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**Maya** · 11-08-2013, 01:34 AM

MH: By what criteria do you decide whether an idea is for lyrics or a poem?

TL: Most of the texts I present to the band. The walls of our rehearsal room are plastered with sheets containing sketches and drafts, as well as text passages and almost complete poems. From time to time, the band looks over it and makes suggestions which topic may be worthwhile to deepen. However, my colleagues are also not always agreeing, so sometimes months go by until there is a uniform response to a topic. Christoph Schneider, for example, was keen on ‘Mein Teil’ , I, however, would never dared to incorporate something like this into a chorus, because it is too profane. But Schneider was right; it really was a perfect fit for this electronic sequencer sound of the song. Sometimes we also build a song out of several poems that have nothing to do with each other or are even completely alien to each other.

MH: With your poems, however, you have the last word.

TL: That is the beauty of it. The band for me is a blessing and a curse at the same time, sometimes even a nightmare, because everything always has to run through this democratic conceal. For twenty years, there is plenty of squabbling, so it is incredibly liberating, when you have to ask no one, but only yourself. Then it’s just: this is it, and so it should be.

MH: Why did you choose the poem as the form to express your thoughts?

TL: Because I cannot do anything else. I tried to write stories, but that backfired, because for me, somehow the proper gene is missing. However, I can write poems. At least I think I can.

MH: Speaking of genes: do you think writing poems is a legacy of your father Werner Lindemann, who has bequested you this ability?

TL: When we speak of hereditary factor, then this may be so. However, there were only few points in common between us. Although my father had dragged me along to readings, but those were just kids’ poems that are packaged in a huge naivety and have nothing to do with what I’m doing today. It is true that I always had access to poems and lived in a world that deals with poetry and prose; also about the friends and acquaintances of my father. But that does not directly help me today while writing. My father hadn’t taught me either, nor he gave me tips or hints. But perhaps he has created the conditions, because I grew up in this world. I grew up in an environment of cultural radio and writers, and during the holidays I had to accompany my father on his reading tours, because my mother worked and did not know where else I would supposed to be accommodated. I was always sitting there in the back, in the last row, while my father entertained whole classrooms with his stuff.

MH: How have you brought under the same roof your lyrical core with your preference for sport?

TL: Well, eventually the time of the sports was over, and then I just had to do something new. But between the end of my sporting career and the beginning of writing there are whole 15 years.

MH: Do you use your poems to process your life?

TL: Not life, but certain situations and moments. “Process” is perhaps the wrong word for it, but it solves several knots. Psychologists call this a “sublimation of instincts.” Sometimes you write things down rather than actually do them. By writing down it is then often settled – at least, if you can convince yourself that it is. I can persuade many things to myself well enough.

MH: In your poems you work with many strong, powerful images. Many of them, like the knife, the heart, the genitals, or the sun, repeat. In addition, it happens that almost every other poem is about sex.

TL: That’s right. Partly it’s even hidden in some allegories. I think, sex is far too little patterned, painted or described. Sex is permanently present in our life, but is always treated too latent. It is encountered at every turn, if you are not just hiding in the woods. Sex constantly triggers stimuli, with which the media also constantly toys around, on television or on the internet. You cannot walk even two meters or can barely open a web page, without it getting you immediately. At night there are hotlines, and as soon as it gets barely warm outside, the young girls put on short skirts. And of course, you can’t look after them or otherwise you are compared to a pig. Everything is somehow bigoted, but on the other hand, however, desirable – quite strange. One makes it moderately and socially acceptable, but then wonders about the reactions that it triggers. We are simply still too tied to our ancestors. I find this topic is underestimated and not properly lit up according to its importance.

MH: So your poems therefore are the illustration of the reality?

TL: Yes, of course. But I’m not running around with a wagging finger and say: “That is so”! I just have my themes that admittedly recur occasionally, but always from new perspectives. The problem is that we are distracted by sexuality and also it’s now a fact. It’s just that, no one wants to admit. I would not say that I am obsessed with sex, but it plays a big role in my thinking and dealing with other people. You walk into any office, and the receptionist has a huge rack, a deep neckline – the man will look. And if you observe that one on, it is striking how different this happens: some look bashfully down, others obviously, still others look her in the eye at first and then act as if they accidentally look down towards the neckline. And then there sits the wife, who begins to scold immediately when the man comes back to his seat- and that is worth a story. Because it is dishonest. Why cannot you do that? Everyone looks down, and everyone knows that it attracts attention, because the women accentuate it. But if it looks really out and if you really look at it, there is a problem immediately.

