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#richard z. kruspe imagine
marimayscarlett · 5 months
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Can someone please translate into English? 🙏
Hello dear anon, here's a translation of the interview. I used deepl as usual and made some changes to fit the messages Richard wanted to convey better. The interview was published on the 2nd of December, 2018.
Here's the german link again as the interview source and comparison for the german-speaking folks:
Richard Z. Kruspe presents his third album as part of the band project - Till Lindemann contributes vocal part
On November 30, Rammstein guitarist Richard Z. Kruspe released his third solo album "A Million Degrees" (Universal) as part of the band project Emigrate. Among others, Till Lindemann, Ben Kowalewicz (Billy Talent) and Cardinal Copia (Ghost) are represented with vocal contributions on it. Christiane Wohlhaupter spoke with the 51-year-old about the collaboration with the singers, his daughter and the interaction with Rammstein. They say all good things come in threes. Do you have this thought in mind for your third album as well?
I used to say that I would make three albums with Emigrate. But in the meantime I can also imagine a fourth one. Maybe in a different constellation, maybe in a completely different musical environment. I've been thinking about how it would be if I were to write a purely electronic album. Or an album with a completely different singer. As long as the world of Rammstein exists, there will probably also be the world of Emigrate. Emigrate puts me in a good balance to let off steam musically. From the age of 50, you also generally think about: Where does life still want to take me? Is there something else that could inspire me? Or just music? I think to myself, maybe there is also a completely different challenge. Creation can also be found elsewhere - perhaps in film. I'm a cineaste who watches two or three films a day. What was the last film that really excited you? So about a year ago, "Fences" with Denzel Washington. I went to the movies last week and saw "Bohemian Rhapsody" and was a little disappointed because I thought it was a Queen movie.
But then it was more like a Freddy Mercury movie ... Yes, the others came a bit too short. If I had known that from the beginning, I might have gone in with a different expectation. What's the story behind "A Million Degrees"? The basic idea comes from 2015, from the time when I was completely burned out for the first time in my life. Hence this text "A Million Degrees." This state then changed when I rewrote the album. I thought about how "A Million Degrees" could be represented visually and came up with the idea that you can also understand it geometrically with the degrees. This versatility, these "Million Degrees" - exaggerated - is what Emigrate is all about.
One of your guest vocalists on the album is Cardinal Copia from Ghost. How did this collaboration come about in the first place? The meeting came about for a completely different reason. We were looking for a producer at Rammstein. I actually wanted to ask Cardinal Copia about a producer. He then said, "I'll be in Berlin next week, let's meet." I asked him if he was interested in a collaboration, and he said he didn't do that on principle. I asked him anyway if he wanted to hear the song I was thinking for his voice. And then when he heard it, he was like, "I'm in, I'm in." He was completely influenced by the music. That's what makes it fun for me, to work with so many artists. I don't have that in my Rammstein world.
Someone who was also influenced by the music was Serj Tankian. He said about "War", the song you thought of for him, that your voice would fit much better. Will you write another song that fits his voice better?
No, I don't work that way. I write first, and then the song tells me where it wants to go. The song takes on a life of its own. It's like cooking. You have to taste it. And with the song, you have to listen very carefully. So you didn't think of Till Lindemann when you wrote "Let's Go"?
That's another story. This song was already created at the time when Till and I wanted to do something together - ages ago. The original idea of Emigrate was, Till and Richard want to do this together. The other bandmates didn't like that, so we put it on hold. But there was the idea of this song - with a different lyrical statement. I then rewrote it again, because this very, very intense time after the fall of the Wall came in mind, when we commuted between Berlin and Schwerin. That was such a wild time.
You dedicated the song "You Are So Beautiful" to your daughter Maxime. What does she think about it? She doesn't take it so seriously at seven years old - maybe that will come later. We shot a video for the song together in Los Angeles. That was a risk, of course, and there was some thought about shooting it with another child. But she did a great job. With Emigrate, I also live out the personal-emotional part. Something I don't do at all with Rammstein. How well can you reconcile rock star life and father duties?
I think the majority of artists generally struggle with themselves. And the majority of artists realize at some point that they can write better under the influence of pain. Of course, there are moments when you enter that zone as an artist. I don't think you can cut that out completely, and a child always feels that, too. My daughter is with me one week and then with her mother the next week. So I live that out in the week that she's not with me. I'm a very moody person, my mood changes sometimes by the hour. But she has such a fun character - it just melts you. I became a father for the first time at 23, and I'm a father now at 50. That's when I gained a certain maturity and experience. Taking the family on tour - we don't do that with Rammstein as a matter of principle. That would be another experience. To what extent does your musical work with Emigrate affect Rammstein? In the past, it was completely separate. Now things are merging - and I think "War" would have fit Rammstein as well. A lot of ideas that come out on Rammstein now were Emigrate ideas - although I actually make sure that Emigrate sounds different. But, of course, you can't split yourself completely. But because there are also five other strong individuals in Rammstein, it's not that noticeable.
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reeshyz · 1 year
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Title: Don't you know that you're my shooting star? Pairing: Paul Landers / Richard Z. Kruspe Presentee: @manngegenmann Prompt: Shooting Star Warnings/Tags: too much fluff | all of them being idiots | insecure Richard Word Count: 2.164 Summary: Richard is afraid to tell the band a secret that he had kept for so long by now. Luckily a shooting star helps him. Read on AO3: here
Richard is nervous. He’d been nervous all day and he hates it. It had been so bad that he had almost canceled their trip, but he had known that the other idiots wouldn’t have accepted that.
“Are you okay?” Paul asks and he looks so worried. Richard wishes he was braver and would finally take Paul’s hand into his, but he can’t. That would be weird, so Richard just nods slowly.
“Yeah you don’t look that well, Scholle,” Till says from behind them and Richard sighs quietly. Of course his best friend would also know that something is up. Sometimes he hates how close they all are.
“We can take a break if you need one,” Ollie says now and Richard sighs. Always teaming up against him. They are not even close to their location yet and Richard hates it if he’s the reason for another delay. 
“No need. Just… lost in my thoughts,” Richard finally answers, before he cuddles even more into his scarf. It’s fucking cold outside and he doesn’t know who’s idea it was to do the hike today, but Richard already hates it.
“Are they good thoughts?” Paul asks and Richard sees how far Flake and Schneider are in front of them already. It’s surprising that Ollie is walking so slowly today, but Richard doesn’t mind his calm presence. 
He wishes he could tell Paul about his thoughts, but he can’t.
“Not really,” Richard answers. He’s scared of what the others would think of him if he’d shared his thoughts with them. What if they didn’t want him in the band anymore? What if they didn’t want him as a friend anymore? Richard wouldn’t survive that.
