Rammstein keyboardist Christian ‘Flake’ Lorenz has decided to take a solo step in his career as a musician and announced the release of his first Christmas album ‘Flake feiert Weihnachten’ which will be available from December 22.
‘Flake feiert Weihnachten’ will contain a total of 16 songs, including new versions of Christmas classics in the purest Flake style, as well as some of his own compositions and collaborations with artists such as Knorkator, In Extremo and Doro Pesch.
The album is now available for pre-order via RammsteinShop in CD, vinyl and cassette formats.
“Christmas is hell,” says Flake, “It starts with gingerbread from Netto stores in late summer, the shelves of which turn into a civil war on Sundays, and awful music and cute movies. And then it ends with talks full of lies about love and peace. And you need to find presents to give! The kids end up surrounded by plastic from China, while we adults – my wife, that is – never find anything appropriate to give. “What if we don’t give each other anything this year,” we tell ourselves. That way, we avoid the disappointed faces on Christmas Eve.”
Coincidentally, I recorded music for a movie late last year and ended up writing a Christmas song and decided to sing it myself. It was supposed to be a gift for my wife, although I always wonder, why do we have to give gifts at Christmas and birthdays? Don't we love our family every other day of the year? But anyway, I played it for her that night telling her it was her Christmas present. Apparently it made her happy. And being the modern young woman she is, she posted it online. Soon the first comments started coming in and someone said that if there was a full album they would be willing to buy it. That was incentive enough for me and I sat down at my piano again to play the Christmas songs I knew.
Luckily, I had an old songbook from Union, a football club from Berlin, which contained the lyrics to the songs… but when I heard the result, I was disappointed. My voice was really not very attractive. So I decided to ask some colleagues and friends if they could sing them for me… and many said no, because they didn’t have time or didn’t want to have anything to do with Christmas, and of course! I also think the songs are awful, but someone had to do it. But then, I found people who did want to participate: Joey Kelly, Doro Pesch, Stumpen from Knorkator, Andrea Hüber-Rhone, Micha from In Extremo…
And remember, Christmas always comes and there's nothing you can do to stop it. So maybe we'll do a second part, with other people.”
‘Flake feiert Weihnachten’ - Tracklist:
1. Happy XMas (War is over)
2. Ihr Kinderlein, kommet
3. Letzte Weihnacht, Icke & Er
4. Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht
5. Süßer Die Glocken Nie Klingen
6. Guten Abend, schön Abend
7. Schneeflöckchen Weißröckchen
8. Freu‘ dich (Leise rieselt der Schnee)
9. Weißer Winterwald
10. Oh, es riecht gut
11. Tausend Sterne sind ein Dom
12. O Du Fröhliche
13. Feliz Navidad
14. Es ist ein Ros entsprungen
15. Alle Jahre wieder
16. Fairytale of New York
