Paul Landers
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Paul H. Landers (formerly Henry Hirsch, which the "H." stands for) (b. December 9, 1964) is a German musician, most famous for his membership in the German rock band Rammstein. "Paul" is after his biological father and "Landers" after his ex-wife Nikki.
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Timeline
Landers was born in Belarus on December 9, 1964, making him the second oldest member of the band Rammstein. He has said that when he was a young child, he lived in Moscow for a short time. His father is a language teacher, and his mother is a teacher at a special school. It's rumored he did not get on with his father and left home during his teens.
In 1983 the band Feeling B was formed by Aljoscha Rompe, Paul Landers and Christian "Flake" Lorenz. He played in Feeling B and other bands for around 10 years. Feeling B was a very popular band in East Germany, and this band regularly drew large crowds to their concerts.
In 1984 at the age of 20 he married Nikki Landers. He took her surname and began to use his middle name. They had a son, Emil, whose date of birth is unknown but was probably around 1985.
In 1994 Till Lindemann, Richard Z. Kruspe-Bernstein, Oliver Riedel and Christoph Schneider entered and won a contest in Berlin that allowed them to record a four-track demo. Paul formally joined the band, and then finally Flake.
In September 1995 Herzeleid was released. In August 1997 Sehnsucht was released. In April 2001 Mutter was released.
Rammstein finished last date of the European Mutter tour on the 13th July of 2002. It has been reported that at this time Rammstein were seriously discussing whether to continue or not. It was decided that they should all take time off and then consider whether to continue or not. Paul was missing for a couple of dates during the tour; the reason is unknown.
In 2003, they started working on fourth album, which proved to be a turning point in Rammstein's sound and maturity. The result was Reise, Reise. The album was released in September and the Reise, Reise tour began in November. It was followed by hugely successful sold out European tour of 10 countries, lasting four months.
After completing the Ahoi tour in February, Rammstein are due to play four dates in Berlin, returning to the Parkbühne Wuhlheide open-air arena, almost seven years after their sell-out concert in August 1998. They are scheduled to release a new album, containing new songs and songs remaining from recording Reise, Reise in late 2005/early 2006.
Personal characteristics
He speaks Russian. He is falsely rumoured to have been a gymnast as a child.
He has been married once and is currently divorced. He has two children, a boy and a girl. The daughter was born around 2000/2001.
Paul has said that he likes Pantera, Metallica and The Sex Pistols. Bands he has played in include Feeling B, First Arsch, and Die Firma. Former jobs include working as a boilermaker and a telecommunications mechanic.
Quotes from Paul Landers
These interviews likely were originally done in German. The sentence structure and word order of the English translation were horribly wrong, since the interviews were directly translated from German to English. The grammar has been improved in an attempt retain the essence of the quotes.
Interviewer:How do you develop your songs?
Paul: There are songs written at home which everybody immediately agrees to. There are songs written at home and are ruined together. There are songs written at home and are destroyed. There are songs written while jamming in studio.
Interviewer:What do you think of the east German/west German conflict?
The story is similar to that of the Native American Indians and the Whites. The Whites brought glass beads and the Indians forfeited their country. The whites classified the Indians as being stupid and dirty and thought themselves better [than the Indians]. The Indians lived a simple but happy life and so on.
Interviewer: With each new tour the venues where you play get bigger and the production too. Where does it stop?
From the beginning, as soon as we made any money, we invested it in fireworks and similar things because it interest us. It is our desire. Just like someone who collects scale models of cars and invests all his money in that. It was the special pyrotechnics and effects for us. From the first dayit was the effects for us, for that reason it is very difficult now to surpass it. If we began with less, it would have been easier to increase in that sense, it is like that every time [we] go out there [that]we have our doubts... what else we can invent this time without deceiving our fans? It is complicated.
Interviewer: You have tried it however, with two English versions of Engel and Du Hast...
...and we failed miserably. That was however not because of the English lyrics, but because we had developed our songs in German. If we would write a song in the English language, from the outset, rather than in German, it could be good. We do not have anything against globalisation, at least not in the context of Rammstein.
Schneider: With "Stripped", it worked; it didn’t sound stupid. If Till sings in English, they have to be good English lyrics.
We are lucky that German is such a cool language for evil music. If I were an Englishman or a Belgian, I’d be sure to sing in German. With bad, hard music nothing goes over the German language. English has too much soul and sounds much too nice. You can distort it; which leads to a problem all English speakers have with us. If people hear German lyrics, they are immediately on guard and think that bombs will be raining down on them. At times we had to explain that we were only singing, not starting a war. The English still associate German with the bombs that fell on London in the Second World War. After that they heard nothing more from us. Perhaps from time to time a Mercedes drives through London, but otherwise they don’t consider German. Rammstein tries to convert the negative image of the Germans in the world into positive images. The Reichstag also had a negative image. Since then Christo wrapped it and you think of it differently, that is a new component. In a similar way we try to show that German also has its place.
Interviewer: Do you worry, after living together for so long, that Band will fall into oblivion at the end of the Tour?
When you wipe bottoms and change diapers, then you feel at home again. On Tour you live like a king and it spoils you. We fight to make sure this doesn’t take us over. I enjoy not washing up or taking out the rubbish. Food is put into my mouth; I almost don’t need to chew anymore.
Before Rammstein I played in a fun punk band for ten years, and that was much more difficult. Because as Funpunker, you have to be amusing, you can see this with Die Ärzte. The fans tip beer over your head, and you have to come across [as being nice]. With Rammstein I can be to 99 per cent, as I like. Being angry is simple, it requires no disguise. Even in a totally bad mood, totally pissed, I can do the show one hundred per cent. I can do the entire concert without blinking an eyelid - and it’s still great.
Flake: Scholle (Richard Z. Kruspe-Berstein) did not want Paul in the band, because he saw a competitor, naturally as a second guitarist is always [good]. Till found Paul good, because he thought, Paul is of Feeling B and a guaranteed success. Till got Paul more or less in against the will of the others. And afterwards they worked on me and I said: No, I don't want to play with you. Except Till I thought they were all stupid. I had lived (worked) with for eight years with Paul, and he really got on my nerves. That was the time for us to separate. It was a relief to take off, because the principal reason of the annoyance was our women never got along. Because our wives never understood each other.
With that being the case, the women fought with each other, [and] the men obviously had to fight with each other too, because they are in love.
Flake: ... Paul and I agree, that if you live together eight years and do not argue, one must be a liar. I am surprised that we bore up for such a long time, because we are both rather extreme types. We persist much in our opinions and have a very own view of life. Paul is naturally more the type of school master, which is often very meaningful. Everything has its authorization, there is good in everything, but sometime this [can]get on [my] nerves. I am now in my mid-thirties and he still wants to educate me. He says that I must dress reasonably. There are always things at issue, clearly, perhaps we are like an old married couple.
If we are somewhere with Rammstein and the rooms are being chosen, we immediately know what room pleases who. That is completely normal. Today everyone knows who plays what role and how one goes about with one another. I can nowadays go into a restaurant and order for the whole group, and I will always do it right. I have spent more time with Paul as a friend than with my parents.
External links
Material from various interview sources and radio interviews
- [1] (http://ca.geocities.com/sally_axon/)
- [2] (http://homepage.ntlworld.com/bonaria.blackie/)
- ABC album review (http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/review/album/s1225288.htm)
- Photos (http://verboten.rammimages.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=5)
- Info on "Feeling B" (http://www.ostmusik.de/feeling_b.htm)
- Info on "Feeling B" (http://www.achtung-wir-kommen.de/index_e.htm)pl:Paul Landers