Life before the fall of the Berlin Wall was complicated, especially if you were a musician. The drummer of Rammstein, Christoph Schneiderhe talked with Metal hammer about his life in East Germany and the complications that trying to make him stand out on the undergrund scene in that country.
“In the East, we had professional bands that had studied music and had official permission to play music. They were allowed to work as musicians and this is how they could charge for their shows. If you were an amateur, you had to rank at a certain level. There were three levels, and I got to the first! I had a certificate that allowed me to charge four German marks (about 35 Mexican pesos) per hour when I played at a concert. Without this certificate, it was illegal to play in concerts and you also could not have contact with the promoters if you did not have one. People accepted these circumstances because they have no other choice. To get your certificate, you had to play in front of a commission, a kind of jury, that decided if your songs were good. You were only allowed to play one 40% of covers and the rest had to be your own music. Actually, this was not a bad idea, because the bands had to invent their own music and several interesting projects came up. "
Of course, the government had strict regulations on the gangs and their members, which they suffered in their first gang, Die Signature. “Die Firma was like a punk band from the new wave. The style was dark, with Gothic influences. We had lyrics protesting against the system and of course this was not allowed, but we were an underground band. All the other Rammstein members were also in underground bands. We used to play in small clubs with all kinds of fans: metalheads, goths, punks ... However, the government had its people everywhere, spies from the Secret Service. The funniest thing was, I can't imagine a tougher band than mine at the time and we had two people who turned out to be spies: the singer and the keyboard player! Haha! Amazing. They weren't professionals, not nothing. They were hired spies who received a small payment and occasionally had to report on the music scene.”
And he also talked about the growth of Rammstein, which went from being a small band from East Germany to filling stadiums across the planet, “We are a fairly successful band in many countries, but you get used to it and you become more demanding. Before we used to say things like 'Oh yeah! We will go to Turkey! We have never been there before! ”, But now they say,“ Oh, we better stay home, does it make economic sense to go there? ” We try to please everyone in the band, we try to respect what everyone wants. If you ignore the opinions of one of the members long enough, one day that boy could leave because he would not feel understood. ”
A few days ago the same Christoph Schneider confirmed that the gang is working on new music taking advantage of the free time that the cancellation of their 2020 tour of Europe and North America gave them.
Rammstein in Mexico, until 2021
The tour of Rammstein It would arrive in Mexico and several cities in the United States and Canada in August and September 2020; however, due to current restrictions on mass events, the band had to make the difficult decision to move it to 2021.
If you already have a ticket for any of the previously announced concerts, don't worry, your tickets will be valid for the new dates, which will be announced in the coming weeks.
