Unpacking the Name, the Music, and the Global Stage with PAAX
Nico & Ger Discuss Mayan Roots, Evolving Sound, and Their Exciting Tour Schedule
PAAX is an Argentinian duo formed by German Wagener and Nicolás Damonte, known for blending the precision of electronic production with the warmth of live, organic rhythms influenced by their Latin heritage. Their name, derived from the Mayan word for “to make music,” mirrors their philosophy of uniting hand-played intimacy with club energy, resulting in a sound that is both unique and globally resonant. With performances at renowned venues like Berlin’s Sisyphos and Ibiza, residencies at Scorpios in Mykonos and Bodrum, and collaborations alongside Hernán Cattáneo, Monolink, and Bedouin, they’ve reached wide audiences and surpassed 50 million streams. Their 2025 schedule spans festivals such as UNTOLD, Caprice, BPM, and Primavera Folk, along with shows across South America, Europe, and beyond, reinforcing their identity as musical travelers who treat each performance as part of an ongoing dialogue between cultures, rhythms, and traditions.
PAAX talks to 6AM about the meaning behind their name, the cultural encounters that shape their sound, their approach to remixing, and the upcoming tour stops that mean the most to them.
Hi PAAX! Thanks for taking the time to talk to our audience. How are you doing?
Thank you very much for taking the time to do this interview. It's a pleasure to be here. Everything is fine here, we are a little tired but happy, the European summer season is coming to an end here...and we are already organizing everything for the coming months, which will also be quite intense.
For those that don’t know, your duo name comes from the Mayan word meaning “to make music.” Why did you guys decide to choose a Mayan term? Other than the obvious fact that you guys make music, what about the phrase “to make music” resonated with your artist’s project? What’s the deeper meaning behind your name?
When we started the PAAX project, we had already been living in Mexico for many years, and we always loved the culture of each region. At that exact moment, we were based on the Mayan Riviera. The inspiration and musical creation were constant; we spent practically the entire day making music in the apartment where we lived together.
So when we started thinking about the name, we basically asked ourselves two questions: What do we do all day? Music. So we searched for “making music” in Maya, and PAAX came up. We loved it, but we couldn't use it because at that time, we couldn't register just PAAX because the trademark was already registered. So we said... OK, let's add something else, and that's where the second question came in: Where did we discover this style of music ? (which until then was quite unknown to us) In Tulum. So that's where the name comes from.
You’ve played everywhere from Sisyphos in Berlin to residencies in Mykonos and Bodrum. Especially since your music has Latin roots but incorporates various cultures, has there been a specific moment in one of these places that shifted how you thought about your music, maybe even changed how you approached your productions afterward?
We would rather say that we are the ones with Latin roots, and when we create music, it depends a lot on the mood we are in. We either go in that direction or toward something more electronic and profound.
Our music is constantly changing and growing with us, with every trip, with every different culture we encounter and learn about. That, and the more than 20 years we've been in the industry, allow us to adapt to the very different places where we DJ.
We also have an added bonus: our band, in which we play our music 100% with new versions adapted to how we feel at that moment live.
Your remix of Ella Romand’s “Pachamama” is out now. Remixes can sometimes overshadow originals or, in other cases, simply add another shade. How do you see your “Pachamama” remix in dialogue with Ella Romand’s original mix — as a continuation, a reinterpretation, or something entirely separate?
When we make remixes, we usually just take one or two sounds and make a completely new track. If you listen to any of our remixes, you'll see that they're nothing like the originals. Obviously, if the original track has vocals, that's what we use (as in this case) and some other sound that we like. In this case, we had generally made a completely different version that was much relax, but after coming back from playing at the Untold Festival in Romania, we arrived with our energy levels very high and started trying out another version, and this was the one that finally came out :)
As for the near future, this year you’re mapping a path across South America, Mexico, Panama, Turkey, the Mediterranean, and back to Argentina. When you look at that schedule, which stop feels the most meaningful to you personally, and why? Are there any places on that route that you’ve never been to?
We love all the places we go to. If we have been there before, we are looking forward to reconnecting with all the people we met, and it feels more like a family atmosphere. And if we go to a new place, we arrive full of curiosity and eager to connect with the place and the people there.
On the following dates, we will be in Mexico at two places we have been before and love, Vagalume in Tulum and Anyma in Puerto Vallarta, and from there we will go to Bocas del Toro in Panama, to a festival called Adsidera, which we have never been to before, where Mita Gami, Sebastien Leger, and Nick Warren, among others, will also be performing. From there, we're off to Argentina, where we'll have a pretty busy tour in several provinces, including the SUNSETSTRIP Festival in Mendoza, where we'll be warming up for Hernan Cattaneo.
Thank you so much again for taking the time. Is there anything else you would like to add?
Thank you very much for the interview!
On our end, we will continue with many releases in the coming months and spend a lot of time in the studio when we take a break. We hope to meet readers somewhere in the world to have fun together.