This secret is eating Richard alive. Sometimes he wishes he didn’t have feelings for Paul, but he actually… likes being in love. He loves Paul and he’s fine with it. He just wishes everyone would see it like this. 
“And here I thought this hike would finally cheer you up,” Paul says and he laughs so cute. Richard has to look away, so he doesn’t stare at Paul again. He’s sure he’s already doing that too much lately, but he can’t help it. Paul looks so beautiful, especially on a snowy night like this.
“You know exactly how much I hate this tradition,” Richard mumbles and he can hear how loud Till laughs. For some reason they all have fun doing this each year, even Flake. Richard hates how cold he’s already feeling.
If he was allowed to take Paul’s hand, he could warm his ohand a bit up.
Maybe… maybe Paul would even let Richard kiss him. Gosh, that would warm him up in a second. Just imagining kissing his soft lips lets Richard shudder. He bet they’d feel so good against his own. 
“That’s why we love this tradition so much,” Ollie says, but he’s smiling. Richard huffs. He’s not even sure what the point of these hikes are. They always stay at that tiny house in the middle of nothing and are having a sleepover as if they’re still fourteen. 
Paul often claims it’s something they do to relax. Richard knows he’s just loving it, because most of the time they’re drunk and tell each other lots of secrets. Two years ago Schneider had told them that he was going to be a father again. And Till told them about his new Lindemann tour and that he wanted to throw fish and cake at the crowd. Paul had really loved that idea.
It’s always fun, even though Richard hates walking towards the damn house.
So in the end it’s really a fun sleepover. Once Richard had even been allowed to braid Schneider’s hair. That had been amazing.
The bad thing about this year is Richard’s secret about his feelings for Paul. He had wanted to share that secret with his bandmates, but he’s not sure if he can. He’s dizzy just thinking about it. He’d never been this exposed. 
“It will be alright,” Ollie says, as if he can read Richard’s thoughts. Richard nods, even though he doesn’t believe him.
Paul’s nervous glance at him doesn't make it better.
*
Two hours later Richard finally sits down on his camping chair. They’re all sitting outside around a bonfire Till had started a few minutes ago and Richard holds his mulled wine close to his chest.
“Shit, I missed this,” Schneider says and he leans back in his own chair. Richard nods to himself, sometimes it’s kinda fun to spend some time with these idiots without any music related topics. 
“It was a stressful year,” Flake says and he takes another sip of his tea. Ollie hums quietly and Till groans, when he stretches his back. It’s kinda funny that they all turned into old men together. 
“I don’t care about all your smalltalk. I wanna hear some secrets,” Paul says and he clasps his hands. He’s sitting opposite of Richard and sitting way too close to the fire. He had tried to roast marshmallows earlier, but it seems like now he’s way too excited to think about food. 
Richard wonders how sweet his lips would taste now.
“Yeah me too,” Schneider says and his grin is almost dangerous. Richard remembers how one year he had admit that he liked Frau Schneider, that had been rather dumb on his part. 
“Well then how about you two start?” Till says, now smiling as well. Richard rolls his eyes at nothing, he’s glad that nobody pays him attention so far. His stomach is hurting from his anxiety. 
Logically he knows his friends are pretty open about anything and that they do love him, but this is so hard. Richard had told them a lot of shit in the past, especially when he had told them about his drug problem, but this feels way more special. Richard really wants them to support him in his feelings.
He looks back to Paul for a moment. He’s smiling and Richard’s chest aches to be close to him. He hadn’t thought that love like this existed, but Paul had really stolen his heart. 
“Okay I’ll start easy. I started writing another book and I will expose you all a lot in this one,” Flake says and everyone starts to gasp at him. In reality Flake knows that they all enjoy reading his books.
“Yeah what will you even tell everyone?” Paul asks and Flake turns to him.
“I need to let the world know that the famous Paul Landers loves to match his clothes to the one’s his dogs wears, when nobody sees him,” Flake says as dryly as he can and Paul pouts. Richard chuckles, because that is just adorable.
“Fuck you!”
“You asked!” 
“Well now that’s at least a secret Paul doesn’t have to admit himself tonight,” Schneider laughs and he clasps Paul on the back, who’s still sulking. Richard needs to ask him about those outfits some time. 
“Okay I wanna admit something too. Schneider I know you’ve been looking for your leather jacket for weeks now. I stole it, even though I said I didn’t,” Till says and he’s grinning. Schneider glares at him.
“You asshole! Why would you do that?” Schneider asks immediately.
“Because it was so ugly. I threw it into the trash,” Till says, he’s still relaxed. It’s an unspoken rule that it was allowed to make fun at their secrets, but nobody would ever get really angry.
Normally that should calm Richard down, but if it’s a secret like his, then they were allowed to be angry. 
“Richard, what about you?” Paul asks now and Richard looks back to him. He’s not sure why Paul would call him out like this and he can’t really see in his facial expression if Paul is teasing him or not.
“Yeah you’ve been awfully quiet,” Ollie says, which is an irony itself. Richard shrugs and bites down on his lower lip.
He had waited so many months for this moment. Richard closes his eyes and takes another deep breath. He could do this. He trusts his friends, but he knows that he can’t look at Paul while saying this. 
Richard thinks about how to say this.
“I sold my apartment,” Richard says and he can hear how they all gasp at that. He’d managed to do it secretly with his agent and that wasn’t actually what he had wanted to say. Shit.
“What - why?”
“Will you move to New York once more?”
“Are you having a bad time again?”
Richard sighs.
“It’s because I… I’m… I mean…,” Richard stutters and then squeezes his eyes shut once more, before he could do something stupid, like starting to cry. He just can’t do it. He remembers the first time he had told them something important about his life. They had been angry back then and of course it makes now sense to compare his feelings to Paul to that shitty wedding he had back then. 
“It’s okay. You don’t have to tell us why right now. Take your time,” Till says and he holds his hand out. Richard takes it and tries to relax.
Paul looks so sad. It breaks Richard’s heart.
"Yeah, it's okay. You know we’re always there, right?” Schneider offers with a small smile and it only makes Richard feel worse. Why can’t he admit it?! Would it be easier if Paul wasn’t there?
“Holy shit a shooting star!” Flake says then and points into the dark sky. Richard looks up, but it’s already too late.
“Oh yeah I read tonight should be a good night to see lots of them,” Ollie explains and they all look up again. It’s kinda adorable how excited they all get now, because it’s quiet for several moments. 
Richard looks back to Paul instead. Paul’s eyes are shining from this angle and he smiles, but it’s so sad. Richard would do anything to change that and he actually knows that he can. He gathers all his courage.
