inthemix | Features | Booka Shade: A better band than ever

It’s always funny talking to someone whose music you’ve loved for so long. I’d recently heard Arno Kammermeier’s voice on their recent Glastonbury live set that was broadcasted for BBC’s Essential Mix series, which made the experience of talking to him down the phone even more surreal. This sense of awe can be easily explained, however. Booka Shade really did climb to the highest of mountains with sophomore LP Movements. The heavily minimalistic rawness of debut Memento was replaced by melodic and anthemic minimal house that had fans and critics gushing over the duo from Berlin.

To say expectations were high for third album The Sun and the Neon Light would be a gross understatement, as fans were ever eager to see what the pair would produce. Reactions about the album have been mixed with techno heads lamenting the lack of floor fillers, while others had appreciated its newfound downtempo pop sensibilities. Whatever the case may be, touring is more a part of the Booka Shade lifestyle than ever, with their last tour for Movements taking in over 150 shows in the space of 20 months. But a change has recently taken place, that’s seen them shift from their usual dance festivals to shows with a more rock-inspired lineup.

“Glastonbury was a big thing; we did the European rounds and also a few rock festivals. We played at Germany’s biggest rock festival called Rock am Ring and Rock im Park which had about 150,000 people I think. We played in between rock bands which was really bizarre and we were on the lineup that started with Metallica, Motorhead and Rage Against the Machine which was a very strange experience. We were thinking all we needed was the long hair and we would’ve fitted right in,” Arno laughs.

On a more serious side, he says that it has been a conscious decision to move away from their previous album and promote themselves as a band, away from a club context. He says it has opened up the indie scene to Booka Shade and they have introduced their older fans to some more intricate song structures and more traditional songwriting. “We wanted to create an album that sometimes has slower beats and not always four-to-the-floor beats but broken beats as well and more diversity in the groove,” Arno says. “One thing that was very important to us was when we started with the new album we didn’t want to create a ‘Movements volume two’; we didn’t want to repeat ourselves and wanted to try some new things. Although we knew it probably would have been the easy way to make a copy of Movements, but it would have been artistically extremely unsatisfying for us and I’m not even sure if it would have been very successful… If we had of done the same thing again, people would ask why we didn’t do something different as the new album would never be able to compete with Movements. We just had so many new ideas we wanted to try out and our live shows have really benefited from them.”

The new album has a definite softer edge and more organic feel to it and Kammermeier puts this down to drastic changes the pair have made in their production ideals and techniques. He says that whereas the previous two albums were very simplistic and embraced the minimalist ethos, they now have expanded their wings in the studio. “Most of the tracks on Movements were based around a single idea, like a chord or riff, whereas the new album we wanted more diversity and harmonic structures and we’re really happy that the people have realised this… That’s the reason why we used a classical orchestra on Outskirts and the title track. We also had a lot more live instruments in the songs, a lot more acoustic sound.” It was a matter of the duo mastering even more control over their domain. “On the previous two albums we tried out how far we could go with the softer technology, everything inside a computer. This time around we used the computer more as a recording instrument and had more outboard gear, more synthesizers, more equalizers and more reverb.”

With their perfectionist approach and hectic tour calendar, it’s a wonder the duo have any time at all in the studio. But Kammermeier explains that their experience lets them comfortably work on the road and their location and circumstances are often reflected in specific tracks. “A big part of the album was written on the road, just like Movements was written during touring and the DJ-Kicks album was also done on the road. Because of the touring schedule we’ve had over the last few years we didn’t have a lot of time home in Berlin to sit down in the studio for two or three months and do songwriting. It was really only the last month and a half of actual production and recording that was done in Berlin, all the demos were done on the road. For example the track Comacabana from Sun and the Neon Light, it was actually written in a hotel room overlooking the Copacabana in Rio de Janeiro. Really sunny place, lots of great people, the good life, but if you listen to the track you can tell that we weren’t in the best mood. On such a long tour you always have these up and downs and I think that was one of those days when we didn’t feel so happy which is why it’s titled ‘Comacabana’ instead of ‘Copacabana’.”

Kammermeier is not sure what the long term future holds for Booka Shade and says they don’t like to get too far ahead of themselves. “We try and avoid making too long term plans. We have the last bit of the tour to come with South America and then down to Australia which we are very much looking forward to and then that will be pretty much it for this tour. We didn’t want to have such a long tour like we did with Movements and we’ve covered all the places we wanted to play, including some that we’d never been before. Then we want to get back to the studio and start on the new album as we’ve got so many new ideas.” he says.

“We’re just about to go back into the studio with the two guys from M.A.N.D.Y and we haven’t been in the studio with them for such a long time, since 2005, and we enjoy being in the studio a lot with these guys, it’s very inspiring.” When pressed about the tasty prospect of a collaboration with M.A.N.D.Y on an LP, Kammermeier unfortunately dismisses that dream but says to keep an eye out for the soon to be released Get Physical 100 release which will be the fruit of the recent joint studio session between the good friends. Until then you can catch them at the Stereosonic Festival touring the county in late November.

A bonus version of The Sun and the Neon Light with an extra CD of club edits is out now through Bandroom Records. Book Shade take to the Australian stage for Stereosonic at the following national shows…

Sat 22nd November – Bri, RNA Showgrounds
Sat 22nd November – Syd, Enmore Theatre (with Japanese Popstars)
Sat 29th November – Mel, Royal Melbourne Showgrounds
Sat 29th November – Ade, Bonython Park
Sun 30th November – Per, Claremont Showgrounds

Check out ITM’s Artists In-depth page for plenty more Booka Shade news, reviews and interviews, or check out the clip for Charlotte below…