Hwbswd - Untitled

Flake's podcast - Chile

published 2022-01-12

When we saw the playlist, we guessed the theme would be something to do with the spanish language and loads of room for anecdotes; we were close, the topic is the country of Chile and anecdotes-a-plenty..(so this might be a long post)

radioeins.de

FLAKE. Des Tastenfickers Podcast.

Flake ist der „Tastenficker“ von Rammstein und Autor von Bestellern. Seine Kenntnis ungewöhnlicher Musiktitel ist grenzenlos; seine Themen u

Flake starts with two big secrets that you probably never would have guessed:

he is a big Rolling Stones fan (although he thinks that when Charlie Watts died, that was the end of the Rolling Stones and you can't be fan of something that doesn't exist, so he *was* a big fan)

he is grew up in the GDR

(well, okay, you might have known after all 😁)

But what you might not know is that Flake is passionate about everything to do with Chile (he shares this passion with former GDR chief Erich Honecker).

This started at a very young age when in 1973 in Chile there was a Coup d'Etat against the government of socialist president Salvador Allende. The government was overthrown, Mr. Allende killed, and control of the country was taken over by the military. Flake's teacher at pre-school had the kids draw all kinds of cards in support of Luis Corvolán and encourage the citizens of the country (the GDR being a fellow socialist country, obviously very committed to helping). Flake was very excited and 3 years later Mr. Corvolán was released, surely because of all the cards from the east german kids.

Coincidently also another big event in Flake's life in 1973: Berlin hosted the youth event 'Weltfestspiele' 10th edition where kid's bands from all over the world came and played. Flake and his brother went to watch daily, but because they had to be home in time (Flake was 6, his brother 3 years older), they only ever heard the soundcheck of the bands. But at the time soundchecks were a lot of fun, because the bands always tried to show off a bit, show what they could do with their instruments. And that's what started Flake's love for playing music: he wanted to do those cool soundchecks.

(a band at the 1973 Weltfestspiele, from link)

Then one day teacher introduced a new pupil: Martin from Chile. Teacher was very active in making Martin feel at home and learning the language and in return Martin taught her a Chilean kid's song that teacher then taught the class. At 0h11 Flake sings the song (what he remembers from it). Everybody wanted to be his friend, not in the least because he had the coolest toys from 'the west' and so much of it, like Flake had never seen before. But Martin had only just arrived in the GDR and he had difficulty with the language so after a year he had to do the year over and didn't go to the next schoolyear with Flake and the others. (Martin's brother Alvaro was in Flake's brother's class.)

The socialist/communist GDR government was still very much supporting their communist Chilean comrades and many were invited to move to the GDR and a few years later (in 5th grade, 0h20) a new Chilean pupil joined the class: Paulo (he had lived in Rostock before). And to Flake's big joy Paulo was seated next to him. Maybe because Flake was the best pupil in the class, but more likely because the seat next to Flake waa empty. And again Flake was excited, not because Paulo had loads of cool toys like Martin, but Paulo's parents were artists, so they worked at night, and the kids could do what they wanted, party, listen to music (Sex Pistols), smoke their first cigarettes.

What the GDR kids also learned (at 0h27) from their Chilean friends: The GDR was cool ('Geil' in German). The Germans complained about their government, but the Chileans made them see how good they had it: no war, no relatives being killed, always food, school was good, why would you want to be anywhere else?

Ofcourse like all kids, they all had their rebel-phase, meeting up, smoking loads, drinking bad coffee and sing songs like 'I wanna destroy', at 0h29, you can hear them singing it. Flake is pretty sure it's a good thing he didn't become a singer.

By the way at their very first Feeling B concert (0h32), as the interval act for Freygang (when Freygang were having dinner), (by the way, after the first song, the plug fell out of Flake's keyboard), the Freygang fans wanted to throw them off the stage because they hated the music, until Freygang-singer Andre Greiner-Pol got up from behind his plate of potatoes and told the fans to leave Feeling B alone, Flake was so excited, afterwards he told Paulo all about it, and Paulo told him maybe someday he would really play in a band...someday...

All these years later Flake and Paulo are still friends; Flake is keyboarder in Rammstein and Paulo is a fix member of the Rammstein crew.

Flake did sing again however, with his first band Feeling B, especially the songs that singer Aljoscha thought the lyrics were too dumb. And one song Paulo helped Flake use some spanish texts: Kim Wilde (at 0h33). Last time they played this live (0h36) was at Aljoscha's funeral, because this was one of the songs that he didn't sing anyway. They wouldn't play it anymore, Feeling B has ceased to exist.

As he got older, Flake got involved with many Chilean artists, played street theater with them. (That the artists stole the microphones at the gig, wasn't really very socialist/communist (where everything was supposed to be fairly divided and available), but maybe it was a bit punk, so okay...)

Paulo went back to Chile to study for a year, then returned to the GDR, Flake and him even rented a house together (monthly rent 25 German Marks), they painted together (1h02). Washed dishes in a restaurant (and occasionally ate there, Empanades are still a Flake-fave).

When at some point the band 'Die Ärzte' reunited (1h18) and got a new baseplayer Rod, Flake was thrilled to find out that Rod turned out to be Chilean as well. Rod was probably less excited, because as the bands got to know eachother and mingle, Flake always pestered Rod with questions about Chile (and ofcourse 'Hey, are you from Chile...do you know Paulo' as if there are only 2 Chileans in the world (well, 4, including Martin and Alvaro)). Rod was very critical of Rammstein from the start, which Flake thinks is really cool, that Rod stands up for what he likes or doesn't. Flake is still a big fan of Die Ärzte, and Rod is now a Rammstein-fan; at least that's what he told Flake.

After Die Ärzte at 1h24 Flake plays 'Universal Gonzales'. The link? The singer is Rod's sister.

When years later (1h37) Rammstein played South-America as supporting act to Kiss (not that Kiss knew them, but who cares), they decided to bring Paulo along. Paulo and Flake even spent a while in a house of Paulo's aunt there when Paulo showed him around (when Paulo's father a while later also travelled there and stayed in the same house, the janitor mentioned that 'two gays' had stayed there...dad had to explain that those weren't two gays, but 'my son and the keyboarder from Rammstein'). In the end they played all over South-America, except in Chile, because the organizer of that gig ran away with the money and the concert fell through. Paulo became a Rammstein crewmember after that and travelled all over the world with the band (after they persuaded him to get a German passport, because with his Chilean passport, lots of countries considered him a refugee and didn't allow him to enter the country for fear he wouldn't leave..)

So many anecdotes....well one more:

At 1h41 Flake plays La Piragua from Los Wavanco, and this immediately triggers a Pavlov reaction: Flake's starts sweating from fear, gets nervous, thinks he forgot something, keyboard has broken down...why? Because this is the song Till always plays backstage at every Rammstein-gig, dances to it to get in the mood, get relaxed and get pepped up right before going on stage 😊

(Still not had enough? More of my ramblings of Flake's podcasts)

Rammstein, New Haven, 29.10.1998 (x)

I think everyone can agree that Flake is nothing but amazingly beautiful right there.

Till Lindemann in the Mein Teil Making Of.

old drawing of flake