Known worldwide for their memorizing live shows, Booka Shade will collide into the Cow Palace tomorrow night for this year’s annual Spookfest with performers such as DJ Shadow, Underworld, MSTRKRFT, and our friends, The Limousines. Oscillating between dancehall, disco, drum ‘n’ bass, and downtempo, Booka Shade consistently includes something from each style on their discs, and their latest album More! is no exception. The culmination of years of sonic exploration, More! is a record that ebbs and flows like the band’s legendary live shows, an immersive collection that finds Booka Shade at their most entertaining and melodic best.
You can download (for $5) More! .
You can catch Booka Shade at this year’s Spookfest from 8pm-9pm in the Main Room right before Steve Aoki.
So here’s our special Spookfest Kuestionnaire with the Berlin duo as they explain why you should never take advantage of technology.
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1. Could you state your name and what you do in the band?
walter plays keyboards, vocoders and FX, arno plays electronic drums
2. How would you describe your sound?
walter: we don´t like categories so much, but if we have to….. it´s electronic, very emotional and melodic, combined with strong club grooves. let´s call it ´science fiction house´ ! we come from berlin, which nowadays seems to be a trademark and music style in electronic music in itself, that´s what we experience from the reaction of people. in 2002 we founded a label called ´Get Physical´, which is the outlet for the music we like, swaying between disco, house and techno.
3. What is your favorite local band?
arno: with local you mean american ? hmmm. ZZ Top ? my son is in his michael jackson phase, so i´ve forced to listen to ´billie jean´ and ´thriller´ a trillion times in the car lately. there´s no denying MJ was an incredible talent.
4. Any concerts that blew your mind recently?
arno: we recently saw jean-michel jarre perform his classic 1977 album ´oxygene´ live, with three of his musicians. it was a very rare performance at the friedrichstadt palast in berlin. he had all his old, late 70´s synths with him and it was all played live . no sequencers etc. mind blowing.
5. Any non-musical influences you would like to mention?
walter: places we go to and people we meet.
6. If your music was to be the theme of a film/TV show, what would it be?
arno: our music was used for CSI shows, i think the mystic element in our music fits quite well to a show like that. many people know us for our energetic tech house live shows, but there´s the other, soundtrack side of booka shade (eg our compilation of slow songs ´cinematic shades´) a new ´twin peaks´ would work for us.
7. What musician/artist would you like to collaborate with for a day?
walter: damon albarn from gorillaz.
8. What is the album you listen to on a cold rainy day?
arno: William Fitzsimmons, “The Sparrow and the Crow”. actually, i listen to it every night after the show in the hotel room, to calm myself down.
9. List four songs you would listen to on a roadtrip?
walter: coming from europe, travelling on a tour bus in america is a real trip, very different to europe. so for this purpose let´s choose
america – horse with no name
depeche mode – route 66 (beatmasters rmx)
neil young – hey hey my my
johnny cash would certainly bring you in the mood, but i don´t have any of his songs on my ipod.
10. Where do you see yourselves in 7 years?
ideally: in my house by the sea.
realistically: in a tour bus.
we feel very privileged to be invited to play concerts all over the world, and we hope to be doing this for quite a while still. we played so little in the states, we still have a lot of ground work to do over here.
11. What is the last book you read?
arno: i´m vegetarian, so ´eating animals´ by Jonathan Safran Foer was on my list. before that it was jared diamond – Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. next will be keith richard´s biography. there are some lessons to be learned about rock´n roll.
12. Is image a factor in music or is it a waste of time?
arno: oh, it´s ALL about image. unfortunately, we don´t have any and we don´t know in which shop to buy it. maybe being just natural is our image ? it seems to be the only thing that works for us anyway.
13. Any embarrassing moments on stage you would like to share?
walter: you mean the “hello new york” kind of thing when you´re actually in L.A. ? we´ve been lucky up to now. when we´re in a state of mind where we don´t know which city we´re in we reduce it to “hello everybody”. the other thing i remember was our first ever live show at a club called watergate in berlin, 2004. we naively thought we could run 16 stereo tracks plus hi resolution video from the same hard drive, which, at least at that time, was absolutely impossible. as a result, we had four computer crashes in one show. thankfully, the audience was very patient with us. ever since we care a lot about our computer systems and backup solutions.
14. Any favorite tour locations?
walter: australia is amazing, we have a huge following there. south america too. we love to perfom electronic music in natural surroundings, like a festival in andalusia / spain right on the beach of the mediterranean sea. or in an open air club in the rainforest (no joke!) in brasil, or red rocks in denver.
15. Lastly, what is your present state of mind?
arno: relatively healthy. we found a way to survive the constant touring. healthy food and yoga helps a lot (when you can´t manage to stop the drinks and parties..)
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[mp3] Booka Shade – Teenage Spaceman (Booka In Space Mix) from More! (2010)
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