The Universal Religion ‘Know your Artists section is ablaze with excitement, as the Psychedelic space craft to the brilliance of one man never comes down. He is celestial with his sinewy take on Psychedelic. He is the ultimate experimental and vaporized rhythm master. A rush of reverence always precedes his name and a hush when he gets on to control our minds to a dimension unknown. So with much happiness we present the main protagonist of every beautiful Psychedelic story…
Ladies & Gentlemen..Ajja in an exclusive interview for the first time ever; where we embark on a journey to know more about not just a special human being but an artist whose truly chosen by god to entertain us with his brand of ‘Peakalogical’ grooves….
Hello Ajja Leu…delighted to have you at Universal Religion 2013; can you share with your fans where you were born and how you got in to the Djing scene?
Ajja- Hi Priya, I’m equally delighted to be a part of the festival again – I’ve already participated in three editions and can’t wait to be back!
I was born in London, although I have never lived much in the U.K as most of my early years were spent on the road traveling with my family. Coincidentally, we lived in Nepal for a while in the late seventies… in Swayambhu, if I recall correctly. Traveling has always been a big part of my life, as I was raised in the belief that it’s important to keep our minds stimulated with new experiences. I started to Dj with my friend Gaspard when we started the Yab Yum project in 2004. He had already been Djing for over a decade at that point, and I had been an electronic Funk, Blues and rock musician for even longer. Sharing our knowledge, we learned how to produce Psy-Trance together, playing at innumerable underground parties in Switzerland and releasing our first album in 2006.
What made you lean towards Psychedelic Trance, any influences in the early days that drove you to it?
Ajja- Having spent part of my childhood in Goa and coming from a family of freaks, I was always aware of parties and the Psychedelic movement. Although the early parties were driven by Live music, in later years I realized the importance of a good Dj and how it could influence the vibe. I must admit that at the beginning of what was then called Techno and later on Trance or Goa Trance, I didn’t like it very much. I was already an accomplished musician and didn’t understand why producers would limit themselves to such a restricted form of expression. I enjoyed it when I was dancing at the parties of course, but could never have imagined that I would want to produce it myself. What I did know was that I liked the intention of the music: the idea of a Trance rhythm that was manifested temporarily by the music and could be tapped into by the dancer, unifying the dance-floor on a very primal level.
It was only when I encountered Psychedelic Trance again in the late nineties that I grew interested in producing it. By then machines had evolved enough to make it an interesting form of expression, able to translate all the same subtleties as an acoustic or electric instrument. I think it’s because computers were able to handle audio files relatively easily by then, which exponentially increased the electronic sonic palette to infinity and beyond. There is a whole new generation of great producers that will never have to know the mind-numbing task of loading samples into an Akai, or step programming drum beats using an LCD display the size of a postage stamp, haha!
Not many people know that you are an accomplished Tattoo artist, do you still practice the art. Is it another face of Ajja when not Djing?
Ajja- I tend to make the distinction that I am a Tattooer, not a Tattoo artist… The difference is that Tattoo artists have given their life to the profession and always strive for greatness, while Tattooers are content with doing good clean work. I come from a family of Tattoo artists and my brother Filip Leu, is now one of the most respected names in the profession. I was never actually taught how to Tattoo as such, although I did Tattoo Oranges or my fingernails for fun when I was young. However, by my early twenties I had seen my parents and brother teach so many people that I had absorbed most of the basic theories. So at some point, when I needed to earn a proper living, I returned to Switzerland to the family studio and started working. I tattooed there for several years before my attention gradually shifted back towards music. These days, I don’t have much free time to dedicate to drawing for Tattoos, so I prefer to only work occasionally to ensure that I will be able to concentrate fully on the project at hand.
Did you ever play a musical instrument and or take any formal training in production or to Dj?
