Can you tell us a bit about your album? Is it the similar to the sort of stuff you DJ?

Well yes and no. It sort of depends where we are djing I guess, as we do tend to play it a bit harder and straighter when its 3am in a dark sweaty nightclub. We wanted to make an album with songs, it's full of energy and has a sort of dance music heartbeat but there are verses and choruses. Our album is very varied with moments of hip hop, indie, electro, disco, prog and krautrock, which is sort of similar to our ethos to DJing and running our club night Kill Em All, if its good you play it. So yeah, yes and no is the rather vague answer.

How do you decide when a track is done? Do you ever get itchy to mix any of the album again?

It is quite a difficult thing and I think you get better at it the more music you make. When we started making our album it took us a long time to come to the conclusion that a track was finished. We spent a long time trying loads of different things on Messages and eventually went back to the earliest version that had a great pop feel to it. By the end of the album we got much quicker at the whole process, creating the tracks and the decision making, which is essentially what a creative process is, a series of decisions. There are things I might change about our album, but not much, I still really love it and it’s what we needed to create at that time, we learnt so much. Really looking forward to starting on a new album.

Did you feel there was a lot of pressure on you to come up with the goods with your own stuff because you are such accomplished DJs?

To begin with I think we felt that way but once you get into making music you forget about what people might think, that’s when you become really creative. I also think that creating a song based album surprised a lot of people, and I guess that was partly our intention, to do something very different from what people where expecting.

You brought Mark in when you decided you wanted to make music. What did Mark bring to the group?

Well everything really, we just had loads of ideas and where desperate to start trying them out. Mark is a bit of a musical genius and can literally play anything, so he essentially helps us to realise our mad ideas. We have now accumulated a mountain of old analogue synths and bits and bobs so we all just sit in the studio bashing away until something comes to light that we all like. We have been working together for a bout 3 years now, so the creative process has developed and changed a lot, we can second guess each other a lot more now and we know how we work best.

Was it a relief to get such a great critical reception?

I think we only had two bad reviews out of, well loads of good ones. Funny you always remember the bad ones though. I think its great that people like our album so much and some reviews were amazing, but at the end of the day you have got to happy with what you have created, you are your harshest critic.

Did you do much testing of your tracks on unsuspecting clubbers?

Yeah we used to try things out quite a lot and see what the reaction was. Although our album isn’t strictly a dance album, it is definitely inspired by the dance floor.

Who inspired you as DJs?

When we were starting out I was a big fan of Erol Alkan & Optimo djs, they were combining loads of sounds and genres and weren’t really like djs I had seen of heard before, they were just playing great music. I also think that sense of fun, with a deep down love and depth of knowledge of music that 2 many djs have also resonated with us. Recently we played with Riton and Aeroplane, who were both excellent.

How did you get into it? Were you part of a local scene (punter and DJs alike) and do you still hang out in those places?

We started our night Kill Em All at the barfly in Camden so I guess created our own scene in a way. We had both really been into Electroclash and then from that DFA started and released House of Jealous Lovers by The Rapture and Losing My Edge by LCD Soundsystem, that just really clicked with us so we started Kill Em All. Out Put and DFA were our record labels of choice, then stuff like Gang of Four and Talking Heads. It was very indie then in Camden so it didn’t go down well at first, playing Daft Punk records at the barfly used to really annoy people. Eventually we were selling out every night and we got asked to start Kill Em All at Fabric.

You make songs for clubs, have you ever been particularly chuffed finding out a certain DJ has played a tune of yours?

We played at Razzmatazz in Barcelona and we went to watch Ewan Pearson dj, he finished his set with the Emperor Machine remix of This Rhythm, that was really cool, we are both big fans of him as a dj and producer. Aeroplane have been playing our remix of Hockey a lot too.

What’s your favorite track of yours to play out?

Well I like Twenty Six Hundred a lot and we have just put it on our Fabric Mix cd which is out on 12 october. Recently we have been playing our Kill Em All, Let Wiley Sort It Out remix of Tupac Robot Club Rock and people have been going nuts.

You play as a band now, too. What’s the set up?

We have a drummer called Isaac who is amazing, Mark played Juno 60, Bass and Guitar. I trigger samples and parts from an MPC, play electronic percussion on symmonds pads and cow bells, plus a bit of guitar. Tim sings and plays the Moog Voyager. We also use Abelton to run midi and some backing.

Do you get more nervous when performing your own music?

We used to, because no one had heard our tracks and we were relatively new to playing live. Now after a year or so of touring we really enjoy it. We played 33 festivals this year so we must be getting good by now.

Do you get more nervous when performing your own music?

We used to, because no one had heard our tracks and we were relatively new to playing live. Now after a year or so of touring we really enjoy it. We played 33 festivals this year so we must be getting good by now.

Your fans of Tangerine Dream and your songs have a Sci-Fi score feel to them. If you had the chance to re-score a film what would it be?

There is a strange really early french animation which is about a sort of utopian society ruined by modernity and sort of aliens. I saw it at the ICA years ago, but I can’t remember what its called so that’s no help. I think Flash Gordan would be pretty fun to rescore.

Would you mind doing us a playlist of ten tracks or albums you are enjoying right now, past or present, or have influenced you?

xx by The xx

Low by David Bowie

Ege Bamyasi by Can

Rubycon by Tangerine Dream

The Chemical Brothers by Dig Your Own Hole

Liquid Liquid by Liquid Liquid

NEU! 75 by NEU!

Remain In Light by Talking Heads

A Brief History Of Love by The Big Pink

A South Bronx Story by ESG