In March 2010 German DJ and producer duo AKA AKA took a stab at history, joining forces with career musician Thalstroem to bring the trumpet into the electronic music world.

Thus one of the more engaging live shows these days was born.

With a DJ set coming up in a couple weeks at Nature One, we caught up with Hannes & Holger and picked their brains on issues facing electronic music today.

What is it about working as a duo (and often trio) that's appealing to you?

In the studio it's putting different ideas together to form something new which none of us would have accomplished solo, on stage it's the dynamics which make it flow and while travelling it's for sure to have somebody to accompany you who you can rely on. Of course it's always more appealing to party not only with strangers but friends.









I obviously have to ask about the dance music trumpet. To my knowledge there isn't a whole lot of history to this pairing, but I could be wrong. What's the secret to making it work?

We also think that we as a trio were the first to bring it to the big electronic music festivals. When we met David (Thalstroem) who already plays the trumpet for 30 years, we just tried it out on stage and it just blew off the roof of Watergate, so we transferred this to the big stage.





A lot of electronic acts struggle to make compelling albums. Why do you think that is?

If you see electronic dance music literally as what it is, it's music to dance to. A lot of people like to dance at their homes where you normally listen to an album but the majority doesn't, so some producers just focus on the one or the other and either produce a club album or a home listening album.





Your albums, on the other hand, work well as set pieces. How does your approach to creating an album differ from a DJ or live set?

It's not so different at all. When we play a live show, we try to harness the energy of the audience and work with it. You can't push it to the limit if you don't give time to calm down and re-focus, so finding the balance in this is the key for both playing a live set and putting together an album.







In your experience where are people sloppier, at the club or at a festival?

When being at a good festival you probably stay for some days and along comes the need for a shower and a good night sleep. In our younger days we could go on for days without giving in to this need so we totally understand that a festival is not the place for bouquet scents. But in a way it's probably for the best... going home after three days of partying and having a shower is probably one of the best feelings in the world. Here in Berlin there are plenty of clubs where you can do that, so we couldn't decide if there would be a difference.





Does your approach between a festival and a club set differ?

Mostly it depends on the length of the set which is normally quite longer in a club and more time means more possibilities to try out something new. We are happy that we are both club and festival DJs as the one can't exist without the other in our opinion as they influence each other greatly. At the festival you learn to bring a set on point, in the club you learn to let go of the need to bring it on point. Yin and Yang!





Do you think EDM deserves more or less respect than it gets?

Does EDM get any respect? Just joking... we are very open to any style of music and scene as long as it's not negative or even destructive, even if we can't stand listening to it for a minute. So basically we don't care at all about EDM, doesn't hurt if it goes up or down as long as the other variations of electronic music don't suffer from it. Live and let live!











Electronic music has undoubtedly influenced all popular music genres and yet remains somewhat removed from the mainstream music discourse. Why do you think that is? And do you think this helps or hinders club culture?

Our impression is that electronic music had it's biggest hype in the last decade and now abates into its niche where the protagonists still can roam freely in their cosmos without fearing being hunted by fans or the press. We don't fear the mainstream as it's always good to bring new people to our scene as long as it doesn't spoil the integrity of the scene which is pretty strong in our eyes, especially within the many sub-scenes within electronic music culture.





When do we get to hear some new music from you guys?

We just released our new single "Home" with Moguai and there will be a big remix EP coming up this summer. Now we are working on a vocal track with the young and over-talented singer Maxit from Austria which is in the final state of production. Also we put together some ideas which could result in an album but we don't want to push it too hard and let it develop by itself, so no promises when it will be ready.

Nature One 2018 takes place 3-5 August in Kastellaun, Germany. Find more info on our guide and book your festival experience here.