The dark, hypnotic and sometimes outright unhinged music of Extrawelt is its own rare breed. Unswayed by shifting trends, Arne Schaffhausen and Wayan Raabe have always followed their own lead. That dedication to making serious-minded techno (and plenty of it) has seen Extrawelt embraced by Cocoon, Traum and Darkroom Dubs to name but a few.

When they’re not toiling in the studio, the duo is taking its immersive live show to clubs and festival stages around the world. We’re getting our turn again this month, so inthemix delved into the deep end with Extrawelt.

This has been a busy year for Extrawelt. With the Neuland, Mosaik and NeverEverDiscoTricks EPs, did you want each to capture a different mood and feel?
Each EP has its own concept and stands for alone. We want each release of our releases to be harmonious in itself, but this must always happen in a cooperation with the particular label. The labels contacts us to see if we’d be up for a release. We are offering tracks or a concept for an EP and in the end we all have to agree about which tracks make a good record for us and for the label too.

Is it important for Extrawelt to spread itself across a range of labels and outlets?
There is no certain strategy behind that it just happens to know more and more people and we feel lucky to have many labels that are interested in releasing our music. As we don’t run an own label, it gives us the freedom to release almost all our output and to find a place for the whole range of the music we produce. We would never sign an exclusive deal with any label and we really enjoy working with many different and interesting people at all the labels.

Simpleton is a real monster, and a standout on this year’s Cocoon Compilation J. When you’re making a track like that, do you have the club space in mind?
Simpleton actually happened in an intensive jam session without thinking at all about it and often that’s what we are aiming for. It’s more something like feeling the music and letting it flow instead of planning it – this gives more chances that something unexpected can happen.

We have no formula with where to start and often no goal what kind of track will come out, before the track itself gives us a hint of where this could go. It happens often during the process that we change main parts of the track although they might have been cool in the beginning. Sometimes it’s hard to let go of something that you actually like but if we both think it’s better without, it’s time to let go.

It seems as if you guys are always hard at it. Do you ever have ‘dry’ periods in the studio, or does the inspiration just keep rolling?
Surely there are good days and days where we don’t get anything done but most of the times we are pretty ambitious to get in the studio as we don’t have as much time for it as we’d wish. If we don’t feel like doing music we don’t try hard just to get something done. If our mood is good and we have fun while making music then there can’t be a lack of inspiration and even if an idea doesn’t work out as well as we had imagined, it was worth trying it.

Does Cocoon Recordings still feel like a natural home for your music?
It’s one of a few labels which gave us a chance at an early stage. Although we might not be the typical Cocoon act, it is an honour for us to release music there. The opportunity to reach out to a massive amount of people is a blessing and helps a lot to gain attention. As we released our debut album on Cocoon Recordings and will also release our second album there, as we made a couple of good friends there, as they are handling our bookings too it definitely is one of our ‘mother labels’.

How do you find playing as a live act surrounded by DJs? Do you have to ‘re-set’ the energy in the room somewhat when you start?
We never know exactly who plays what before we start and that’s why it is sometimes impossible to connect directly to what the DJs played before. A live act usually gets special attention from the audience anyway, and this makes the start always a special moment. People don’t know exactly what to expect and we don’t know necessarily how the crowd reacts.

Do you enjoy the compactness of the live set? Does it ever feel like a restrictive format?
It’s really both. It’s restrictive in a way that we can perform only our own tracks and do not have a whole record-case of any style you could need at any moment, but by now we luckily have plenty of material to choose from. The compactness of the live gig is a nice thing; all the effort we put in is compressed into a relatively short performance. A good DJ set for me is always something personal and private too, but to perform your very own stuff is one step further and that makes it especially intense and emotional for us too.

We last saw you down here in Australia three years ago. How has the show changed from then to now?
Our set-up hasn’t change much but the tracks have changed probably already a couple of times since last time. We are actually constantly working on our live set, trying to improve, making new edits; it feels like kind of a huge track on its own which is never finished. We are still playing a few tracks from the past but always with changing and updated live versions.

Once again you’re playing a festival in the Australian wilderness, under the stars. Do you think that’s a fitting environment for the music of Extrawelt?
Sure, we love playing open airs! Especially in such a great environment. We love clubs too, but festivals have always a special feel. When music, people, environment, weather comes together to create a unique atmosphere and something that wasn’t there before and can’t be repeated.

What’s next for you on the production front?
We have just released the Extrawelt My Stupid EP on Break New Soil Recordings and an exclusive leftfield track called Yummy on the recent Boxer Recordings compilation. Darkroom Dubs will put out two great remixes for our track Neuland by Robag Wruhme, aka Wighnomy Brothers. Next year we will start to work intensively on our next album, which we have scheduled for fall 2011.