1. You spent a lot of time living in Santa Fe New Mexico. That's a big change from your new home here in Berlin. Do you see similarities between the cities or is it the complete opposites that drew you to make the move?

The decision to move was really based on the desire to be in a place where the music I loved was being created and performed and that the culture around it was allowed to exist. During my first summer in Berlin I saw a whole other possibility, where what I wanted to do and be a part of was not treated as an illegal activity to be squashed and shut down at all costs. Which at this point in the States is absolutely the case. So much of my energy in Santa Fe was consumed in just making space for the party to happen. I got here and thought hallelujah that's just something I don't have to think about, and consequentially I have ended up making much more and better music.

On the other hand because it was more of a rare treat in Santa Fe the parties we're full of people really excited to have the opportunity to get down for real, here in Berlin so much is happening all the time that people take on a little more of a nonchalant attitude. The thing I miss the most about Santa Fe beyond all my people there is the outdoor parties in the summer under the stars. It's still my favorite context for this music. Pure magic.

What fascinates me about Berlin is that it is a city where people are drawn together by their choices, musical and otherwise. There's so much of the music here that the conversation can get very specific musically and in turn in the culture around the music. And ultimately it's a hub for the generation of the language of underground dance music, new syntax and vocabulary added every night.

2. Your bio mentions "living in a tipi", listening to "classical Indian music" and recently performing as part of the Bar 25 family. Would you consider yourself a spiritual person?

Very much so. For me it comes down to a pretty simple choice in every moment of love over fear. My parents are both artists and spiritual people, so from an early age I saw those two parts of myself as intertwined. Growing up around people meditating, meditating myself and living on an ashram are things I'm very thankful for, but later on in life I realized that I needed more booty in my spirituality.

For me it was the feeling that it's an innately spiritual thing to dance and make music. Something us humans have been doing for a very very long time. Something we crave to do together and in the best moments have collective ecstatic experiences on the dancefloor, whatever words we end up using to describe them.

I lived in a tipi for awhile in the mid-nineties when I was deep in the first throws of my love for house and techno, playing bass in bands and really looking for a quiet other side of the coin to balance the intensity of the parties. It was an idyllic time and I loved living in a circular space not surrounded by electrical current.

It's interesting that you would bring up Bar 25 in the context of spirituality, some would call it ultimate hedonism and a place of escape. But it's really a place where you choose the experience you want to have, for some it's just being wasted for others it's about deeply connecting with other awake human beings and celebrating being alive. For me it's been a place where I've met some of my closest friends and a nexus of conversation around how a very intimate experience can be shared by a large number of people.

3. After working with some of Hip Hop's big dogs (Saul Williams, Mike Ladd, Rob Sonic, Mos Def) you switched to underground dance music. What prompted such a drastic change?

Well when I moved to New York and landed in that scene working at Ozone (a studio and label/management company) I had just come from living in the aforementioned tipi and dancing at warehouse parties and beginning to experiment with the possibilities of joining my live music bass player side with electronic dance music. So it was really a perfect place and time to dive into programming on an MPC 2000 and experimenting with these ideas in the studio and on stage with other musicians, MCs, and DJs that also were blurring the genre lines looking for a synthesis to express that moment in time. And out of that experience I started to play my first live sets based on the material I would create late at night after my hip hop sessions. They definitely saw me as a very west coast party kid, kind of a novelty at first but then it became apparent that we spoke the same language rooted in the dance floor so it worked out just fine.

4. Many people know "Walker" as a bass player. Do you incorporate the live bass in your Techno performances and productions?

I've been playing bass for 20 years now, so it's really my point of origin in music whether I'm literally playing bass or not. After my time in New York playing bass in live/electronic bands I stepped away from it to focus more on production and programming. These days I'm using quite a bit of bass and other live instruments in my tracks, and have a few projects on the horizon where I'll be playing bass in a live context.

5. What dose the future look like for Walker release wise and what big plans do you have for 2011?

I have a handful of releases coming out before the end of the year. A five track EP on New York label Thema with a remix by Jin Choi, a two track EP on Adjunct [a]pendics.shuffle's label with remixes by Ryan Crosson, Big Bully and Clovis from Culprit. And then a collaboration with Agaric on We Are as one of the next ClubTracks releases. And then starting 2011 off with another collaborative release on District of Corruption with Santos Resiak and Sebastian Herre. And those are just the ones I can talk to you about now.

In the next few months I'll also be starting a new series of parties with my partners Beaner and Sylvie Fôret that will happen once every 6 weeks here in Berlin at some of the venues your all familiar with and a few new ones as well.

And beyond that just helping to generate the feeling and reality that the universe is a friendly place and we will still be dancing and carrying on well after 2012… ;-)

Artist of the Week:Walker Barnard will air Tuesday Oct 5th at 18:00, with repeats Wednesday at 12:00, and Saturday at 10:00.