As Booka Shade, German DJ/producers Walter Merziger and Arno Kammermeier have been releasing music for 30 years now, and it’s been quite the memorable ride.
A career full of musical milestones goes back to 1995’s techy wobbler “Kind of Good,” thru its 2004 debut album, the superb Memento, and then onto 11 more studio full-lengths, including Dear Future Self, which garnered a 2022 Grammy nomination for “Best Immersive Audio Album.”
Its latest full-length effort, For Real, is the 150th release on the duo’s imprint, Blaufield Music, and it finds the group returning to a familiarly melodic, but no less dancefloor-friendly group of tunes. Including standout cuts like the haunting “Losing Control” and emotive “Nukk,” plus singles like the breezy “Broken Glass” and the electro-banging “P.I.N. 4,” For Real offers a tasty range of moods, flavors, and beats.
We recently caught up with Kammermeier, 57, and Merziger, 55, to discuss their latest project, their gear, their influences, and more.
DJ LIFE: I read that Planet Claire was the duo’s original name – you must’ve been fans of The B-52’s, right? When you started the group, what else were you listening to?
Arno Kammermeier: The band name back then, Planet Claire, was indeed inspired by The B-52’s song, which was played regularly in our local disco. As teenagers, we listened to all the New Wave bands of the time, mainly Depeche Mode, New Order, and The Cure – and we were always interested in electronic music. I remember how my older brother showed me a music magazine with the Kraftwerk robots on it; I was fascinated. I met Walter in a school band where he played guitar and keyboards, and I played the drums.
DJ LIFE: How did you two know that you could be musical partners?
Walter Merziger: We quickly realized we shared the dream of “achieving something in music.” But did we imagine that decades later we’d still be standing on festival stages, and we’d support our heroes Kraftwerk and Depeche Mode, and a member of Kraftwerk [Fritz Hilpert] would help us mix our albums in Dolby Atmo? No way! That’s a crazy dream.
DJ LIFE: In the studio, what’s the artistic balance between the two of you?
Kammermeier: Walter has been the studio wizard and the primary songwriter since the beginning. I’m good at coming in with fresh ears and seeing the bigger picture, or balancing out the overall course we’re on.
DJ LIFE: What’s your creative process?
Kammermeier: For a couple of years, we haven’t lived in the same city and don’t have a shared studio, so we are very used to sending ideas back and forth and discussing them on the phone. Walter would usually start with a song idea, and we’d produce it until we could try it out in the show – if it was a club-oriented song.
DJ LIFE: Creatively, how did you approach For Real, your latest project? Anything novel or different from previous full-length albums?
Merziger: We constantly write and produce music, but not all songs are immediately released. Songs can go through many phases before they are finished. It may not fit on a release for different reasons, be it musically, or we may feel that something in the production is missing to make it complete. It doesn’t mean it’s a bad song; it’s just that the time isn’t ready yet. And over the decades, we learned that good things take time.
About a year ago, we went through our archives, like we regularly do, and realized there were several ideas we liked and could revisit. And we also had a particular sound in mind for the album. After COVID, we released a lot of music for the dancefloor because, like everybody else, we were happy to return to the clubs and celebrate nightlife. We wanted to return to the more organic sound typical of Booka Shade for this new album.
DJ LIFE: When you’re doing outside collaborations, how do you work with those artists? How do you decide who you want to work with?
Merziger: The project has got to be musically interesting and cover something we haven’t done before. Most of the time, we work with the collab partner remotely, and it’s not much different from how we both work: We send ideas back and forth until they click. Who finishes/mixes the song depends on who started it and whose label it will be released.
DJ LIFE: I always loved the melodies that Booka Shade creates and, again, they’re all over this album. “Losing Control,” “Nukk,” “P.I.N. 4,” and “Broken Glass” are particular favorites. “Broken Glass” is most-recent single – what went into creating that one?
Kammermeier: “Broken Glass” is probably Walter and my favorite song for a long time. I rarely say that; we usually have that “we-love-all-our-children” attitude towards our songs. The idea for the song that now is called “Broken Glass” was there for, I would say, a good 10 years. We had the beautiful chord progression, but didn’t feel like we had finished it. Then, a couple of months ago, Walter came up with the idea for the vocal in this ’60s hippie-esque style. I loved it from the first second. The finishing touches happened quickly, and there wasn’t much discussion. We just needed to make sure the vibe stayed.
