There are a couple of things raised in the interview I linked to yesterday that I've been thinking more about. One of them dates the interview in the worst way, and that's the topic raised of Napster/MP3s. Till didn't like them. They seemed to anger him. Schneider was intrigued by the whole idea. He saw the potential in this alternative platform for music distribution. Obviously his views have born fruit since the interview was done eight years ago. I wonder how Till feels about MP3s now his work is distributed online legally and for money in that format.
Not long before the interview was filmed I was first getting into Rammstein, and without several illicit MP3s being sent to me and played by me illegally I wouldn't have been exposed to their music at all. I wouldn't have bought my first Rammstein CD back then, as I did. More recently, after years of not listening to Rammstein (I lost the original CD) I've now downloaded all of their other albums, listened to them for several weeks (illegally), and gone out and bought all of their CDs, including a second copy of the one I'd lost.
One would hope and, frankly, expect that in the past eight years Till has changed his opinion in respect to MP3s and online distribution. I imagine that thousands of their fans were, like me, brought into the fold by illegal distribution of Rammstein media. I'd be interested to hear his views on this now, as well as Schneider's.
Another subject raised in the interview is understanding of the music. The gist is that they leave their lyrics open to interpretation, so listeners can take from it what they will. I like this. It's the same with good paintings or sculpture; the beholder shouldn't be locked into a particular set of boundaries.
For a long time I wasn't terribly interested in the meaning behind Rammstein's work, enjoying the sound of the music and vocals for their nonsensical aesthetic, rather than for anything more profound. The lyrics are rhythmically and verbally attractive*, even sans comprehension, and that was a nice way to appreciate Rammstein for ages.
This time around I've taken more of an interest, and this interest has, in turn, lead to LILT. The LILT project has taken me beyond the mere appreciation of the music though. I've come out the other side and am trying to create something that mirrors the original German words, so this openness is no longer something I enjoy. I'm deliberately trying to convey what Till's intended meaning was, irrespective of what anyone else takes from it, and I'm included in that 'anyone else'. What I take from Till's work is really not the point. I guess this is why my wee tantrum last month was such an important point for me. It liberated me from the feeling that I might get it wrong.
I got it wrong when I read the transcript for Zerstören, and without knowing what Rammstein had declared with regard to the meaning took it to be about a vandal. In my ignorance about German I got Du Hast wrong originally as well. I thought it was a song about committment and dedication to a relationship. It is apparently quite the reverse.
Now I'm working purely from the pictures Till draws with his words. I'm maybe having to paint certain details in slightly differently, or changing the shade of a colour used, but so long as I stay true to the picture in a general way I'm not going to get it wrong.
* This is where I admit that from the time I first heard the German Language (and other Germanic languages, such as my own birthright, Swedish) until a few years ago I thought the sounds ugly and harsh. I found the rhythms awkward, the sounds gutteral and unattractive, and the fluency lacking. Mr Lindemann's work changed that for German. Maybe I need to find a really talented Swedish lyricist now too.
That said, I still consider spoken English pretty ugly. Maybe only words put together for lyrical or poetic reasons are going to be attractive in these languages.
[discuss]
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