Welcome to Gaia! ::

Mod: Hi there everybody. Great that there's so many people here. Flake will be here in just a minute.

Flake: OK folks. It can begin.

morgalou: Other members of Rammstein have mentioned that you all play characters to some extent when performing on stage. How much do you feel your on-stage persona relates to your real personality?
Flake: I try to break the static feeling of being on stage.
Flake: If I acted so serious on stage, people wouldn't believe it.

Vutnock: Hi flake why is your name always spelled "Doktor" Christian Lorenz on the credits of your CD's?

Flake: As a boy I wanted to be a surgeon.
Flake: Since I refused to go to the army, I wasn't allowed to study.
Flake: In East Germany, refusing to go was s serious infraction.
Flake: I lived illegally.
Flake: Any the only trade I could have was to be musician.
Flake: Luckily, I feel good as musician because I can help people.
Flake: We've received many letters from people who've written that we've saved their lives.

C Shaz: How many keyboards did you get through at the recent concerts and were they really expensive ones?

Flake: I have one large master keyboard on stage.
Flake: I also use several small keyboards with MIDI connections.
Flake: This means that I only have to send the note values to the computer.
Flake: In the tune Los, I break a keyboard every gig.
Flake: This keyboard costs 70 euros.
Flake: I throw it into the audience.
Flake: If you find it, you can keep it.
Flake: There is also such a keyboard on the Segway.

raunio: What is your personal opinion about the very early Rammstein albums (Herzeleid and Sehnsucht) and what was the main reason to change the musical style to a "less heavy" direction after Mutter?

Flake: Herzeleid is my favorite album.
Flake: It's very raw and honest.
Flake: You can hear that we weren't thinking too much on this album.
Flake: We were jsut thinking.
Flake: We used many techniques on this album that we don'T use anymore because they don't fit to our style anymore.
Flake: It was the first time that we worked with a producer.
Flake: He was exactly as uncertain as we were.
Flake: It was like first love!
Flake: We will never be able to repeat this type of album.

TdK: is amerika solo made by keyboard?

Flake: I use a software synth called ES2 from Logic.

Robert: You have just said your music has saved many lives. How so? Which messages in the music did they specify help them?

Flake: We get letters from people who wanted to commit suicide.
Flake: They listened to our music and decided they wanted to live.
Flake: Mostly it was people who very depressed.
Flake: For many people, it's important that they are not alone with their problems.

Dr_Worm: Do you like to always be the one who gets picked on?

Flake: I don?t have a guitar in front of me.
Flake: I am the only one who can move freely on stage.
Flake: I also don't play all the time , since we're a guitar rock band.

misayo: In Japan concert this June, you and Paul danced some strange dance in "Amerika", maybe because there's no Segway. Both of you seemed to enjoy dancing. Was it an ad-lib or did you two practice it?

Flake: Often we try out new movements out of over-confidence.
Flake: Sometimes we find a new show component this way.
Flake: That?s how it was with weisses fleisch.
Flake: The band loved it so much, I have to do it all the time!
Flake: Whether I wanted to or not!

alexm: Is that you singing in part of the Feeling B song "Dumdum Geschoss"?

Flake: I sing the intermediate parts in the Chorus.
Flake: I wrote the lyrics.

Derek: Hi Flake, in recent shows and videos you are the suffering person or an outsider. Any sort of revenge planned?

Flake: I'm actually quite proud to be the one who is selected.

Necromusa: hallo Flake! Why have you done a song like "te quiero puta"? It's only my opinion, but i think this song is too "risky". kisses from Madrid.

Flake: We love the Latin American folk songs.
Flake: (Flake named a band. I don't remember the name) they sound all innocent but we found out the lyrics and they sing really dirty!
Flake: We wanted to make a song like this.

Apo: Why wasn't the "Delay-Lama"-VST used in the final Version of "Dalai Lama", like it was planned at the beginning and also used live?

Flake: Our manager was at a concert and told us that everybody went for a piss during that song.

Jeremy: Will a German-only version of Stirb nicht vor mir be released?

Flake: I hope that we can release the German version.
Flake: The English version is not good, IMO.
Flake: I don't know how English speakers feel about it.
Flake: For me it's just embarassing.
Flake: In the German version, Bobo sings it.

funf: About your keyboards again: Is the instrument you use during Reise Reise live a keyboard with customized looks or is like a real accordian?

Flake: Yes.
Flake: That's a MIDI accordian from Roland.
Flake: I use it for Reise Reise and Moskow.

athina: ou have said you don't like TV, do you read a lot instead?

Flake: I grew up without a TV.
Flake: I still don'T have one in my apartment.
Flake: Sometimes, I watch TV in hotels.
Flake: I'm always schocked when I see what's offered.
Flake: Even MTV doesn't play music anymore.
Flake: I saw women inspecting toilets and introducing themselves to the men there.
Flake: Since then, I have no desire to watch.
Flake: A 12 year-old kid in the USA has watched 32,000 murders.

