J.A. – Jonas Akerlund (Director).
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).
S.S. – Survey Squad.
G. 1 – Girl 1.
G. 2 – Girl 2.
G. 3 – Girl 3.
G. 4 – Girl 4.
G. 5 – Girl 5.
G. 6 – Girl 6.
G. 7 – Girl 7.
G. 8 – Girl 8.
P.H.L.: We're recording a video of one of the extra songs on the Best-Of video. As we and the director are already here, here's where we'll do it. It was practically an act of fate. He lives here and we just happen to be here. As we've got time between Vegas and Mexico City, we'll shoot it here. Because we always wanted to do a beach video, it's all just perfect.
(Video “Mein Land” on screen).
C.S.: We always dreamt of doing a video on the beach with a bunch of girls. Just like the rappers. Now I know why they do it (laugh). Because it's more fun doing it (laugh).
(Shooting).
S.S: (On shooting stage) Looking in camera.
(Shooting).
C.S.: We wanted to do the video in '50s style. Back then, the colors weren't so gaudy and bright as they are now. In some cases, the colors are pastel. But it's nice this bright. When you try to create something on film from another era you notice... and you even feel, how it must have been, when you dance on the beach happily and everyone wears so many cute things. People were probably different to each other back then.
(Shooting).
J.A.: (On shooting stage) Ok, here we go. Everybody ready?
(Shooting).
T.L.: (On shooting stage) Olli, move ya ass!
(Shooting).
O.R.: It's the perfect situation. In the fresh air, looking at the sea. A load of pretty people, the director is good, the making-of team is super. That makes it all 100% here!
(Shooting).
C.F.L.: With the girls, it's like back at school, when you had sport with the girls. It makes an embarassing situation even more embarassing. It was worse working out on the bars when the girls were watching you.
G. 1: Super. Nice.
G. 2: Super. Nice. Yes. Very friendly. Very funny watch dance (laugh).
G. 1: Very, very cool. Nice guys.
G. 2: Nice guys. They're good, very good!
C.F.L.: I would have preferred shooting seperately: we ours and the girls theirs.
(Shooting).
C.S.: We're doing the video in a style, that is quite pretencious. TV productions back then
were like that... larger than life. Everyone smiling to the camera the whole time (smile), really happy people (laugh)… having a good time together. And that's what makes a video so much fun.
G. 3: (Talking on English without subtitles).
G. 4: (Laugh) Yes.
G. 3: (Talking on English without subtitles).
G. 4: Yes.
R.Z.K.: I'm sure every band dreams of doing that. A beach video with 40 girls. Everyone's happy, dancing and having a ball. Actually, that's not really us, but in the meantime we enjoy stuff like this.
(Shooting).
P.H.L.: We were sprayed in paint the whole day, to look like we had a California tan. The sun couldn't get to my gentle skin, my pallid Berlin complexion, so nothing happened. But I think I did get sunstroke – I'm not sure quite yet though (smile).
(Shooting).
G. 5: (Talking on English without subtitles).
G. 6: (Talking on English without subtitles).
C.S.: I'll never forget this day! The best video shoot that I've ever had.
O.R.: We grew up with stuff like this, like Hasselhoffs “Baywatch”. This image is reflected here. The intense, luminous colors... I'm not quite sure about the lifestyle, the pop culture maybe.
G. 7: (Talking on English without subtitles).
G. 8: (Talking on English without subtitles).
(Shooting).
P.H.L.: It feels like 500 people are working on a 3-minute video. A lot of fun. Incredible! Our Hollywood film was never released because of some hitch with the rights. Same amount of people then too. You even had someone to hold your towel.
(Shooting).
R.Z.K.: Of course. It breaks up our image somewhat, but we've done that in many of our videos, especially with Jonas. Just think of “Pussy” or “Mann gegen Mann”, for example.
(Video “Pussy” on screen).
(Video “Mann Genen Mann” on screen).
R.Z.K.: It gives it a kind of level, that I personally find really good. What I really like with him is that you don't have to worry about anything. Everything works well, it is well organised and very expensive (laugh).
J.A.: (Talking on English without subtitles).
P.H.L.: I think they have some kind of curfew here. This means, for those who can't speak English, that there are time limits, how long the parking lot is rented. We have to leave by 3, otherwise the police will chase us off with truncheons.
J.A.: (Talking on English without subtitles).