It’s not about him. This is about Paul.
“Another one!” Paul says then and his voice is even higher with excitement. Richard smiles softly, now that everyone pays Paul and his shooting star some attention. 
“Quick make a wish,” Schneider says and Paul nods. Richard watches how Paul closes his eyes and frowns, seems like he is concentrating rather hard on something. Richard slowly gets up. 
He can see that Till is watching him now, a bit surprised, but Richard ignores that and walks over to Paul, who still has his eyes closed. Richards sits carefully down on his lap and presses his lips to Paul’s.
Everyone around them makes some sort of noise and Richard tries to ignore his own loud heart beat, instead he softly deepens the kiss. Paul hums and opens his mouth a bit too happily, Richard gasps against his lips.  “The hell!”
Richard breaks the kiss, he’s for sure blushing now, but that doesn’t really matter because Paul is not sad anymore and he doesn’t seem angry. Now he’s beaming up at him.
“Exactly what I wished for,” Paul mumbles, his cheeks a bit red as well.
“Shit what just happened?” Schneider asks and Richard wants to get up again. Not to run away, but he’s embarrassed as fuck. Paul holds him at his hips though. Richard grumbles and then leans down to hug Paul (and to hide his face against his neck).
“Well… actually that was the big secret Richard wanted to reveal earlier,” Paul explains slowly and he strokes so wonderfully over Richard’s back. He makes himself even smaller on his lap. 
“So you’re together?” Till asks, sounding actually pretty happy. Richard tries to relax.
“Yes, have been for six months. We wanted to tell you but… we were kinda scared it would ruin the band,” Paul admits, sounding really shy himself now. It doesn’t suit him. Richard presses a short kiss against his skin.
“Congratulations!” Schneider says and this time Paul pushes Richard up. Richard whines, but as soon as he and Paul are standing, they are squished together by a damn group hug.
“I knew it,” Flake says, and he cuddles them even more. Richard can’t stop smiling. He feels silly now for being so afraid. They all seem perfectly fine with their relationship and he couldn’t be happier.
“So that’s why you sold your apartment?” Ollie wants to know and Richard nods.  “We… bought a house together. It has an amazing studio!” Richard says happily and Paul next to him laughs.
“It even has a pool, but not on top of the studio again,” Paul explains and he winks at Richard, who playfully pushes Paul away.
“Shit. I’m so happy for you,” Till says and he promptly hugs them once more.
“Oh another shooting star!” Ollie says, but Richard ignores it. He doesn’t need any more wishes. He has everything he had ever wished for. Paul’s heart.
“You want me to kiss you?” Till laughs and Ollie throws some snow at him. 
Richard smiles at Paul and promptly gets kissed again.
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instagram
"NO DANCE: For the Mein Teil music video, the Rammstein members were interpreting the story about the cannibalism case of Armin Meiwes. «The guy was looking for his future prey on the Internet, and the victim had expressed to Meiwes the desire to be eaten by him. We wanted to address this in the video, which was to contain a dance-related performance», Richard Z. Kruspe told D-Side. The guitarist eventually chose to wrestle 'himself' rather than dance. «Each member of Rammstein had to participate physically in the video, but I don't really have a heightened sensitivity to body expression. It's not something very natural for me. It was hard for me to imagine myself doing a dance, especially on such a subject.»
📷: Frank Lothar Lange @franklotharlange 2004"
...and then almost 20 years later we are here:
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and am not sure if this confirms that statement or not 😊
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nichtaufgewacht · 2 years
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Fancast for Rammstein: the early days movie.
Daniel Brühl as Till Lindemann
Aiden Turner as Richard Z. Kruspe
Alexander Skarsgård as Oliver Riedel
Daniel Radcliffe as Paul Landers
Stephen Merchant as Flake Lorenz
Tom Hiddleston as Christoph Schneider
I would imagine it as an origins story, showing how they met and how was their life before the wall fell. Then, flash forward to how from the ashes of First Arsch and Feeling B a new idea was born. Lots of 80s music, electronic soundtrack as well, and lots of feeling.
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I posted 317 times in 2022
That's 317 more posts than 2021!
23 posts created (7%)
294 posts reblogged (93%)
Blogs I reblogged the most:
@tillake
@herrlindemann
@yaegeram
@tinnike
@endlich-allein
I tagged 301 of my posts in 2022
Only 5% of my posts had no tags
#rammstein - 221 posts
#till lindemann - 163 posts
#paul landers - 104 posts
#richard kruspe - 74 posts
#oliver riedel - 65 posts
#christoph schneider - 63 posts
#flake lorenz - 59 posts
#christoph doom schneider - 34 posts
#till is love 🖤 - 25 posts
#richard z. kruspe - 22 posts
Longest Tag: 85 characters
#first pic i'm imagining schneider using his book to shoo flies away from till's mouth
My Top Posts in 2022:
#5
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See the full post
14 notes - Posted November 24, 2022
#4
Screenshots pt.1
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See the full post
15 notes - Posted November 24, 2022
#3
Screenshots pt.6
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See the full post
17 notes - Posted November 24, 2022
#2
Screenshots pt.3
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17 notes - Posted November 24, 2022
My #1 post of 2022
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I forgot to post this here! It was originally for Rammtober over on Instagram ^_^
20 notes - Posted November 25, 2022
Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →
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komotionlessqueenmm · 4 years
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Imagine # 629
Gifs NOT mine. (Found on Pinterest.)
If either gif is yours please let me know, so I can give you credit.
Gif credit goes to - Unknown.
Year posted - 2020
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makimoonvibes · 2 years
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Vampire Richard Z Kruspe Imagine
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Pov: it’s 1997 and You’re a Apart of a Dancer that dances in a Traditional German ceremony group that was in a Forest called Rotes Tal, it’s history was that there was a Prince that once lived in a castle in the exact forest that you’re dancing in right now.
His name was Richard Zven Kruspe, A prince known for his desire in Ladies and even Men to be apart of his royal castle but then was executed like a witch for be a “Demon of lust”. You decided to look into the forest to see if you could find him. as you were finding him, you never looked back, not even once.
You stopped in your tracks, you saw a coffin laying in the middle of the forest, surrounded it was little roses that were dying due to no water from the rain clouds.
You were curious and hesitantly wanting to open it but you saw the coffin wide open, you were scared but then heard a voice from behind you. It seemed to sound like a man that was in his 30s but with a darker tone just like a Vampire.
You turned around and saw him; his hair was black with smooth touches to it, His eyes looked like Brown but with little white glossed them, his mouth looked like that he had bitten someone before with little bits of blood dripping down, his clothes looked victorian but with bits of burnt pieces of cloth because of the execution.
