Longtime Rammstein producer Jacob Hellner was at the helm for nearly the entirely of the German band’s career. In this new interview, he recalls recording “Du Hast” with the band and reveals why he didn’t produce Rammstein’s 2019 untitled album.

“Eventually, they came up with this idea of Till [Lindemann] talking to the angels and the angels saying, ‘Ja, Nein.’ He’s doing twisted lyrics in typical Till style, that can be interpreted in several ways,” Hellner explains. “I remember him coming to me saying we have this idea and it’s like, ‘Yes! That’s what we should do.’ Once we nailed that, [we knew] this could be a winner track.”

Hellner continues, “There was a desire to write a song that could reach a mass audience. Some artists are afraid to take that move, to go there. ‘Oh, you sold out. Blah blah blah.’ None of that shit here. We just wanted to reach as many people as possible, make it as expressible as possible without compromising the sound and style.”

As for Rammstein breaking from Hellner, who produced almost every Rammstein release from Herzelied to Rammstein: Paris, the studio giant explained what transpired. “We spent five years on [Rammstein: Paris]. Up until 2017, I was pretty much working full-time with Rammstein projects. I kind of felt, halfway through [Paris] that maybe this is me signing off. ‘I’ll do this and here you have it. Thank you and goodbye.’”

“I think they felt the same, but maybe for different reasons — that they needed to find new ways of working, a new formula for how to do things. Once they made up their mind, it was a pretty quick call to me. There are no hard feelings. I was invited to the release party of the record and we hung out. All is cool in that sense.”

Rammstein Producer: Making 'Du Hast' + Leaving After 20+ Years

Watch our video interview with Jacob Hellner above. Rammstein’s 25th anniversary edition of Herzeleid is now available. The new edition features an HD remaster of the full album for the first time ever. To order the record, click here. (As Amazon affiliates, we earn on qualifying purchases)

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