While possibly best known for the smash track ‘Horny’, the production sensibilities of German Producer Mousse T. are undeniably more complex than his hit lets on. Owner of jazz-tinged German label Peppermint jam, he was born Mustafa Gündogdu, and has just released a debut album entitled ‘Gourmet de Funk’.

Mustafa was born in Hahn, Germany in 1966, moving to Hanover as a child. It’s a city that generally doesn’t spring to mind when one thinks ‘music’ and ‘Germany’, but one he seems to really enjoyed living in. “My parents are Turkish, I was born in Germany in Hahn, which is basically in the middle of Germany, and when I was still a baby we came to Hanover. For me it’s a great city, not too big, not too small – since 2000 we’ve had a great infrastructure because of Expo 2000. I don’t have a lot of competition here. People always tell me that I should go and work in London or New York, big cities like that but since all the people I want to work with come to Hanover, I don’t need to!”

Put on Mousse T.’s debut album and you’ll hear anything from classic soul to funk, jazz orchestrations and sweeping movie-soundtrack soundscapes. Did he grow up listening to these sorts of records in his youth? “Definitely, but I must admit that I grew up listening to a lot of rock music. I’m still a big AC/DC fan, I had long hair for ages,” he laughs. “I was also a big new wave fan – bands like Depeche Mode and Duran Duran. And then through people like Donna Summer, who were German produced as well, I became a fan of dance music. When I started to study I came to DJing to make money. It really began there”

To date, his greatest commercial success has come via hit tracks like ‘Horny’ and ‘Sex Bomb’ [as sung by Welsh crooner Tom Jones], but Mousse T as an artist is a much more complex beast. A musician himself “it was always a big dream to do a live album. So when I faced the big task of doing my own album I wanted to create an album to show people what I could do as a live musician, something that was heavily jazz and funk influenced. So that’s what I’ve done. After producing hits like ‘Horny’ and ‘Sex Bomb’ I think people were expecting an album of 14 ‘hornys’ and ‘sex bombs’. The success of Sex Bomb confused me in a positive way actually. I was propelled to a new level where people wanted to hang out with me because I’d made a hit.”

Did the public’s perception – or misperception – of his talents motivate him to show the world that he was more than just a two hit wonder? “To be honest, it was probably more important for myself. I wanted to show people out there what I can do but I don’t think I have a lot of ego in the sense that I need to show people what a great guy I am. When I did this album I was a little depressed and frustrated. I love my dance music but I felt like it had been so hyped up, people are too worried about showing what kind of computer gear they have, or ripping off other people’s work in samples. I felt like a lot of people had forgotten what it’s all about. It’s all about a good song, not just a cool groove.”

The album also includes a jazz rework of the Fine Young Cannibal’s hit track ‘Johnny Come Home’. “That’s the only track on this album I didn’t write myself. I never actually worked with them directly, just did a couple of remixes for them in 1997. The dance version was released but this version wasn’t. I liked it so much I decided to release it on here. The fact it works so well shows that a great song can be interpreted in a multitude of ways. It’s all about good melody”

Mousse T. opened his first recording studio in Hanover in 1990, when he was a keyboardist in a local Hanover band called Fun Key B. In 1992, he met the owners of the renowned Peppermint Park Studios in Hanover, and just over ten years later we find him running Peppermint Jam, one of Germany’s most successful independent imprints. “We’ve put out cool house music since about 1996. Growing up in Hanover Germany, my country was always known for techno -besides Kraftwerk of course. For us, our love was more soulful house, so at some point we decided to take a risk and start a label. Our first releases sold about 300 units, which was a bit of a downer, but we kept at it and things got better. So here we are now.”

It’s a label whose output seems to have contributed to the changing face of ‘electronica’ in Germany. “I wouldn’t say that we all started our labels because we thought ‘oh here we are, we’re big heroes and we’re going to change the perception of dance music in Germany’. We just wanted to put out good tunes. You mention also the JCR [Jazzanova Compost Records] guys and the Compost guys. Michael Reinboth, the owner of Compost is an old Hanover guy and a good friend of mine. It’s great having them around. Germany in general was always a big country for touring artists but on the dance scene we never had an accurate image internationally.” Quality of sound production seems to be something they all hold in high steed. “Definitely. It [success] only depends on the quality of the stuff that you do basically, if you do what you do and you’re a nobody, if the quality is right, you’ll make it eventually.”

Mustafa’s work recently extended to live orchestration in his home city of Hanover. He held a series of concerts, the response to which was nothing if not outstanding. “Recently I did a big concert at the opera house in my home town, did all my songs live, and received a fantastic reaction. It sold out, people went crazy for it! I had anything from very old people to very young there. I was amazed at the reaction – if that isn’t crossover – I don’t know what is.”

Mousse T.’s debut album ‘Gourmet de Funk’ is out now on Peppermint jam/Universal Dance.