L.K. – Laszlo Kadar (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).
T.L.: I think "Seemann" was the only song worthwhile for the record company, where you could say, it maybe had the potential, to get played on the radio, or for it to be screened on MTV. The rest of the stuff is really just one big mess, from start to finish, yet it's all still valid. It's upbeat and heavy, but, it's not commercial. That's why they did a ballad, although that is really unusual.
R.Z.K.: That was back then, when we used to say: Okay, let's ask the record company, maybe they have got an idea. I mean, to request a director. We chose Laszlo because he produced something for a beer company.
T.L.: Right, that was the Jever man, who did the Jever beer thing. This commercial. Today a beer, or something. And the guy falls on sand.
R.Z.K.: That's how it all came about, although I don't even drink beer. When I saw the set, I thought: What is this? It was back in the days when we didn't really know what we wanted to do.
C.S.: We left practically everything in the director's hands. That's not really our thing.
L.K.: I don't know if they liked that. This song, the content and the whole tonality, naturally touched my own strange and very weird, let me put it this way, Hungarian, melancholy soul.
C.S.: I remember well, how we used to have these disputes about everything. Especially when they dressed us up, and we hung around in leather and loincloths, we didn't care for that much. It didn't correspond to how we saw us, nor the outfits we had envisaged.
L.K.: The guys totally hated it. They hated wearing this and that, or changing their hairstyles and all that. But in the end, they did agree and accepted it. But I don't think they were very happy about it. I can't honestly say that.
P.H.L.: In those days, we didn't show much resistance and just followed the English stylist we had. He never said anything, he simply just cut all of our hair off. And before we knew it, we all looked pretty weird. Richard looked Russian, and they just stuck this strange headwear on our heads. I had a really big one. I hope you can't see me with it. I looked like one of those English guys in a busby. Till had the smallest one, that was okay. What the idea was, I don't know. It had nothing in common with us, but we thought that's normal in a video. They simply just style you and you have to get into your role. I think, that was the very last time that anyone ever cut off our hair. But we let them do things like this to us too. We thought, it's part of it all.
T.L.: We just sat there and then we didn't have any hair anymore. Only Richard managed to escape. Then they gave us hairpieces and feathers and... I mean, the way we looked there. I thought it was pretty cool. Great out fit.
C.S.: For a while, we were all almost bald. But, we made the sacrifice gladly. We were young. We wanted success and we really gave everything we had for our art.
R.Z.K.: We had to tug these stupid ropes and had to try, with all of our muscle power, to pull this ship, this imaginary ship, because there was just a heap of sand, supposedly waves. We had to pull this boat out of the sand. I never really understood, that there was some story with a prostitute. I didn't get that at all back then.
T.L.: Actually, we were tugging love away wherever we went. Then this girl keeps on showing up but the boat wouldn't move and we pulled like crazy. It's a story about... not arriving. And despair. And when combined with the lyrics, it is supposed to emanate melancholy.
L.K.: Mainly because it's actually all about a life that's washed up. That's how they came up with the idea of placing an imaginary ship in a sandheap in the middle of a studio. Representing a ship in the desert. And the desert sets the mood for despair maybe even hope depending on how you see it.
P.H.L.: Flake has the good fortune or misfortune to always get cast in the roles, that no one else wants. In "Seemann" he plays the monster, there, with its beak open.
T.L.: He's the one who sees everything from above and keeps tabs. Maybe he just didn't have any other job to do in the video, but a lot of utensils were lying around. Masks and headgear and armour and shields as well as cuffs, tires and stuff. Everyone chose something and the mask is maybe all that was left for Flake. He has a small head and the bird stuff was the only thing that fit him.
L.K.: Everyone hated the bird head and he just put it on. That was okay.
P.H.L.: Flakes advantage is, he's in the frame, the disadvantage is, he has to do all the crap stuff (laugh). I get away with it... Till is really fortunate: he's the singer and therefore always on screen. Richard always gets a good role, otherwise he complains. Schneider, me and Olli, we just fool around in the background and crowd the picture with too many people. With six of us, that really is difficult, but that's how it is with us but if I was the director here, I would just choose four people. That looks pretty good, I think. But I'm really glad too that we're not Seeed with 17 guys leaping round the set. So it really could be worse. The Salvation Army, yuk!
L.K.: There really were discussions over the costumes and the bird head, But in the end, they just let it all happen. They're extremely professional guys. Whether they're performing or their physical committment, especially Till, including getting himself burnt, that all worked out well of course.
C.S.: I like how Till performs on the video. He has many stylistic devices, which he has retained a long time. He has expressed them in his performances from the very beginning. For example, the fact that he always taps his leg.
The video is just what it is. We gave everything in our attempts to tug this ship out of the sand. But, we failed (laugh).
