Rhythm guitar
Paul Landers
A punk on the Berlin scene from the age of 18. He lived in Moscow as a child and carries his wife's surname.
- Born
- December 9, 1964
- Place
- East Berlin, German Democratic Republic
- In Rammstein
- Rhythm guitar · since 1994
- Birth name
- Heiko Paul Hiersche
He was born Heiko Paul Hiersche on December 9, 1964, in East Berlin. His parents, Anton and Erika Hiersche, came from places that stopped being German after the war: she from Lyck, now Ełk in Poland; he from Böhmisch Kahn, now Velké Chvojno in the Czech Republic. As a child he lived in Moscow for a while and still speaks some Russian.
The name he goes by has two layers: first he swapped the order of his given names, and then, on marrying Nikki Landers in 1984 at the age of twenty, he took his wife’s surname.
His career began on the East German punk scene. At eighteen he joined Feeling B, one of the central bands of that circuit, where he crossed paths with Christian Lorenz and, later, Christoph Schneider. He also played in Die Firma, Die Magdalene Keibel Combo and First Arsch, Till Lindemann’s band, which released Saddle Up in 1992.
In Rammstein he has played rhythm guitar since 1994. He is Kruspe’s counterweight on stage: the one who moves, the one who grins, the one who cracks the solemnity of a show built on solemnity.
Before Rammstein
- Feeling B (from 1983)
- Die Firma
- Die Magdalene Keibel Combo
- First Arsch