LUCKY 7: ZOO BRAZIL

John Andersson aka Zoo Brazil lives on the outskirts of Stockholm, Sweden. His studio is just a hop, skip and jump away in the city, or in the summertime he can take a chilled cycle jaunt through the park to get there. Every day is a day in the studio for John, where he’ll be doing what he does in a superlative fashion, producing and remixing the kind of lustrous tech house, trance-tinged music he’s known for, and in recent years has been nominated for – that’ll be a US Grammy and a BRIT award.


His second artist album ‘Any Moment Now’ is out now through Blackhole Recordings. It’s a dazzling release, blending some cool collaborators — Ursula Rucker, Roland Clark, Rasmus Kellerman and Philip — into the mix. It’s followed by an inspired flood of releases on Defected, Sci+Tec, Deeperfect, Turbo, Stealth and 303Lovers. Number three is half way there and practically in the bag, and he’s currently finishing up a ‘hush hush’ band project. His music collection is an all-embracing one and puts him in a good position to reveal to DJ Mag his Lucky 7...

What’s the track that really sums up your childhood?

“One of the songs that takes me back there would be KLF ‘What Time Is Love?’, the original mix. I think I was 12 then. I remember the video when it came on TV, it was hypnotic and it got me really excited about club music, because at the time I was listening to a lot of pop music like Depeche Mode and Front 242. My uncle had a punk rock band and he had released a few records, so that was a big inspiration for me, and he was like a hero that had 7-inch vinyls, and that was quite mind-blowing for me. If he could do a record, I could do a record.”

What was the first record that you ever bought?

“It was actually Depeche Mode ‘Master And Servant’, I still have it, a yellow limited-edition 12-inch with an Adrian Sherwood remix, I think. I bought everything by Depeche Mode when I was a kid, bootlegs and everything. I have about 300 Depeche Mode records. I must have been eight or something, and I recall I couldn’t really understand the Adrian Sherwood remix, it was very dubby and very strange for my ears as a kid, and it still is now. I recall the first record I was given as a present was a Kiss record, I think it was from my Auntie, and at the time I thought it was quite cheesy.”

What’s the most embarrassing record in your collection?

“I don’t know really. Maybe it’s the Kiss one. I have a lot of worse ones than that. I used to like a lot of Italo disco, but I’m not embarrassed. I don’t have any Lady Gaga or Britney Spears records. I guess the Kiss one. Sometimes I really like bad records as well, you can always find something good with them. I think I have all my records for a reason."

The track that’s guaranteed to make you cry?

“I think Kate Bush ‘Cloud Busting’, because I did actually cry when I was a kid listening to that track when it was on the TV, and that was emotional for me. That song is such an amazing song, especially when you see the video.”

What’s an album that you’re currently listening to?

“I haven’t really bought anything new recently, but at the moment I’m listening to a lot of '60s krautrock. I really, really like it, there are some groups called Can and Neu! and Guru Guru, it’s very hypnotic and it has this kind of freedom feel about it that I like. It was mostly from West Germany in the late '60s. That’s what I’m listening to a lot right now.”

What’s the most valuable record in your collection?

“It must be my Uncle’s punk record. The band was called Epidemi, that’s a typical punk rock name. I also really like the KLF records and I’ve listened to them a lot. Or I would say my own records as well.”

What’s your all-time favourite track of all-time?

“Probably Kate Bush ‘Cloud Busting’, or Roxy Music ‘Avalon’ perhaps is my favourite one. I think it’s so timeless, the production is really smooth and beautiful, I think it always works. You probably can play that one in a German techno club and at the same time you can play it in front of the open fire with your loved one. I think it will sound great in a million years as well.”