Timo Maas in Malaysia: My Old Life is Never Coming Back'

Superstar German producer Timo Maas DJed in Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur (KL) last weekend as he continued his 5 continent worldwide tour. His unique style of 'percussive wet funk', expressed through no less than 85 productions in the last 3 years, rocketed him to the top last year, most notably via his killer remix of Azzido De Bass 's Doomsnight. Mezz Malaysian representative and local radio DJ Angie Ng hooked up with him several hours after he'd rocked 2,000 highly impressed Kuala Lumpur clubbers.

A : How did you enjoy your first time playing in KL, and in Asia for that matter-
Timo Maas: "It was a fantastic night. I played for four hours instead of two and the crowd were totally up for it. I wasn't really expecting anything because I don't know the country and party mentality over here, but it was a really really good night."

Mezz : You went quite hard, dark, deep and evil quite early in the night too, didn't you-
Timo Maas: "Yes. I played very deep and dark last night. After 3 weeks holiday, I recently cleared out my record box and prepared a completely new set. It's really essential for me to be always one step ahead of everybody else. I'm also very restless, so, I always move on."

Mezz: You're well placed to see dance music's globalisation, how much do gigs differ from country to country -
Timo Maas: "Basically there's no difference. It's always a new experience every night you're doing it. It doesn't matter whether you already know the club or not. It's a new game every night you go out and play. I have residencies at Twilo and Cream but, always when I'm there, there's a different atmosphere and crowd."

Mezz : How comfortable are you with fame and all the attention it brings -
Timo Maas: "Sometimes it's scary. I've been doing this for such a long time but it's only in the last 18-20 months that my whole life has changed. I'm still trying to process the thought that my old life is never coming back. I miss hanging out with friends in private, but it's not possible anymore. The other side to it all is that, you get to see the world and you get paid for that. My job is having fun, basically, doing parties and I really enjoy what I do."

Mezz : How often do you find yourself in bizarre 'rock & roll' situations-
Timo Maas: " (laughs) Very often. There are some moments when you find two girls on your left arm, and two more girls on your right, and you're thinking, 'Fucking hell, what's going on here-' Basically, the whole of last year was rock & roll."

Mezz : How does the stardom trip compare to dropping a new Timo Maas production-
Timo Maas: "That's always the best thing you can have. I try out every track that I've worked on in the studio. The weekend after I've finished a track I'll always play the record and people don't know it's a record of mine. When it works well, wicked ! The next week we send it to the record company. So, the crowd is much more involved in the production process than they think. I check everything out on the crowd".

Mezz: You seem to be DJing more than ever, whereas previously you made 27 productions in 1999, what's going on with your production work right now-
Timo Maas: "We're working on my artist album which is the most essential thing at the moment. You can expect something different. I've got a couple of tracks ready. I brought some of these tracks with me. so yeah, the KL crowd experienced some new Timo tracks without even knowing it. We are also working with a vocalist as well but I can't tell you who yet, again it will be different from other dance producers' work. It's a different direction and you can expect these around September. Before that I'm releasing a mix compilation on Perfecto, called 'Connected'. And there's going to be my actual DJ set on an album, later this year."

Mezz: How tempted are you to make another Azzido Da Bass type track -
Timo Maas: " Nooooo..(laughs lou Tags

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