He bowed down and smiled, showing his Vampiric sharp teeth, “Glad to meet you, My dear.” He said as he held out his hand for you.
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noodle-schrammy · 2 years
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Imagine this (inspired from a story/chat on insta)
Richard feeling insecure so paul, kisses and blows raspberries onto the areas reesh feels insecure and telling him how beautiful he is
Just making the man feel gorgeous
😭 I'm dying
Man down, man down
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fayn3ko · 5 years
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(different and better version of this) NYE 2018 Schneesh hug
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roszvamilano · 5 years
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Thank you so much for the likes on my last drawing!
This one is older but have it anyway! I apologize for the quality of the photo...
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Eh why not have two.
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Don't kill me please.
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reeshyz · 1 year
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Title: It's much harder to be sad while eating a cookie Pairing: Paul Landers / Richard Z. Kruspe / Christoph Schneider Presentee: @liebe-ist-musik Prompt: Baking cookies Warnings/Tags: Angst with a happy ending | Jealousy | polyamorous relationship Word Count: 2.435 Summary: Richard is helplessly in love with Christoph and Paul, who are already together. Does he even have a tiny chance? Read on AO3: here
“That was such a shitty session,” Paul laughs when he sits down on their red couch in their break room. Richard has to agree, because they didn’t really record anything today. Mostly they had just been playing around. “Was kinda fun though,” Richard says and he shrugs. They don’t really have any pressure on them this time, because they had released the last album a few months ago but they had wanted to spend some time together again.
“It’s always fun when we’re not taking work seriously,” Paul says, grinning up at Richard, who huffs. He’s clearly hinting at the old Mutter days. Sometimes Richard is still very ashamed of his behavior back then. 
He’s still a perfectionist and loves to get a lot of work done, but he can also sit down and relax. 
“Shut up,” Richard mutters, pouting at Paul, who now laughs even harder. 
Richard had felt so many years ago in love with that laugh and not one day is he not feeling his yearning heart beating faster when he hears it so close. 
“Come on you know it’s so much fun to tease you a bit,” Paul says and he throws one of the pillows towards him. Richard catches it a bit more clumsy than he wants to admit, but he takes it and then walks over to Paul.
“You’re an asshole,” Richard says, but he actually dares to sit down on Paul’s lap and then pushes the pillow into his face. Paul laughs even louder and tries to get Richard to stop. Richard lets him win and Paul throws the pillow away.
His hair is all over the place.
Richard wants to kiss him. 
“But you love me anyway,” Paul says and he pokes his tongue out at Richard, who tries to go for an easy smile. His face feels frozen.
Paul has no idea how true that statement is. There is no one that Richard loves more than… Paul and his boyfriend. His heart throbs painfully in his chest and he looks down. He wishes he could have what they have.
And he had tried, but it seemed like there was nobody out there who would ever love him back as much as he loved people. 
He thought that he had put that behind himself. But just being so close to Paul rips all the hidden wounds open and even worse than before. Richard feels like his heart is bleeding, all the blood and pain choking him. 
“Rich?” Paul says, apparently Richard had taken too long to think about this. Richard looks down at his blue eyes and nods slowly.
“Yeah uh of course,” Richard whispers and it just gets worse when Paul licks over his lips. Richard could just lean down and kiss him now. He almost closes his eyes, because he���s probably imagining that Paul looks interested. 
Instead the door behind them opens.
“Sweetheart?”
Ouch. Yeah that feels like a cold shower. 
Christoph walks into the room and he looks relaxed when Richard turns around to him. Richard feels so bad because he’s sitting in the lap of his boyfriend, so he hastily tries to get, almost kneeing Paul right in the nuts. 
“Hey Chris,” Paul says, his eyes so wide and full of love. Richard hastily takes a few steps away from the couch. He wants to leave but he’s sure that would make it even more obvious. 
Richard doesn’t want Christoph to think that Paul would cheat on him. Because Paul would never! Richard had been the asshole to create such an intimate looking situation.
“What are you two up to?” Christoph asks and he walks over to his boyfriend. Richard watches helplessly when Paul kisses him. Both are closing their eyes and are completely focusing on each other’s love. 
Richard swallows his feelings down. He’s an asshole and he should be happy for his friends. He should be able to ignore his love, it certainly wouldn’t be the first time. 
“Nothing much, Richard was just trying to make me shut up,” Paul says and he surely means the damn pillow that’s still on the ground next to the couch, but to Richard it sounds as if he had known that Richard wanted to kiss him.
“Oh did he, hm?” Christoph mumbles and kisses Paul again. This time Richard can see how he sticks his tongue into Paul’s mouth who groans. Richard’s own pants feel a bit tight now and he should probably just leave. 
“Yeah well I should look if Till…,” Richard starts and he points awkwardly at the door, even though they are still very much busy making out. Paul’s hand is even on Christoph’s ass now. Richard’s face turns a bright red, even though he had seen ‘worse’ things. 
“Till left. He wanted to go and eat with Ollie and Flake in that restaurant he mentioned earlier,” Christoph says, when he breaks the kiss and looks back at him. Richard strokes through his hair.
“Oh uh well then I should…,” Richard shrugs. He doesn’t really have an excuse to leave now.
“We still wanted to bake cookies,” Paul says, he’s also bright red but smiling as well. It must be amazing to love and be loved back. Richard has to force himself to look away. It had been some time since he had baked, but it was always fun. 
“Oh yeah I can do that. I already got all the stuff we need, you can just relax here,” Richard says and he turns to leave again. Sadly it seems like they don’t really want to be alone because Christoph speaks up again.
“It sounds like fun. We will help you!” 
Richard closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. It probably would be really weird if he declined now. Besides he could probably use their help, because Till always stole so many cookies, so they had to make a lot.
“Yeah sure,” Richard says and he hopes it comes out convincing. 
*
Half an hour later Richard is really annoyed. He is already covered in flour thanks to Paul and it seems like those two can’t stop flirting for even two minutes. 
Richard’s heart is slowly bleeding out.
“How long will this take?” Christoph asks and he’s holding a bowl with some batter in it. Richard tries to take that bowl away from him, while  Paul actually should watch the damn stove. They already burned some cookies of the first batch. 
“You don’t have to stay,” Richard says and his smile is only a grimace now. Christoph pouts and holds the bowl out of his way. Richard huffs and tries to get to it but sadly Christoph is taller than him and holds it above his head.
Richard tries to reach it on his tiptoes but it doesn’t help.
“Give me the bowl! I need to prepare the next dough!” Richard says and Christoph laughs. He hadn’t even realized that he had put one hand on Christoph’s hip while trying to reach the bowl.
“I could. What do I get in return though?” Christoph asks, his voice so laugh.