DJ LIFE: From your main studio gear, what’s your DAW? Fave plug-ins?
Merziger: Our main studio DAW is Apple Logic Pro. We started with Notator/Creator in the late ’80s and, since then, we’ve been working with the software of this brand. We have a few plug-ins which we use in almost every production, like Logic FX and EXS Sampler, Fab Filter EQs, Waves L3 Limiter, Audio Damage Panstation and Dubstation, XLN Audio RC-20, Valhalla VintageVerb, Plugin Alliance ADA Flanger and Noveltech Vocal Enhancer. We have the iZotope Vocal Synth and Ozone 9, and on the instruments side, all the stuff from Arturia, u-he, Spectrasonics Omnisphere and Trilian, XILS-lab Oxium, and Native Instruments.
DJ LIFE: Monitors? Other vital hardware?
Merziger: Our main monitors in the studio are Genelecs, but we’re also working and mixing a lot with headphones because we’re on the road a lot. Because of the touring, we stopped working with most of our hardware and focused on what we had “in the box.” It’s all about the idea; the technical stuff is only a helper.
DJ LIFE: Which producer/remixers do you most admire?
Merziger: We’re kids from the ’80s and very eclectic. Some examples include Flood, Stephen Lipson, Quincy Jones, Martin Hannett, Conny Plank, or more currently, Tame Impala. All are very innovative and unique producers. There are not many “real” producers out there anymore, but there are a few excellent programmers in the electronic music world, such as Adam Ten, DJ Koze or Notre Dame.
DJ LIFE: What goes into your live performances? It’s not just a DJ set.
Kammermeier: I guess the live performance is special about Booka Shade: the keys and the drums. Not many people make the effort to bring the equipment, set it up and soundcheck, and do the physical workout we do. But we love it. On this tour, we played five shows in a row per week, and during the day, when I was tired, I sometimes questioned what I do. But, when I stand onstage, feel the music, and look over to Walter, I think: “We were born to do this.” It’s our mission. Our little contribution to making the world a little more positive and giving people good energy. It’s essential that we have a stage to perform on so the audience can see us. That makes a big difference. When they pick up the energy that we send out and return it again to us on stage, that’s magic.
DJ LIFE: What’s your gear set-up for live shows?
Kammermeier: We have three laptops, two running Ableton Live and one for Walter’s keyboard sounds. Apart from a MIDI controller and USB keyboard, Walter uses some “noise makers” such as the Korg Kaoss pad. My Roland V-Drum pads and SPD SX sampling pad trigger sounds from Native Instruments Maschine, and all sound sources are mixed on stage in our beloved Allen & Heath Xone 96. We then send a stereo signal to the PA/Front Of House.
DJ LIFE: Which DJs do you admire?
Merziger: We’re old-school; we’re privileged to have grown up listening and dancing all night with the best DJs like Laurent Garnier or Sven Väth.
DJ LIFE: Aside from releasing great music, what’s the secret to running a successful label in 2025? What have you learned over the years?
Kammermeier: We’ve been working independently for most of our lives. All the bands we admired as kids were indie bands on small labels – Depeche Mode on Mute, New Order on Factory, The Cure on Fiction Records. There’s a reason why the logo of our label, Blaufield Music, looks a little bit like a The Cure/Fiction typo. When we were young, there wasn’t much literature on how to run a label or survive as a musician, and there was a lot of trial-and-error as we went along.
Ideally, you breathe in all the information you can get to know what you’re doing and see the income streams. All the producers who shout about Spotify are the same people who have given their music away for free on Soundcloud for years and years. We’ve never done that. Build up your own following on platforms that can’t be controlled or shut down by the big social-media platforms, like a newsletter or your own webshop.
DJ LIFE: How have the shows been, supporting the new material?
Kammermeier: We just finished an early evening European concert tour to present the new album. We had amazing shows in cities such as Berlin, London, Munich, and Cologne, and many sold out in advance. The feedback was so good that we’re planning a second fall tour, with shows in cities such as Amsterdam, Brussels, and Paris.
DJ LIFE: Will you be coming to play in North America in the near future?
Merziger: We’re in the process of getting a new visa – the usual pain – and had planned to return to the U.S. in September, but a family issue came up, and now we’re looking into new dates. Maybe spring 2026 will be a good time. We like touring in North America, and there are many great venues to play!
