Oliver Riedel

Early years

Oliver Riedel was born on 11 April 1971, in Schwerin with his elder brother. Growing up, Oliver had relatively good relationships with both of his parents. He attributes this to the small gap in between their ages. As a child, Oliver wasn't a good student, but he made his way through school with the assistance of his mother. Oliver was quite shy, especially during his teenage years, and while his friends partied at discos, he would often be found just "hanging around".

Musical career

In 1990, at the age of nineteen, Oliver began playing in a folk-fiddle/punk-rock band called The Inchtabokatables. In 1994, Riedel, Till Lindemann, Richard Z. Kruspe, and Christoph "Doom" Schneider entered and won the Berlin Senate Metro beat contest that allowed them to record a four-track demo professionally. Paul H. Landers and Christian "Flake" Lorenz would later join the band they named Rammstein.

The six released their first album, Herzeleid (Heartache) in September 1995. Their second album, Sehnsucht (Longing) was released in 1997, which would later become platinum. In April 2001, the album Mutter (Mother) was released and a European tour followed, ending on 13 July 2002. It has been reported that at this time the members of Rammstein were seriously discussing whether to continue or not in their present form. It was decided that they should all take some time off and then reconsider whether to continue.

In 2003, Rammstein started work on the fourth album, which was to prove a turning point in Rammstein's sound and maturity. September 2004 saw the fruits of this work in the release of Reise, Reise ("Journey, Journey").

In 2005, Rosenrot (Rose Red) was released.

Rammstein's latest album Liebe ist fur alle da (Love Is For Everyone) was released in October 2009.

Personal life

He has two children, one of them a girl named Emma, and is separated from her mother.

He likes photography and sports, especially skateboarding and surfing. In the making of the video for "Keine Lust," he mentions wanting to go snowboarding while wearing a fat suit. It has been said he is the most computer-literate member of the band.

His character is more mature and subtle during live performances. He tends to keep crew cut and skin-bald hair styles along with some styles of goatees. He is also the tallest member of the band, standing at 6'6¾"(200cm).

Technique

Riedel is primarily a fingerstyle player, although he also uses a pick for most songs when playing live.

In certain softer songs, Ollie has been known to play with a banjo style plucking technique with his right hand to play arpeggiated chords, such as in Seemann. He also plays the acoustic guitar introduction to "Fruhling in Paris" in live shows.

Gear

His known gear is:

Oliver also uses selected overdrive/ fuzz pedals for songs such as Mein Teil and Rosenrot.

Quotes and interview

On the separation rumours

"We never wanted to, but after Mutter we had some difficult times because the third album is the most difficult one and we had a lot of pressure on us. We also had our differences between the group members and everyone's expectations were different. We took a year to rest, and after that we realized that we wanted to be together and to go on."

On his early family life

Interviewer: Did you have a lot of problems with your parents?

Ollie: Not a lot at all. My parents are quite young, which is good. Because the age difference isn't that big, we had it good with each other. My father and mother also liked the same music as me. We were almost more like friends than family.

Interviewer: But of course you did tease your brothers and sisters...

Ollie: No, because I don't have any, too bad. But if I would have had them, I would definitely have teased them!