C alma: who is bobo?

Flake: Bobo is singer from East Germany.
Flake: She was the founder of Bobo and the White Wooden Houses and released 3 or 4 records with them.
Flake: Since Sehnsucht, she's the female voice of Rammstein.

Robert: When did you begin the piano/Keyboard? What originally got you into music, and then into the type you play in Rammstein?

Flake: I had a friend who played piano since grade 3.
Flake: I asked my parents to buy me a piano.
Flake: My parents wanted to know if I was serious.
Flake: They sent to me music school.
Flake: I began by painting the keys on a window ledge.
Flake: I practiced one-half year on the window ledge.
Flake: Then my parents bought me a piano for 100 East German marks.
Flake: As a boy, I became addicted to rock'n'roll.
Flake: I stopped my lessons and tried to play with my dad's jazz records.
Flake: When I joined my first band, I noticed that I couldn't play modern music.
Flake: I still can't!

Julie: My german isn't very good but I think I read that you were all naked in the "Mann gegen Mann" video. Is this true? I love the the new album by the way smile

Flake: Yes. It was a great feeling being naked.
Flake: After one hour, none of us felt ashamed anymore.
Flake: We even left out the G-strings.
Flake: We were so use to being naked, that I wanted to go buy a snack naked.
Flake: We played with 50 bodybuilders who were schocked to learn that the whole thing was about homo-erotiscm.
Flake: We really had to convince them to stay.
Flake: I was very comfortable naked.
Flake: I even wanted to buy a snack naked!
Flake: I'm still naked!

alma: did you like Die Krupps,Kraftwerk , DAF usw?

Flake: I'm personally a blues fan.
Flake: Of the German bands, I like The Can.
Flake: And, of course, the NDW bands.
Flake: For example, 'Ideal', was one of the inspirations for founding Feeling B.

Miguel - Argentina: Who is the female voice in Te Quiero Puta ? Greetings from Argentina

Flake: I don't know.

Klinxor: Hi Flake, What do you think of Torsten Rasch son cyckle Mein Hertz Brennt?

Flake: I love the album.
Flake: The idea came from Sven Helbig and myself.
Flake: I'm really pleased with the results.
Flake: For the Rammstein fans, it may be a bit unusual.
Flake: It's not only for Rammstein fans but also for people who like modern classic.

wildchild: you said that tatoos is forbidden in rammstein but till have a tatto on is a** i read on a internettpage.

Flake: That's not true.
Flake: For Bück Dich, I personnally wrote with a felt tip marker on my arse so that Till would enjoy penetrating me.
Flake: And he really had to laugh!
Flake: To be certain, I always tape my a** closed.

maestro-zack: and... is there something hidden on the album covers(pictures)????? LIKE RAMMSTEIN LOGO OR SOMETHING ELSE?

Flake: Yes.
Flake: The message is:
Flake: Turn your bedsheets around so that the slot with the buttons points upwards, so that you don't get stuck while you sleep.

C alma: the videoclip m-g-m will probally boycotted, don't you think??

Flake: Unfortunately, the world is such that things are not judged according to taste, but just according to economics.
Flake: MTV will probably play our video simply because we're Rammstein.
Flake: It's a shame but that's the way things are.
Flake: Any other band wouldn't be allowed to do it.

Kamuffe: Hello Christian. You said that you like blues. Can you play it?

Flake: When I was (I think Flake said he was 12) I was in a blue’s band.
Flake: The band was named Hilflos, named after the Neil Young song Helpless.

Senap: Have you guys ever considered to reliease a book or something that will tell any deeper meanings behind some of your songs? In some songs i really feel that there is a deeper meaning but its sometimes hard to understand it.
Flake: We will never be able to write a book together.
Flake: Because our opinions are too different.
Flake: There would be 6 autobiographies.

Cyanide_2600: How often do you guys work with Clawfinger? Because I've noticed that they have done many remixes of your songs, and have you heard their new album plus what do you think of it?

Flake: Through them, we met our producer Jacob Hellner.

TdK: do you like metallica??

Flake: I was really impressed by the Black Album.

alexm: Do you use computers exclusively now, or do you still have any hardware samplers for your sounds?

Flake: Now, we only use a Mac G4.
Flake: We always have a spare because our stage is so dangerous.
Flake: There are huge currents that flow when the explosions go off.
Flake: With us, many things can go wrong.
Flake: My job is to play keyboards and act as if everything is really OK ...

Corbu`Alb: SALUT(hello) Flake !!! I`m from Romania, more preciously from Transilvania. RAMMSTEIN want to do ever songs about DRACULA and after a video based of this idea???

Flake: In the video for 'Du riechst so gut', the topic is vampires.

Camille: Ich habe eine andere Frage bitte: are you guys ever going to put your singles and some songs that haven't been released--such as Kokain,

Flake: We will probably release songs that are not on the album, jsut so they don't get wasted.

Strange creature isn't he sometimes? heart

Everyone does.