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Where did the name Booka Shade come from?
Actually it has no real meaning. That name goes back to the early or mid nineties. We were doing a lot of production work for many international labels, and we were in Holland flipping through magazines and there was the name “Booker T.” we turned the T into an A, and added the name shade, as in shadow. Some people thought it was an Asian name at first. It’s a hard name to learn, but once you’ve got it, it’s easy to remember.

What is your musical guilty pleasure?
I have a son who is 11 who likes to listen to the latest stuff, like Katy Perry. So I end listening to California Girls by Katy Perry. That’s the kind of stuff you listen to when you’re a dad.

Who is your musical inspiration?
We don’t listen to a lot of club music nowadays. A long time inspiration was a band called Dépêche Mode, and lately my partner listens to a lot of Gorillaz. The rest of the inspiration can be anything like the travels you do or the places you live in. The whole life we lead is very inspiring. We try and take the energy out of life and put it into music.

You’ve been touring a lot. Which has been your fave gig?
We’ve played in beaches, caves, warehouses…. But one thing that sticks in my head is in Red Rocks, Colorado in the Rocky Mountains. We had about twelve hundred people in front of us. After the show we got so much positive feedback that we really hope to go back.

This is your first time being in Bangkok. What are you looking forward to seeing?
I hope that we find some time to have dinner with people who can tell us about the history of the city and its people. I’m really interested in those sorts of things.

What’s the most important thing about being a DJ?
We’re mostly a live band: Walter plays keyboards and I do the electronic drums. DJ’ing is something fairly new for us. We only started two years ago. We got thrown into the DJ world at a high level, and we had to have a really fast learning curve. We can try out a lot of new things thanks to DJ sets. The important thing is bringing the audience a good amount of positive energy so they can have a great night. The DJ doesn’t always have to please the audience; there always has to be a sort of “educating”, but they should always leave saying “wow that was a great night.”

Where do you see yourself in twenty years?
If I’m still walking hopefully I’ll be doing something that interests me and something that’s challenging. I don’t want to stop with what I do or get into a slower place or get bored. I always want to check out new stuff. My life will always have something to do with music. It was very obvious from an early age.

Whats next for Booka Shade?
We try to have as much time as possible in the studio. Because we’re recording an album now for the New Year. We just came home from a five week US tour. We need to relax a little bit. We’re in Asia now and then South America, then in Russia, then the year is over. We’re trying to find as much time in the studio as possible. Hopefully we’ll be back next year with some more music for you.