Paul Landers

Paul Landers
Landers performing "Feuer Frei" with Rammstein
Background information
Birth name Heiko Paul Hiersche
Born (1964-12-09) 9 December 1964
Berlin, East Germany
Genres Neue Deutsche Härte
Occupation(s) Guitarist
Instruments Guitar, backing vocals
Years active 1983–present
Labels Motor Music, Republic, Slash, Universal Music Group, P-Music (own Feeling-B-Label after 1990), Amiga (official label of GDR before November 1989)
Associated acts Rammstein, Feeling B, First Arsch, Die Firma, Die Magdalene Keibel Combo, New Affaire

Paul H. Landers (born 9 December 1964) is a German musician, notable as guitarist for the Neue Deutsche Härte band Rammstein, and previous band Feeling B.

Biography

Early life

Paul was born in East Berlin, Germany as son of the Slavists Anton and Erika Hiersche. His mother comes from Ełk in Mazuria, Poland, and his father from Böhmisch Kahn, today Velké Chvojno, Czech Republic. Both parents had to leave their home country after the Second World War and met during their studies in Halle (Saale). He lived in Moscow for a short time as a child. Landers can speak Russian a little; however, he can not read or write it.

Music career

In 1983, Paul Landers became at the age of 18 years part of the East German punk band Feeling B, which was founded by the nearly twice as elder singer Aljoscha Rompe and the first and last official drummer of the band, Alexander Kriening. Some weeks later they won the 16-year-old Christian "Flake" Lorenz to take in first line the part of an bass guitar player, though Flake played just an organ at this point of time. In fact, his organ, a heavy product with the name Weltmeister- in English "World Champion" - was technically able to do two totally different musical parts simultaneously: so until 1983 up to 1989, Flake played two musical parts at same time: Firstly the one of a bass player, secondly he was a classical keyboarder. After drummer Kriening left the band in 1984, Feeling B has never had an official drummer at all - they only had fixed guest drummers: First of them were Winfried Knoll, then Falk Schettler followed. Beginning in the early Nineties Christoph Schneider - today's drummer of Rammstein - was guest part of the band.

In the late Eighties, Landers met Till Lindemann during some filmings to the GDR documentary "flüstern und SCHREIEN", which showed first of all some varieties of young music culture in the GDR. Due to Lindemann, he met also Richard Kruspe, who was a friend of Lindemann. Sometimes after this, Landers played guitar in Lindemanns and Kruspe's band First Arsch. In 1992, the band published the only album "Saddle up". The band's line-up at this point of time was Lindemann, Landers, Kruspe and the singer Steve Mielke.

Landers also played in a number of other bands including Die Firma and Die Magdalene Keibel Combo.

Lindemann, Kruspe, Schneider and bassist Oliver "Ollie" Riedel formed in 1993 a new band, named Templeprayers. They won the Berlin Senate Metro Beat Contest in 1994 that enabled them to have a four-track demo professionally recorded. Landers and Flake soon followed suit to join the band which became known as Rammstein.

Personal life

When he married Nikki Landers in 1984 (at the age of 20), he took his wife's surname and switched his middle and first name, thus making his name Paul Landers. After their divorce in 1987, he kept her last name. Paul also has a son born in 1990, Emil Reinke, and a younger daughter.

Equipment

Guitars[1][2]

  • Gibson Paul Landers Signature Satin Black with grey binding; has 2 chrome covered EMG pickups, chrome bezels, and one volume knob. Used in Dropped C and D tunings. Used during the Liebe Ist fur Alle Da tour. Was revealed as a signature model, available for sale at the 2012 Winter NAMM show.
  • Gibson Les Paul Studio All black with EMG pickups. Used in Drop C and Standard tuning. Used in Standard tuning only for performing "Rammstein". Used during the Reise, Reise tour.
  • Music Man Axis and Van Halen Signature model Orange w/ Quilted maple top (Van Halen Signature), Silver (Van Halen Signature), Silver/Black Pickguard (Van Halen Signature), Maroon w/ Black pickguard, Black w/ White pickguard; Had stock DiMarzio pickups, but later changed for EMG pickups in 2004. Used in Dropped D and Standard tuning. This was his main guitar since the beginning of Rammstein, but was used less often during the Reise, Reise tour.
  • ESP Eclipse I CTM Paul Landers Signature Satin black with Silver binding, and a recently released version in Satin silver with Black binding, has EMG Pickups. Used in Standard tuning. First used on tour during the Liebe Ist fur Alle Da tour. (2009–2010)
  • Sandberg Custom Plasma Guitar Clear acrylic guitar white LEDs inside of the body. This guitar was used a few times during the Mutter tour for the song "Zwitter".
  • Ibanez AXS32 Translucent red with silver pickguard, used in Drop C. Was used during the Reise, Reise tour for "Morgenstern" and "Stein um Stein."

Amps

  • Fractal Axe-FX into Rocktron Velocity 300 power amp
  • Bogner Uberschall[3][4] (He claims he began to use this amp because of the "Ultrasonic" Uberschall simulator in Native Instruments Guitar Rig, Former rig)

References

  1. ↑ "Paul Landers Equipment | Rammstein Europe". Affenknecht.com. Archived from the original on 7 July 2011. Retrieved 2011-11-06.
  2. ↑ "ESP Eclipse-I CTM Paul Landers". B-Music.com.au. Archived from the original on 27 October 2009. Retrieved 10 November 2012.
  3. ↑ Rammstein (2011). "Pussy (+ Making Of)". Made in Germany 1995–2011 Super Deluxe Edition (DVD). Missing or empty |url= (help)
  4. ↑ "Bogner Custom Shop". Bogneramplification.com. Archived from the original on 23 November 2011. Retrieved 6 November 2011.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.