Rammstein in Amerika

I was asking Till, I said you know,

what's with all, you know, the fire and everything about the fire

where does this come from?

And he looks at me and says:

There are three kinds of fire!

First is the fire of the mind, your thoughts... Ok?!

Second kind of fire is the fire of the heart.

It's your passion...

and I am waiting for the third kind...

and he says, then the third kind of fire, it's just fire!

They'd offered me earplugs. Before they'd said, you will need these!

And I am ah...

So I used the earplugs, it was still too loud...

my body was shaking!

When the fans are there it's your job to give them bang for the buck.

We are brothers in pyro! We lead by fire.

The first time I met Till, he came into my dressing room on fire.

That's a great entrance!

We couldn't even shake hands, because Till was on fire.

I probably could have roasted marshmallows from the seat I was in.

And I wasn't in the front row.

The production was over the top! It was great!

It's everything that Americans think of Germany.

It just runs, Germany, it runs really well,

like it's a very well oiled machine.

It was an incredible display of power and beauty,

light and shade, entertainment.

It was a rock opera!

Their backstory is unbelievably interesting!

Six guys from behind the Iron Curtain

who really did not believe they're ever gonna have the opportunity

to play the kind of music that they are now playing.

It'; The 1980s! The East German music scene is small

but active, and very tightly knit.

Bands come and go, everyone knows everyone else

and there is a great sense of solidarity.

On the road with their former band 'Feeling B, '

Paul Landers and Flake Lorenz play every venue they're allowed to.

Back then, it was normal to play together with a lot of friends.

If you had time, you'd meet up and play together.

'Feeling B' and 'Die Firma' were still around

so everyone had their own bands.

Back then life for Paul and Flake revolves around 'Feeling B.'

Later they are joined by drummer Christoph Schneider.

In Schwerin Till Lindemann is playing drums in the band 'First Arsch, '

Richard Kruspe is with 'Das Elegante Chaos, ' and later 'Orgasm Death Gimmick, '

while Oliver Riedel is with 'The Inchtabokatables.'

Their role models however are predominantly Western.

Because we could listen to radio, we had the same radio broadcasts as West Germans.

Radio Free Berlin had such great programs,

and so musically we were on the same level as the West,

because music quickly crosses borders.

And we knew the American bands, too.

School, of course, gave us a politically tinted view.

The GDR tried to portray the Soviet Union as good,

and the West as bad, including America.

It actually accomplished the opposite!

I had a huge 'Kiss' poster on my door at home,

and one day my step-father came in and ripped the poster into a thousand pieces.

I spent the whole night putting the pieces back together,

and the next morning at about 5:30, I was finished

and could hang the poster back on my door.

When they would be able to get their hands on a tape, you know

of a band, it was so... It meant so much to them.

So when the wall came down, obviously, that enabled 'Rammstein' to even exist.

In 1993, Schwerin friends Till, Richard and Oliver celebrate their new found travel freedom

with a voyage of discovery across the south-western USA.

Simultaneously 'Feeling B' are visiting the south-eastern part of America.

Blissfully unaware of each other's existence,

the future 'Rammstein' members discover the formerly-forbidden country.

We only knew America through films and thought it was a dangerous country.

We could speak school English, but it wasn't enough for communication.

The only one who could speak a bit of English was Till.

Oh could say “yes" and I could say "no," so we were a good team.

Yeah, and it was terrible on the phone when they towed our car.

They were so inconsiderate,

wouldn't speak a little slower, it didn't work...

We've taken your car away... I didn't understand a word!

Then they mentioned some kind of "fine," and I said: Is it fine?

But they wanted money!

Till, Oliver and Richard's traveling party

don't allow themselves to be waylaid by such problems

and continue to enjoy the new world.

Paul, Schneider and Flake however take it a step further,

and try to top up their depleted vacation fund with occasional performances.

When we were in New Orleans it was Mardi Gras, which is carnival for us.

There were bands playing in every bar, there was areal party atmosphere.

Then we said we'd may, too, and suddenly the whole venue was empty!

No one came in, everyone just ran out.

I remember how Schneider asked the drummer, can I play on your kit?

Then the drummer looked at Schneider's sticks,

they were quite thick,

and gave him two thin ones, right?

He was completely over the moon.

Then he gave me his sticks and I had to keep playing with the thin ones.

