Dean: We were just starting out on that actually. But we were going more for, sort of . . . an artist rather than remixes as such and people that made a living out of remixes. Yeah we're still doing that now. You know I think that's really interesting . . . because you get a different angle on the track and you might spot something out. And the person that's doing it gets a different angle as well. So it's like, . . . . . the music goes around I think.

Toni: Like in "Chinese Burn," we used Paul Van Dyke, and Lunatic Calm and Witchman and they're all artists who are very much. . . and all put their own records out. And for the new song,"Coming Up Roses," we used Kevin Shields and Calvin Sync(?) who are both artists in their own rite. We actually went down and in turn worked on a couple of tracks for Calvin as well . . .for his album. And Kevin and . . . I think Dean played a little bass for him. And you know since Paul Van Dyke was on our "Chinese Burn," we did a mix for him and you know I did a spoken word for him as well. So, it seems like the right thing to do rather, and the respect thing to do rather than like wasting $20,000 on remixing a track

Dean: It's like mutual feelings you know in everybody. It's an actual feeling. It's good.

Alex: I read that Alan Wilder did a remix for an upcoming single? Is there any truth to this rumor?

Toni: No, he hasn't but he is a really good mate. He possibly will in the future. But he did do a remix for me years ago on a solo album that I did. And also, I worked on a RECOIL record and did a couple of tracks on that. So, he possibly will be used yeah . . . because he's an absolutely brilliant remixer actually.

Alex: That's cool. Tell me about your influences. I read something about Jesus and Mary Chain, and My Bloody Valentine?

Dean: Yeah.

Toni: Sonic Youth. Loads of people. . .there are some obvious things . . . like Nine Inch Nails and more modern things but you know you've got The Stones, The Kinks, and The Small Faces and The Beatles and then, "What about Funkadelic? What about . . .

Dean: What about Burt Bachrach?

Toni: Yeah, what about Burt Bachrach?

What about Lindsay and C (indiscernible)? What about The Beastie Boys? What about Luscious Jackson? You know the list just keeps going on and on.

Dean: It does. Yeah. My first love is probably The Beatles. They were the first ones to . . . you know . . .

Alex: . . . make you want to do music?

Dean: Yeah. You know fucking excellent . . .

Toni: And the first thing of course you've got what you were mostly raised on . . .

Dean: . . . was Little Richard . . .

Toni: Little Richard.

Dean: . . . yeah that my mom used to play. Yeah that's true as well.

Toni: You know what I mean?

Alex: Sure!

Toni: So . . .

Dean: Yeah, . . . Little Richard very good being all that. My mom used to play those rock and rollers. They'd go great.

Alex: That's cool to hear that, because generally you'd figure electronic musicians just like the same genre. But, that's not true at all.

Dean: It isn't strictly electronic though. It has electronic elements as a sort of pulse. But all around it you've got playing and singing . . . played guitars . . . played bass... you know?

Toni: And on the rhythm track . . . there are elements that are heavy on . . . you know they have electronic groove . . .that R&B groove. It's got a Funkadelic . . . you know?

(Freaky Chakra is doing a sound check that makes it difficult to discern what Toni and Dean are saying at moments.)

Dean: . . . James Brown element. There are all sorts of things.

Toni: I think it's good.

Dean: Then there's the jazz element.

Toni: Modern jazz...

Dean: Old Jazz . . .

Toni: Old Jazz like Charlie Parker, . . .

Dean: I quite like Sunrise sort of . . . and uh . . . . that kind of artist, jazz artist. Jazz is to me is, a very stylized 60's bebop thing, you know with Miles Davis and his really great suit . . .

(Freaky Chakra is testing his bass ability here and it's literally shaking the tape recorder which is making it very difficult.)

Alex: Whoa!

Dean: ( I look at Dean in amazement. He laughs.)

Alex: Do you enjoy doing videos?

Toni: Yeah we really enjoy ourselves . . .as long as we're pushing an album ... you know? I think you can get a bit bored if it's all really normal.

Alex: Wow that's amazing! That's bass!

Toni: Yeah! (Laughs)

Dean: The result is we did quite a bit if acting . . . it made it us both feel quite good about you know . . . acting. That's the really interesting thing I think, the film and acting and stuff. I felt something for it.

