For those of your familiar with the Breakbeat scene, Atomic Hooligan need no introduction. Through their twisted DJ sets and dazzling live shows, the boys are at the top of their game, helping people dance their arses off around the world. Ahead of the album launch party for their new LP “Sex, Drugs & Blah Blah Blah”, Terry Atomic takes time out to answer a few questions….

Sex, Drugs and Blah Blah Blah incorporates a number of different genres and influences into it. What was behind your decision to broaden your horizons in this way?

It was natural really. The last album was quite broad in its influences. So with this one, I don’t think we consciously decided that we would “broaden our horizons” but we just included more styles that we didn’t necessarily on the last album. Like we explore our hip hop side on “Sex, Drugs…”, which I’m personally very happy about.

Do you think your interpretation of an artist album breaks the mould for what is the norm in dance music?

Na, well if it does it shouldn’t do. Or maybe it does and we didn’t realise. We just wanted to make a good album, rather than anything as grandiose as breaking any moulds. We are just making music we would like to hear. We are not pressured from any quarters to make any kind of dance music specifically, so we have a lot of freedom, maybe artists that make a specific style of dance music, will makes an album with that specific style because they feel like they should or maybe they just really love that style and don’t want to stray from it. But we don’t, we make the music we want to make however you want to class it, yes its eclectic but that’s the way we like it and we just hope people like it as well.

The press a lot of the time use albums by people like the Chems or Orbital as some kind of barometer to what a dance album should sound like. This is unfair. We were very lucky with the last album and even this new one that it has drawn those comparisons, but that wasn’t intentional really. They are just the album’s we wanted to make. But if a hard house guy makes an album full of massive dance floor hard house tunes, it’s just as valid as our album just not as eclectic, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Just different.

It’s funny really, if a hardcore death metal band was to throw a couple of Meatloaf style power ballads onto their album, they would be shunned by their crowd instead of being celebrated for being eclectic. But that’s music for you, I think there is defiantly a place in music for a bit of hardnosed genre elitism every now and then. That way of thinking has produced some of my favourite albums of all time. But for us, this has never and will never work. We had to make an album that probably would break some peoples moulds of what should be, but not our own.

Did you road test all of your new material before deciding whether it’d be included in the album?

Some we did, but a lot we couldn’t. Things like Papercuts, Electro Ain’t Electro and Spread Good Vibes were tested and perfected on the floors but a lot of the stuff we couldn’t because its just not that dance floor. We tested as much as we could on our limited amount of live shows we did on the run up to the release for Sex Drugs. But as with the last album, we had a select group of friends and people at the label that we bounced the tracks off. It worked for the last album well, so we went down that rout again. I think it worked well.

Were there any notable examples of tunes that required serious reworking based on this road testing?

Electro Ain’t Electro was defiantly re-worked a good few times. It worked but was missing the vocal, then when we got the vocal it kind of just sounded like a few loops slotted together, so we went back and glitched up a lot. There are probably 5 or 6 versions of that track. We defiantly got there in the end though.

Which track are you most proud of and why?

I think Spread Good Vibes, Papercuts. As these are both really well structured, well written songs that work equally well on the floor and on your stereo or ipod.

Are there any vocalists you’d like to have included but couldn’t?

For obvious reasons, Barry white, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, Janis Joplin & Elvis.

Can you ever see yourself doing a ‘concept’ album?

We were talking about that a couple of months ago, and the answer is yes.

Will you be taking a break from DJing to promote the album?

Nope, defiantly not. I will personally never take a break from DJing. It’s my heart and soul and I love it.

How different is it preparing a live show to a DJ set?

Live show is a lot of work, rehearsing with 9 people and weeks or pre work in the studio. A DJ set is not. A good DJ set is a culmination of years of experience and the art of spotting new music. Both very different.

Do you worry about the album appearing on file sharing websites and applications?

It already has and I am fucking fuming to be honest, but then again, what can you do about it. Not much unfortunately.

Who is your ideal partner?

My girlfriend.

Chicken or fish?

Chicken

What would be written on your gravestone?

He lived a life not a lifestyle. And he had wicked trainers.