“Uhm…”
“You should give him a kiss,” Paul says from behind them and Richard turns to him. He can’t believe Paul would suggest something like this. Paul winks at him, just as Richard looks down to the cookies, who are burned as well.
“Shit!” Richard says, ignoring Christoph for now, even pushing Paul away. All the cookies are a dark brown. He sighs.
“Look at you, all mine now,” Christoph says and when Richard turns back to them he sees that Christoph had put his hand into the flour and then grabbed Paul’s ass. There are two imprints of his hands now on Paul’s pants. 
“Always been yours,” Paul says and they are kissing again. Richard isn’t sure how much more he can take at this point. 
“The cookies are burned,” Richard mutters and they both turn to look at him. Paul even takes a cookie and bites into it. He grins.
“Oh no look a broken heart,” Paul says and Christoph laughs too before he bites into it as well when Paul holds out for him. Richard knows he is overreacting but his heart feels exactly like this damn cookie.
“I need a break, you two do whatever you want but I’m out. Do those shitty cookies on your own, I don’t care,” Richard says and he turns around. He’s too angry to care right now. He knows jealousy isn’t a good character trait, but he’s just heartbroken too. 
“Rich wait,” Christoph starts, but Richard loudly slams the door right into his face.
Luckily they both don’t follow him and so Richard finds himself outside, freezing almost to death, but at least enjoying a cigarette. He knows that he doesn’t have the right to be angry at those two.
He had just forgotten how much they flirted all the time. They didn’t know that Richard is in love with them and even if they did, they don’t owe him anything. 
Richard is the disturbing factor here.
He’s not even sure why he’d been so upset about those damn cookies. It’s not like he really enjoys eating them himself. But the batch they had left burned a few minutes ago had been just hearts. 
Richard had made those and he feels silly. 
He had made those, daydreaming about giving them to Paul and Christoph while being next to them. He had wanted to get showered in kisses too and he would even take Christoph’s handprints on his damn ass, if that meant he would be theirs too.
But just like they had let the heart cookies burn, they’d cut his own heart open. Obviously both without bad intentions. 
Richard wipes a tear away and hates himself even more. 
He knows why Paul fell in love with Christoph. He’s strong minded, beautiful inside and out. Christoph would gladly participate in any dares and pranks Paul could come up with, but he would also calm him down when it was getting too much. Paul could always count on him. 
Richard also knows why Christoph fell in love with Paul, who’s such a sunshine and could always make you love. Paul would happily carry the whole world on his shoulders, just to make Christoph smile again. Christoph would never have to go one day without a smile on his face.
And of course those are also the reasons why Richard fell in love with them such a long time ago. He hadn’t even realized it at first and one day he had almost told Paul, but then he had heard that those two got together over a tour break.
He shudders again and opens the door to get back inside.
“And what can you offer? Nothing but being a fuck-up. You’re addicted to cigarettes, you’re selfish and a perfectionist. You never shut your damn mouth. You’re just a damn raincloud that doesn’t fit to them,” Richard says to himself on his way inside. 
He would just crawl into his bed and cry himself to sleep or something. He deserves this. Alone for thinking of his taken band members. The guilt is eating him alive. 
“I wouldn’t say that.”
Richard almost hurts himself when he turns around. Paul and Christoph are both in the kitchen doorway, looking almost angry. It had been Paul who had spoken. 
“Uh…”
“Come here, we want to show you something,” Christoph says now, his voice strict and he manages to sound disappointed and displeased at the same time. Richard thinks about just running to his room for a second.
“Please,” Paul whispers and Richard follows them back into the kitchen.
On the counter are now lots of new cookies. They are all shapes like hearts as well and they’re all decorated with pink icing. On a few of them are the words “I love you” spelled in a really bad handwriting. 
“Oh. They look good,” Richard offers and then continues to stare at the cookies. Some have the words “We love you” on them. Richard frowns at those. 
Christoph sighs and then takes one of those cookies and holds it up in front of Richard.
“For you.”
"Uh, danke?"
“Oh my god. Are you always this dense,” Paul says and just as Richard wants to snap back at him, but Paul is already kissing him. Richard makes a surprised sound but then slowly melts into the kiss.
“Finally,” Christoph mumbles quietly and Richard breaks the kiss. 
“Shit sorry. He…he kissed me first,” Richard stutters out and he frowns when Christoph doesn’t look angry at all. No, he’s smiling.
“I know I told him too. Now let me kiss you too,” Christoph says and Richard nods. Christoph presses him against the wall and kisses him for real. Richard gasps when Christoph deepens the kiss and strokes over his chest. 
Paul is stroking his sides and Richard shudders.
“Oh,” Richard says quietly, when Christoph breaks the kiss. Paul next to them is smiling and he holds Richard’s hand, before he’s the one who kisses Christoph now.
“We already knew that you liked us,” Paul says, grinning so widely.
“H-how did you know?” Richard asks, his face still so bright red. Christoph smiles and presses another short kiss to his burning cheek.
“You were kinda obvious, baby,” Schneider mumbles into his ear and Richard laughs a bit embarrassed. That’s great, so they knew the whole time.
“And Till told us. That’s why he’s gone actually, was scared you’d kill him,” Paul says, he’s already eating another cookie. Richard gasps.
“Oh I will kill him!” Richard says growling while the other two are laughing.
“But first you should kiss us again,” Paul says and he presses his lips onto Richard’s. He tastes like fresh cookies and peppermint. Richard’s knees buckle.
Christoph holds him upright.
Richard smiles into the next kiss. 
Maybe… maybe he should thank Till.
After he kills him. 
“Can I keep the cookies?” Richard asks them and the other two laugh.
“Of course. It’s much harder to be sad while eating a cookie,” Paul says, while he takes another one to eat it. Seems like he’s just as bad as Till. Richard would bake him all the cookies in the world. 
“And we never wanna see you sad again,” Christoph continues and Richard is embarrassed because they probably saw him crying outside. 
“Right now, I’m the happiest,” Richard admits when he bites into a cookie himself. 
And for the first time it’s the truth.
He laughs when he gets two kisses to his cheeks. 
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herrlindemann · 2 years
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KERRANG! 09 July 2005
10 Reasons why we love Rammstein
Strap-ons! Fireworks! Cannibals! And furry frogs! This is why Rammstein rule…
1 - They’ve reached the top the hard way
There’s no shortage of bands eager to proclaim how they’ve battled the odds but Rammstein’s story makes most hard luck tales sounds a bit pathetic. Growing up in the Eastern half of Berlin during the arse-end of the communist era, the six band members endured genuine hardship, from endless queuing to buy the most basic goods to enduring the constant scrutiny of the East German government. Most pampered rock’n’roll bands from the West would have crumbled under the strain, but Rammstein drew inspiration from their tough surroundings and were determined to kick defiantly against the status quo.
