Christoph 'Doom' Schneider
Rammstein's drummer, Christoph 'Doom' Schneider gets gloomy about drowning cats, extra-dimensional travel and trippy mind-reading.
As the drummer for German metallers Rammstein, Christoph provides the momentum for the band’s industrial odes to sex, violence and cannibalism.
Despite their controversial themes, Rammstein have sold more than 15m records. They’re known for their love of pyrotechnics, and their tour in support of current album, Liebe Ist Für Alle Da, features exploding dolls lit by lasers during a song about Josef Fritzl, plusa flaming man and a pair of 7ft fiery wings.
That’s all kinda bizarre… but how bizarre is Christoph?
What do you wish you’d never seen?
Hmmm… I wish I’d never seen a porn movie. I’ll never forget the first one! I was 16 or 17, and there was a guy in our neighbourhood whose parents had a video machine – and they also had porn tapes. It was the first time I’d seen something like that – though itwas bad quality – and I was shocked about what existed in the world. We were growing up in East Germany,where people were lucky if they had a TV or telephone. We didn’t have anything evil from the free world!
Talking of sex, do you have any fetishes?
When I think of fetishes, I think of leather and plastic things, and people getting naked and having orgies, or whatever. About 10 years ago, the band went tothe KitKat Club in Berlin. We weren’t prepared, and the doorman said, “You can’t go in like that, you have to take something off!” So we took off our shirts and pants and watched – but didn’t get involved with anything.
Do you have any phobias?
Yeah, I have a phobia of insects, especially spiders. Somebody told me that in order to cure the phobia, I should observe them for a while. So I watched them and told myself it was OK, and that they also have their place in the world. I don’t kill them; I don’t kill anything any more. Even flies have the right to live.
Have you ever killed an animal?
I shouldn’t tell you this… but when I was younger, I drowned a cat. My girlfriend and I had this cat, and it got pregnant all the time, and we didn’t know what to do with the cats nobody wanted. She said, “Do something,” so I did. But I’d never do it again.
Talking of death, what do you think Heaven’s like?
I don’t believe in Heaven – at least, not in a ‘sitting on clouds’ way. But I do think there are a lot of dimensions where we aren’t in our bodies, and that we can travel through them. I believe we’re going into these dimensions, and we’re not aware that we still exist as beings. You can just get lost as a bundle of energy beyond what we call life. I think the dimensions are pretty much like Earth – I think it depends on what level they are – and you can create spaces to live in. We can create these things on Earth too, but it just takes longer, because we have so much else going on.
Zzzzz... er, sorry! What’s the closest you’ve been to death?
The closest I’ve been to death was when my grandfather died, because I was with him during his final days. They had to amputate his legs, so he was just a torso. He’d always been a small person, but as he got closer to death he changed every day – he became smaller and smaller, and his face become more like a skull, and I had to carry him all the time. He was like a baby.
Have you ever seen a ghost?
I had a nice experience once, but I think it was something to do with drugs. I was with Flake (Rammstein’s keyboardist), and we were standing in frontof a bar one night, with some people we knew, and they had a cigarette. It looked like a cigarette and it tasted like it was a cigarette, but I never found out what kind of cigarette it was. Half an hour later, I talked to Flake – with my mind. And he talked to me in this way, too.For half an hour, we had conversations about the people around us, and thenI don’t remember any more – I thinkI lost my mind and passed out. My girlfriend picked me up and I threw up for the rest of the night, and hada really bad experience! It didn’t involve a ghost, but it was definitely ghost-like.
What’s your favourite insult?
I’m not sure how this translates into English, but if someone says you’re a ‘Vollpfosten’, it means something really stupid. ‘Voll’ means full, and you’re an idiot, and ‘pfosten’ means something steady that supports the ceiling, like a pillar. But in a wider sense, it means you’re not getting on with anything – you’re just standing there, in the way!
Finally, the classic Bizarre question: necrophilia, coprophilia or bestiality – which would you go for?
Oh, that’s a great question! I know this game – I played it once with a girlfriend from America, and we had a very funny night. I only have sex with people I’m close to, I won’t do anything with dead people, and I won’t do anything with animals, so it’s gotta be the poo thing… if it’s the poo of my girlfriend or wife, then it’s going to be fine! I definitely wouldn’t eat it, though– I’d roll myself into the poo.
YOU ask the QUESTIONS
You send them in, we embarrass ourselves!
Dear Christoph,
Were the dildos in the special-edition box set for Liebe Ist Für Alle Da modelled on your penises?
Aaron, Littlehampton
Christoph replies…
“That was the idea behind them, but in the end we didn’t have the time to do it. I imagine that it’s not easy to do. You’d have to make a cast, and to do that you’d have to be erect all the time, and it’s not easy! Let people think they’re real, though.”
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