Till for Zeit Online

[Maya]

Original Source: Zeit Online

English translation by Rammstein USA: http://www.rammstein.us/archives/3866

Rammstein: A poet?

The singer of the German band Rammstein Till Lindemann has published a book of poetry. A walk with the world star.

BY Moritz Von Uslar, translation by SonneN

Everything takes place in the deep east of Berlin: on Karl Marx Alley between panel houses and a Stalin-style office buildings built in 1953. It’s drizzling. Lead singer of German band Rammstein, who has presented his book of poems «In stillen Nächten» on the tenth floor of the tower at Frankfurter Tor, trying to hail a taxi from the street. We are standing in the shelter at the stop of the night bus, and Till Lindemann, known to be a terse and ill-tempered man in interviews, says that today everything went relatively well: “We had agreed that no questions come about Rammstein, only about poetry. That was good. “ Now, after the interviews, will come more pleasant part of the evening for Till, so he willingly submits to questions, but please not too demanding questions. Later, he would like to dine at the steakhouse “Grill Royal”, then off to an opening of exhibition. Given the fact that it is raining and because of this little bit of rain there are no taxis in visinity, Till says serious, but at the same time quite funny sentence: “Somehow I’m not satisfied.”

Unmediated question to the rock singer, who has spent last 4 years almost entirely in the world tour, and whose texts are chanted by 30,000 people at each of the American stadiums: Is he East German? “Inside and out.” And the East German explains: “When I have to go to the Apple Store to Ku’damm (boulevard in Berlin), I say: “I am driving to the West. ” Till Lindemann points to a blue glowing sign Frankfurter Tor (subway station in Berlin): “Come, let’s take the subway.” Really? Is that possible? With the singer of Rammstein you can so simply ride the subway in Berlin? We are already running down the shaft, and he is smiling because he knows of course that he offers here a juicy story to the reporter: The Rock star insists that we ride without a ticket.

Above, in the interview lounge on the tenth floor, it went off still fairly uptight: wonderful wide views of panel buildings. How to talk about a book of poetry that appears in 2013? When was the last time that poems in Germany had significance and broad readership? With Bertolt Brecht? Oh, with Enzensberger and Robert Gernhardt?

His body sends, regardless of what is being said, its own unique text. One can get frightened by Till Lindemann who gives off an impression of a very strong, powerful wide phenomenon. He looks like a rock star that is capable of throwing rocks. Bleached-blonde hair, eyebrow piercings. But at the second glance you notice that his body promotes warm Balu-the-Bear-friendliness. And now also sets in a shock of the voice: he does not speak in somber forced tone, the fans know from the stage, but with uncommonly gentle, open voice. The most evil voice in rock ‘n’ roll might as well read in radio plays for children. Is that clear to him that there are two completely different voices available to him? Patient interviewee Till Lindemann: “There is the professional bass. And this is my normal life baritone.”

Interview with Till Lindemann. Why is it rather an uneasy thing to talk with this rock star? The obvious explanation: The band Rammstein has so successfully and efficiently created a grandiose artificial stage show in the past twenty years – because it is simply not easy, behind all the pomp of fire and smoke and the pounding guitar walls to discover the man that is Till Lindemann. He is the rock star with the rolling R. He’s the rock star with the burning angel wings. He is the rock star who enters an ancient arena in southern France in lockstep with knickerbockers and slicked-back hair. The travesty-theater of Rammstein remains to be maximum aesthetic challenge on the brink of a foul for those who grew up in West German cities. The whole Dark-Goth-Gothic-Burning Crosses-SM-paint-and-leather-shit they crash on Moscow, Tokyo and Buenos Aires – oh dear God. The negligent allegations that Rammstein is perhaps a right-wing band, tapered off in recent years: Nazis do not like rock stars who wear pink fur vests (quote the philosopher Slavoj Žižek: “Rammstein sabotage the fascist utopia in an obscene manner.”).

Am I allowed here to tell you briefly how I got to know the music of Rammstein? It was in 1997 in Santa Barbara, a rich ghetto in Los Angeles, where I interviewed very famous which at the time photo model Guinevere Van Seenus. The model was driving in a Ford Mustang, and she shoved the Rammstein song, which had just appeared on the soundtrack for David Lynch’s Lost Highway into the tape recorder. “What? You do not know?” asked the model. “This is Rammstein – big, big rock from Germany.” Model, Ford Mustang, California, rock music from East Germany: everything isn’t so bad.

And now the little black book of poetry “In silent nights ” (published by «Verlag Kiepenheuer & Witsch»). It consist of about a hundred poems with titles like “Sinn” (” Sense “), “Angst” ( “Fear” ), “DieHure” (” Whore “), “ZurSee” (« To the Sea “) and “Nachtigall” (« Nightingale “). Till Lindemann is known to be almost solely responsible for writing the lyrics for the band Rammstein. Anyone who is familiar with the texts of Rammstein, will be a little surprised. In the poems once again can be found some of the themes sounded off in hits by Rammstein: a desire that cannot do without pain. We can say that the poet Till Lindemann constantly has to deal with his body, wanting to do nasty or very nasty or equal to fully perverse things. A little bit of sex change (“Größer Schöner Härter” (« More beautiful than harder “) ) and necrophilia (“Tierfreund” (« Animal Friend “) ) are also present . Of course, good lyrics for the songs do not guarantee good poetry. Sometimes Lindemann recalls the principle of rock ‘n ‘ roll – to shock, and then the poet wants to be a bad boy. In the poem “Elegie für Marie Antoinette” (« Elegy for Marie Antoinette “) – oh my god! – He demands oral sex with a severed head. And, of course, the theme of love: in Lindemann’s poetry, as well as in songs of Rammstein, there is a lot of sadness.

