THE QEMISTS

Things have been blowing up for The Qemists lately, thanks partly to their recent collaborations with Faith No More frontman Mike Patton and UK hip hop's hottest property, Wiley. They released their debut album, 'Join The Q', earlier this month through Ninja Tune, and the latest single from it, 'One The Run', is out next week. Featuring Jenna G on vocals, the new single is part of a trilogy of tracks on the new album, but we'll let them tell you about that. They're busy chaps, but we managed to pin them down for long enough to answer our Same Six Questions.

Q1 How did you start out making music?
When we were at school many years ago we wanted to be a band, so we kind of decided between us who would play what, and started playing. Over the years we built up our studio to record demos, and that eventually led to drum n bass style production.

Q2 What inspired your latest single?
'On The Run' is actually the sequel to 'S.W.A.G', another track on the album. We thought it would be cool write a track about some massive crime committed by a girl. In 'S.W.A.G' she (Zoe Devlin Love from Alabama 3) escapes the law and in 'On The Run' the girl is, well, on the run (vocals and storyline courtesy of Jenna G). The track has a kind of "south of the border" vibe to it, like Jenna is somewhere nice in Mexico chilling, but with a paranoid edge. 'Play With Fire', which appears on the B-Side of the single, is the aftermath of being caught ("if you play with fire then you're gonna get burnt").

Q3 What process do you go through in creating a track?
It usually starts with one of us writing some sort of song or beat, although that in turn is usually constructed from recordings or synth patches we have made previously. If the track is good enough for the other two Qemists to instantly get the vibe and like it, then it soon gets developed. It's a bit of a free-for-all after that! We always work on tracks with all three of us for the bulk of the writing and mixing though.

Q4 Which artists influence your work?
So many. All forms of music from hardcore rock to avant-garde classical. Generally we all like stuff with high production values, lots of energy and lots of emotion, but it's all sorts. We often notice parallels between music and other art forms too, like visual art and martial arts, these influence us too. There is something about having good technique but being able to throw that away if you feel like it.

Q5 What would you say to someone experiencing your music for the first time?
I think it's a bad sign when someone has to explain their music and why they did what they did. I don't think we would say anything to someone who was listening to our music, not 'til they had finished listening at least!

Q6 What are your ambitions for your latest album, and for the future?
The live show is taking us to extremes at the moment, we've just got back from Japan and that was off the hook. One guy was crowd-surfing so fast he landed on the drum kit! We are going back there this summer and also supporting Enter Shikari on their European tour, which will be sick! So we want to do a lot more of that and let everyone see what we can do on stage. We have also been tinkering in the studio on some new tracks, and are very pleased with what we have done so far, so some new tracks are not far round the corner...

MORE>> www.theqemists.com and www.myspace.com/qemists