T.L.: We trust in him him totally. No one else could have stuck us in Hawaii shirts and these ugly bathing trunks. We'd have blocked anyone else and told them it's too goofy, too nice and too stupid. We trust him. He knows how to package it. It was hilarious. The funniest video shoot ever. We were always so serious and a bit martialistic, this industrial-gothic-stuff. This is a totally different number, in Hawaii outfits and surfer stuff.
(Shooting).
J.A.: (Talking on English without subtitles).
R.Z.K.: Exactly.
J.A.: But… this guy (laugh)…
(They embrace).
R.Z.K.: I give you my guitar.
J.A.: Yes.
(They embrace).
R.Z.K.: Thank you very much, man.
J.A.: For my collection.
R.Z.K.: Yes, proof. So I talk to you?
J.A.: Ok.
R.Z.K.: Yes.
J.A.: All right.
J.A.: (Talking on English without subtitles).
R.Z.K.: Ok. Cool.
J.A.: Ok.
G. 7: (Talking on English without subtitles).
(Video “Pussy” on screen).
G. 3: (Talking on English without subtitles).
(Shooting).
T.L.: I've never done anything like that. With dance routines, and funny performances, smiling all the time. It's not my thing (laugh)! But I think it'll be good. He knows how to do it.
(Video “Mein Land” on screen).
(Shooting).
C.S.: I don't need to see a treatment from Jonas. It's ok with me when he say's he'll do the video. For me, he's a guarantee that the video will be cool.
C.F.L.: I like him. He is fun to be with, a nice guy and Swedish. It's fun doing it.
(Shooting).
O.R.: We definitely have 100% faith in him. With Jonas, he has an idea and formulates it for us in one sentence and we hardly ever know what he means. But we trust him and arrive at the set, knowing that it's all going to work again.
J.A.: (Talking on English without subtitles).
(Video “Ich Tu Dir Weh” on screen).
J.A.: (Talking on English without subtitles).
(Video “Mein Land” on screen).
C.F.L.: It's hard to make a video with lyrics like “My Country”, because you always think about something political, flags and stuff. If you transfer the lyrics one to one, it's really boring. Which is why we tried to do a video, that has a new level. This surfing stuff is fun and somehow liberating... as opposed to the lyrics and makes everything more interesting.
C.S.: We are aware that the lyrics are provocative. We spent a lot of time discussing the lyrics. We wanted to have the number on our last album. And there were continuous discussions, whether it could be misunderstood or not, because it's open to misinterpretation.
T.L.: That was a different train of thought and just now, it has developed into what it now is. I'm not sure about the original idea. It was a development process. Over five or six years, it was constantly on ice, and we kept taking it out of the drawer.
J.A.: (Talking on English without subtitles).
R.Z.K.: In fact, he has actually returned to the place where Till wrote the lyrics. He wrote the lyrics because he once surfed here and presumably had problems with the local top dogs.
(Video “Mein Land” on screen).
C.F.L.: Till writes the lyrics and we go through them together, whether we identify with them,
which I think is good. Then this mood: “'Where are you going to?” evolves. I get these images in my head, like some eternal wanderer. I think that's a good picture. I think that the people confront it and deal with it and have their own thoughts about it. How it will be accepted, we can never tell beforehand.
O.R.: It's primarily our language, which is supposed... to get people to think.
P.H.L.: I see it abstractly: A guy without a passport. I'm sure it's feasable. And he lands on earth,
maybe he could be an alien, someone who has lost his passport or wants to enter a new country. Whatever, he has no passport and tries to enter our world... and no one let's him in. He tries every country and they all say: “This is my land”. It's what the song is saying. Sure, when Rammstein sings “My Country”, everyone thinks it's about Germany because all Germans think it's about Germany and foreigners are not allowed in. Everyone makes up their own minds, how they see it. We decided to choose the first version. Over the course of the years, we noticed, it depends upon how you sing something or who say's what. When we sing “saucy fruit” (sing roughly), people tend to perceive something negative. But with “saucy fruit” (sing tenderly)... it's how you say it. When we sing “My Country”, some people think it's too much. We can live with that, as we like trouble.
(Preparation to the new scene shooting).
P.H.L.: Jonas's idea was, we start out friendly in the day and then, end up not quite as friendly at night.
(Shooting).
G. 3: (Talking on English without subtitles).
G. 4: (Talking on English without subtitles).
G. 3: (Talking on English without subtitles).
G. 4: (Laugh).
G. 3: (Laugh).
(Shooting).