“We lived like maggots in a piece of meat,” guitarist Paul Landers told Kerrang in 2004. “We lived in this repressive society, but we used any space we had for expression and doing things differently.”
2 - They’re fearless
Although it’s plainly Rammstein’s music that has endeared them to their fans, it’s their eye-boggling live shows that first grabbed the attention of rock fans. There are plenty of bands that we would all like to see burst into flame, but Rammstein — and frontman Till Lindemann in particular — have been setting themselves on fire with highly dangerous explosives, with scants regard for personal safety, for years. “In the beginning we would do all the pyrotechnics ourselves,” says guitarist Richard Z Kruspe-Bernstein. “We had one accident where the entire backline fell down and was burning behind us. After that we decided, ‘Okay, we’ll work with professionals from now on!’.”
3 - They’re more German than Oompah!
Most bands have to compromise to get a faint whiff of success, even by pandering directly to American audiences because, inevitably, that’s where the money is. It makes Rammstein’s refusal to play cultural ball all the more remarkable because, let’s face it, they couldn’t sound more German if they ditched the guitars and became a tankard-raising, Bavarian oompah band. And yet, the Americans (and everyone else) are buying their albums in bucket loads. Result!
“This was a project where we tried to do a ‘German’ style of music,’” says Kruspe-Bernstein. “By that I mean a really straightforward and direct sound, maybe even a little too ‘stiff’ rhythmically, without a lot of looseness. That’s very much a part of German culture, but we can also laugh at ourselves and our culture.”
4 - They’re a bunch of dark horses
As the saying goes, it’s always the quiet ones. Rammstein have maintained an ai of mystery, partly through their reluctance to talk to the media but also because their private lives have been kept firmly under wraps. What we do know is that Lindemann was a youth swimming champion whose plans to go to the Olympics were ended by a torn abdominal muscle, Kruspe-Bernstein used to play in a band called Orgasm Death Gimmick and has had a child with Till Lindemann’s first wife, Paul Landers speaks fluent Russian, bassist Oliver Riedel used to be in a band called the Inchtabokatables and likes skating, Christoph Schneider has served in the German military and shouts a lot when he drums and Christian ‘Flake’ Lorenz originally wanted to become a doctor and wasn’t keen on joining Rammstein because he thought it “would be boring”. He has since changed his mind, as you can well imagine.
5 - They know hot to put on a show…
Most bands make do with a half-hearted light show and a bit of tomfoolery, but Rammstein have taken the whole concept of a rock’n’roll show and crammed several thousand sticks of dynamite up its flabby are. Aside from Lindemann’s flaming suit, the German nutjobs have made everyone else look decidedly tame by using flame-throwing guitars, drum sticks that spray sparks, vast explosions and other fire-related behavior that threatens the eyebrows of the first 20 rows of the audience. Not only that, but Flake has been regularly plunged into a cooking pot, has surfed the heads of the crowd in a dinghy and been given a sound, if not real, seeing to from Lindemann’s massive rubber schlang. If that’s not entertaining enough, the arcs of fake man-juice that fly out of it tend to price the, erm, icing on the cake.
6 - …Sometimes they get a bit carried away
Their enthusiasm for fire-raising has earned Rammstein a fearsome reputation, but even in their bombastic world there is such a thing as too much fun. “One night Flake set me on fire in a particularly dramatic way,” recalls Lindemann, “instead of putting the flames out with an extinguisher, there was actually flammable material in the extinguisher, which resulted in the fire enveloping me even more. So everybody runs and tries to put out the fire — they cover me in blankets, while around and about all hell is breaking loose…everybody’s screaming because they think I’ve genuinely hurt myself! But then I stand up, I’m not injured, and everything’s okay. The band didn’t think it was such a good idea, but I loved it!”
7 - They’re entertaining and educational
Such is the overwhelming dominance of the English language in rock’n’roll that the mere fact that Rammstein have become so successful while resolutely insisting on singing the vast majority of their songs in German ist a startling achievement. Says Schneider: “We tried singing in English when we first started out, but we realized that it didn’t suit us, and we realized that Till’s lyrics, which are very strong, don’t translate well.”
Much to the delight of German language tutors everywhere, Rammstein got huge crowds to bellow the lyrics to songs like ‘Bück dich’ (‘Bend Down’) and the extremely saucy ‘Kiss Mich (Fellfrosch)’ (roughly translated: ‘Kiss Me (Furry Frog)’ at gigs despite a sizable proportion of each audience not having a fucking clue what they’re singing. Now that’s subversive.
8 - They have the balls the size of Jupiter
During their first years of German success, Rammstein were criticized for toying with Third Reich imagery. Their video for their cover of Depesche Mode’s ‘Stripped’ bravely incorporated footage from Leni Riefenstahl’s ‘Olympiad’ film. Riefenstahl is best known for her film ‘Triumph of Will’, shot at the Nazis’ 1934 Nuremberg rallies, and for being Hitler’s favorite director. Unsurprisingly, the video caused a major furore, although Rammstein’s politics are firmly left leaning.
“We have always taken things to the extreme, behaved in an extreme fashion and we’ve always tried to be provocative,” explains Paul Landers. “We did the Leni Riefenstahl video because we wanted to schock the people who thought we were from the Right. Looking at it from today’s point of view though, it’s not something we would do again.”
9 - They fought the law…
The problem with being one of the most controversial bands on the planet is the authorities usually knows when you’re coming. One of their first London gigs was famously abandoned at the last minute when the local council got wind of the scale of the pyrotechnics the band planned. Similarly, in the States, Lindemann and Flake found themselves in the clink after the police took exception to one of Rammstein’s stunts. Both men spent the night in the cells, with Flake having a fairly torrid time. “I just sat there and was fucking scared,” he states. “With me in the cell were these big, black guys, who I could not really see. I just felt that they were quite sinister-looking. On top of that, it was freezing, because the air-conditioning was turned so low. I was freezing all night, since there was no blanket. And that was lucky. Getting a blanket means you have to stay three days or even longer.”
