Till Lindemann (born 4 January 1963) is a German musician, songwriter, pyrotechnician, actor and poet. He is most commonly recognized as the lead vocalist and frontman of the German Neue Deutsche Härte/industrial metal band Rammstein, founded by Richard Z. Kruspe, where they won a contest in 1994 and received the opportunity to record some demo CDs. The band is named after the Ramstein air show disaster. Lindemann was also a member of the bands First Arsch and Feeling B, where he played as a drummer and bass guitarist.
Lindemann is perhaps best known for his use of excessive pyrotechnics, stage performances and his baritone voice, and his specific performance move, known as the "The Till Hammer", as well as his use of lyrics in songs which have caused controversy, particularly when it comes to Nazism. Lindemann, along with Rammstein were also blamed for the Columbine High School massacre. Worldwide, the band has sold over 10 million records, and five of their albums have received platinum awards.
Lindemann has been listed among The 50 Greatest Metal frontmen of all time by Roadrunner Records. He has appeared in some films as a minor role, and he also has two published poem books, tilted "Messer" and "In stillen Nächten", which were published in 2002 and 2013. He has presented some of his original poems and scripts to galleries. On his 52nd birthday, it was announced that Lindemann would start a new project with Peter Tägtgren named "Lindemann".
Biography:
Till was born in Leipzig, East Germany, but he grew up in the village of Wendisch-Rambow near Schwerin (in East Germany). His father was the children's poet Werner Lindemann, and his mother, Brigitte "Gitta" Hildegard Lindemann, was a journalist and writer, working for Norddeutscher Rundfunk from 1992 to 2002, at which point she retired. Lindemann's parents first met at a conference in Bitterfeld in 1959. Lindemann has one sister, Saskia who is six years younger. At age 11 he went to a sports school at the Empor Rostock Sport Club, and from 1977 to 1980 attended a boarding school. His parents lived separately for career reasons after 1975, and divorced when Till was still young. Till Lindemann lived with his father for a short time, but the relationship wasn't healthy: in Werner Lindemann's book, "Mike Oldfield im Schaukelstuhl", Werner wrote about his problem with alcohol and the difficulties of being a father for Till Lindemann when he was a teenager.
In 1978, Lindemann was a participant in the European Junior Swimming Championships in Florence finishing 11th in the 1500 m freestyle, and seventh in the 400 m freestyle swimming a time of 4'17"58 - was shortlisted to go to 1980 Olympics in Moscow. Lindemann discontinued his participation in the sport due to an injury. According to Lindemann, "I never liked the sport school actually, it was very intense. But as a child you don't object." Lindemann later worked as an apprentice carpenter, a gallery technician, a peat cutter and a basket weaver. Lindemann's mother had published a letter entitled "My son, the frontman of Rammstein", or "Mein Sohn, der Frontmann von Rammstein" in German, dedicated to Till in 2009.
Career:
Lindemann started to play drums for First Arsch, who released an album titled Saddle Up, and played one song ("Lied von der unruhevollen Jugend") with a punk band called Feeling B (which was the former band of Rammstein members Paul H. Landers, Christoph "Doom" Schneider and Christian "Flake" Lorenz). During his time in Feeling B, he played the bass guitar in the band. In the 1990s, Lindemann began to write lyrics. In 1994, the band entered and won a contest in Berlin that allowed them to record a four track demo professionally. When questioned as to why Rammstein was named after the Ramstein air show disaster, he said he viewed images of the incident on television, and that he and the band mates wanted to make a musical memorial. Lindemann then moved to Berlin. During Rammstein's early years, because of his use of over-the-top pyrotechnics, Lindemann has burned his ears, hair and arms. Band mate Christoph Schneider commented, "Till gets burned all the time, but he likes the pain". An incident in September 1996 caused a section of the band's set to burn, and as a result, Lindemann got his certification in pyrotechnics so the band could perform with pyrotechnics more safely than it had previously.
During Rammstein's US tour with Korn in 1998, Till and his band mate Christian "Flake" Lorenz were arrested in Worcester, Massachusetts for lewd conduct performed during their song "Bück Dich", which consisted of Lindemann using a liquid squirting dildo and simulating anal sex on Lorenz. Both Lindemann and Lorenz were released the following day after bail was met. This incident did not stop Lindemann from performing in the same manner for future shows outside the United States, particularly in Australia when they performed at the 2011 Big Day Out, but the United States performances of this song were changed into a sadomasochistic theme that did not feature dildos. In 1999, the band was blamed for the 1999 Columbine massacre, which they denied their music was a factor. In November 2002, Lindemann's poetry book Messer was published. It consists of 54 poems compiled by Gert Hof, the author of the book Rammstein and was the band's pyrodesigner for the last seven years. In July 2010, Lindemann, along with Flake, was interviewed by heavy metal anthropologist Sam Dunn for the VH1 Classic series Metal Evolution, on the topic of shock rock.
Till is not a stranger to injury, as he mentioned in Rammstein's early career that he'd gotten burned several times with unprofessionally rigged pyrotechnics. At a performance in Sweden in 2005, he received a knee injury on stage when keyboardist Flake accidentally ran into him while riding a Segway PT. This injury caused several tour dates in Asia to be cancelled. In 2005, five Rammstein albums received platinum awards and the band also received the "World Sales Awards" for over 10 million sold copies worldwide. During the filming of the band's music video for "Ich tu dir weh", Lindemann wanted a light put in his mouth to create a visually stunning effect. Band mate Paul Landers suggested that he use a flesh colored wire and run it along his cheek to shine a light into his mouth from the outside. Lindemann refused, and instead opted to have a surgical incision in his left cheek, so that a light could be fed into his mouth directly, and largely out of sight.
