“I feel really motivated at the moment,” says Florian Senfter down the line from his studio in Munich. “It’s midnight here – zombie time!”

It’s a few weeks out from Stereosonic when we get our 15 minutes with the man better known as Zombie Nation, and he’s been busy. His joint album with Tiga as ZZT has just come out, bearing the ominous title of Party’s Over Earth and a sound best described by Florian as “not easy listening”.

In between studio sessions he’s also been tweaking his ‘LED live’ show for its Australian debut. Here inthemix talks to Senfter about life as a creature of the night, and finds him far friendlier than the average zombie.

The last time we spoke to you, there were some new toys in the Zombie Nation studio. Are you always adding gear?
Yes, always. Once you’ve mastered one instrument, the knowledge stays around. But I’m always expanding, and even doing more stuff on the computer with software, mainly because I want to use the time when I’m sitting on the plane. I can’t read the newspaper all the time. It’s dead time that you have to use. Then I go to the studio and work it out.

So tell me a bit about how it works between you and Tiga with the ZZT project.
When we work together the time is always limited to two or three days. We don’t really do the internet back-and-forth. We have to be in the room together jamming around. That’s how the ZZT style developed. We discovered this is the way it works best. There’s always that magic moment you’re looking for, and it can’t really happen when the brain is switched on too much; you have to be in action.

Would you describe Party’s Over Earth as a dark album?
It definitely has a humorous side to it. But it’s definitely…not easy listening. It’s club or festival music. It’s what comes out. In the beginning this was a holiday from our own projects. I think dark…yes, maybe. But also happy in a weird way.

Do you both bring different ways of working to the studio?
It’s complementary. Tiga may bring some samples to start and then we’ll fire the machines up. It always comes from different directions, but when a good moment happens, we instantly know. Those two or three hours of playing around were for these 10 seconds.

And after ZZT, you both go back to your own projects?
Well, Tight was my happy summer record and I’m working on new stuff. I haven’t really decided what I want to release next, but I want to do an album again next year. Some times you feel lost and directionless, then other times you feel so happy and connected about what you do. I think I’m an autumn person.