P:Great, thank you very much. Sorry for being so delayed, I was waiting for Florian[Florian Seyberth is the other half of Boozoo Bajou] but he is already in Thailand for meditation...

B:No worries, how did you and Florian meet up together?

P:Our common homebase is Nürnberg, Germany and we met there 4 years ago, when a good friend brought us together. We first talked a lot about music. We are music-junkies, constantly listening to all kinds of roots music; Florian more reggae and blues, myself more soul, jazz and funk. So we spent most of our time joining together good music.

B:Seems like you guys released a couple of singles and then all of the sudden were remixing Tosca and being remixed by the Thievery Corporation. But this probably wasn't an overnight success story. Can you talk about paying your dues as producers and maybe what a key "lucky-break" was that helped you get where you are today?

P: OK. Florian and I have a completely different background. Flo came from rockabilly over punk to reggae and playing diverse instruments just for fun. He grew up as a very important record selector in our town. I have been a professional musician since I was 16. My father is a composer piano player and conductor, writing avantgarde-music...you know, a little bit like Stockhausen. Anyway, I was studying classical drums and piano and playing constantly in soul and jazz-bands as a drummer, mostly with black musicans and singers. And I have always been spending my money on studio equipment and instruments for the last 20 years.

But back to your question- the "lucky key" is that I have always loved to work on instrumental music, where we have the chance to bring upfront the little but very deep and strong elements in music- soulful roots sounds mixed up with electronic technique without having a "real" song-structure. And it was just a great chance that the music scene changed over Europa with projects like Kruder&Dorfmeister, for music that we always loved to do and had listened to. It was just the right time to do it. It wouldn't have worked ten years ago.

B:One of the reasons your 2001 Stereo-Deluxe full-length 'Satta' is so engaging because of how slow the tempo is. Yet the music still remains intense. It seems to be as your label describes it: "pressing down in the downbeat." Is this something that you envisioned when you first started producing or have you found yourself slowing down the BPMs as you have progressed?

P:No, I always loved slow music, jazz-ballads, minimalistic stuff, and a deep funky-groove. It is also the best for me as a drummer. I can't play very fast and I can't create a good feeling playing in a band that is high-speed or high-tech. Instrumentals...I like them- when something is growing while playing, you can put little accents and can play better with dynamics, which, for me, are the two most important elements in music. Not that we are going to produce music like 'Satta' for the rest of our life (we've celebrated it a lot), but it felt very very good to listen to relaxed stuff, while producing our album for the last two years. Sometimes we got kind of a meditating-feeling in process.....and there are other musical projects to do with other intentions, such as to speed up a party.

B:'Satta' is also impressive because of how much open space you leave. Was it hard to not put in more sounds and drum patterns in your songs and just leave them the way they were?

P:Exactly. That's the most difficult thing to do, to leave spaces. we collect a lot of instruments, sounds, guest musicians, samples and noises for one track. But at the end, we try to keep most of it out, digging only the strongest and (for us) really deep-elements. We listen to a track for a couple of months, and if there is still something boring in it, we delete it. I know, its not a very spontaneous way of making music. Its pretty much "put one piece to the next." But in the end, the feeling in it must be strong, and you should still like it a year later in that way. We can bring it to that special point of, "now we got it", and nobody gets this hurting feeling inside, because they made lots of compromises.

B:Your music seems directly influenced to the geographic travels that you've taken. Any particular place/city/country that you directly took in an unexpected experience that would later evolve into a concept for a song?

P:Sure. For example, when Flo came back from his trip to Brazil (Salvador de Bahia/Manaus), we did 'Night Over Manaus.' By travelling to South America, the States, Jamaica or just by listening to records, all our stuff is very influenced by afro/latin/raggae-music. Its also maybe easier for us to do, because with of course the exception of classical-music, there aren't many interesting musical roots/tradition in our country. So we have the possibility not to be focused on one sound or on one tradition and that gives us on the other side a good base of being open minded.

B:Why do you think Germany seem to be such a mecca for the slow-tempo elite? What's in the water there?

P:Our water is OK, but our very very special home-brewed-beer, manufactured by a hundreds of years old tradition is fantastic! Just just in our area- we've got about 650 very small breweries in the near...you should come over once! Or just not being too much in a hurry, not to live under too many fast and stressed influenced conditions. People here give themselves perhaps more time and passion for quiet but deep music.

B:Do you listen to much music besides the stuff you are making? Anything grabbing you right now?

P: Yes, as I told you before, we are music-junkies. Gotan Project is still a good album. There are some more interesting projects, all over Europa and worldwide- what about Lambchop- wonderful atmosphere! Also, my Wayne Shorter albums....from the sixties, Blue Note is always big. The meters, Dr. John - all these New Orleans blues/soul/funk cats are constantly spinning- John Lee Hooker King Tubby, some new releases like Victor Davis who it a great singer. And there are a couple of new interesting Stereo-Deluxe stuff from Norway that is coming out in the near future...

B:Who were the reggae and dub artists you first heard that influenced the dub aspect of Boozoo Bajou?

P:King Tubby.

B:Have you guys performed live? Do you play instruments or just a DeeJay set? How has it been going?

P:Yes, we already did two live gigs in the past. One in Firence, Italy and one at home in Nürnberg. Those were OK, but not any more! I am very into playing live gigs because I have played as a drummer in various soul, funk, and jazz-groups for the last 17 years, earning my money with that. So my first thought was to do Boozoo Bajou with a real-live band. But at this point I must say, That its really hard to do! My personal expectations are very high, having a relaxed band with musicians, that feel comfortable, just playing an easy lick for a while without getting nervous because they cannot show their instrumental-techniques to the audience. And we don't wanna turn it into a simple "south-bavarian-acid-jazz-funk-band." Its hard to transport the easiness of 'Satta' on stage, but we are still checking different musicians and it could just be that its gonna be in a different style for a live-set, a different live-quality, other musical aspects and visual-video-performing up front?? We will see. and yes, we are deejaying too.

B:What kind of equipment are you using in your live performances? What has the reaction been?

P: We did it with a rhythm section- drums,bass,git,keys,and percussion and two woods- bariton & tenor sax, and flutes. We also used some samples, that came from our keyboard-player, but we tried to play everything live. The reaction was pretty good [for those shows]...but I told you...If its cool, we're gonna [continue to try] do it. If not...not!