T.L. – Till Lindermann (Vocalism).
R.Z.K. – Richard Z. Kruspe (Solo-guitar).
P.H.L. – Paul Heiko Landers (Rhythm-guitar).
C.S. – Christoph Schneider (Drums).
C.F.L. – Christian Flake Lorenz (Keyboard).
O.R. – Oliver Riedel (Bass-guitar).
R.Z.K.: I think that was the second time, we had a call while we were filming from Rob Cohen the director, who did "Triple X" back then. He explicitly wanted the band and especially on film.
C.S.: For "Feuer frei" we had great expectations on our way to the Czech Republic. We thought the video was to be in Prague. A city that we really love and where we always enjoy being. But the shoot was somewhere in the countryside, although it's Prague in the film, in a derelict church.
T.L.: A huge, old church, totally fucked up. It was awful to see, how these guys handle their cultural heritage. The building was in danger of collapsing. A month before, they secured the whole place, so that it could be used as a set.
C.S.: But it was a really, very weird set, as outside was this village atmosphere. Snow-covered winter landscapes and a few remote farmhouses. Like I said, with this church ruin in the middle and inside, an absolutely Hollywood-style set.
R.Z.K.: The first day was great! Everything was timed perfectly and everything ran according to plan. But it wasn't all really comfortable as you'd think. We had this small car... We filmed it there and it looked really great just on the stage.
T.L.: There were several different settings, different camera angles. From all sides, pyrotechnics and more pyrotechnics. We played the number through to the end most times and they just singled out the bits they needed.
P.H.L.: Our gas system was up front and behind us was an entire wall of flames. And the flames were so hot, that we had to move forward a little. But our flames were there too. It was at its best, when both were on at the same time (laugh), it was then when I felt like a doner kebap. A kebap is only grilled from behind, but it was so bad. There was no way out. It was just hot front and back. We just carried on, as if it was nothing, but we invariably had lots of burns and blisters on our backs (laugh). Our flame man knew roughly, how much we could take. When our eyebrows melted, for example. The film man didn't know. He just gave it all he could. It was so hot, even I have to admit. Till as well, if he's honest.
R.Z.K.: We had to keep shooting these mouth flames. You have to step on a device and the lycopodium fires through it. We couldn't stop doing it. Normally, in the stage shows, you do it maybe... for about 10 seconds but we had to fire them for 3 minutes. I felt really positive about the flame show. The song was good, It had plenty of drive, looked good, and we all felt great. That was cool. They had cast a whole bunch of Rammstein fans as stand-ins.
T.L. They had masses of German and Czech fans flown in.
C.S.: They all looked incredibly cool. And they really knew how to party. Every time we had to perform the song, which was pretty often.
P.H.L.: The poor fans in the church were completely exhausted. And even though all you wanted was your bed, you had to act, as if it was a concert. But we can do that (laugh).
T.L.; We sang "Feuer Frei" for them 20 times and they had to dance to it every time.
C.S.: You always play the song on set at least 60 times. And it's tight afterwards (laugh).
It's always like that on set. Even shooting a video, where it's just about the band, ordinarily, you have to hang around for hours on end and preferably bring a book along with you... ...never get nervous.
R.Z.K.: The following day, we had to re-shoot a scene. He needed a sequence lasting a few seconds. Something was missing. Then he said, we should come back at 4 in the afternoon, it will probably only take another half an hour. The next day was absolutely horrific, as we had to wait until 6 in the morning of the next day, in the freezing cold. Well, we had our trailer, but it was so boring.
P.H.L.: I remember that I had a new camera and it had a nightime mode, which made everything green. So we recorded our own Star Trek movie. We tried to record slow motion or weightlessness… (Showing movements like slow motion). All in green. It looked pretty real. I think, that I have the film somewhere, If we were really smart, it could be added to the DVD, but I probably won't be able to find it.
R.Z.K.: This is one of the videos, where I thought, I mean, when I saw it for the very first time: Perfect. Nothing needs to be changed. It's simply good. A lot of action, the song works well. Which is always very important, as sometimes, music and images can often be counter-productive. But in this case, I had the feeling, the song appears even stronger.
T.L.: There are a lot of stunts and there's fire and action and I think we really blended in well with this film concept.
C.S.: It's rare for a band to have as much presence in a movie, as we had luckily with "Feuer Frei". The song can be hard almost throughout the film. From the start. So if you are a Rammstein fan and don't particularly like the movie (laugh), you just have to watch the beginning.
