Once again our dear SonneN has translated an interview for Rammstein.us This time is the one Till gave for Metal Hammer. You can find it here.
Till Lindemann – Poet & Phylosopher
By Thorsten Zahn. Translation by SonneN
Till Lindemann, frontman of Rammstein. Live is quite a beast, shy and literate backstage. Interviews about Rammstein he gives only in exceptional cases, in recent years it has become accustomed that he’s presented to the music press only live on stage. In the wake of the publication of his second book of poetry “In silent nights”, a 50-year-old author grants an audience. Metal Hammer followed the invitation and experienced Till Lindemann as approachable as never before – a little sensation.
A drizzly Friday morning envelops the German capital. The tram is filled with screaming students and vapors of sweat as it spits out people at the Frankfurter Tor, right in the middle of the east of Berlin. We arrived at the interview site and soon will meet one of the most important rock musicians and poets of Germany, who has learned to elude the media well enough in recent years. Till Lindemann has deliberately chosen this location for the interview. In one of the towers at Frankfurter Tor he sits enthroned – alone and in silence – under the dome, having the buzz around Berlin in his view. His greeting is hearty; his voice is pleasant-sounding and warm. Till is ready to take us on 60-minutes-long journey through his world of thoughts. Editor in chief Thorsten Zahn mentally buckles up for safety’s sake.
Metal Hammer: The title poem ‘Love’, which states that “In silent nights a man cries because he can remember,” in my opinion stand in place for many parts of the book. It triggers a certain fascination and creates many images in my head . Certainly this text was chosen as the title by you deliberately, or?
Till Lindemann: I have not made this decision alone. The idea rather came from my editor Alexander Gorkow, who had thought that there should be a catch at the beginning of the book. Initially this was just the working title, but eventually manifested itself into this idea, so we kept it. It opens a nice little door.
MH: When the poems were created? Has resonance of your first book “Messer” (2005) encouraged you to keep going in similar direction?
TL: For me, everything runs in a batch mode. During the last Rammstein tour, for example, nothing at all has been created because only sluggish tour fuss prevailed in the brain, which paralyzes you. This happens not only to me, but also to my band-mates. With Korn it’s completely different: Jonathan Davis enters the Nightliner after a concert, where he has a small studio set up and begins to write in order to wind off ”from work” . By contrast, I’m paralyzed creatively while traveling , because nothing stirs. After a tour, there are sometimes five or six days, on which quite a lot happens. Or also in the studio, at a pre-production, during which I constantly live in a world of creative thoughts and anyway grapple with the synonym or rhyme dictionaries. Sometimes also after a particularly awful email that I have received and of which I make a note immediately.
MH: Besides, you have constantly a sort of word collection with you, right?
TL: Yes, that is always by my side. And of course, on the cutting edge of technology: you can dictate via Siri and save everything instantly. Or via the dictation function of the iPhone. Previously I had lost many things, because I had nothing with me to write on. Despite of the craziest stuff coming into your mind in strange situations. There were times when I took pen and paper in a plastic bag with me to the indoor pool, because it happened to me before that things would come to me even during the swim, which I had again forgotten by the time I got to the locker room.
Till Lindemann – Poet & Phylosopher
By Thorsten Zahn. Translation by SonneN
Till Lindemann, frontman of Rammstein. Live is quite a beast, shy and literate backstage. Interviews about Rammstein he gives only in exceptional cases, in recent years it has become accustomed that he’s presented to the music press only live on stage. In the wake of the publication of his second book of poetry “In silent nights”, a 50-year-old author grants an audience. Metal Hammer followed the invitation and experienced Till Lindemann as approachable as never before – a little sensation.
A drizzly Friday morning envelops the German capital. The tram is filled with screaming students and vapors of sweat as it spits out people at the Frankfurter Tor, right in the middle of the east of Berlin. We arrived at the interview site and soon will meet one of the most important rock musicians and poets of Germany, who has learned to elude the media well enough in recent years. Till Lindemann has deliberately chosen this location for the interview. In one of the towers at Frankfurter Tor he sits enthroned – alone and in silence – under the dome, having the buzz around Berlin in his view. His greeting is hearty; his voice is pleasant-sounding and warm. Till is ready to take us on 60-minutes-long journey through his world of thoughts. Editor in chief Thorsten Zahn mentally buckles up for safety’s sake.
Metal Hammer: The title poem ‘Love’, which states that “In silent nights a man cries because he can remember,” in my opinion stand in place for many parts of the book. It triggers a certain fascination and creates many images in my head . Certainly this text was chosen as the title by you deliberately, or?
Till Lindemann: I have not made this decision alone. The idea rather came from my editor Alexander Gorkow, who had thought that there should be a catch at the beginning of the book. Initially this was just the working title, but eventually manifested itself into this idea, so we kept it. It opens a nice little door.
MH: When the poems were created? Has resonance of your first book “Messer” (2005) encouraged you to keep going in similar direction?
TL: For me, everything runs in a batch mode. During the last Rammstein tour, for example, nothing at all has been created because only sluggish tour fuss prevailed in the brain, which paralyzes you. This happens not only to me, but also to my band-mates. With Korn it’s completely different: Jonathan Davis enters the Nightliner after a concert, where he has a small studio set up and begins to write in order to wind off ”from work” . By contrast, I’m paralyzed creatively while traveling , because nothing stirs. After a tour, there are sometimes five or six days, on which quite a lot happens. Or also in the studio, at a pre-production, during which I constantly live in a world of creative thoughts and anyway grapple with the synonym or rhyme dictionaries. Sometimes also after a particularly awful email that I have received and of which I make a note immediately.
MH: Besides, you have constantly a sort of word collection with you, right?
TL: Yes, that is always by my side. And of course, on the cutting edge of technology: you can dictate via Siri and save everything instantly. Or via the dictation function of the iPhone. Previously I had lost many things, because I had nothing with me to write on. Despite of the craziest stuff coming into your mind in strange situations. There were times when I took pen and paper in a plastic bag with me to the indoor pool, because it happened to me before that things would come to me even during the swim, which I had again forgotten by the time I got to the locker room.
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