DJ Ron Slomowicz: The album, Hundred Days Off, do you think it had a different feel because that?s right after Darren left, or did that have a big effect on the album?
Karl Hyde: No, I don?t think it was really that much of a leap on as other albums had been, and that was quite clearly because it was something that we wanted to lay to rest without any debate on whether or not this was the same band, and having done that, we can kind of now get back to the business of moving on.

It was a very happy album to make and the atmosphere in the studio, going back right the way to 1982 and the albums we made in the 80s, of all the albums we?ve made it was the most positive experience that Rick and I have had.

RS: Two Months Off received a lot of commercial success here in the US, did you all expect that to cross over so big over here?
Karl: No, again, we didn?t expect it to do as well as it did anywhere, it?s extraordinary. We kind of feel like we?ve had a really long career and, you know, we?ve been together for twenty-three years but certainly for the first ten years of that we had a pretty crap time. This last, you known, twelve years has been extraordinary and we?ve been very, very fortunate and we both feel grateful that people still like our music. And when Rick wrote the music to Two Months Off, I was excited about it and wanted to respond in the way that I did with the words and the voice. And I just kind of thought something magical was happening here, but maybe everybody else has moved on and this is not relevant anymore.

And there's always that feeling, when you?ve been away touring for two years, and it?s been two years since an album, and then it might be another year or so before the next album comes out, there?s often that feeling of like we just might not be relevant anymore. We had that feeling before we completed the Beaucoup Fish album, you know, we heard other bands that were around at the time and thought there were some really exciting artists within the genre of dance music. Gosh, you know, maybe we?re just from another time now, and we?re just very lucky that people still like us.

RS: The album had lots of great new remixes done of the tracks, how do you react to having your own tracks remixed?
Karl: It?s a buzz, it?s a buzz to have people re-present our work to us. I?ve often said this, that jamming is a crucial part of what we do, so to have a response which is something that we haven?t considered to music that we started off. It?s the same, it?s very, very much a part of what we are about, it?s in the same way that going out playing live, we?ll start with the first part of the first tune, but it?s what comes back from the crowd, is what decides happens next and how we go and how we take it. And that response, it usually takes us to somewhere very unlikely. So when people come along and do remixes, it kind of doesn?t matter what I think, I'm just always so surprised, always surprised. Because I know that there have been times when I haven?t liked something, and then six months later I?ve heard it in a club and gone ?it?s fantastic, what is it?? Rick would kind of look at me with a kind of withering look, going ?it?s that track you didn?t like, you know.?

RS: Spoken like a true DJ? One last question for you, I?m not sure whether this is a question or a statement and free to respond to. A friend of mine is one of the most harshest, rudest, most aggressive music critics you will ever meet and she said that yes, I?m a bitch when I review music, but she?s always been moved emotionally by your music, there?s really been a contact you?re touching there, and I was just wondering if you wanted to respond to that somehow.
Karl: To respond to the fact that she?s touched by our music?

RS: Yes, it really touches her in a special way that music rarely does.
Karl: It gives me that feeling of gratitude, you know, I always feel humbled by anybody being into our music. You know, Rick and I have to do this, it?s like we?re driven to do this, it?s in our blood and it?s amazing, it?s extraordinary that anyone should feel a connection to this very personal thing that we do, and for that, I?m eternally grateful whenever it happens. And I?m always amazed, you know, it?s like that thing that happens when we put out a record and we?ll come to the US for example, you know, a few months after the release of the record, and people that we?ve never seen before are singing along it, with tracks that have only just come out. People like that; they?ll smile or they?ll cheer to something which you?ve just released, and I think wow.