied: 'Of course, that’s fantastic! The best thing that has ever happened to me!’ But instead of the original question, the printed version suddenly said, 'Are you proud to be a German?’ That’s the last thing I expected!” Then he turns it up: “Everyone can write whatever they want, and I think freedom of the press is okay. But when people sit face to face with you and then piece together something completely different from the conversation, out of displeasure and for whatever reason, that’s just bad.”
The singer, on the other hand, finds lurid openings okay. For example, the BILD newspaper wrote about the album MUTTER (2001): “Dead baby in a mason jar — this band must be banned.” “I thought to myself: 'Great, that’s exactly where we want to go’”, the singer remembers. “Having a bad review in BILD is not bad at all. But when a reputable newspaper like Der Spiegel starts to twist the facts, that’s mean.”
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