Booka Shade, aka German producers Arno Kammermeier and Walter Merziger, are nothing if not prolific, having just unveiled their 11th studio album, Link To The Invisible, on their own Blaufield Music label.
The duo, who rose to prominence with tracks such as Body Language and In White Rooms in the mid 2000s, have a busy summer in store, with a raft of festival appearances, and a US tour, introducing a new generation of audiences to their trademark melodic sound.
While last year marked the 20th anniversary of the Booka Shade project – a remix album, 20 Years Reworked, was released to mark the milestone – the pair continue to forge their own musical path, with the Blaufield Music imprint giving them the artistic freedom to experiment with different sonic textures.
909originals caught up with Booka Shade’s Arno Kammermeier to discuss the new album and other recent projects.
Let’s start by talking about the new album, Link To The Invisible – how would you describe it?
It’s an album that embraces club culture and, in its different facets, delivers the club sound Booka Shade represents.
Some of the songs have been straightforward club releases in recent months, such as No Memory or The Player, and we also have the deeper sounds of songs such as Moonbow or The Sun – plus, of course, there are some unreleased songs to check out.
The new album marks something of a landmark for you, coming 20 years on from your first album. In what ways did this milestone influence the project – did you seek to take inspiration from your musical past?
We are happy and grateful to have a distinctive Booka Shade ‘trademark sound’. Over the years, or actually decades, especially when we were bored with what we were doing at the time, we experimented with how far we could stretch our sound.
The extreme would have been Galvany Street in 2017. From time to time, you have to have these creative breakouts in order to realise again what you stand for and what the essence of our musical being is.
After 2017-2018, we started to feel very comfortable with being Booka Shade and continuously refined the sound we had created since 2002. Yes, we take inspiration from our musical past and music history in general, but we still always do our best to present a new twist.
Can you explain the title of the album?
Walter has been reading a lot about creativity, inspiration, and how to maintain a state of creativity. So many times, when we write songs, it seems that all of a sudden, the idea strikes, and the energy flows.
Usually, it’s preceded by working a long time on an idea and then leaving it for a moment. It’s a feeling we can never really describe, but it’s this Link To The Invisible that fascinates us.
It’s your 11th studio album, and it was also preceded by a series of two-track EPs – you are still hugely prolific in terms of new releases. What keeps you motivated?
We’ve been songwriters and producers all our lives since the age of 15. It’s just what we do. And, as surprising as it may sound, we release more music than ever. But at the same time, we take more time for our private lives, which is very important for us nowadays.
We are more selective when choosing shows, travel less, and try to enjoy the time around the shows more. We may have our partners – or, sometimes, kids – with us and spend an extra day in the city where we play. We also meet friends in the cities we travel to, the sort of quality time that keeps you healthy and sane. The things we didn’t care about doing years ago, when we ran from show to show to show.
I guess it’s one of many signs of getting older that you see clearly what is important to you and what does you good. But when we perform on stage, we’re in the moment, 100%. We still love to play shows.
The rise of platforms such as Spotify has led to a singles-led culture based around individual tracks, rather than albums. Yet Booka Shade still believes very strongly in albums – why are albums important to you?
Are we old-fashioned? Yes, we happily are. But we saw a long time ago that the way people listen to music would change, and we released a lot of singles before we released the album.
Having our own label, Blaufield Music, provides us with more freedom and spontaneity. When we have a song finished and tested in the club and feel that it should be out in the world quickly, we can have it released within three weeks.
Last year marked the tenth anniversary of the launch of Blaufield Music, which to date has largely been a vehicle for your own releases. Has running Blaufield given you the artistic freedom that you might not have got from other labels, do you think?
As kids, we grew up with bands such as Depeche Mode, New Order, or The Cure. All of these bands were ‘indie’ in the sense that they were signed to small record labels, sometimes with handshake deals and many times with a 50/50 net income deal, which was very rare in the 1980s.
We understood at an early age that having artistic freedom and understanding how the record business works is very important. We sucked in any information we could get about the different musical rights, the money streams etc. This was very helpful when we set up our first record label in 2002, Get Physical.
Today, we own almost 100% of our recording rights on Blaufield Music and have 100% artistic freedom.
Are you doing anything different with the label now compared to when you launched it?
After leaving Get Physical, we needed a company to bundle our recording rights, so we set up Blaufield Music to release Booka Shade music. After a couple of years, when the setup worked, and we had the distributor, PR company, graphic designer etc, in place, we realised that it would be cool to share this setup and help – especially young and upcoming artists to help find their way into the music industry and to open the door.
We’re proud to say that artists who are now established, like 8Kays or JOPLYN, took their first steps on Blaufield Music. I have to admit that during and since COVID, we got a bit lazy with the A&R-ing and haven’t released music from many artists. However, we’re picking that up, and we’ll have a new FOURTUNES compilation out shortly, with artists to look out for including LORRAINNE, Aiwaska, Talal Hakim and Dema.
Tracks like Mandarine Girl, Night Falls, Body Language and In White Rooms loom large in your archive, and indeed still feature in your live performances. What was it about that mid-2000s period that enabled you to break through like you did?
In our specific case, it was the setup with Get Physical that made the time so special. Between 2002 and approximately 2008, all of us, DJ T., M.A.N.D.Y., Peter Hayo and Booka Shade, as well as the label team around us, put absolutely ALL of our creative power into the music and the label.
It created such an energy that people HAD to feel it. If you were around at that time, you will know that there wasn’t a DJ on the planet who wouldn’t have a Get Physical record in his box if he wanted to rock the crowd. 🙂
Whether you know it or not, you will have danced to a Get Physical record at least once during the night. They were wonderful times, but also mentally and physically extremely exhausting.
Get Physical was like a German version of 24 Hour Party People. You can’t keep up the pace forever. We’ve survived and grown up, and I like to think that delivering constant quality in both the music and the performance is the reason why we are still around.
All musicians are constantly learning – what other artists or genres are particularly influential on you at the moment?
We’re learning about the sound of Fred Again, or Barry Can’t Swim at the moment. Fred Again’s diary-style, very personal and eclectic way of performing music on stage especially fascinates us.
What does the rest of the year have in store for you?
We’ll play summer festivals in Europe and have some US dates, and while we do all that, we will continue to work on new music. There will be additional album remixes out in June from Adana Twins and Hardt Antoine, and then a new collaboration single with Satin Jackets will come out in July.
Booka Shade – Link To The Invisible is out now on Blaufield Music. More information can be found here.