You might have heard people saying “You are living the dream when you are married to a Japanese wife, eat Chinese food and drive a German car.” Well, we beg to differ; according to us, you are living the dream when you are born in the 70s, amidst all that blues-inspired music, grew up seeing the world with a family of renowned tattoo-artists and travellers (the Leu Family) and also got to witness the embryonic years of electronic music.
Whose life are we speaking about? We are drawing instances from the life of psychedelic trance heavyweight Ajja. A successful musician, producer, DJ, label manager at Peak Records, graphic and tattoo artist – he has been there and done that. It’s interesting to see how he dons various avatars and doesn’t even flinch. We were fortunate enough to catch up with the legend himself and discuss things like growing up in a creative family, making music and much more. Courtesy ArtShanti.
Let’s start from the very beginning – we found out that you grew up seeing the world with your renowned family of tattoo-artists and travellers. Could you tell us how it was growing up in that environment? How did it shape your creative insight? Any fun anecdotes you might remember?
Some of my earliest memories are of Baga beach in Goa. My family was living there for about three years in the late seventies. My parents would tattoo people on our porch to earn a living, using heavy batteries taped together to get the proper power. I remember my sister, Ama, teaching me how to tie my shoelaces there… I had no socks and my sneakers were full of sand! Later when we moved back to Switzerland, the tattoo shop was actually in our living room. I would fall asleep every night to the sounds of tattoo machines and rock ‘n’ roll blasting away.
You took to the guitar soon after, and played in numerous bands, but you shifted to electronic music in the 90s. Any reason why you made the shift?
I was tricked into being a musician by my parents! When I was about nine or ten years old, they told me to pick an artistic field which I was to practice for one hour every day. The idea was to give me a way to earn an honest living anywhere in the world using only my abilities, without having to get a regular job, unless I wanted to. All my siblings were involved in drawing or tattooing at that point, which looked really hard, so I chose music on the mistaken assumption it would be easier. I soon realised that if I had a guitar in my hands, everyone seemed to forget to give me household chores. So I kept the guitar in my hands at all times, and at some point became proficient enough to enjoy what had begun mainly as a way to avoid work. It was only years later that I realised just what a gift my parents gave me by gently manipulating me into being a proficient player.
When I was about fourteen, I started to record my original songs on a four-track cassette tape recorder my parents gave me. A friend lent me a drum machine which I later discovered was one of the legendary 808s that were so influential in the electronic scene. I had no idea what it was (at the time), but I knew it sounded great. I used to put it on the floor so I could stop and start it with my toe while I played guitar and sang into the microphone.
I was always aware of what was called techno and Goa trance at the time, but wasn’t really into it. When I came for seasons in Goa during my teen years, I went to parties to dance and meet people like everyone else, but I didn’t really consider it a fully developed form of music. I was so into the guitar side of things that I was convinced that it was impossible to get the same soul and emotion from a machine. Much later, I realised that music is much deeper than any genre or label, and soul can be found in the most surprising places. It does help that we have much better technology these days.
At the end of the nineties, I had played in countless bands already, played music for money in the streets all around Europe, and had written and recorded more than 150 original songs. After a brilliant gig in The Palladium (Boston), where a group of talented musicians learned and played all of my old material with me, I decided that actually I didn’t want to be a band-leader or rock ‘n’ roll guitar guy anymore. I thought it put too much focus on me as a stage performer and not enough on my music in its own right. It seemed to me that the electronic world suited this concept better as there were no ‘bands’ as such, only music that was passed around and played and enjoyed by all. So I started to make little rhythms and songs by sampling or recording little loops or however I could, using guitars and real instruments, as the only electronic unit I had was a simple drum machine. Later I got a synthesiser, but I didn’t have a sequencer, so I would trigger it from the drum machine, producing random sounds that I would then jam over with my guitar.
One day, my friend Gaspard took me to a psy-trance party in Switzerland. I hadn’t been to an electronic party in quite a few years and was pleasantly surprised by the technological and musical advancements. Suddenly I felt that this was a musical genre that I could relate to. I thought that if I could learn how to make it, I would surely be able to express myself as I did on the guitar. I think it’s because the technology had advanced enough that you didn’t need to buy big, expensive bits of equipment that only made a few sounds or could hold only a few samples at a time. All you needed was a decent computer, and you could start happily banging away and experimenting. I fell in love instantly with the genre and have never regretted it.
Could you tell us a little about how and why you started The Peaking Goddess Collective?
The Peaking Goddess Collective is an ongoing experiment in organised chaos. I originally started it with my wife Tanya (Tanina Munchkina) and a group of friends. In the early days, none of us knew how to make a proper track, so we would just turn up with our equipment and instruments at the gig, plug everything in and start playing whatever loops we had managed to cobble together, synchronising everything by hand as we went, and hoping it would sound alright.
Now we are all firmly established solo artists and are much more used to the whole thing, so although it’s not as chaotic as the early days, we do try to keep that element of surprise in there, and all of our gigs are in essence organised jams. We never know exactly what we are going to play until we play it, which makes the whole thing risky, but also immensely enjoyable. The theory is that if you leave the possibility open for epic failure you also open the door for inspired moments of genius. You just can’t do that if you know exactly what is going to happen before you play it.
