Christian Lorenz

Christian "Flake" Lorenz (born 16 November 1966) is a German musician.

He is best known as the keyboardist in Neue Deutsche Härte band Rammstein, as well as the main composer of the band along with guitarist Richard Kruspe.

He was also a member of the East German punk band Feeling B.

In 1983, at age 16, Lorenz began to play in the band Feeling B with Paul Landers and Aljoscha Rompe, a Swiss singer living in East Berlin.

He stayed with the band for about ten years.

Feeling B started out firmly grounded in the underground punk scene.

Lorenz lived in an apartment with Landers during their early years.

When they were not playing gigs, they would sell jackets made from cut-up bed sheets and dusters on the black market.

Two jackets a month meant as much money as an average salaried worker.

"It was quite easy to make a living; not to work and stay out of trouble," said Landers, "You only got problems if you were caught."

The group disbanded in the mid-1990s.

In 1994, Till Lindemann, Richard Kruspe, Oliver Riedel and Christoph Schneider entered and won the Berlin Senate Metro beat contest that allowed them to professionally record a four track demo.

Paul Landers formally joined the band, followed by Lorenz.

He was initially reluctant to join his five bandmates and had to be pestered into becoming a member of Rammstein, as he thought they would be too boring.

Eventually, he agreed to join, and the group began work on their first album, Herzeleid (Heartache).

In early live performances of the song "Bück dich" ("Bend down" or "Bend over"), Lorenz and vocalist Till Lindemann engaged in simulated sodomy with a liquor-squirting dildo.

On 23 September 1998, in Worcester, Massachusetts (USA) Lindemann and Lorenz were arrested and charged with lewd and lascivious behavior.

A statement from Sergeant Thomas Radula of the Worcester Police Department stated that Lindemann was simulating sex with Lorenz onstage "using a phallic object that shot water over the crowd".

They were held and released the following day on US$25 bail.

After months of legal debate, they were fined US$100.

On special occasions, the band members would get together for concerts at punk festivals, until Rompe died in November 2000 of an asthma attack.

In a 16 December 2000 interview, he stated that "Flake" is his proper name.

During a 2001 concert in St. Petersburg, Lorenz was tipped out of the boat by the crowd and almost completely undressed.

Until 2002, Lorenz would "surf" the audience in an inflatable rubber dinghy during the performance of "Seemann" ("Seaman").

Riedel took his place in 2002.

According to Lorenz, the change occurred because he was injured too often.

During a concert in Gothenburg, Sweden on 30 July 2005, Till Lindemann suffered a knee injury when Lorenz accidentally ran into him with the Segway he rides during the performance of "Amerika" ("America").

This caused concerts scheduled in Asia to be cancelled.

In 2005, Lorenz suffered from mumps, causing concerts in South America to be cancelled.

On 12 September 2008, Lorenz married artist Jenny Rosemeyer, who provided the whistling for Rammstein's song "Roter Sand".

He has a brother who is four years older.

Lorenz is an amateur painter and likes classic cars.

He has a Mercedes and is involved in the vintage car hire business.

Despite this, Lorenz returned to riding the dinghy for Rammstein's 2009 tour during the performance of "Haifisch" ("Shark").

In November 2011 Lorenz's house was set on fire.

The police managed to identify and capture the arsonist, a 28-year-old male with a criminal record who crashed his car nearby while fleeing from the scene.

Lorenz commonly goes by the nicknames "Flake" (pronounced as "Flak-eh" in German) and "Doktor".

"Doktor" came about because at one point he wanted to be a surgeon, but he was unable to study to become one because of his refusal to join the East German military.

In January 2012, Lorenz, along with Lindemann, was interviewed by heavy metal anthropologist Sam Dunn for the VH1 Classic series Metal Evolution, on the topic of shock rock.

Lorenz has been divorced once and has five children.