MH: Do you sometimes hit a brick wall? Were there any topics that you were lost for words?

TL: No.

**Maya** · 11-08-2013, 01:35 AM

MH: Have your publisher set a limit or deny certain poems?

TL: No, quite the contrary, I was treated fantastic, really unique. There was from the beginning huge tolerance and willingness to take the poems as they are.

MH: How important are for the book the illustrations by Matthias Matthies?

TL: With ‘Messer’ there was too much emphasis on the images. This had situational reasons, because with Gert Hof we had so much fun with the photo session. We drove back then to a mannequin factory and experimented around with the dolls. Many photos were taken but not printed. Some of these were in fact nearly pedophilia, so it would backfire if we had it shown publicly. The publisher certainly also would have not accepted, because it would have been pulled by censorship, guaranteed. Nevertheless, in the book there was ultimately too much imagery which distracted from the lyrics. The problem was the lack of seriousness, but because we have had a lot of primal fun, that was okay. At the time, with the book I wanted to break out of the 6-people-constellation Rammstein in which everything is always decided together. My new book, however, was made with much care and detailed preparation. Originally a photo series was planned with montages, which has been awesome, but would have killed the project again, because a large size would have been necessary. But we already had large format, I would preferred something smaller for the sports bag or for hand luggage on the plane. Something that come first in the book shelf, practically a good little book of poems such as “Five minutes reading” by Bert Brecht. Matthias Matthies is one of my best friends. So far I only knew him as a photographer, but as an alternative he emailed me the photo-montages of these drawings, I almost fell off the chair. However, at the beginning there were not enough available, and Matthias was urged to rush against a deadline.

MH: Did Matthias Matthies have the poems as the models for his drawings?

TL: No, exactly which I have not done. He already knew couple of poems, because they are not brand-new, but from the older dates. I showed him some more. But if he has been inspired by it, I don’t know exactly. We have his illustrations pushed back and forth quite arbitrarily anyways not to give the impression that these drawings were created thematically. Ultimately, you could have also mix a deck of cards.

MH: There may be a book as well without illustrations, only with your poems, right?

TL: That is correct. I find, however, that the drawings spice up the book. Especially, since it was nice to do a project together with an old friend. Now that it’s done, it gives me and him a very nice feeling.

MH: Where do these strong emotions that you can feel in the poems come from? With a successful band like Rammstein and a happy relationship in tow, theoretically, the need for soul-striptease would have been absent?

4_gTL: Appearances are deceiving. No, life isn’t pretty (laughs). Seriously, I really cannot complain at this time. But that was about different times. All of these earlier tales had been somewhere in the basement, and the basement never gets empty. Mostly trying to work up the past, according to the motto: How do I get the bodies out of the basement? It is also interesting to look into yourself again and ask yourself: What is still left? Who am I today? What has changed? What still exists from that time? Especially the fear that everything could go to hell again is permanently there. I believe that every person, even if he is doing well, has substantial fears, if he has ever eaten shit properly in his life. This fear never goes away completely. The feeling that everything could be gone again always swings into my mind. And this is a subject on which you can write. It is always purifying to work up things, even if they lie ten years back.

MH: So poems help you with that more than songs’ lyrics?

TL: In short, the poems are fun. Writing is a passion, which I do with great enthusiasm and love. Song lyrics, however, are painstakingly hard work, that’s a real job. One always thinks that it would be as easy as flicking the fingers. In reality, it takes months, if not years with this five-member jury, which I have to face until something works and a phrase is included into a finished song text. The Rammstein colleagues are extremely critical because the bar is set very, very high. That goes for me, often accompanied by lethargy and headaches. Therefore, it is not at all comparable with the work on poems. There are many points in Rammstein, which are fun, but the creative process for me every time is a small nightmare. Similar to a concert: beforehand I am extremely nervous, afraid that something might go wrong, and feel a terrible mental pressure. But when it is over, when the song is finished, mixed and pressed onto a CD you get an indescribably beautiful feeling.

MH: Do you put yourself into seclusion to write?

TL: Yes, that happens. For me, an almost empty room with a neat desk, a good chair and a nice view are the best.

MH: Have all the poems were written in complete sobriety?