G. 3: (Talking on English without subtitles).
G. 4: (Laugh) Are you welcome (laugh).
G. 3: (Laugh).
C.F.L.: Now we have to play again and the party is meant to end in excesses.
(Shooting).
R.Z.K.: Every record is a special phase for us. A new door opens. We go through a lot of different emotions in our band. I believe that every record we do has a special value for us. It's the same with every album. And at the moment, the mood is really good. And now, we're all really happy somehow. Fingers crossed.
C.S.: A “Best of” always signifies a break, a phase, where we feel, it's the right time for it. Especially after such a long live phase, we usually take a longer break again, in order to recuperate and allow new ideas to develop. We've made 6 studio albums and have been together for a long time and the songs are all from very different decades. I'm quite looking forward to it. I think it's gonna be good. And pretty comprehensive.
P.H.L.: I hope people don't think we're breaking up because of this “Best Of”.
T.L.: Breaking up (laugh)? Sure, we're breaking up (laugh). This should have been released 2 or 3 years ago, we've only managed to delay it somewhat, because... I'm sure that the fans always think you're breaking up, or you want to cheat them or something. It's simply just a pot pourri of good songs, which it's nice to have on one disc. I like it. We did the same thing with the videos.
R.Z.K.: Right. At one time or another you release a “Best Of” and this was in planning for a few years and signed for in a contract too. We just kept on delaying it, because we weren't really terribly interested. But now the moment arrived, in which we said: Now is the right time. We enjoy playing live and want to change the show a little. A “Best Of” fits in well. And this is the first single: “Mein Land”.
O.R.: We will definitely go on a “Best Of” tour and naturally, we'll accept good offers, until we've had enough and then probably end up in the studio again.
(Shooting).
C.S.: Then, practically we will only play the band's best numbers and many of them include certain show effects. And some we haven't performed for some time, which we will reactivate, so to speak.
T.L.: We'll just open our box of tricks: old effects, old songs. And we have to assemble everything well. Plus a new stage, a new stage outfit. And play a best of best of, so to speak. Then use the old effects: the burning coat and “Buck dich” and fountains and slippers, stuff like that.
C.S.: I think the fans will be in for a really fantastic tour!
(Concert in France: Les Arenes De Nimes on screen).
R.Z.K.: We'll start in Europe in November or December. Then we take a break some time around Christmas and go back on tour for February and March, also Europe. After a small break, we'll be back in America.
T.L.: We played here in halls ten years ago, with major bands like Korn. Limp Bizkit, Ice Cube and System of a Dawn but now we'll do the same venues on our own. I'm looking forward to it.
P.H.L.: Or when the guys from Tool say: Your concert was cool yesterday!
C.S.: We're pleased to hear that of course, when we play a packed show and giant arenas are sold out. That is... a real highlight in our careers, for all of us. One can say, we've reached an identical level around the world. It's unbeleivable when we consider that we can still add things to our career.
(Shooting).
P.H.L.: At last, or oddly enough, we now have the success in America, that most people in Germany think we have always had.
(Shooting).
P.H.L.: Americans just go crazy. They are so enthralled (laugh). Then there's the shuttle chauffeur, an old guy: He says, I've been doing this for 20 years. I've even driven
Jimi Hendrix to a concert, but I've never seen anything like this! Of course, we try to keep both feet on the ground. Apparently, it's not so common here, doing stuff with fire. In Germany, fans think: nice, cool, I really like it a lot. But the guys here just totally freak out. You would think that they've seen everything here, show-wise. But they haven't.
R.Z.K.: We've written a piece of German music history here in America. And we can certainly
be quite proud of that. In fact, we're really happy about it.
(Shooting).
P.H.L.: We play all over the world. And we're always sold out. We really enjoy it. I don't know
how we couldn't enjoy that. I know nothing better. I'm sure the other guys feel the same.
C.S.: I have often thought: Rammstein? We've achieved everything here. We come from Germany's east. As kids, we grew up behind the communist wall. But we never imagined that our country would disappear. Even when we became musicians, we never expected, that we would be able to play anywhere other than in our villages. Then the wall came down and we founded this band and have achieved so much success with it. And we often reached a point where I said: That's about it. We won't be able to achieve any more. But it just continued. Many of the guys in the band said: What we have achieved is enough. And then it just carried on. I think, you don't have to clip the possibilities in your mind, but just say: Yes, it just keeps on keeping on!
(Video “Mein Land” on screen).