And he asked me not to play too hard.

This American adventure is more than just a journey

through the land of seemingly unlimited possibilities.

It is also a turning point.

At that time, we were a little bit directionless.

We still had the bands that we had in the East,

but we knew that we might want to start something new.

It was a kind of crossroad.

For all of us, independently of each other and both groups,

seeing how music was made here, was an inspiration that we took back to Europe.

We saw that in California,

there were two people in L.A., on Sunset Strip,

listening to this band playing.

They were kind of awesome in a way, it sounded good,

at least to our East German ears.

There were two people in the pit,

and then the band started, and they acted like they were playing for ten thousand people.

They went crazy! I said, what'; Wrong with them?

You can't go on stage like that!

Because we always thought, at the youth club,

when a band plays there, it's always packed,

or there are at least a few people there.

Two people! I didn't understand why they would even start?!

I thought that this is the American way,

to always give one hundred percent no matter what.

I noticed that music is more important to people here,

because they have to live from it.

We're from the GDR and it was like paradise,

you lived your life and then played music on the side for fun,

because there was always money.

Here, people who make music are dependent on it and therefore take it more seriously.

Lives led in East Germany and experiences gained in America...

These are the foundations on which 'Rammstein is built.

The musicians also view their new band

as a reaction to the situation in the reunified Germany.

We didn't want 'Rammstein' to sound like American bands!

But we adopted the energy of the approach for our band.

We conceptualized the band to stir things up!

We'd done it already with our bands in the East,

and 'Rammstein' happens to be just what the West needs.

We were never allowed to say anything, that's how it was in the East.

The problem was always that certain topics couldn't be addressed.

In music, for example, the lyrics would be vague or in English

so that no one could understand them.

Then all of a sudden you have the opportunity to say and sing whatever you want.

Even do some of the things you want to on stage,

and of course in that moment you scream it from your soul.

Basically, we do what many people would like to do.

And you get the angriest about the mistakes you'd like to make yourself.

Basically, we rustle all the feathers we can here in Germany,

and people get angry because they don't dare do it themselves.

I think it's good that 'Rammstein' polarises.

I like it when a band provokes people into discussing the topic.

I think it's good in general.

People thinking about certain things and then maybe even realizing where they stand,

and what their own opinion is.

We started as a completely normal band. We just played.

There were no show elements.

Till actually saw us in Berlin 1994.

He said, he was at that show and for him and his friends,

it was like one of the most important shows they ever went to,

and he said especially 'Anthrax, '

because he had never seen a band moving so much and trying to entertain

and he said, it was really, really influential on them,

when they were first putting 'Rammstein' together,

thinking we want to entertain people.

American audiences, Western audiences like to be entertained!

There is a long history of entertainment from the West,

starting from Elvis Presley and...

but it has to have, for longevity, it has to have some substance behind it.

I know that 'Kiss, ' I am sure was a big influence on them

as they were with me.

They were my heroes.

The first band that introduced certain special effects into their shows

like pyrotechnics etc., I'd never seen that before.

'Rammstein's stage show is constantly evolving.

Pyrotechnics quickly become an integral part of their performances.

Before long the band is reaching an ever-greater audience.

'Rammstein' now play major festivals with international line-ups,

and many American acts become aware of the German band.

I remember being somewhere in Europe and hearing

bubbling commentary about a new important German group called 'Rammstein.'

And it rang a strange bell, what is 'Rammstein', 'Rammstein?'?

"Stein" of course is German for "stone" and "ramm," to "ram" is a verb in English,

it'; An aggressive verb. It means to push through

and with aggressive force

but I'd heard something else and all of a sudden, I realized...

Ramstein is the big American base

and I thought, oh! Somebody put their finger on the belly button.

I remember, we saw them in 1997 on this festival,

And he was shooting that flamethrower out over the crowd

and I remember going: You can't do this at home!!

We played at festivals in Germany where international bands played, too.

After the concert, they'd come to us and say: You have to come over!

And we always thought, what? Really?

We sing in German, no one is interested in that!

Feedback from international artists,

and their rising popularity in Germany and beyond,

spur 'Rammstein' on to take the next step.

The band wants to crack the American market.

The path from Germany to America just doesn't exist.

There's only the path from America and England to Germany.

There aren't even telephone lines.

They don't even have the numbers!

They just get called up and told what to release.