As of: January 30, 2024, 8:00 p.m
By: Dieter Roettig
Comments
Press
Split
Dießen author Michael Fuchs-Gamböck has dealt intensively with Rammstein and Till Lindemann.
The result: two “educational books” about the musical phenomenon.
© Roettig
Dießen – Mothers gasp when their daughters want to attend a Rammstein concert with the provocative frontman Till Lindemann.
Every performance is just a perfectly staged spectacle with negative headlines taken into account.
Rammstein and Till Lindemann polarize like no other German band.
You either love them or you hate them.
Wherever she performs around the world, she is celebrated euphorically.
Her provocative texts with often sarcastic humor break taboos.
The backstage parties of selected female fans caused even more of a stir, but also led to an investigation into sexual offenses and the distribution of narcotics, which has since been discontinued.
The Dießen author and music journalist Michael Fuchs-Gamböck (58) has now published two “education books” about the phenomenon: “Until the heart burns+” as an unofficial Rammstein biography and, together with Jens-Uwe Berndt, “100 facts about Till Lindemann” (both in Heel-Verlag).
Fuchs-Gamböck, who also served as a youth representative on the Dießen market town council for one term, is considered a profound and recognized expert in the music scene.
He has already written 55 books, including biographies of James Blunt, Justin Bieber, David Garrett, Lena, Lady Gaga, Shakira, Miley Cyrus, Amy Winehouse and Genesis.
His absolute bestseller was the book about the band Tokio Hotel, which sold 180,000 copies and was number one on the paperback hit list for a long time.
In the beer garden
In the summer of 1995, Fuchs-Gamböck met the six musicians of the newly formed group for the first time for an interview about their debut album “Herzeleid” in a Munich beer garden.
He remembers: “The Rammsteiners seemed a little awkward, but at the same time quite self-confident, funny and witty.
And they definitely knew where they wanted to go: all the way to the top!” After experiencing their first stage shows, it was clear to Fuchs-Gamböck that this East German sextet was one of the few music collectives of the post-war period that had its own artistic vision oriented towards nothing and no one but itself: uncompromising, provocative, clearly ambiguous and highly original.
Their music style “Neue Deutsche Härte” is a subgenre of rock that also draws on influences from alternative metal and techo elements.
The violent and sometimes sexist texts by Till Lindemann do the rest for sales-promoting headlines.
The height of a carefully staged tastelessness was the deluxe edition of her double CD “Love is for everyone” with lubricant, handcuffs and six pink dildos, supposedly based on the musicians.
The Rammsteiners have also created their own art form with their elaborately filmed video clips, viewed millions of times on the Internet.
On 245 pages of the unofficial Rammstein biography “Bis das Herz brennt+”, Michael Fuchs-Gamböck describes in detail the meteoric rise of the musicians who were active in various groups during the GDR era before they formed Rammstein.
For example, Till Lindemann was the drummer in the punk band “First Ass”, an abbreviated version for “First Autonomous Rioters of Schwerin”.
New insights
The second book, “100 Facts,” which Fuchs-Gamböck wrote together with Jens-Uwe Berndt and illustrated with countless photos, is all about Till Lindemann.
The book attempts to approach the phenomenon that some see as a dull provocateur, while others see as a highly intelligent sophisticate.
The result is a picture that provides an unprecedented look behind the fictional character Lindemann.
Is he an anarcho freak who constantly leaves the territory of good taste or a stuffy family man?
The Leipzig native always remains mysterious.
Because you never know what he'll cook up next.