Rammstein’s keyboard player Christian “Flake” Lorenz released the most bizarre Christmas album on November 22nd with the name “Flake feiert Weihnachten“, so far accompanied with five different music videos on the album’s official YouTube channel. On the record Flake has reinterpreted his personal favorite Christmas songs with guest artists like Stumpen from Knorkator, Farin Urlaub, Joey Kelly, Doro Pesch and Flake’s wife Jenny Rosemeyer among other artists. Chaoszine interviewed Flake about the new Christmas record.
You say that “Christmas is hell”, so how did you end up making a Christmas album?
Flake: I realized that I always became aggressive during the Christmas season when I was exposed to this sweet music. But I liked the songs themselves. So I tried to interpret them differently. Of course, nothing will change as a result, because the same variations have been playing on the radio for decades.
All profits of the album “Flake feiert Weihnachten” are going to be donated to Die Arche. Do you see yourself doing another charity project in the future?
Flake: Fortunately, through my band I am able to help others, but that is not something we do in public.
This Christmas album consists of weird or funny songs that criticize the behaviour of people during festivities, but it also consists of beautiful piano covers, like the almost jazzy “Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht”, in which you perform together with your wife Jenny Rosemeyer and then “Tausend Sterne sind ein Dom” in which we can hear Stumpen from Knorkator. Could you tell us more about the process of making this album with all these different artists, please?
Flake: I started recording the songs with just the piano and singing along. It was very different from the music I make with the band. I wanted to know what it would sound like if other musicians, who I have an idea of and where I know the band/artist, perform the songs in private, so to speak. I liked the result so much that I wanted to ask many more musicians if they wanted to try it too.
“Flake feiert Weihnachten” hit the fifth place in the German album charts. What are your thoughts about a lot of people celebrating their Christmas while listening to this album?
Flake: How and when do you actually celebrate Christmas? Is music always part of it? Does it start at midday? Or do you already hear these songs during the Advent season? Or only when the presents are being handed out? Maybe you can also listen to the music in summer. I really have no idea, because even I listen to Bach or Manfred Krug at Christmas.
Do you have any favorite song from the album, and if you do, what makes it your favourite?
Flake: I like “Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht” the best, my wife joins in, she can whistle so beautifully. And even though it’s so different from the original, you can still recognize it.
You had an exciting promotion campaign in Berlin, where people could spot cars with texts referring to the album. How did you come up with the idea, and what happened to the cars now that the campaign is over?
Flake: I think it’s so beautifully old-fashioned to put advertising on cars. I love old cars. Our team had so much fun driving the cars around that they just keep on doing it. Christmas isn’t over yet, and if it is, it will come again, so there’s no need to stop driving the cars like that.
In the song “Süßer die Glocken nie klingen” we can hear recordings of famous quotes that are connected to the Berlin Wall, like John F. Kennedy’s “Ich bin ein Berliner” and Erich Mielke’s “Ich liebe doch alle Menschen”, among others. What is the story behind this?
Flake: Farin Urlaub and I are both from Berlin, just from different sides of the border. Christmas is a great time to think about families that were separated for so long and are now able to celebrate together again. You could also see it as the division of Germany coming to an end, but Christmas never really ends, it just keeps coming.
Looking back in time, could you share with us how you celebrated Christmas back in the days in the GDR?
Flake: I have actually been asked once whether we celebrated Christmas at all in the GDR. Of course we did, and maybe it was a little more festive for us because it was less geared towards consumerism. It wasn’t the case that companies were desperate to sell their products, but rather that people tried to come up with a nice gift and simply enjoy the holidays. My mother, for example, made me a dog out of fake fur because I had wanted a real dog.
What would teenage East punk Flake say about his grown-up self making a Christmas album?
Flake: The East German punk Flake would spit on me, because in the eyes of a punk, a Christmas album is pretty much the worst thing a musician can release, after that only comes performing at a DIY store opening.
The record gives a very strong vibe against the selfishness of consumer culture and war and you even collaborate with the GDR punks Andrea Hüber-Rhone and Tausend Tonnen Obst. Would you say that this album was in a way a return to your East punk days?
Flake: I was simply most influenced by punk in my youth. And I stuck with it. So it’s not so much a return, because I was never gone; my colleagues in Rammstein also come from the GDR punk scene.
Joern Heitmann directed all four music videos which were released along with the album. How much were you involved in creating the music video concepts with Joern?
Flake: We met for breakfast once and discussed everything. And that’s how it was shot.
In one of the music videos, there are scenes of war and you even get blown up with your piano in the end. How do you get these ideas for a Christmas song?
Flake: The video is supposed to draw attention to the so-called Christmas Truce of 1914. We learned about it at school. On Christmas Eve, during the war, German and French soldiers visited each other and celebrated together. After that, they could no longer shoot at each other and the battalions had to be exchanged.
Which role did you enjoy the most? The soldier, the robot, the baker or one of the three wise men?
Flake: Playing the robot was the most fun for me, even though the costume was a bit tight and I sweated a lot.
After seeing “Oh, es riecht gut” I hope you are not in charge of your family’s Christmas cooking?
Flake: I hope not too.
Where did the idea come from for the music video of “Oh, es riecht gut”, where different figures eat like pigs and then fight each other?
Flake: I had the feeling that Christmas is sometimes just an excuse to mindlessly stuff yourself, and the peace of Christmas is also not very prevalent. It is often in families that the bitterest arguments then break out. The number of physical assaults skyrockets. Doors slam.
What inspired you to combine these music videos into a short film?
Flake: It was actually first a movie that was cut up into several videos.
You have said that you dislike all the hassle and hell around Christmas – but is there any Christmas tradition you enjoy?
Flake: As a child in East Germany, I was keen on the presents. And the sweets. Now that everything is always available, I don’t even know what to look forward to anymore.
Chaoszine says thank you for the interview. Frohe Weihnachten und ein gutes neues Jahr.
If you want to buy one more gift for your loved ones for Christmas, you can order “Flake feiert Weihnachten” from here.