booka shade MEMENTO intw*
with Walter Merziger, Arno Kammermeier and Dax
DJ
- Let's start at the beginning: how
did Booka Shade start?
After producing 12"s with synesthasia for sven väth`s
label harthouse or Degeneration`s "una musica senza
ritmo" for R&S and others, we had the feeling
that it was time for our own project, where we can follow
our vision without doing compromises.
So we started producing trax under the name BOOKA SHADE
for the then quite new dutch label Touché records
in `94. Especially the track "kind of good" was
played by a lot of dJ`s around the world.
- Talk about Physical-music.
get
physical is our first recordlabel, which we founded
in 2002 together with DJ T., patrick and philipp from M.A.N.D.Y
and Peter Hayo, our longtime production partner.
Since 15 years we thought about setting up our own label
but never had the time, money, chance or whatever to fulfill
this dream.
M.A.N.D.Y. and DJ T. had the same vision of building something
up, where we could release the music we want to hear in
a club.
So we combined forces and formed this record label called "GET
PHYSICAL MUSIC".
we are all very pleased with the success in such a short
time. to see and hear that people around the world are
dancing to get physical music is really exiting for us
- The dance scene's changing a lot
right now, of course the music approach and styles..
after approx 5 fantastic years, we became very frustated
by the dance scene in general in the late nineties. everthing
sounded the same, boring and calculated. the spirit of ´techno´ and ´house´ was
gone we felt. so we decided to concentrate on other things
and stopped with booka shade and the other projects we
worked on.
finally, in the beginning of 2001, patrick and philipp,
friends we know for a long time, played us a bunch of really
great new records which fascinated us, so this was actually
the start of the project M.A.N.D.Y. At the moment there
are so many stimulating, intersting acts, parties, producers,
labels around that you really have a problem to get out
of the studio, office or club to have something like a
private life.
- What were seminal records for you
as DJs/Producer?
many eye-Q tracks from the early 90´s were a big
inpiration because we lived in frankfurt where it all happened;
tracks like "synfonica" from brainchild or "wonderer" from
vernon (does anybody remember these songs ???) will always
remind us of the OMEN, a legendary club in frankfurt.
soundtracks for films like ´lost in translation´ or
the musical works of john carpenter and david holmes were
also influencial.
- Berlin now and in the past.
we can´t tell u so much about berlin in the past
because we just moved to berlin in 2002 from the other
big capital of german club music, frankfurt. but what we
can say is, that for electronic musicians, labels, bookers
etc it is at the moment definetly THE place to be.
every night u can meet producers or DJ´s from anywhere
in the world or get inspired by parties. you can visit
vernissages or just hang out in studios with interesting
people.
- What do you think about the glory of Disco era and first
Italo productions?
there are a lot of danceproductions from the italo disco
era that we hear today with a nostalgic feeling. these
tracks give us back this ´innocent´ and fresh
feeling that we had in the eighties, when we first entered
the ´disco zone´ and produced music.
many italo tracks sound almost like demos, like they are
recorded at home, which is nice. but when it comes to the
musical ´essence´, most of the stuff in fact
is too cheesy for today`s ears.
DJ T. is a true fan and devotée of disco, italo,
breakdance, and the whole electro thing. He used to breakdance
to these 80ies old scool electro records in his teenage
times.
before we`re starting to produce a new DJ T. record we
listen to many of his old records from the 80ies and 70ies
and try to find the right samples for a new track. we think
you can hear his love for italo in his tracks.....
- and the Kraftwerk?
Of course, we have all the books, records, cd`s, even posters
from kraftwerk. it is unbelievable how upfront they were
in the mid seventies until the late eighties. also their
live concerts are an amazing experience.
their latest album was a disappointment though, it didn´t
have at all the uniqueness that all the privious records
had. it would have been better for kraftwerk to go a more
experimental route instead of that oldskool techno stuff
which you can hear in almost any ´magix music maker´.
but they are legends and they will stay forever.
- Your evolution on equipment: what
do you think about the frenetic use of software, plugins
and the difference on 808/909 analog vintage?
we started with music in the early 80´s, so you can
imagine that it was not as easy and cheap as today to get
the right equipment. our first sequencer software was ´jellinghaus´,
running on a commodore 64, a korg dw 8000, poly 800 , later
a sequential circuits studio 440 and a midiverb II. for
that we paid around 5.000 euros !
nowadays you get a complete studio in a laptop for less
money, without sync problems and with zillions of prerecorded
samples and loops.
there are so many really good plug ins on the market; we´re
practically not using any of our old gear anymore, although
we have a cute little synth museum in a room of our studio.
we actually never owned a 808 or 909 ourselves because
when we wanted one the price was so ridiculously high that
we borrowed one from a friend and sampled the sounds in
all possible variations.
our album ´memento´ is the first artist album
on get physical and also the first booka shade album. after
producing so many 12"es for the GPM acts DJ T., M.A.N.D.Y.,
Chelonis R. Jones and Sunsetpeople, we needed to create
something on our own without doing compromises.
- Plans and talk about the coming
album!
our album ´memento´ is the first artist album
on get physical and also the first booka shade album. after
producing so many 12"es for the GPM acts DJ T., M.A.N.D.Y.,
Chelonis R. Jones and Sunsetpeople, we needed to create
something on our own without doing compromises.
- What do you think about digital cheap-downloads? or use
of CDs?
we´re not very much into these p2p platform things,
but we use iTunes a lot because it works and it´s
easy to use. and we like mp3´s for practical reasons,
for example to quickly send a song around the world if
you work with somebody on a record. you can´t deny
that this way of using music is the future. the next generation
of mobiles will perhaps already be the only entertainment
system you need.
but it´s sad that, at least at the moment, the sound
quality is still poor. and we would of course miss the
artwork, packaging and physicality of vinyl or cd. we want
something to hold in our hands and look at.
- Are you preparing a live set?
yes we´re playing live, the first gig took palce
in berlin, on oct 22nd we plying amsterdam at the ADE,
a GPM night.
we set up a very visual show together with the swedish
visual artist fubbi karlsson and his partner bobby good.
we produced 45 minutes of film to accompany the music.
- Your fav synth!? Moog?
although we have an original moog source in our little
museum, we´re using the aturia minimoog plug in.
it´s an amazing machine with superb sounds. even
if it may not sound a 100% like the original minimoog,
it has everything we need from pumping basses, 80´s
sequences to phasing pads.
- Leave us a message (to the electronic-disco
fans!)
get physical !
left: Arno Kammermeier, right:
Walter Merziger |
MEMENTO tracklisting
1. vertigo
2. double identity
3. memento
4. on & on
5. friend for a night
6. mr. torrance
7. frantic
8. something physical
9. S.T.A.R.R.Z.
10. l´armée des ombres
11. cha !
12. 16 mm
13. noisy man
14. moonstruck |
