Christoph Schneider

Christoph "Doom" Schneider (born 11 May 1966) is a German musician. He is the drummer of the German Neue Deutsche Härte band Rammstein.

Biography

Early life

Christoph Schneider was born on 11 May 1966 in Pankow, East Berlin, East Germany. He has one sister, who is two years younger than him.

Schneider left the extended secondary school at age 16 and went on to work as a telecommunications assistant. In 1984, he served his national service with the East German Army; he is the only member of Rammstein to have served in the military.

Career

Christoph's parents wanted him to learn an instrument, so they sent him to a special music school connected to a Pioneers' orchestra, where he was offered the choice between trumpet, clarinet and trombone, out of which he chose the trumpet first because it was the easiest to play. He describes himself as very talented at playing the trumpet, and after a year he got into the orchestra and played concerts. It was here he became interested in playing the drums: he was impressed by the equipment and kept looking over his shoulder at the drumset while playing. He told his parents he wanted to learn to play the drums, but they weren't supportive of the idea because "they were both from the classical world". He would go home and practice with sticks and built his own drum set with tin cans and buckets. He bought his first drumkit at age 14, after which his parents had to accept it and let him rehearse and take lessons.