Ajja- I play Guitar and Bass professionally, can hold a basic drum beat down for a while, fake it on a Piano and get some sort of tune out of most instruments. Although I have never had any formal training, I’ve been a musician since I was a child. When I was nine years old, my parents asked me to pick a form of artistic expression, which I was to practice for at least one solid hour every day. I chose music. Soon I realized that, as long as I was playing Guitar, I wasn’t asked to do the dishes or other chores so I kept playing until eventually, I became proficient and started to enjoy and take pride in what I could do. So in this way, my parents gently manipulated me into learning that creativity is the act of focusing on the task at hand and dedicating time to it. I will always be grateful to them for this invaluable lesson. I have always loved Drum machines and anything electronic. When I was fourteen I started to record my own songs on anything I could find. I have owned countless Drum machines and hardware sequencers and samplers in my life, learning and loving every one of them and their quirks. This gave me a solid base in how to process samples, program a Drum beat and set up a sequence, before I hit the overwhelming possibilities of computers. I learned most of my Dj skills much later from Gaspard.
What is your role in Peak Records, how did it come about and are you happy with the way things are at the moment?
Ajja- Peak Records is a project I started in 2003 with my wife Tanina Munchkina and our friends Gaspard and Master Margherita. Our main intention was and still is to create a platform to release quality music and give young aspiring artists (ourselves amongst them) a chance to be heard by the international psychedelic community. It’s been a long road with many twists and surprising turns, and I wouldn’t recommend being a label owner to anybody that gets discouraged easily, but with over twenty releases of quality PsyTrance and Chill we’re very proud of what we have achieved so far.
Describe yourself in 5 words
Ajja- Very happy to be alive!
Is it a conscious decision to stay in the intelligent non-commercial musicality, borne out of let’s say to tell the Psychedelic world that one can make a success out of it without falling in to the regular chart topping mode?
Ajja- I’m not sure anything I do is a conscious decision haha! Actually, I think that kind of makes your point nicely if I can become well known just by making music that I enjoy, without consciously deciding to follow current trends and accepted formats, that means that anyone can. All you need to do is keep true to what you really like, and the odds are that someone will eventually hear it, appreciate it and show it to their friends.
Your thoughts of performing in Goa and Nepal during season, is it musically different from being in the rest of the world?
Ajja- It’s a wonderful opportunity to be in a place where there is such a concentration of good parties. It’s a great chance to test out new tracks and find new ways to recombine my material. Also, these are some of the most aware dancefloors that I have encountered. There is a wonderful mix of travelers and locals that have been listening to this style of music for years, and they aren’t easily impressed. In some ways, they give the most useful feedback because there is such an abundance of good music and regular parties there, so keeping the dancers interested can be a bigger challenge.
How did you come to be associated with the Universal Religion crew?
Ajja- I was first invited in 2009 to come and play at what was then called Mountain Madness. It was a great little festival a few hours from Kathmandu in a beautiful valley next to a river. I had such a good time there that I was more than happy to be part of it again. It’s been great to see the crew develop it over the years into what it is today.
How much time do you spend in your family run shop back in Ste-Croix, Switzerland; close to your heart?
Ajja- These days I’m in and out of the shop as I spend most of my time on music production and performing around the world. I do still manage to get some tattooing in and hope that I will always have time for that part of my life.
Which do you prefer the process of sitting in the studios and cooking up a tune vis a vis going for gigs around the globe?
Ajja- I enjoy both for different reasons. I love being in my studio making music because it’s one of the places where I’m entirely in my element exploring different ways of making sounds. The live performances are where I get to enjoy the fruits of my labor, and as a bonus make people happy. It’s a great feeling to see people letting their hair down on a dance-floor and being transported to another world for a while. It always fascinates me that music producers sit in studios, bedrooms, trains, planes or wherever pushing pixels around on a screen, which makes numbers on a hard-disk change from zeroes to ones, which causes the computer to produce certain sounds, which are then reproduced on massive sound systems and take on a whole new dimension. Just the sheer quantity of air displaced by the speakers staggers me sometimes.
What’s happening with music, can you share with us if you have plans for any releases this New Year?
