What are your main influences and how did you start making music ?
Lali Puna was founded as a fourtrack-soloproject in 1998 and soon developed into a full band. Lali Puna has got influences from many directions reaching from Young Marble Giants, My Bloody Valentine, Laurie Anderson, Stereolab to Kraftwerk, Mouse On Mars and Aphex Twin to Team Dresch, Le Tigre and then to Songwriters like Smog and Bonnie Prince Billie.

How did you meet ?
We come from the same circle of friends.

How did you work on the last album ?
With "faking the books" we definetly wanted to do a musical step. one thing was that we decided to include more guitars. the songs are more uptempo, the music is more direct than on the first two records. that comes also because we developed as a liveband, we played a lot live for the last record and we wanted to include that on the album. it was quite a long way, the recordings took three times as long as i thought, but we are very satisfied now.
Your last album seems to be more pop and even Rock from previous works.

How did you work on the last album ? do you have any comments ? Are you going to include a guitarist in the line up ?
We played some shows with a guest-guitarplayer. His name is Max Punktezahl and he is also playing on the record. But he can't play the whole tour with us. So normally the guitars come from the computer, which I think is quite funny - we're still more an electronic band than a rockband.

Where are you seeking for inspiration ?
Could be pretty much everything: Books, movies and other music of course.

Is there any reasons why the last Lp seems to be less « shy » more direct than the 2 others ?
I think that comes mainly from the voice, but also the songwriting itself has changed. I needed a long time to have the selfconfidence to sing. On the other records the voice is really used as an instrument, that changed.
Morr Music has a very strong identity from a "designing image"point of view via the work of Jan ; are you participating actively on the artwork choice linked to the band (records covers, photos ..) Yes, Jan does all the MorrMusic covers but every artist has the right to make suggestions. It was a long way to find the cover from Faking the books - and now it seems so easy. The photos aren't done by Jan. We made them with two photographers we're friends with. We always think a long time on things like that.

What do you like with Morr music label ? We're friends with Thomas for a long time. So he is the first reason we like the label. But he also has got a good musical taste and he just works with people he likes. He does the label because he likes the music - not because he wants to hit the big thing. I like that.

What are your relationships with the other artists of the label ? (Ms John Soda, B. Fleishman..) ?
We're friends with the most artists on the label. Some through the label, some like MS John Soda, we know for a long time. Micha from MS John Soda is the brother of Markus for example. Steffi and me were already in a band together before.

Do you think you are belonging to a particular german electro scene and how do you explain this hype around it ?
I guess we belong at first to the scene of bands including Notwist, Console and MS John Soda - it's circle of friends. And then of course we feel related to bands like Tarwater, To Rococo Rot, Donna Regina, Wunder. There are of course other scenes like Kompakt, A-Musik, the Berlin-Electroclash-thing - and if you take alltogether it really looks like a german-elektro-hype, but from the inside it doesn't feel like it.

What are the last bands who impressed you on stage ?
Wilco and LCD Soundsystem

What are bands or artists appearing in this year Benicassim line up you would like to meet and why ?
I want to see: Kraftwerk of course. The Pet Shop Boys. LCD Soundsystem, Belle & Sebastian (which I have already seen the last time they played there), Morissey, Kings of Leon, Wire. I would like to meet the guy from LCD Soundsystem and tell him that his concert at All Tomorrows Parties was one of the best i have ever seen. But i don't know if I want to meet anybody of the big stars. It would make sense to interview them (I worked long time as a journalist), but just like that - what other thing than small talk would it end in?

Are you preparing something special for the Benicassim gig ? What will be the line up ?
It will be the same line-up as always: Four people: drums, bass, keyboards, electronics and vocals.

Do you like playing in Festival ? If yes why ?
We got used to it. And as we try to just play the nice festivals like Benicassim, La Route du Rock, Pukkelpop (although not this year) we really like it. That are the festivals which are well organized, have a well chosen line up. They are good to play because they have an audience which is interested and it normally sounds good. But there are a lot of festivals where it just seems like a supermarket of bands and where you are also treated like that.

Have you ever played in Benicassim ?
No, but I was there with The Notwist some years ago.

Where was your last holidays ?
I almost can't remember. Must be a long time ago... But we had some free days when we played in Lisbon this year - that was like holidays, too short ones though.