Timo Maas may be dance music's new Superman, but he seems perpetually stuck as Clark Kent. Polite, soft-spoken, and-dare we say it?-humble, he lacks any trace of the superstar-DJ mentality. Could this really be the man Britain's Mixmag magazine called "the biggest thing to hit dance music since the invention of legs?" But even if his down-to-earth personality doesn't befit a big-name DJ, his music certainly does. His most recent release, Music for the Maases, contains much of his groundbreaking work from the past several years, including releases under the pseudonyms Orinoko and Kinetic A.T.O.M. Also included is the track that sparked his latest rise to global prominence, a groove-laden remix of Azzido Da Bass's "Doom's Night." Flight delays threatened to wreak havoc with the German producer-DJ's recent tour stop in Boston, but we caught up with him after an in-store set at Sound Factory in Allston.

The Harvard Crimson: You've received a lot of praise, and some truly impressive things have been said about you. How do you react to that?

Timo Maas: It's strange, basically. The whole year was strange, and it's sometimes hard to work it out, I must say. Especially with a situation like this here, it's an in-store. Everyone's looking at you; no one's really dancing. Everyone's interested in "What is he doing now? How is he looking? How is he acting?" This is much more intense and hard-core than anything else. How do I work that out? I do my best. I try to keep my feet on the ground. She [points at girlfriend] helps me a lot with that, which is good. There's no school where you can learn to be successful, so you have to work that out for yourself.

THC: Some of the stuff on Music for the Maases didn't get as great a reaction when it came out as it does now. People were saying, "it's not soft enough, it's too percussive, it's too hard." How do you feel now that people are finally appreciating it? Do you feel a little angry that they didn't appreciate it the first time around?

TM: Especially here in America, it's a big learning process which is going through the scene. I saw what we sold in England compared to America, which was amazing. America is now starting. A lot of people know me just from the underground record scene, record stores, clubs I've played for the last 12 months or so. Now the people hear my name more and more, and they try to identify my name with a kind of music. I think I am so successful at the moment because my sound is different. I love it! I can live with that, so I am not under pressure. I didn't say I wanted to reach whatever in one year. I am just doing what I love, and when the people love it, it's good, and if not, whatever.