[Maya]

If modern poetry always carefully uses the words, raises the problem of the relationship of expression to the content, then these verses are moving away from the modern or even avant-garde tradition. In poetry there is a very classic sound. (Or, wait: we deceive ourselves? Or in verse flashes irony? Or is obviously outdated German language can be employed with a sneer? ) Lindemann’s favorite word – “heart”, it comes in every second poem (another favorite words: pain, blood, soul, knife, love, child, tears ) . The author is also not afraid to use the vocabulary of the Brothers Grimm, such as (for example) “Sternlein” (little star) or “Ränzlein” (little knapsack) . When he opens his poem with the line “Ich bin ein trefflich Schusterjung” (” I am a great young cobbler “), it will remind reader of the poems by Brentano, Eichendorff , and other romantics. But when Lindemann disects the body or describes the incredible loneliness, of course you will think of Gottfried Benn. Perhaps poet Lindemann is the strongest in his three or four lines long epigrams. For example: “In stillen Nächten weintein Mann / Weiler sich erinnern kann” (In silent nights man cries / Because he can remember …) Is it – though it is written, by the poet and rock singer – not touching and simply good?

In the restaurant Grill Royal he now ordered the chopped beef (Tatars) as an appetizer and a steak without a side dish as a main course. Strange: on the way to the guest Lindemann deals with the waiters – friendly, without stupid familiarity, so loved by the stars – shows that the rock star career hasn’t spoiled him. He has kept an appealing modesty. Does he see himself as a poet? He started writing quite late in his thirties, experimenting with words and little ideas. The poet is thinking now whether you could be such a thing as the man of the language and a skilled basket maker.

Lindemann , the son of children’s book writer and journalist in the field of culture, spent his childhood among the books in a village near Schwerin (“In East Germany TV did not matter “). Literature of his youth he calls Hemingway, Salinger and the East German provocateur Stephen Heim , Joachim Seypella , Christa Wolf . At Lindemann’s parents the painters, sculptors and writers were among welcomed and frequent guests. Does he like the concept of “cultural intellectuals “?” I have no idea. I’m a pretty simple guy with a budget education.” Is it true that the poets in the GDR had a relatively high social value? Indeed, Till’s father ran the circle of the GDR Writing workers. “There were people from all social layers, employees and workers, and they wrote poetry under the guidance of my father.” As a song lyricist and a poet Lindemann still feels the influence of the GDR: “It was forbidden to speak openly against the state, so in literature and poetry have used parables. The language was used just to hint at the things that must never been uttered. That remains – for a lifetime.”

What sets apart poems of Till Lindemann from the song’s lyrics of Rammstein? “Writing poetry is a pleasure, because I do it for myself. Writing lyrics – is a nightmare.” And Lindemann described how he worked on the lyrics: he wrote poems to music on the topic proposed by a band, until each of the six members of the group will not be pleased: it may take a considerable time. Poems on the contrary: they had flown to him over the years – at airports, tour buses and in hotel rooms. “So I could write poetry, I should be able to travel. In Berlin, oddly enough, the muse does not visit me.” Can we expect that one of the poems in this collection will be remade into a song for Rammstein? “It’s very easy to imagine. Some of the poems were already hanging on the wall in the band rehearsal room.” An ideal place to look for inspiration, and the matching words Lindemann called his country house in Mecklenburg -Western Pomerania, two hours north of Berlin. Two more glasses of red wine and the question of the lyrical I: Is that him who speaks in his poems? Or is the poet as the rock star a fictional character? Hesitation. “Some poems are autobiographical, others are not.” Help! – What more could a poet say? The poet says, “I write out something, I let it be, let it to set me off again and again until it sits, and then I am often terribly troubled : help, that’s me ! ” There is now – this is also possible – a wordy rave about Lindemann’s favorite poem Restless Night by Conrad Ferdinand Meyer instead. Beautiful.

At the exhibition opening on the August Strasse. Many greetings, hugs, toasts. Here you can meet old friends. Gallery is owned by an old friend, who in his youth played with Till at the Schwerin punk band. The concept of the exhibition is for friends to show to their friends, what kind of art hangs in their home. (Till provided the work of Gottfried Helvayna and Marcus Lyupertsa ) . Paintable wallpaper. Juggler with a guitar is singing songs of Neil Young. Oddly enough, the atmosphere is reminiscent of the nineties in the gallery with their unique optimistic attitude: How to save the utopian spirit of the German Democratic Republic, to resist pernicious influence of Western money? Till Lindemann’s girlfriend, actress Sophia Thomalla is here, too. Gallery owner tells how reckless Lindemann was in 1983. Once he got from Till’s only a short message: “I’m on the way to the beautiful north. Bye! “Well written.

Translation by SonneN

[Waidmann]

Thx for sharing!

[EmeraldRose]

Thank you for the translation

[Abbysam007]

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.