Information
Date: October 2001
Title: Rammstein - Speaking a Universal Language
Source: Altarnative
Press Article
It was almost 10 years ago when Rammstein guitarist Richard Kruspe-Bernstein visited California from his East German homeland to study bands firsthand and get a taste of American music. Instead he may have walked away with a bigger appreciation for Bloodwurst.
"I realized that if you had to do music, you had to be authentic," Kruspe remembers. "I was trying to copy American music, but I'm not American, I'm German. For me it became completely clear that if you wanted to do this kind of music you had to live in California and speak this language. I wanted to write music that can fit the German language."
In America, Rammstein (Kruspe, vocalist Till Lindemann, guitarist Paul Landers, drummer Christoph Schneider, bassist Oliver Riedel and keyboardist Flake Lorenz) is arguably one of the few heavy rock acts that can sing in a language other than English and get away with it, in no small part due to the band's intense industrial grind that, although sung completely in German, still transcends any verbal language. "I was growing up in East Germany and I was listening to lyrics that I could not understand," Kruspe says. (He claims to have learned English three years ago.) "I would sing along, even if I didn't know what I was singing. It was important to sing to catch melodies. I think people feel it."
For non-Germans, the same could be done with Rammstein's latest Mutter, which continues the path forged in typical Rammstein fashion: with sawtoothed guitars and pulsating industrial grind that attack on tracks like "Ich Will" and "Sonne." Orchestral moments fused with aggressive hooks make their mark on the opening "Mein Herz Brennt," while the Euro-metal-gone-Goth title track could double as a movie score for some dramatic scene.
While the band worked long and hard on the album, it took just as much work--- if not more--- to keep the band together. At one point it all nearly came apart, even as the band's popularity was on the rise. "We went through ups and downs," Kruspe remembers. "One time in Belgium we thought 'we can't do this anymore' and wanted to quit the band. But I guess it has to be like this. You have to go through pain. It's like having a baby; it's painful too."
"Being with a band for seven years is like a marriage to five people," he continues. "We stayed in a studio or a bus for three months. You learn the habits of every member, and it's hard to deal with sometimes. We're really democratic, and we have to decide for six people, so it makes it even more complicated. I couldn't have someone tell me what to do. We don't like it: we're German."
The origins of what would become Rammstein go back to Kruspe and Lindemann, a former Olympic swimmer who also played drums in a punk band and roomed with Richard at one point. One day he noticed Lindemann singing to the radio and saw the potential. "I called him up and asked if he wanted to try, and he said he didn't sing," Kruspe explains. "I told him to go get a bottle of whiskey or something, and he came up with one word. Then we started getting more and more out, and I was so sure that he could do it."
About five months later after completing the lineup the project became Rammstein, and in 1996, the band released its debut Herzeleid (or Heartache). Combined with pyrotechnic shows that included Lindemann setting himself on fire, Rammstein's 1998 Sehnsucht (Longing) follow-up introduced the band to larger audiences, first outside of Germany, then in the States with its first American single, "Du Hast," which New York's K-Rock put in radio rotation around the time Rammstein made its American debut at a CMJ showcase in New York City. It was also nominated for a Grammy in the metal performance category.
"We played in front of about five people at three in the morning," Kruspe recalls. "Then the next show was in front of about 10 people, and then people started getting interested." The band moved to bigger shows when it toured with the 1998 Family Values Tour, during which the band got unwelcome publicity when Massachusetts authorities arrested Lindemann for lascivious conduct onstage involving a strap-on at one of their performances.
One of the better introductions to American audiences was Rammstein's inclusion on the soundtrack of the David Lynch-produced "Lost Highway." The band, self-admitted movie buffs, originally wanted Lynch to produce "Das Modell." Although those plans never materialized, Lynch included two tracks ("Hierate Mich" and "Rammstein") on the album. Their latest "Mutter" has so far spawned videos, including those for "Sonne" and "Ich Will," which was recently pulled from television in wake of the recent terrorism acts because of its criminal nature involving bank robbers. But it's not the violence that the band emphasizes, but rather, the mentality behind it.
"The reason they're doing it is not for money but for fame," Kruspe says. "In the end they go to jail but they get the fame. It's bizarre in a way. When I compose music, I have to have a movie in mind. And the movie has to move my mind."