Simian Mobile Disco: Still Our Friends

From their roots as the DJ spin-off of the under-rated early Noughties indie band Simian, to the release of their first long player last year (the highly praised Attack Decay Sustain Release on Wichita), theirs has been a genuine success story – they haven't been hyped through adverts and the music press, they aren't signed to a faux major, and they haven't got popular on the strength of their myspace friends list or outrageous drug habits. What they do have though is quality tunes, in bucket loads, and a cracking live show to match.

"Me and Jas [his partner-in-crime, James "Jas" Shaw - ed] were basically the in-house DJs for Simian," explains one half of the duo, lucrative producer James Ford. "We always had a penchant for electronic music and we'd get asked to play at aftershows and all that, so after the band ended we decided to keep on DJing." Ford is open in admitting that the recorded Simian Mobile Disco material came about as an attempt to fill the gaps in their eclectic DJ sets. "Basically, we tried to make the tunes we would hear out when we DJ'd!"

The act quickly took on a life of its own, with a diverse sound based on the slightly harder edges of electro, disco and house, though they are keen to state that while they may be influenced by French acts such as the Ed Banger label and Justice (who, let's not forget, had a major hand in turning Simian into a dance act with their rinsed-out remix of We Are Your Friends), they have a unique take on music and are influenced just as much by "lots of 60's psychedelia, Joe Meek, Delia Derbyshire, some Krautrocky stuff...

"Of the modern dance stuff that is around it's hard to say what we really like as we hear so much that's different, but we like what Joakim does, and some of the more minimal stuff like Audion. When we started we were hugely influenced by Mr. Oizo, but now I would say that we are mostly influenced by old disco stuff we find, like Kano and some of the old Italo stuff, which can be hard to play to a club full of people expecting you to bang it out! But then I do like stuff like [new DFA wonky-disco act] Hercules & Love Affair. Though I think everybody who makes dance music nowadays has to have been influenced at some point by Daft Punk!"

And what of the live shows? This is where Simian Mobile Disco really come into their own; they have a blinding (literally) stage set up that allows them to go from mellow to hard at the touch of a button, as witnessed twice at the Arches in the last six months to rapturous applause. And while some of their French compadres might be more comfortable hiding behind masks and stunning light shows, SMD follow more in the paths of British dance pioneers like Orbital and the Chemical Brothers by having a more flexible setup that allows them to bound around the stage, grabbing and tweaking various machines, and, well, injecting a bit of personality into the whole experience.

"On stage we use a modular synth that kind of looks like an old telephone exchange! That's a bespoke synth that was made for us – basically it's the same stuff we use in the studio, just the hardier bits that can take being chucked in the back of a van and carted around. It has to be flexible so we can change the structure, change whole songs or even just change a section, so we can tailor it to the crowd on the night. Basically we want it be like our DJing, which is more freeform than what we do with a band, but replicated in a live setting. Even still there are large sections of it that we improvise, and play freestyle with."

Though they have been playing a lot of gigs in Britain and around the world, Ford is adamant that he does not want SMD to end up playing live as much as a regular band, "'cos we might drive ourselves crazy!" While no further tours are planned for the year, keep your eyes peeled for SMD playing this summer at many of the big festivals, and also for DJ sets by the group (going by their previous releases they are cracking DJs too!), which Ford says they actually enjoy more than playing live. Take note also, a new EP entitled Clock will be hitting the streets on 10 Mar, and has been described in press as a bleep-fest. Stop your dribbling and start surfing the Wichita label!