10 ) They got Cannibalism into the charts
Sex, drugs, rock’n’roll…most bands’ lyrics revolve around a fairly basic vocabulary. Not so Rammstein who have ventured frequently into the world of deviant sexuality, never more audaciously than on ‘Mein Teil’ from 2004’s ‘Reise, Reise’ album. Based on the horrific real-life story of Armin Meiwes, a computer technician who advertised for a willing victim to participate in his cannibalistic fantasies. The most icky part of the grim episode was when Meiwes cut off and cooked his prey’s penis, thus providing Till Lindemann with the inspiration for this rather jaunty song. “It’s just so well seasoned and so nicely flambeed”, go the lyrics (albeit in German), “And so lovingly served on porcelain. And with it, a good wine and gentle candlelight…”
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Richard Kruspe - Rockantenne interview 2021 (German)
2021-11-11, on the release of the new Emigrate album
Couple of intersting bits (apart from what we read in other interviews)
Richard actually likes mondays, because sundays are often a bit quiet and you're on your own, and mondays get everything moving again and you're distracted by lots of things to do.
The 2019 tour was a real dopamine-boost, big stadiums, everybody telling them how great they played, and then when it was it over, the low was lower than he ever experienced before, like a junkie missing his shot, and he had lost himself afterwards (maybe some would call it midlife crisis).
Emigrate is an outlet for Richard because he also wanted to create new songs, he never had a need to play more live, his live-playing-needs are completely filled with Rammstein, he never had the feeling that he misses something there. He mentions that in that aspect he is very different to Till, because Till really loves playing live. It's not that he doesn't like playing live, just that he has everything he needs with Rammstein.
At the question if these are all the Emigrate-songs there are, or if there are even more, Richard mentions that there are more ideas, for years and years he wrote songs everyday, but the songs on the album are the ones that most spoke to him with regards to 'memory' and helping him find his way back to enjoy music. He also mentions he doesn't spend as much time in the studio anymore as in the past, not at nights or in weekends. He likes to spend time now too with his kids, or his girlfriend, or trying to find a hobby and has a bit better balance between music and other things in life than before.
The TPoM album was actually almost ready in october 2020 already, but he has a main-band and as Rammstein decided to get together and play again in september 2020, he had to divide his time, and it maybe didn't pull as hard on the Emigrate project, also hasn't got a budget like Rammstein so he often has to wait until people are available, and that's why it lasted until now before the album was published.
He sees TPoM as a kind of wrapper around all the Emigrate stuff from the beginning until now, as in a way an end, but not necessarily the end of Emigrate, just that he doesn't know yet what way he wants to go with Emigrate in the future. He mentioned a while ago maybe electronic, but that's just an idea, nothing is fixed yet, whole playing field is still open.
Richard always likes to let the listener develop their own story to his music and his videos, he doesn't feel the need to tell people what to imagine to it. He just did a podcast with fans where he wanted to hear exactly these own interpretations or stories that fans had, as it turns out there were a lot of sad stories, that Emigrate songs reach a lot of people going through difficult times; it made Richard consider if maybe he should do a happy song for a change.
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struwwelzeter · 3 years
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For a variety of reasons, I got into a bit of a rabbit hole about Richard's guitars, and my brain went "oh I know someone who will probably have opinions on this" so essentially, if you feel like it, pretty please talk RZK guitars to me? Favourite? Retired one that needs to come back? (Though I probably already know the answer, that fancy black one?)
Allrighty, buckle up because this is gonna be long. After much consideration I have decided to split it up in two parts because I don’t think I can make it fit into one post that is still vaguely tumblr appropriate, and I really wanted to do it some sort of justice. I still feel like I don’t. But oh well. Full disclaimer, I am NOT a guitarist, but I lived with a few, two of my best friends are pro players and I’m a sponge so I kind of soaked some bits and pieces up over the last 15 years. But in case any lost guitar hero finds this and disagrees with me over the finer points of tone wood: I know honey, I oversimplified, and I am wrong. I tried? 💜 for easier read I formatted everything specific to Richard’s guitars normally and anything general about electric guitars in cursive.
My main sources besides watching about a 100 a month of guitar tube videos (that is youtube for guitarists) with my ex, my main sources will be this interview and this.
Richard Z. Kruspe (of Rammstein and Emigrate)’s Guitars - In Order of Appearance, Part 1/2
Diamant (Les Paul Style)
“I traded the acoustic for a guitar called Diamant, which was like a Les Paul version in East Germany.” - RZK
Now I’m skipping the acoustic he started out with, because it’s basically impossible to know what that was, and go straight into the electric. Now presumably, it would have been something like this, a soviet build Les Paul rip off. The irony is that these still go for several thousands up on reverb today for being historical and collectors pieces. The thing is, that while anything east build might have used cheaper materials, I would assume this thing isn’t worse than any of the beginner/intermediate models sold today, if not better, and kids all over the world do decent stiff with those.
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Something general about electric guitars is that you don’t really so much play the guitar, you play an entire system. The instrument doesn’t make the sound, it only influences it. You play a guitar - but you even more so play the amp. Which makes this a bit tricky, because an e-guitar is a slab of wood and a copper coil, and amps are way more complex. You can make the exact same guitar sound so many ways. Still - there are tendencies. The fact how and why and to which degree the shape and wood of a solid body (a guitar without a hollow wood piece) influences the sound is highly debated and can get a bit esoteric sounding to sane people non-guitarists, but there are some differences in how the general set up and build of the guitar changes things, and tendencies how they are traditionally outfitted. Les Paul style guitars are normally humbucker guitars, Stratocasters and Telecasters normally are outfitted with single coils. Usually a guitarist can switch - between using the bridge, the neck, or both (or more) pick ups and depending on where the pick up is located they pick up different frequencies, different aspects of the sound. Humbuckers produce a richer, deeper or fuller sound than single coils. Very roughly speaking, think the Stones vs. Metallica.
Fender Stratocaster
“Then in East Germany, we had this imagination to get one of the great guitars, to me it was always the Fender Stratocaster because it was the Jimi Hendrix guitar. I didn’t know anything about pickups or humbuckers or whatever. So there was this guy that I met in a café in my old hometown and he was buying all these books because he could get all the books out through customs and he would store them in my apartment. So we became kind of acquainted. He would come over and pick up the books. So one time he came over and I asked him if he could get me a guitar and bring it over. In East Germany, if you exchange money from East to West it would be like 1 East mark and 20 West mark. SO everything I had, I changed it to West Mark and I gave him the money and I gave him the money and asked him to please buy me a Fender Stratocaster. I gave him the money and I didn’t hear anything for like three months, nothing. I wasn’t able to call because we didn’t have phones and stuff like that – it was a different time. So I thought fuck, I gave him 1400 west mark and now he’s gone and never coming back. [...] Then my imagination was so high, I thought the guitar would just play by itself and I wouldn’t really have to do anything, which I found out was bullshit. I was really happy that I had the guitar but it wasn’t really the sound that I had in mind.” - RZK
The first time I heard that story, I literally went “no, no, no, don’t be stupid, don’t give him your money, you won’t even like that guitar, stupid, lost dumbass.” I can not, for the life of me, imagine him play anything other than humbuckers. He apparently does use single coils for some things today again in the studio, but still, it’s so obviously wrong. He did play one again sometime during the late 90s, but I couldn’t find anything on the pick ups he used with that, but can hardly imagine he kept the original, unless he needed it for a specific sound maybe in one or two songs. I get it though. For many, many people the Fender Stratocaster is THE guitar. Jimi Hendrix is the main reason for that, but it’s also the countless idols that picked it up after him for the same reason, people who ended up plastered on the walls of angsty teenagers in their own right. This totally has to do with the whole amp thing aswell. You see your idol play that type of guitar ... but it’s not even half of the sound, and it won’t sound the same. Maybe probably they changed the pick ups, they have an effect rig, the spend hours fiddling with the knobs on an amp you can never afford. It’s never the same. Which is why ...
