Booka Shade have their time in the sun
BOOKA Shade’s Arno Kammermeier nods vigorously. “The explosion of dance music in America has been very good for us,” says the electronic musician. “It has opened lots of doors. Last year, we played the Electric Daisy Carnival in Las Vegas. It was on a huge racecourse. You had 300,000 people there.”
He is contemplating the rise of EDM — an American acronym for electronic dance music. Though mainstream in Europe for decades, dance music has only recently caught on in the US. Almost overnight, artists such as Calvin Harris, Avicii and Afrojack have become superstars, with mind-boggling incomes to match. A former Marks and Spencer shelf-stacker from Scotland, Harris is estimated to have earned $18m in 2013.
Booka Shade are not in that league. But the Berlin-based duo’s popularity has increased dramatically, notwithstanding that their ‘melodic’ techno is more sophisticated than the beat-heavy fare proffered by EDM acts. But they have benefited from the rising tide. “A certain type of kid is attracted to EDM,” says Kammermeier, his English impeccable and unaccented. “They are drawn to the commercial stuff. After a while, maybe, they wonder — ‘what is this deep house stuff?’ They look further, so that EDM serves as a stepping stone. It is great for us — more people find out about Booka Shade. We did three tours of America last year. We’re back again in 2014.”
It’s quite a turnaround. Just 18 months ago, Kammermeier, and collaborator Walter Merziger, were considering stopping. After four well-received albums, they had said all they needed to say as Booka Shade. Better to walk away than risk self-parody.
“A Booka Shade track will always sound like Booka Shade,” says the musician. “We have that trademark element. As a writer, you want to push forward — find new ways in which to reinvent yourself. As you go on, it becomes far more difficult to do new things. We did think ‘well, it’s been great — maybe it’s time for something new’. There’s nothing wrong in that.”
Their outlook changed when they sifted through a cache of their latest demos. The songs felt vital, full of energy. They still had something to say. Perhaps all that was required was a shift of scenery. “We found a fantastic studio, outside Manchester,” Kammermeier says. “That was a great inspiration — it was full of equipment. Absolutely full — if you can think of it, then it was there. We called our record Eve, because that was the name of the studio. We have our own recording space back in Berlin. However, I think our new approach is a much more exciting way of doing things — getting out there and interacting with different environments.”
“You have to believe in an album,” he says. “You’re committing to spending time in the studio working on it — and also to touring it for several years. So you need to have confidence in the record. You have to know what you are doing.”
Described as Germany’s answer to the UK group, Underworld, Booka Shade started performing and DJing around Frankfurt. In the late ’90s, they relocated to Berlin, where they started a record label, Get Physical. They were drawn to the city’s atmosphere of eclecticism and artistic daring. “Berlin is always a fresh city — always changing, always evolving,” he says. “Especially in the eastern parts: people are free to try something new, because there is simply so much space. If you are artistically orientated and don’t want to have to endure the high rents of Paris or London… well, you come to Berlin. It’s a very creative environment.”
Booka Shade tour so much that it often feels they have no home. Just back from a trek to south-east Europe, now they’re on their way to Ireland and Britain for gigs. Following that, festival season starts. “Travelling can be tiring. Then, you are always seeing new things. We were recently in Sofia. I’d never been before. It is a beautiful place, with such a fascinating history. Things like that make it worthwhile”.
Manchester has played an important part in the evolution of dance music. It was home to influential early ’80s acts, such as New Order and Section 25, and, later, the influential Hacienda Club, one of the birth places of house music. Were Booka Shade drawn to the city for those reasons? “Actually, we didn’t go out very much,” says Kammermeier. “We could have been anywhere, really. There wasn’t a sense of ‘let the light of Manchester shine on us’ — or the rain, more probably. If we had found a great studio in the south of France, that would have worked, too.”
Early on, Booka Shade decided their live shows would be just that. They mix electronic instruments with live ones.
The subject of live performance is controversial in the genre, with many EDM stars accused of simply turning up at a gig and pressing play on a tape deck. Several have shrugged and admitted as much, baffled by the fuss.
“You hear this many times about more commercial acts,” says Kammermeier. “I understand everything is connected and synchronised — there is probably a tape running, the DJ is miming. Elements of our show are synched with the visuals. But it is, nonetheless, live. Ultimately, I don’t try to judge. If something is successful, there must be a reason. And if it is simply a fad, well, then, it will be over soon.”
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