Scooter Tekno

- In the "Mind The Gap" album we have listened to a cover song of Elvis Crespo "Suavemente". How did you do this one?
H.P: On Thursday nights we were in many clubs. The same thing was in Finland (it's some kind of cult in Germany). In Finnish clubs they played very funny music, I've heard this track very often. I thought it's cool, but I'm not satisfied how we did it after all. But you see not every idea is a good idea. So this is not of my favourite to be honest, compared to "Shake That" which I really liked. After all I think this is too far from the Scooter style.

- So you have sampled KLF, Elvis Crespo, Prodigy as well. How do you using samples in tracks?
H.P: Most of time this happens like this: you get an idea, but you need a special groove, special beat, something like, for example, Prodigy. And you listen to it, most of time it's Rick - the guy who does the programming in studio, working hard to reproduce it. It's not a sample really. He looks for a long time to find a similar sound. Of course sometimes we use samples like KLF's "Take me, a-ha... Take me, a-ha, a-ha".

- You have a track with Bloodhound Gang's vocalist in your album...
H.P: Yes, we will continue to work with Bloodhound Gang. We have some ideas of working together. May be we will do something for a single release together. I'm not sure, but it can happen.

- Are Celebrate the Nun or The Loop! going to make a comeback, maybe someday?
H.P: I don't think so, because Celebrate The Nun is a completely different thing. It was a time, when we were like Depeche Mode, so I don't think I'll ever perform with Celebrate The Nun. Too far off..

- But maybe it's quite popular at the moment?
H.P: Yeah, This true but for me: I listen to other things, I love dance stuff. Sometimes when I'm at home I still listen to Depeche Mode, but it doesn't mean that I want to do the same sound.

- There was another different single with house rhythm released before there was "Shake That"...
H.P: One time we were sitting inside the hotel's restroom. There was loud disco music of 70s and 80's playing. I've heard this song from KC and the Sunshine Band. And I can't get it out of my mind. We discussed it with the guys and tried out this one. It became our first house single.

- You use lot of samples from dance classics & one of the most used one is The KLF. You are a KLF fan?
H.P: Yes, that's right. Because in 1990 when KLF came up with "What Time Is Love", this was really that tune, which can change your life. Before that for about 8 years I was into new wave music, sometimes like Depeche Mode and when I heard this track for the first time... "Wow! What's that?" and since that time I really liked techno music and it changed whole tastes in music. All over the years I think we really sample everything what KLF ever released. In their book "How to make N1 hit" they describe things how you to do it and we just do everything KLF wrote in this book :) Ha-ha...

- Have you personally meet the guys?
H.P: Unfortunetly not yet. But I know (read some interviews) where Bill Drummond said that he really like Scooter. This is to be the new way of continue the things they started. And I was really proud to hear about that. Because they are really intelligent & this was really cool :)

- How did you collaborate with Fatman Scoop?
H.P: Michael Simon gave the idea with Fatman Scoop, because he is a famous rapper, he is also well known and has performed in Germany. But we never met each other. This rap part was recorded in New York. Even the video:  the parts with him were shot in a taxi in New York, while the rest of video was shot in India. This was a real international production :)

- Last year DJ Michael Simon replaced Jay Frog in Scooter. Why did Jay leave the band?
H.P: While working in the studio he wasn't working as nice as before. There must've been something else. So we discussed this with Jay and made a conclusion. Jay said "OK, I will continue to DJ and produce other stuff". We already had the same thing happen with Axel a couple of years before. There wasn't a fight, it's only about music. Personally we are still friends and everythings fine. Just working in the studio won't work fine.

- Tell us about your nicknames.
H.P: For nearly every release I think about another nickname, so I think I can't remember them all. It's often born when I write the lyrics.

- Let's talk about title of new album...
H.P: I like the title "The Ultimate Aural Orgasm". To be honest many many years ago there was one of my favourite radioshows. It was dance show with only dance music. There I've heard this jingle (computer voice) "The Ultimate Aural Orgasm, The Ultimate Aural Orgasm, ..." again and again. And I still got it on my mind and I thought "That could be a nice title for the next album".

- 13 is the lucky number for you, because of your 13 years of success, but often it's  bad luck. So when was the last time you can remember that you had bad luck?
H.P: Just before X-mas I crossed traffic lights and they were red. I drove directly into another car and my car was completely damaged. It was complete bad luck.

- H.P. Baxxter became a brand name . Are you planning to create a solo project?
H.P: No, because in this case I'd need a different style of music, for example to release an album with ballads :) But this isn't what I want to do. We don't think about solo releases, because we like what we do now.

- Tell us about your latest video.
H.P: We decide to shoot video in India, because the title "Behind The Cow" contains a cow - a holy animal in India.

- Was there a problem to paint a holy animal with "SCOOTER" and shout video?
H.P: Yes, there was some protests from people from animal protectors society. But we took care of the cows perfectly! If Indians take care of people like their cows, everything can look more better.

- Did you get some impressions about poor life in India?
H.P: I was shocked! I never saw anything like that! Our hotel was protected with sting wire & security. If someone went out the back of the hotel, you could see people sitting in the street. They cooked at the street's edge, while nanny goats walked around. High contrasts.

- Your texts often some hard to understand...
H.P: Yes, for example "Respect To The Man in The Icecream Van". Most people think "what's this madness?". But behind this text The KLF are hidden - for me it's the biggest Techno project of all time, who organised many actions. Once they drove before Christmas in the Icecream van to London and distributed free beer to homeless, as a PR gag. Therefore, I said: "Respect". It is a coded slack message to KLF.

- At chapter 4 you have a new member Michael Simon.
H.P: We have a clear division of the activities: Rick J. Jordan holds responsible everything what has to act with music, harmonies, recordings and technology, I am creating whole idea - texts and melody, the third man - for the beats, thus the DJ's part. Sometimes we have feelings, that there aren't new impulses enough. This is important, because just in the beat area the trends change very fast. Michael Simon is a very good DJ. Since he is there, everything functions immediately, again quite differently. His area is rather an Elektro-House, he comes sometimes with other Drum loops... This is very refreshing. It is the next Chapter because thereby also always a small musical change arises.

Interviews sampled from http://www.shefftunes.tk/

Re-created and edited by Jay Brewer.