Well for our British readers today, everyone is enjoying a day off work for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. Apologies to the rest of the World…
We’re not going to get mixed up in the whole thing, we are just going to mark the occasion in our own way, with a real gem of an exclusive podcast and interview from the absolutely phenomenal Smash TV. Keep calm and get it on!

SMASH TV

Hello Kai and Holger aka Smash TV and welcome to SHA. How are you guys today?
We’re great, how are you?

We’re great too thanks! First up, your name. Many of our older community will fondly remember the arcade game Smash TV which was ported to Nintendo and Sega about a futuristic game show that involved ultra-violence for a chance to win prizes. The term can also simply refer to junk television. Where does the origin of the name stem for you?
Simple as that: because we used to be and sometimes still are the most addictive tv junkies in the world. It s a love/hate thing.

With that in mind, what TV shows would you recommend at the moment?
HOLGER: I don t really watch tv shows. Big Bang Theory can be fun but I’m more the movie type .I like trashy monster movies like ‘The Thing’, ‘House Of 1000 Corpses’, ‘Event Horizon’ or ‘Bad Taste’

KAI: I recommend watching every game of the Euro ’12 of course!! Apart from that, I really like Luther, Sherlock, UFC/ K1 and the Bundesliga.

Originally Smash TV was Holger alone with Kai joining in a more background, silent role in 2001 before eventually stepping into the forefront as a duo. How did you guys first meet?
KAI : We started working in 2002 when Holger was doing the ‘Bits for Breakfast’ Album for BPitch Control. He hired me as a studio guitar player and we got along so well that we really didn’t have a choice…

HOLGER: Actually we have known each other forever but this was kind of our first steps together in music

What were your childhoods like? Have you always been interested in music and planned to make a career out of it?
HOLGER: I had keyboard lessons when I was a kid. That led me to the idea of creating own sounds with a synthesizer. I was mainly interested in the technical point in doing my own tracks. The first techno parties in berlin did the rest.

KAI: I started getting classical guitar lessons at the age of 8, I always wanted to become a rrofessional football player though, but I’ve never really been a ‘to-plan’ type guy anyway…

You have been blessed to be associated with and championed by some of the biggest labels around, Bpitch Control and Get Physical in particular. How were the links with these labels established?
HOLGER: This all happened by accident. Ellen Allien was searching for a producer in 1999 and we had a friend in common who introduced us. We did a lot of tracks together and I had the chance to show her my music. This was the beginning of Smash TV on BPitch.

The first contact with Get Physical was quite funny. Of course I knew the label and the M.A.N.D.Y guys for years but I never actually thought about sending them some tracks. Don t know why.

So 2/3 years ago I had a gig in Frankfurt and I decided to take my car to it. Two guys came to me and asked me about a ride to Berlin the next day. All the flights has been cancelled because of a vulcano eruption and they stuck in Frankfurt because of this. So I drove the guys back to Berlin and it turns out they where working for Get Physical. Through this we found out that M.A.N.D.Y really liked and played our releases. They asked us for new tracks and now we are happy to be part of it

I have heard you describe your productions as poetry. Can you elaborate on this?
Making music is the ideal means of expression for us, almost like therapy. We really get miserable if we can’t work in the studio. All productions resemble our mood, thoughts and feelings in an abstract format, giving the listener the chance to project their own on the music.

With a massive back catalogue of productions, how do you keep your music sounding fresh and what inspirations do you draw from?
Our music is mainly inspired by the people we meet on the weekend and the experiences we make with them. Sometimes it is a certain moment, the atmosphere or just somebody being beautiful but the key is that we simply have a lot of fun in the studio.

Your recent EP, Matthew Pervert was released on Get Physical on April 16th. Tell us a bit about this release and its unique name?
The Matthew Pervert EP was written under the influence of last years Get Physical Sonar closing party at Macarena Mar in Barcelona which was really amazing….. try not to miss this year’s at Fact Music Pool (Piscinas Municipales)

..So who Is Matthew Pervert? Well, imagine you’re at a party and everything is perfect, you just got the right amount of drinks or whatever and then you go for 5 shots of Jaegermeister!! Chances are high you become Matthew Pervert – everybody is on the M.P. tip from time to time…

When you dj you play live sets you utilise various equipment like NI maschine, controllers and drum machines. You have clearly embraced the digital age although I believe you still play vinyl on occasion. What is your take on the difference in a dj set now to 10 years ago ?
When we play live we use a lot of gear, drum machines , effects processors, controllers etc. We want that the people see a connection between the knobs we are turning and the music. So no computer mouses for us.

For dj sets we only use vinyl and cds. The main difference is that that we use more cds than we used to, simply because a lot of good music doesn’t come out on vinyl anymore. We are still big supporters of vinyl, its also really important for us that our releases are still released on wax.

Finally, what else is in the pipeline for the rest of the Year?
There’s a lot coming:

First up will be remixes for Surrealism on Suara, for the Cheapers feat. Meggy on Bar25 and for Reptile Youth on HFN Music. We are working on tracks for the 10 years Watergate compilation, one with Kiki and one with Red Robin. We just finished a gem, we a really happy with, which is supposed to be a single on our homebase, Get Physical Music. Plus Nico from Nôze asked us to do a release on Circus Company, something we a really excited about and start working on just now.

And then there is our album for Get Physical, the Big Project… It’s supposed to be out end of this year, beginning of the next.

SHA PODCAST 169 // SMASH TV by Shadigital on Mixcloud

TRACKLIST
1. The Calling – Black Van
2. Missing Love – The Mekanism
3. Yesterday and Today – Monty Luke
4. Rough Beat (Alexkid RAW beat)- Giuseppe Aiello
5. Into Your Eyes – Colombo & Ante Perry
6. Worst Love (Fritz Zander Remix) – Robosonic
7. Make it Good (Larry Head Vocal dub) – Tennis
8. El cacique ( German Brisante Remix) – Scott Mendez
9. Tessin (Kink’s Raw Dub) – Fanatico
10. The Next Level feat. Roland Clark – Luna City Express
11. Amballo – Nick Curly
12. Cow Palace – Session Victim

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