Exclusive Booka Shade interview: part two

Exclusive Booka Shade interview: part two

8 May, 2008 | 10.33AM

• Section: Music News Topics: Beatport Blog, Dissonanze
• Written by: The Last Real DJ Alive

In part one, Arno from Booka Shade talked about burger food poisoning, reserved Asian fans and escaping from the German countryside to make it big, in a celebration of his next tour date – Dissonanze festival in Italy, Rome (which Beatport is covering live on 9th – 10th May).

In part two, Arno touches on will.i.am from Black Eyed Peas nicking his samples and his love for Beatport.

Booka Shade interview: part two

Have you got any exciting new tunes that you’re ready to play at the Dissonanze festival?

We have a new album coming out at the end of the month so we’re presenting a whole new show.

The tour started last week with three club shows that kicked everything off.

It was all very stressy because we arrived late and the pickup wasn’t right, so we had a lot of psychological stress, but we were very happy because it went well.

It’s a completely new show in terms of stage set-up, light, visuals [Booka Shade have custom visuals throughout the entirety of their performances] and of course we have new tracks from the album.

There are a couple that we present.

For example – ‘Dusty Boots’ – that has an acoustic, country guitar in it; then we have the new single ‘Charlotte’; next we play a slow song called ‘Outskirts’, which is the opening number of the album and a song where we can take the beats really low.

It’s 119 BPM but it worked very well at the last festival.

So, yeah – plenty of new songs – and then of course all the old ones like ‘Mandarine Girl’, ‘In White Rooms’, which are now in new arrangements.

This is something we’ve done in the past – I think there have been about eight remixes or arrangements of ‘Buddy Language’ and ‘Mandarin Girl’ to keep the whole thing interesting.

How do you think this tour will measure up to the last one?

I personally, privately hope that it’s going to be even bigger.

I fear that it will be just as long, if not longer.

I mean, the last tour was about 160 shows, which was exhausting – purely physically – because the way we work on stage is different to a DJ.

There’s a lot of sweat and physical action.

But we’re prepared for this and that’s what we love about the job we do – to go to all these places, travel around the world and present our music.

We currently have the dates up to early fall; to Australia in November, but I’m sure we’ll go on until the same festivals next year.

‘Body Language’ was sampled by will.i.am from Black Eyed Peas in his song ‘Get Your Money’ – how do you feel about the way that sample was used?

I think it could be worse than this will.i.am guy who has produced Black Eyed Peas and is a pro.

The funny thing is in the story about how it all came together – the story that I was told.

What is that story!?

I know a guy from Universal International here in Berlin.

He travels all over the world and was in LA or somewhere to hear songs from will.i.am’s album, when all of a sudden came this track.

He said, “Where did you get this sample from?”

To which will.i.am apparently replied, “Oh … well … I got it from Ibiza.

Nobody knows it – it’s some kind of underground thing”.

And the Universal guy says, “No, no, no! You have to clear it! It may be underground but it’s a worldwide hit – everybody knows it.”

And then came the clearance.

The clearance request came really, really late.

The album came out shortly after the clearance was made, so it must have been last second.

So, I quite like the story, that will.i.am thought, “nobody knows it” to which everyone said, “no! You must clear it!”

Even today I had another request from someone who wanted to use the bassline, so I think it’s a classic.

I like the fact that it’s an underground classic that wasn’t exposed too much – that wasn’t in the charts and had everybody saying, “oh yeah – it was a hit but I can’t stand it anymore.”

People aren’t fed up with it.

Can you tell us what you think about Beatport as a website?

Beatport is great for people like us who never go to record stores.

We’re a unique case in that we’re not DJs.

We don’t buy music every day because we aren’t DJs, but Beatport is great because as soon I have the newsletter I can just go online and get the music.

That’s great for people who travel a lot, I’m pretty sure.

I also like the fact that you can get a .WAV file.

When I buy something at Beatport I always get a .WAV.

I think the percentage of MP3 downloading is very high and, for me personally, I can’t understand why producers work with them for professional reasons because they just don’t sound as good.

I’m guessing people just don’t mind.

Obviously you guys take a lot of care and appreciation with your own work.

Yes, but also in other people’s work.

When I hear something like a good Richie Hawtin or Luciano track, I really want to hear the depth of that production.

I know that many people care about their sound, so for me that’s a bit sad when you only have a 128kbps file or whatever else.

It’s great that Beatport actually gives the opportunity for people to choose.

When are the tracks from your new album – The Sun & The Neon Light – going to be released?

The new single ‘Charlotte’ is coming out next week with a great remix from Dubfire.

It’s a funny coincidence with these Beatport awards.

I heard that we actually won something.

I especially like the fact that it wasn’t in the Minimal category.

I was happy that it was Tech House.

That’s great – I love that – I think it’s really good.

I believe Dubfire also got an award.

A guy from Berlin who works with us on the Kindisch label called Matchbox has made a ‘Right or Wrong’ remix of ‘Charlotte’ and we also did two, so the package has four in total.

‘Charlotte’ works very well live, so I’m quite confident that people will be cool with it.

Finally, what would you most like to see on the live blog of the imminent Dissonanze festival?

I would like to hear short interview samples and see a little bit what the festival looks like.

What makes it special in comparison to other ones?

I know that it’s not outside – I believe – but sometimes festivals are outside, or in the desert or the mountains, so it’s nice to have something around it, like a bit of cultural background.

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