For our new Digital Exclusive cover story, we met Bryan Adams in Berlin for an in-depth conversation. The Canadian rock musician told us about the beginnings of his career, his rise to global stardom with the “Robin Hood” song “(Everything I Do) I Do It For You” in 1991 and his new beginning as an artist without a major record company behind him.
Adams is also known to be a very good photographer. Rammstein is one of the colleagues he photographed. In our interview, Adams revealed that he was partly responsible for the choice of motif for the band’s most recent album, 2022’s “Zeit”. Apparently Till Lindemann had to be convinced a little; Adams had him and the other Rammsteiners run up and down the spin tower. Excerpt from our interview:
You have a special connection to Berlin. They are co-founders of Zoo Magazine, for which they still photograph today. They also transformed the Spreehalle into an art space.
Yes, there is a special connection, I have always loved Berlin. I was here when the wall fell, just to feel the feeling. The last time I was in Berlin I did the photo shoot for Rammstein’s album “Zeit”. When we made the cover, I said to Till Lindemann: “Do you see that tower over there? That’s your album cover!” He just said: “Hmm, yeah, maybe”. I got the band to walk around on it. I just thought, “Man, this is so good, I would love to have that for my own album cover.”
You once said that what fascinates you most about photography is the communal aspect.
Absolutely, I love the team aspect. That’s why I like playing in bands and that’s why I like working with other songwriters. Especially when it comes to fashion photography, you can’t avoid a good team. You need stylists who know what they’re doing and people who do it all the time because if one aspect is wrong it can ruin the whole thing.
The Spin Tower
The spinning tower, around 20 meters high, is located in the Berlin district of Adlershof and is a technical monument from aviation research, built between 1934 and 1936. The tower once represented a technical innovation with which the state of spinning could be simulated in the laboratory for the first time. Such experiments helped to better understand the complex processes involved in spins: for example, how to intercept and control pilotless aircraft that stagger towards the earth. On the “Zeit” cover, the band members run down the outside stairs of the Trudelturm.