TL: No, for God’s sake. Revised and proofread perhaps, but has formed in a large part in name and shame. It used to be however significantly worse. The supposed craft which I have learned over time helps me today. I know how to structure and build a poem, or what things you better omit. In comparison, it was earlier quite messy. Today, everything is set and controlled. I also no longer chase after every stupid idea or make the texts unnecessarily bloody. I used to put a lot of unhealthy stuff into myself to open the cellar doors and slip into this world. I must no longer have it nowadays.

MH: Particularly since you have apparently lain upon yourself the obligation not to put your thoughts into words and sentences simply, but rather into proper poetic form on a paper.

TL: A commitment is not for me. I just write as I would like to read it myself. I like authors such as Conrad Ferdinand Meyer and Gottfried Benn, when you read their texts you can fall over backwards. This is so cool! My claim, as well be to added, is of course unrealistic, because this language no longer exists – one no longer is talking so in prose. But my texts should at least tend in this direction. Much of what I write appears to be too simple to me later and is therefore discarded. Sometimes you have to leave it for few weeks and then once again look at it with fresh eyes. But much ends up in a trash and goes nowhere.

MH: How do you know, if a poem is finished?

TL: This can be seen easily. In the new book there are three or four poems, of which I have thrown away several passages. For a song that would be three or four stanzas. If in the first four lines all is said, you do not keep on climbing the stairs because you’ve already arrived at the destination. Here I have followed Alexander Gorkow and Helge Malchow advice because it was, for example, punctuation and things like that. There was a reading sample in Munich to see what things are superfluous. I haven’t had this kind of experience yet: you read poems aloud mutually and notice there is a lot of unnecessary stuff there. The phonetics tickles the unpleasant sides once again out on this clearly.

MH: Are there any poems that you know by heart?

TL: (laughs) No.

MH: Because you have partly even forgotten what is written in your book?

TL: This may well be the case. If something is written and landed in my folder for Printing Solutions, it is also immediately disappeared from my memory, because I need space for new things. I could have never memorized poems that good, which I regret. I admire people who can recite ‘Faust’. It’s a complete mystery to me how this works. With Rammstein on stage the previous studio work helps me, where you sing the lyrics over and over again; process in which a song is carved into the brain. But in the rehearsal room during pre-production I have to constantly have cheat sheet in hand. Poetry readings are always a tricky number. Some people master with flying colors – Manfred Krug, for example, makes it quite fantastic.

MH: Do you do poetry readings?

TL: No, I cannot

**Maya** · 11-08-2013, 01:38 AM

MH: Have you tried it?

TL: Yes, of course I tried it. But somehow I would bring out the whole thing in the form of a song, and then it quickly becomes boring. The big art lies in reading aloud texts with correct intonation and minimal changes in voice and expression. It’s not a book, that you can rattle off, and while you scream sometimes in between. Reciting poems is not easy. I prefer to keep my hands off.

MH: Which poem is particularly close to your heart?

TL: ‘When Mum goes to work late’. This was originally intended as a lyric, but at some point I realized that I got stuck with it. The chorus was missing, the text was never really finished – I tempered with it forever. On the other hand, it was too simple for a poem. I had to somehow quite oddly turn the corner. A real problem child, but nevertheless is a lot of fun. And I really like how it turned out, because it’s pretty intense. It is about prostitutes in South America, whose small children are in the next room, while women pursue their work.

MH: I especially like the short poems. ‘Important’ I think it’s great because it reminds me of how my parents taught me what is important in life.

TL: ‘Important’ was really long in the original form. I wrote down all possible fuss, something like Code of conduct, and all very humorous, until I clearly realized: it’s all nonsense. The beginning is good, the rest can go away.

MH: The full text of ‘Love’ is “In silent nights a man crying because he can remember.” How long this poem was originally?

TL: It was initially a quatrain. For the title and this short form I have to thank Alexander Gorkow.

MH: In Rammstein you had once briefly and unsuccessfully experimented with English lyrics. What excites you about the German language?

TL: Actually, nothing. The biggest advantage is that I mastered it, that I can beat around topics and think up words like ‘Giveleakage’, where everyone knows what is meant. Of course it would be the total charm if you could express something in a global language like English. But even now it’s not working. I’m very grateful that people hear my texts embedded into the music. They accept and sometimes even translate. There are very funny variants by automatic translation programs. It is also exciting that Russian and Spanish speaking people can identify with it seemingly faster than with English lyrics. There is obviously a kind of brotherhood in the accent in the hardness of the language. This result in much faster enthusiasm for the songs, opposite as to if they were written in English. The German words have, in my opinion, also a direct influence on the guitar language of the band. Had we had English texts from the beginning, there would certainly be a very different acoustics with Rammstein, another instrumental language. In this respect German is supportive and forms a unified whole with the music. That the language is so beautifully crisp and marching, I find just an ancillary element.