Toni: Yeah we tried to push it out instead of doing something normal.

Alex: I remember watching the "Chinese Burn," video on MTV and I think the sync track was off . . .

Toni: Yeah we got that sorted out. Don't worry. (Toni uses some sartorial flavor here.) I couldn't believe ...

Dean: Somebody said to me, "you know that the art factor to it," you know that the art factor to it. They thought it was incredibly deep art. You know the fact that it was out of sync and it was just sort of . . .

Alex: I thought it was on purpose.

Dean: Yeah, quite a few people did I think actually.

Toni: I mean, but it was way out . . . I mean so far out. It could only be art. I mean what does it sound like at 1/25 of a second that's what can happen because they laid down the picture in this crap dubbing house. And they laid it down and then the guy . . . just laid that down separately without ever checking on the picture. And it was miles out . . . like a whole 5 seconds actually I think it was.

Dean: Yeah it was.

Alex: So the video director that did "Coming Up Roses," . . .

Toni: We haven't done that. We're going to do that.

Alex: He did the," Beautiful people?"

Toni: She did yeah. She did, "Beautiful People," . . . "Little Wonder," a David Bowie one. She is really brilliant.

Dean: She came up with a really good idea as well.

Toni: Yeah we'll be attached to these c(h)ords.(?)

(Freaky Chakra is louder than loud!)

Alex: That's the concept? Wow! So you haven't done that yet?

Dean: No.

Alex: Have you been disappointed with the lack of support in the US in the past with MTV and Radio with your albums and singles?

Toni: Umm ... the thing is I just think I don't understand how it kind of actually works really. I mean we have had more support on "Chinese Burn," then we've ever had previously on anything at radio and MTV. They actually started to put it on MTV 2 and actually rotate it a bit. But umm, before we'd get like one play on 120 Minutes.

Dean: That's a lot. It's a struggle for us now. You know what I mean?

Alex: Yeah.

Toni: It's a struggle, but you know, in the end we're just doing what we do and we had known it's going to be a long hard haul. You know what I mean? And it's not saying that "Coming Up Roses," is not a huge worldwide smash hit. It is. It absolutely is. But I think that, you know people have their priorities and we don't kind of tend to want to ram things down people throats. I think that's the way you do it in America. It's all money and being kind of very kind of fronty about it.

Dean: All we can do is get the right people, that we think, to actually get it to the radio people and do as much as we can in that way. What actually goes down between the person and the radio station is you know luck of God stuff you know? All we can say is that we're trying to play to the best people and just give it our best shot.

Toni: Also it's our first tour in 5 years and it's completely sold out. And um we have done loads of really great press and there hasn't been one bad review of the record. And at some point we'll just keep coming back until they have to come to our party. That's it. That's how we see it, because we don't need them to pull punches to come to the shows, and we don't need them to get people to buy our records and we don't them to get press. We don't need any of things you know so . . . I think I could see us actually having quite a long detailed career in America because of that. We can actually fill 5 or 6,000 seats over a few years you know just by shear force of personality of the band and the fact that we can play live really well. And you know that always goes down really well in America. It's not going to happen in a week. It will take longer but you know they won't be able to ignore us in the end. And our time will come.

Alex: I agree. Ten years form now what album do you think will stand the test of time the most that you've done?

Toni: You don't know because you haven't made the records yet. It's really hard. You know because in ten years time we'll hopefully have made at least another five records. And so we'll have like eight to choose from. So then you can ask us that question in ten years time.

Alex: On your upcoming summer tour are there any bands that you'd like to tour with?

Toni: Well we have just been putting that together. I think we're going definitely to go with The Dandy Warhols. And then we'll be touring with this English band Add N to X, and we really like them. They're really good. They're a mad Moog band and they're doing really well in England and they have been receiving a lot of good press. The album is getting a lot of good press so.

Alex: So are you going to be playing bigger venues?

Toni: Yeah, we're going to be playing 1,100 and 1,200 and up.

Dean: May be up it to a 1,000 or so. What's this one?

Toni: This is 1,200. But, none of them are like this, this is unusual, because the way the gig is you can move the stage if you need, to make it 600 capacity if you need to.

Alex: Well, ...I think I am done.