Arne Schaffhausen and Wayan Raabe are the names behind Border Community duo Extrawelt. While you may have heard of them first from James Holden’s family don’t think that the boys are inexperienced newcomers. Actually these two studio buddies have been tearing out the tunes for years under their Midimilliz and Spirallianz aliases and even longer under other sneaky projects.
Before jumping on a plane to Japan, this pair of production boffins logged onto their PC and nutted out some responses in this email interview.
> Interview & Introduction : Nick Lawrence(HigherFrequency) _ Photo : morelle
HigherFrequency (HRFQ) : A lot of people know about Extrawelt from your work with Border Community but can you tell us a bit about your other aliases like Midimiliz and Spirallianz?
Arne : Midimiliz and Spirallanz are our first projects that we have founded almost simultaneously in 1999. Spirallianz was exclusively signed to Spiritzone Records, Midimiliz was and is an independent project with releases on several different labels like D.drum Records or Boshke Beats. Currently there are two new Midimiliz releases on Soniculture from Portugal and on Gemini Records from Japan. We don't want to let down any of our projects but at the moment the focus is on Extrawelt.
HRFQ : Does the name Extrawelt have any special meaning or significance?
Arne : Extrawelt could mean something like parallel world or bonus level. When James signed Soopertrack for Border Community we wanted to create a new project but we didn't know at all what would come out or if there will ever be a second release after the first 12”. So Extrawelt seemed to fit to the situation too as a parallel project for all our new ideas and free of any expectation.
HRFQ : When did you two meet and start making music together?
Arne : In winter 1998 we started to make the first tracks with Wayan’s G3 and some borrowed equipment from X-dream which Arne had at home. We met already before..
HRFQ : How did you become involved with Border Community in 2005?
Wayan : We had those tracks that were too slow and different for any of our pevious labels. In 2004 BC was one of Arne's favourite labels (..and still is), so he had the splendid idea to prepare our first demo ever but without any expectations really and without telling me about it. After three month or so he found a nice mail from James, asking if the tracks were still available. After another 3 month or so the record was ready with all the tool versions...
HRFQ : What was the secret behind creating a popular track like ‘Soopertrack’?
Arne : That we didn't have the aim to make a popular track.
HRFQ : Your music has appeared on influential mix CDs like Sven Vath’s “Sound Of The Sixth Season”, King Unique’s “Electric 02” and “Transitions” from John Digweed. Are you ever surprised by the support you receive from big name DJs?
Arne : Sure, we are surprised about many things...
HRFQ : Now you’ve had two releases as Extrawelt this year on Traum Schallplatten. Is this going to be your label home or are you interested in working with a lot of different labels?
Arne : Since Border Community was the first home for Extrawelt they are kind of our motherlabel, but we are just thankful to be able to release on so many great labels and to work with so many nice people.
HRFQ : You are coming to Japan to perform live but Arne you DJ as well. Do you think your DJing has helped Extrawelt’s production career?
Arne : I hope so, I confess that I am a real music junkie. There’s always much good music around that is inspiring and challenging. But both is influencing each other in many ways.
HRFQ : What do you have planned for 2007 and beyond?
Arne : We don't really look so much ahead but there are plenty of gigs and lots of tracks waiting to be done...
End of the interview
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