MH: Do you search for specific new terms to represent facts?

TL: Yes. Actually, really hard and long, with all the effort. And then it has to rhyme too.

MH: Double difficult, so

TL: Right. This is the challenge as the matter of fact.

MH: Does it bother you, that the texts of other German artists are mostly banal?

TL: Banal is even blandishing. Maybe that has to do with the current state of our education, because if you look to Russia or in Spanish-speaking countries, there you’ll discover incredibly good poetry in songs. In English, I cannot judge so well. Something always has to do with their history and tradition, both of which are fairly underexposed with us. At some point you just stop listening or no longer startled by how much bullshit generally given. You think: Okay? Is it even so bad? In Gothic scene, however, there are an incredible number of good lyrics. On one side you will find terrible embarrassment, on the other, yet really good writers. However, these songs are not part of the mainstream, so unfortunately you do not get to hear the majority of them.

MH: Many of your fans, who are reading the book, are relatively young. So there is still hope, that not everyone is stupefied?

TL: The question is: How can we bind people in schools to poetry or prose? The only chance these days is to try to do it with music. Music – as a vehicle for people to be confronted with poetry. Maybe the train already left however. Then you have to just accept the fact.

MH: How could you awaken interest? With sex?

TL: You have to make it attractive. The interest in railroad travel is not particularly large, but it is sometimes the best way to travel if you want quick and easy travel. You cannot force, but make it attractive, and must therefore be confronted. I know, for example, that in Finland the Rammstein texts are taken in schools in the teaching of German as references.

MH: This also applies to Denmark.

TL: And in Russia, that is also known for a long time. There still exist the German-Russian exchange variants. The local fans speak our lines in broken language, but they will understand exactly the content of the communication. German texts for German teenagers, this train has left in my opinion. I do not think that this will recover and we eventually revert to the new nation of poets and philosophers. This is over.

MH: Is there a topic that excites you and about which you have not written?

TL: Currently, at least, I have nothing on my mind. But that will somehow, someday happen all of a sudden again.

MH: Once again, the sexually motivated texts and drawings: Are books really not getting, get like video games, officially tested on any such content?

TL: Lets’ wait and see. With “Ich tu dir weh” it was also only three months later. I would find such a blue sticker magnificent. ‘Rated 18 ‘on my book would be so cool! However, I believe that poems are free of censorship. But a great suggestion from you, I’m going to ask.

MH: For my information: What are your favorite words that you use most often?

TL: (thinks for a long time) I cannot tell you right off the bat. Something like that always has to do with the context. Among hunters there are an awful lot of nice words, even in sailor language, such as ‘cleats’. ‘Sweat’ for example, is a great word, or ‘nasty’. Generally, all s-heavy words. First, because hardly anyone can speak them in the world, and they also sound like what they mean, ‘hate’, ‘bite’, ‘tear’. These words really crack.

MH: Do you actively search for such terms?

TL: Oh yes! In addition, there are whole dictionaries in any language. ‘Wichsen (wanking)’ is a great word. Actually it means: The shoe-polishing, with shoe polish. Or ‘Fotze (cunt)’ – this is originally an old leather bag. ‘Fotze’ is an unbelievably beautiful word, but at the same time can be incredibly disgusting in its maliciousness. If someone says ” Blöde Fotze,” you know exactly what is meant.

MH: What would you like to pass on to people before they read the book?

TL: I cannot answer such questions.

MH: I try it another way: If I have read the book, then would I know Till Lindemann a little better? Or is it the only one?

TL: It’s like one glimpse into my basement. With me is has very, very little to do. You must think of the book not like poem after poem, but read as a script.

MH: Have you read through the entire work after its completion from start to finish?

TL: Several times even. Deadline was the reading sample with Alexander Gorkow in Munich, in which our illustrator Matthias Matthies was present. Then it went for completion to the publisher, who has already waited. Actually, the book should be published much earlier, in time for the Leipzig Book Fair. But that would then become only a Rammstein signing session because everyone would have known that I’m onsite. And you sit and just sign autographs on Rammstein CDs. Therefore, we have chosen a different path and invited journalists to these interviews.

MH: Will there be another book from you sometime?

TL: Most certainly. I can tell without hesitation.

Source: http://www.rammstein.us/archives/3922

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