Timo Maas has been called a master of reinvention – a DJ never afraid to embrace new musical direction.

Having found mainstream success in 2000 with his remix of Azzido Da Bass’s Dooms Night, Maas found himself in the big league – remixing everyone from Madonna to Depeche Mode. However, he suddenly stopped releasing music for several years – eschewing the big names to re-appear in 2008 with the technoheavy Subtellite.

“I wanted to surprise people. I was going through a lot of changes in my life,” says Maas. “No matter how commercially successful I was, I always wanted to do more club music – I never played my biggest hits at my gigs and I was always looking for the latest music and fresh sounds.”

This desire to create fresh sounds led to another U-turn in musical style for his latest compilation Balance 017.

“Again, it certainly wasn’t what everyone expected, but when did I ever cater to other people’s expectations?” he asks. “It’s important to make good music rather than mixing the Top 20 together and getting a number one in the charts – that would be too easy for me and I never like to take the easy option.”

With a new studio album in the pipeline (“It’s somewhere between electronica, club and rough pop”) Maas is clearly ready to astound his fans once again – citing such extremities as a Skunk Anansie gig and a Mahler recital performed by the Vienna Philharmonic as recent live influences.

“I always keep my mind open to music,” he explains. “It could be the b******* you hear in the supermarket… maybe some old track has a loop that I love and it unexpectedly triggers something in my brain.”

Incredibly, the German DJ and producer has been behind the decks for nearly 30 years – something Maas believes is the key to his success.

“I’ve learnt a lot over the years and I put that experience into my live show. I’m not a Superman who clicks three mouse buttons at the same time to program his set – the music always matters, not the technical skills,” he says. “Without good music, nobody dances – it doesn’t matter what tricks you’re doing or how many laptops you’ve set up.”