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Fender Telecaster Black Gold
Then I had a guitar that I was very fond of. It was an older black and gold telecaster – there weren’t very many of them made at that point. I put a Seymour Duncan Jeff Beck SH-4 in there, like a humbucker. I remember it was like my beauty guitar and I needed someone to put that pickup in and I was with Paul and he had more experience with that stuff than me so he would get out a hammer and a chisel and he start banging away on it and I was like ‘Fuck! Fuck! Don’t do that!’ but we put the thing in there and it was one of my favorite guitars” - RZK
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... this one first didn’t really make sense for me for him. It’s even more a classic single coil guitar than the Strat is, and it only really started making sense for me when I learned he Paul indeed put a Humbucker in there. It’s a stunningly beautiful guitar, and weirdly non-modern for him. I don’t know why and this is completely instinctual on my part, but I find it fitting he played it during that time after the wall came down, which seems to have been a rough time for him generally, it seems like a somehow super emotional guitar, this relic. Telecasters were some of the first electrics ever build, it’s such a pioneer, but it’s also one that alot of punk bands used, possibly because they were old and cheap in the 70s and noisy and people customized it and put other pick ups in. The whole putting a chisel to it and adding a humbucker into it is such a “I’m gonna make whatever I have fit for me, and I’ll love it” move. If you look at it, a double coil pick up is really something you have to force to go in there, you really have to break it open. There is also this:
“... and then I think I had to sell it because I needed drugs or something. I was really sad that I sold it because I was at a very low point in my life.” - RZK
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If I would get the chance to do one thing only for him to thank him for his music, I would go back in time to that Richard who is just sad about selling that guitar and hug him, and tell him he doesn’t need to worry, because they will name guitars after him in the future. It breaks my heart so fucking much. But of course, it’s what opens the doors to what happens next, which is ...
ESP 901
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“That led me to my very first convention in Frankfurt. With guitars, it is like with women, you have to fall in love. Sometimes you get a guitar and you fall in love later but there has to be some sort of connection with it. So I was walking around that convention and I saw that guitar hanging at the ESP stand. It was a 901 ESP Sunburst and I was looking at it because it was such a beauty. And I was walking around for hours – they probably thought I was some weird guy who wants to steal the guitar. I bought that guitar and that’s how I got connected with ESP.” -RZK
He might have fallen for it because it is pretty, but it did come with a ESP double humbucker set up, with an added condensator to muffle up the sound, although not yet an active one (more on that later). It was a 90s metal guitar, one of those things marketed to the Metallica generation, something loud and heavy and full. Also, and this is where I will put in another general insert, there is something else about the choice of electric guitars that we haven’t talked about yet.
Now, I’ve discussed that you can push or pull the sound of a electric quite far in one or the other direction with what pick ups you use, what effects, what amps. But what this ignores is that especially standing up a guitar is a really shitty asymmetrical piece of equipment. And what that does to your body is that it needs to fit you, your hands, and your playing style. Some people prefer it chunky, others like sender. Guitarists, especially the 80s shredders, like to talk about a “fast neck”, which is another one of those things that get slightly esoteric, but which usually means a slimmer neck and slightly bigger frets, that need less way for your fingers to press until the string gets stopped. Someone who plays very bendy blues might dislike that and prefer something to dig in their fingers more down to the fretboard to get more control over how they bend the string. There are different neck profiles, there are different neck lengths, and all of it contributes to how comfortable someone might find their guitar.
I am mentioning this, because until today, Richard’s guitars are build very similarly to that ESP 901. His Eclipse Model is a tad different (again, more on that later), but the one he uses the most, the RZK I, has the same neck scale, similar frets, and that comfortable ESP slender neck. Even the shape seems to be inspired by turning it upside down. He has said in interviews that he hasn’t got very strong hands, and it makes perfect sense to me. I bought my own electric (again, more on that later) purely because I wanted to own one and not even so much because I ever had any real ambitions of learning to play it, but my friends at the time (10 years ago now) forced me to try out alot (!) of models (despite me knowing what I wanted), and the only guitars that I tried that had slimmer necks were Ibanez guitars, which in turn were wider. Ironically Frankfurt is my hometown, so the place to try a lot of different models is That exact convention Richard went to, and I haven’t skipped a Musikmesse in the last 15 years. I was at atleast one were Richard was too (I just didn’t care at the time, yikes), and it somehow greatly pleases me he found “his” guitar at that particular convention. Things have changed in recent years, but electric guitars always were in Hall 4.01, with ESP being left of center in the middle, and I don’t know, I can just see him walking in circles around it, and it makes me so emotional for him because it’s what musicians do at that place. It’s really loud, everyone is playing, there is someone better noodling around at every corner, and it can be quite an intimidating setting I think. And every year you see that one kid coming back and back again to that same stand, staring at that one guitar until they finally work up the nerve and ask to try it (or the staff takes pity on them and offer). And it’s the same everytime, they think “oh god they must think I am crazy” but really, nobody does. Everyone in that hall who owns a heart knows what those dreams are made of, and all it maybe does inspire is a “oh god, I hope that one makes it”. I digress. I think it’s more common now to look for different neck styles and companies started caring about it, but especially coming from Fender and Gibson guitars, that neck is honestly just very, very nice for weaker hands.
This is where I will stop, because it makes a good moment for a break and this post is honestly getting too out of hand otherwise. There will be a part 2 - where Richard starts using active pick ups, starts playing my favorite guitar in the whole wide world (and stops playing it), and finally, set up his own signature.
This is him with that 901 though: when he must have had it pretty much brandnew, while he used it, and right before he sold it.
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komotionlessqueenmm · 5 years
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Imagine # 142
Gif NOT mine. (Found on Pinterest.)
If this gif is yours please let me know, so I can give you credit.
Gif credit goes to - @mrsfitzgerald
Year posted - 2019
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