You also compose music for theater plays. How did that happen? How is composing music for plays different than other musical genres? What are the challenges like?
I’ve always loved music in all its forms and I’ve occasionally been involved in various stage shows during my career. A few times I’ve been lucky enough to compose the music for the plays I was involved in. I would be part of the show, usually presented on stage as a hired musician or such, and would have predefined spots where I would play live electronic or acoustic songs while the other actors danced or acted out scenes. It’s a great thing for a musician to do as it really teaches you about cues, timing and paying attention to the other people sharing the stage with you.
You also design covers for Peak Records with your partner Tanina Munchkina, design web applications and work as a tattoo artist in your family’s shop in Lausanne, Switzerland. Where do you get all the energy to do all this?
I have been running the Peak Records label with my wife, Tanya, for over a decade now. As we are both artists, it always seemed like a given that we would do all the artwork and graphics for the label. It’s one of the perks of running a label and we wouldn’t give it up for the world.
At the moment I’m not tattooing that much. It’s tough to keep a steady hand when you’ve been gigging the night before and have slept half an hour on the airplane back home. I am working a lot on software these days, as I can do that while I travel. So far I’ve built a couple of fully functional AU and VST effects and plan to launch a company soon to get them out to the world. The company’s mission statement is to make plugins or effects that will each do only a few things but will do them very well. The idea is to encourage budding young musicians by providing them with tools that are simple to understand and actually do what is advertised on the box.
How do you respond to people who tell you that they don’t have time?
Time is a funny thing. The best way to get more time is to live as close to the present moment as you can and fully experience life. When you spend too much time thinking about tomorrow or yesterday or wishing things were different, that’s all time you could be spending in the beautiful now.
Tell us a little about your songwriting style?
I tend to set up whatever sequencer I’m working with so that I can record whatever I happen to be working on as audio right away. What this means is that, instead of trying to create sounds in my head first and then replicate them with the machine, I use the machine as an instrument and just record a live take, just as I would with my guitar. My theory is that what people like and connect to in music is the human element. The best example of this is singers, as there are no barriers between them and the listener. I try to keep more of the original flavour in there and capture that magical moment of discovery.
A thing that you miss from your younger days?
I miss my father. We all get more experienced as we get older, and I have more perspective and reference points now. I often wonder what our conversations would have been like these days.
Your influences...
I grew up in a tattoo studio with music blaring all the time. It was a steady diet of rock, funk, blues, jazz, etc. I love artists like JJ Cale and The Grateful Dead, but also stuff like AC/DC and ZZ Top or George Clinton and Parliament. The earliest electronic stuff I really liked were things like The Orb, Leftfield and even some of the mainstream electronica from artistes like Björk and Prince.
Is technology changing the way we look at music these days?
Defnitely. There is an explosion of new artists and styles due to the ready availability of sample and preset banks. In the past, you had to own lots of samplers and keyboards and expensive equipment to be able to produce electronic music. Now, all you need is a good laptop and some patience or help from friends, and you can produce professional-level tracks from your bedroom studio. Also, there are a lot of online social media sites where people can upload their music now, so it’s entirely possible for young musicians to become well-known without having to compromise their integrity. Because people seem to use these sites as a sort of online scrapbook, it means that you get a fascinating glimpse into the minds of all these new artists, and can follow them as they learn more advanced writing and production techniques.
Things and aspects that you love about electronic music.
The absolute embracing of new technologies as they pop up. The willingness to experiment with new sonic palettes and try to discover new areas of sonic architecture. The feeling of a global culture that is linked through a common soundtrack that reflects all the aspects of its parts. Also, I’m a sucker for sampled voices that are tweaked out, there is just nothing funnier if you get it right… Also, you do get a chance to say something relevant with a sample. I don’t use many, but I think my favourite just says “I, friend.”
How would you describe your sound?
It’s always hard and not always a good thing to attach labels to things. On top of it, I’m an eclectic artist and have a lot of different musical hats I can wear, which doesn’t help things. At the moment, people seem to be appreciating my psychedelic trance set a lot. It’s kind of not too fast, but not too slow, not really melodic, but on the other hand not dark and scary. It’s very, very dance floor-friendly. The words groovy, funky, twisted and high-powered come to mind.
Things that Ajja would stand up for?
My father once gave me a painting he made that says – Truth, Integrity, Character. I think those are good values and I’ve always tried to live by them.
Your thoughts on life and its connection with music?
Everything in the world has a cycle and all music is comprised of periodically cycling sound waves. So everything in the world from a heartbeat to the changing seasons makes music. You just have to love that.
What are your future plans?
I’ve always been an eclectic musician and a serial multi-tasker, so you should be ready for anything! Almost ready is a full length electronic album for the world-renowned T.I.P. Records which will surprise my psy-trance fans in its wide scope. Everything from 80 to 156 bpm is in there, sometimes in the same track. I’m trying to create a complete psychedelic aural journey that isn’t restricted as much by today's dance floor dynamics and trends. I’m also working on a reggae album with one of the all-time greats… I can’t tell you who it is right now, but watch this space.
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