Booka Shade Interview

Ahead of their Australian tour dates, we speak to the legendary German duo Booka Shade to find out more about their upcoming album release ‘EVE’. Walter Merziger and Arno Kammermeier have been releasing tracks since 1995, and have been hailed as pioneers of the Electronic music scene in Frankfurt, Germany. 

Hi Arno & Walter, how are you today?
Where are you in the world right now?
Walter: Hello Australia! We’re at home in Berlin and in the middle of rehearsals for a new tour which will start in Europe in November. We’re confident we’ll bring the show to Australia next year. In the meantime, we’ll come to Oz in October for a couple of DJ shows to announce our new album called ‘EVE’.

So you’ve got N.A.M.E festival in France coming up soon. What’s it like over there? Would you recommend N.A.M.E to our readers?
Arno: The city of Lille, where N.A.M.E. takes place, is in the north of France, in the very industrial coal mining area. It´ll be the fifth time or so we’re there, third time [at] N.A.M.E. I always find the area quite rough, but the crowds are extremely enthusiastic. The festival always has interesting line ups, so forget romantic Paris or sunny St. Tropez: check out Lille!

How was your summer this year? What was a highlight for you guys?
Walter: We’ve been busy with the album, so we didn´t play that many festivals, but for sure the highlights were headlining a stage at Coachella and opening for Depeche Mode in Tel Aviv, Israel on the first show of their tour. We love the band, it was the second time we had the honour to support them. So – it’s been a great year so far.

We’re looking forward to catching you at Fat As Butter Festival in Oz. How do you find it playing in Australia?
Arno: We love Australia. It’s always so much fun to play, the crowds are so incredibly enthusiastic, it’s frightening.

Doing the rounds in October, will you get any time to do any site seeing whilst you’re over there? If so what or where would you most like to go, or what would you like to do?
Arno: This time it’ll be in and out. “See Australia in four days”. Actually we do have an extra day, but it’ll be an interview day in Melbourne. Last time we came though, I took some time off with my family and flew up to Cairns and went diving at the Great Barrier Reef. Even went all the way up to Cooktown, Mission Beach, Whitsundays – I’ve seen a bit. On a previous tour we drove the Great Ocean Road, but there’s still so much more to see.

That there is! So the new Album ‘EVE’ is out. What are you hoping to achieve with this release?
Walter: The first single ‘Love Inc’ will be released in October. It’s been 3 and-a-half years since the last album. We’re very excited and nervous. It wasn’t an easy album for us to make. Almost killed us, but we’re very proud that we went through it and survived, got stronger as a band, and have written an extremely good album. The music is what will last. Who cares about the fights and the nervous breakdowns we had in the studio…

What did you want to put across with the album?
Arno: It is our fifth album, and we didn´t want to repeat ourselves. Most of our songs are instrumental, so we had to look for new interesting sounds that feel like Booka Shade, but go a new way. We have a couple of guests on the album: Fritz Kalkbrenner sings on ‘Crossing Borders’, and Fritz Helder from Azari & III contributed some vocals on ‘Love Drug’. The trombone on ‘Crossing Borders’ is played by Andy Cato from Groove Armada.

I asked a friend who loves your music what he would most like to ask you, apart from to have a signed vinyl, he also said he’d like to know what the inspiration was behind ‘In White Rooms’ as it’s his favourite track of yours ever!
Arno: Thank you very much. Both ‘Mandarine Girl’ and ‘In White Rooms’ were influenced by the feeling we had when we first experienced Techno and House in the early 90s, this emotional euphoric feeling. The title ‘In White Rooms’ came when we played a show in Stockholm, Sweden, where the whole hotel we stayed in was white.

When creating music do you favour to use analogue or digital equipment?
Walter: Out of practicability, we work with laptops a lot, mostly because we travel so much and we always have the studio with us. But in order to try something different, for ‘EVE’, we went to a residential recording studio close to Manchester in England called Eve Studios, and recorded loads of vintage, mostly analogue, equipment: synths, reverbs, and also recorded a lot of live instruments, such as acoustic drums and percussion. It was the best time we had in the studio in years, that’s why we decided to call the album ‘EVE’.

What’s your favourite synth to use?
Walter: Hardware-wise, I like Aturia Brut, software; u-he Diva plug in.

You’re playing at the Halloween Garden Party at Chinese Laundry, what can we expect from your set there?
Arno: for the DJ sets, we like to leave it open until the last minute to see how the vibe is, but you can be sure that we have many of our own tunes with us.

Who are you playing on your iPod at the moment?
Arno: the new Arcade Fire single, the new Arctic Monkeys album. And arrangements of our Live show.

Where’s your favourite place you’ve ever played, perhaps the most memorable performance?
Walter: Red Rocks, in the Rocky Mountains outside of Denver, CO, must be in the Top 5. Pukkelpop of Werchter in Belgium [too]. And those shows at the Prince Of Wales in Melbourne are still very high up in the ranking as well. Let’s see how it goes when we do the DJ set there this time.

Residing in Berlin, if someone was visiting for just a weekend, what are the 3 most important things they should do whilst in town?
Arno: One: visit the remains of The Wall which divided the city and the country and realise that mankind must be crazy. Two: go to one of the fabulous clubs, such as Watergate. Three: realise once more that mankind is crazy and go home.
See you in October.

Booka Shade will play at the forthcoming I Love Techno festival on 9th November 2013.

By Hannah Shakir