Variety is the spice of techno life for Thomas Schumacher. The German producer and DJ, best known for such worldwide hits as 'When I Rock' and 'Schall', has always been one to mix up his music and is doing this on his current Australian tour and new release, 'Come Right on Time'.

"I started out pretty early, in 1989 and 1990, and back then there was no separation of styles, between house, techno, breaks," Schumacher says. "I like different styles myself and I don't know why I can't mix them up. As a DJ it also gives me more freedom because I can stretch the boundaries."

Schumacher's most recent exercise of stretching the boundaries is performing on tour with a singer, Australia's own Caitlin Devlin. The pair met at a restaurant on one of Schumacher's tours downunder about two and a half years ago. They have now combined to record 'Come Right On
Time' under the ELK banner. "Recording took about eight months and since then we have been promoting it
in Germany," Schumacher says.

Now the couple are spreading the word downunder. Schumacher DJs for the first part of the show, is joined by Devlin for a live set, then spins some of his older tracks and does some mash-ups to conclude, including a mix of Depeche Mode's 'Tainted Love' and 'Schall'.

"I've toured Australia every year since about '98, it's always been a place that's been good for me," he says. "On this tour, the response at the shows in Melbourne and Perth have been great. I think people have appreciated that we are trying to do something different. There's a real sense that people have been waiting for something new.

"The mash-ups go down well. And I've noticed that some people are too young to remember the originals. For example, I use parts of Technotronic's 'Pump Up The Jam' which people have said sounds great but they don't realise it's an old song."

Schumacher's love of a wide variety of music is in evidence in his Perlen series of mix CDs. "The word 'perlen' means pearls, and the tracks are the pearls from the past couple of months, what's been in my record box. Of course, it is sometimes a challenge as to how I can mix together some of the tracks because they are so different."

Perlen 2 is a case in point, with Schumacher blending together artists as diverse as DJ Rush and Chicks On Speed. His most recent, Perlen 3, has a more deep house feel, while Perlen 4 is already being considered.

"With the fourth one I will mix it on a new software system called Ableton Live, which allows you to manipulate old songs and change their speed. It allows you to do so much more."

One of the things Schumacher enjoys about Australia is its breadth and different tastes in music, something he finds is a mirror of his native land.

"In Germany you can go to country areas and they like their banging techno. Then you can go to somewhere like Berlin and they are very open-minded and like different styles," he says. "That's the good thing about Germany. It is so big and diverse, and I think
Australia is the same, only of course the market is not as big."

After Australia, Schumacher and Devlin head north, to another part of the world that has been good to them - Japan. "I've been there about five or six times and released a couple of albums on Sony there," he says. "I've also got friends now in Tokyo, just like I have here in Australia, so that always makes it fun."

"What I love about Japan in particular is that drugs don't really matter. They don't even drink much. I think that is because they work so hard and so when they go to a club it is a chance for them to really let themselves go, enjoy themselves. In clubs elsewhere it's great when the crowd goes nuts when you're doing a big breakdown and the bass drops in. In Japan, they can go nuts for about half an hour. It's a big buzz when you think that sort of reaction is not chemically based."

And after Japan? "Our next country is France, which we will be touring in March and April. I'll also bring out a mix CD for France called 'Got Milk', and we'll keep touring until late in the summer, doing all the big festivals in Europe."

Thomas Schumacher will present an award at the Dance Music Awards in Sydney on Wednesday, November 12 and plays at Gas in Sydney with Caitlin Devlin on Saturday, November 15.