On "Earthly Powers" Phillip Boa And The Voodooclub once again prove their knack for innovative sounds and wonderfully catchy melodies. Despite the farewell to co-singer Pia Lund in 2014, the indie icon has also been riding a wave of recognition for several years now: the concerts are well attended, the albums can compete with Boas classics from the early nineties. We met the German cosmopolitan for a conversation about the present and the past.
eclipsed: You've been very active again recently: a new album every two years, a CD retrospective in 2016, and the unplugged album before that. Do you feel you are passing the Boa legacy on to a younger generation while developing yourself?
Phillip Boa: Will I pass on my inheritance? No, I don't think so. Let's face it, the young people are interested in a different kind of music and don't start to discover me now. Besides, I don't care, I'm more interested in developing myself. And I'm on a run, the concerts are very well attended again, and the records sound really great again. There was a phase, between 2000 and 2010, when that was not the case, when I simply continued - albeit at a high level. But there was no development. Don't get me wrong, I stand by every single song I wrote, but the band wasn't always so inspired. And neither am I on the high level I expect of myself.
eclipsed: The new record sounds fresh, exciting and above all very detailed. How did you take her?
Boa: As I've always done, I can't record anything else, like at home alone on a laptop. I need a real studio, a high quality mixer, a good producer and skilled musicians. I see myself less as a brilliant musician than as a director. I have a good ear for the sound and can only realize myself in the right environment. I also attach importance to working with really good people, even when mixing. Eroc still often mixes my stuff, it used to be Tony Visconti, with whom I would love to work again.
eclipsed: And your special feeling for wonderfully catchy melodies, which has always accompanied you, has not left you at "Earthly Powers" either..
Boa: I can write catchy melodies. And believe me, that's a blessing, but it's also my greatest fear. It has happened so often that the record company immediately threw themselves at these melodies because they always saw the hit right away. But I don't want to be a hit supplier.