Ajja- I tend to work in an eclectic manner on multiple projects simultaneously, I guess that’s because of my short attention span haha! I’m happily at work on my next solo album and can’t wait to have it ready though I can’t put a time frame on it. One of the interesting projects at the moment is a new live Guitars and PsyTrance set with Cosmosis. It’s based on the idea that Guitars played live by human beings can be an integral part of the 144 bpm range PsyTrance experience, without getting in the way. We realized that if you think of yourself as a human sequencer, you can fit into the groove of the track quite easily and actually enhance the trance experience by adding human variations to the pattern. We are trying to keep the guitars as funky and natural sounding as we can, without disturbing the PsyTrance lovers, although I must admit there are a few classic Rock’n’Roll moments in there just for the fun of it. There are also parts where the Guitars are more heavily processed and meld better with the track, and of course some really fun solo parts here and there. We have been recording all our live sets and soon will have enough material for what should be a surprising album for the Psy-community.
As far as Peak Records goes, the next PsyTrance release will be our first digital download only compilation, “Peakadelic”, compiled by Dj Amazon who has been one of our label Djs since the beginning. It will be followed by the debut album of my chill project with Cosmosis, recorded live in the H.R. Giger Museum in Switzerland. And later in the year there should be a collaborative album I’m getting together with all the interesting new tracks I’ve made with friends recently. There is also an album from Gaspard in the works, as well as one from our newest Peak artist Simiantics.
You will have had a full season in Goa and head to Universal Religion 2013 up in Nepal; how excited are you about this?
Ajja- I can’t wait to be back in Nepal on my way to Universal Religion. Its one of the festivals I really enjoy, partly for the beautiful location and the Nepal experience itself, but also because it’s such a nice crowd to play to. I’m always impressed by the amount of people that make the effort to come all the way out there to party.
Do you have any idea of the kind of respect and awe you inspire in Djs and clubbers alike; your take on the fame and adulation you’ve received over the years?
Ajja- I’m just happy that all the effort I put into my music is appreciated, thank you all very much! One of the joys of working in the Psychedelic genres is that people tend to really listen to the music that is playing, which usually makes their feedback very relevant and meaningful.
A birdie tells us that you are on the verge of reviving the spectacular Yab Yum project with an old partner Dj Gaspard, what are your thoughts behind this?
Ajja- Yes, we are happily working on a new Yab Yum album. It’s the project we started when we were learning how to make this style of music, so it’s really fun to be producing together again, using all the new knowledge we have acquired separately over the past few years. These days, our live sets are a big mash up of the new material we have produced so far and new remixes of our old classics. Also, it’s great to be working in a purely electronic duo again, as it allows a lot more brainpower to be spent on the live parts of the performance.
Could you also share with us the status of your ‘Peaking Goddess Collective’, what is the status of this four piece band? Is it under Peak Records and could you explain to us how different is it musically from the rest of the work you do?
Ajja- The Peaking Goddess Collective is a Live Trance and Chill project formed in 2003 that currently consists of Master Margherita, Flooting Grooves, Dymons and myself. Our setup is live Guitar, Flute, Bass, Percussion’s and Synths mixed with electronic Progressive or Downtempo beats. It’s a collective rather than a band, as we are all busy with our solo projects most of the time, so we tend to only come together for big festivals a few times a year. Over the years we have opened or closed dance floors at most of the major Psychedelic festivals in the world including Boom, Universo Paralello, Antaris, and this year Ozora. Amazingly enough we have only ever released one studio album, although we have enough recorded material in the vaults for at least five albums by this point, not counting live recordings from gigs.
To sign off, we are very curious to know as to what you would be doing if you were to take up an alternate profession?
Ajja- It’s very hard for me to imagine a life without music, Tattoos and graphics in it. I think I would probably end up being a street musician again, it’s a very honest way to make a living.
If you want to complete the Ajja story, you got to get up to this years edition of the festival at a brand new venue waiting in the wings…for each one of your presence..
Interview courtesy- Priya Sen
For more information on the event and artists follow the links below:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ajja/49408601989?ref=ts&fref=ts
https://www.facebook.com/universal.religion.nepal
https://www.facebook.com/groups/mountainmadnessnepal
Event link- https://www.facebook.com/events/455924434463144/
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