Christoph Schneider

Christoph Schneider played in old band, Die Firma. Divorced but is dating. Has a daughter, but no word on the name and age. He has quit smoking, but still drinks. He yells when he plays. Has served in the military. His Oma gave him his first set of drums.

Schneider was born on May 11th, 1966. His father was a musician. Schneider is the eldest of 6 siblings. He has one brother, and 5 sisters. One of his sisters, Constance, is the costume designer for the band Rammstein. In 1980, when was 14, his brother gave him a drum, which his brother had made with alimunium cans. At age 16, he got out of college and started working as a telecommunication assistant. He said ‘At last, after saving for a long time, I had enough money to buy myself a set of drums. This set of drums was not a really good one, compared to now, but that didn’t matter. It wasn’t a good quality drum, so it kept breaking all the time. But it was a good thing I had a friend who was a welder, and he used to repair it for me.’ In 1984, at age 18, he entered the military. He was the only member of the band who had served in the military.

In 1985-86, he quit his telecommunication job to try and get into a university to study music. He was never admitted, even though he tried twice. His dad did not approve of him learning drums, and he wanted him to learn the trumpet. At the time, he tried getting into many bands. At age 24, he was in the band Die Firma, and some other bands. In 1994, Till Lindemann, Richard Kruspe Bernstein, Oliver Riedel and Christoph ‘Doom’ Schneider entered and won the Berlin Senate Metro beat contest that allowed them to professionally record a four track demo.

He prefers to be called Schneider or ‘Doom’. He was in bands: Keine Ahnung, Frechheit, Die Firma, Feeling B (1990-93) before he started drumming for Rammstein. He loves heavy metal music.

Schneider said that he is most influenced by Phil Rudd of AC/DC; ‘he is a very good drummer’, he said, ‘he has been my model since the principle. But that was a long time ago. ‘Neue Deutsche Welle’ and ‘New Wave’ for example are the bands as Ministry. I have been influenced by ‘heavy’ techno bands and ‘dark bands’ also. I am a very big fan of Pantera and their album ‘Vulgar Display of Power’. It was like the sound of my car! (laughs). Vinnie Paul performs very well in that album. Chad Smith of ‘Red Hot Chili Peppers’ is also a very good
drummer. I also like John Otto of Limp Bizkit, and we became friends in a tour in 1998 in the United States.

Interviewer: How would you describe the music of Rammstein? Schneider: Heavy and Damned (Laughs)

Interviewer: What do you think of the tour with Kiss? How do you compare your
band with Kiss?

Schneider: It’s an important thing in our career! They took us to their tour in South America. We had concerts in Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico. That was fantastic. Being so close to a big, famous band. I see them as stars of rock. They are high and disguised. We have a photo together. We were able to do all our show of pyromaniacs and they did not say anything. They are über!