There is a specific performance move of Lindemann's, dubbed "The Till Hammer". This move is where he bends his knees, beats one fist off his thigh in a hammering motion while turning his head from side to side. On occasion, Flake has been seen to parody the move on-stage. Unlike most band frontmen, Lindemann stated in an interview that he does not like being looked at while on stage, where he would wear sunglasses. He also opts to look at the back to the mixing booth, or does hand gestures during guitar solos to distract the audience from looking directly at him. Due to his on-stage anxiety, Lindemann sometimes asks his band mates to use a rubber dinghy to crowd surf during shows, as it gets the audience's attention away from the stage temporarily. In 2011, Roadrunner Records listed Till Lindemann at number 50 of The 50 Greatest Metal frontmen of all time. In 2013, Lindemann's second poetry book, In stillen Nächten was published. He commented on the poetry, saying "The vast majority of my poems could have been written a few hundred years earlier." On his 52nd birthday (4 January 2015), it was announced that Lindemann would start a new project with Peter Tägtgren named "Lindemann". The band "Lindemann", announced in March 2015 his debut album Skills In Pills.
Film and television:
Two songs from the album Herzeleid were used in David Lynch's 1997 film, Lost Highway. Lindemann has also played minor roles in some films, appearing with his bandmate Christoph Schneider as musicians in the 1999 film Pola X, playing a character named Viktor in the children's comedy film Amundsen der Pinguin (2003), and also appearing as an animal rights activist in the 2004 film Vinzent.
As guest artist:
Lindemann appeared as guest drummer on the album Hea Hoa Hoa Hea Hea Hoa by Feeling B for the song "Lied von der unruhevollen Jugend" which, despite its German title, is sung in Russian. Years later, this track was performed live at a Rammstein gig in St. Petersburg on 19 November 2001, during the Mutter tour.,
Lindemann provides vocals for the track Helden (a cover of Bowie's Heroes) on the Apocalyptica album Worlds Collide.,
Lindemann also sings on "Wut Will Nicht Sterben" by Die Puhdys.,
Lindemann and Richard Kruspe covered the Aria song Shtil and released it as Schtiel.,
Lindemann also appeared on Knorkator's music video to the song Du nich.,
Voice:
Lindemann typically has a powerful stage presence; his vocal range is that of a bass-baritone, or perhaps even lower. Lindemann has the urge to press his voice with force from below however. He is also well known for his continuous tendency to use the alveolar trill, where he stated in an interview that he sings it out of instinct. His use of rolling his r's however has bought up criticism, where some critics compare this act to Adolf Hitler as he also rolled his r's. However, this trait could be connected to his youth years in Mecklenburg. In 2005, the New York Times commenting on Lindemann's voice, saying "He commands a low, powerful bass rarely used in contemporary pop music, untrained but electrifying."
Lyrics:
Lindemman himself describes his lyrics "love songs". Some songs written by him have references to 19th century or earlier literature. For example, Dalai Lama from the album Reise, Reise is an adaption from Goethe's Der Erlkönig. He also used more of Goethe's poems, as Rosenrot contains element from the poem Heidenröslein, while Feuer und Wasser has narrative elements from Friedrich Schiller's Der Taucher. Lindemann also used elements from Der Struwwelpeter by Heinrich Hoffmann for their eighth track on their album Rosenrot, Hilf mir.Mein Herz brennt has lyrics taken from a narrative line in German children's show, known as Das Sandmännchen.
Lindemann has used contemporary literature for intertextual references; a song title, Non, je ne regrette rien was used as a chorus for the song Frühling in Paris, and the song lyrics of Links 2-3-4 are based from the song Einheitsfrontlied by Bertolt Brecht. The lyrics of the song may imply the bands political category, positioning themselves on The Left. He had also used another song composed by Brecht, titled Mack the Knife, and the chorus was used for the song Haifisch.
Personal life:
Lindemann's first daughter, Nele, was born in 1985, and it was mentioned in a German interview that he spent seven years as a single father. Nele also has a son, who is referred as "Little Fritz". Lindemann has a second daughter with his ex-wife Anja Köseling, named Marie Louise, who was born in 1993. Lindemann has only mentioned his oldest daughter directly in interviews, and has conveyed a genuine love for her. Even though he is only confirmed to have fathered two children, in an interview with Playboy Magazine in 2006, Lindemann simply admitted that he had "a lot of children", due to numerous affairs and one-night-stands. Lindemann also mentioned in this interview that he was dating someone during that time, but was confirmed to have been dating a younger German model Sophia Thomalla in 2011. Thomalla has also stated that she wants to have children with Lindemann. Lindemann currently owns apartment buildings in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Berlin.
In a 2011 interview, Lindemann has stated he still has strong connections to traditions of East Germany. He finds that "de-traditionalisation" is disturbing, and stated there is also no authenticity anymore. In 2014, Lindemann presented two sculptures and his original scripts of poems in his book In Silent Nights in a gallery in Dresden. Lindemann has also written some lyrics in 2014 for German schlager singer-song writer Roland Kaiser for his album Soul Tracks. Lindemann has stated that he "hates noise", and would often go to a village in the north between Schwerin and Wismar. Among Lindemann's favourite bands are Deep Purple, Alice Cooper and Black Sabbath and singers Marilyn Manson and Chris Isaak.