Q)How did you two guys meet?

Chuck-E: At a National fetish convention in Norwich. I like school uniforms, Jon likes feet and that bubble wrap stuff that pops when you push it in, so we crossed paths on our dinner break. Nah, we met at the Country Club in Yeovil,

JTB: But it wasn’t until we met again in Swansea that we got talking properly, and it was over the internet on MSN that we got 2 know each other more than anything, and how we got on to sharing our passion and ideas for music, Now I cant get rid of him ha ha.

Chuck-E: Weymouth is my 5th home, I can honestly say, I see more of Jon and Helen {His fiancée} than I do of my own mother, fact.

Q)How and when did Jon the Baptist get signed to future sound corporation? And is Intolerance only going to sign hard trance tunes?

JTB: I got signed to FSC in 2002 when I gave Trance Generators a demo.. It’s all gone wrong since then really.. Hee Hee

Chuck-E: I’m not sure about the label as of yet, We have Cally & Juice doing a remix for us this year, so I guess that will be on the hardstyle border line at least. Hard Trance is our sound, it’s the sound we love & it’s our style we want to push. I’m not sure if we would bother signing any other artists Stuff at the moment, especially with the decrees in vinyl sales. We have talked about this, and I would defiantly put some quality hardstyle out on the label if it meant higher sales, and we were helping others out 2.I think Mars was on about getting in some ‘Tech Minimal Click’ producers at 1 time, or some dub step, but in not to keen on that idea.

Q)What do you guys have planned for the future, anything that we should look out for over the next few months?

JTB: We have just done a remix for Cally & Juice of their ‘Virus’ tune. This is set for release very soon on their label, ‘Ourstyle Recordings’. Kutski played it on Radio 1 the week we finished it,{2 weeks ago} and we both played it at our gigs the past 2 weekend’s and it’s been going down well.

Chuck-E: We have Excitement coming out on Intolerance in the next couple of weeks which we are happy about, my self and Mars {The Intolerance co owner and label manager} have had lots of trouble with distribution etc, so its been a long time coming.

JTB: I’ve just been producing with Jay M, our first track ‘Control’ is out on V-Trax in the next few weeks. I’ve also been doing some remixes for various people including Alphazone, Nish, Kenzie & Cobain & V8 Recordings. Also lots more on FSC lined up for 07.

Chuck-E: I have a couple of rotational residencies still in effect this year, including Ludicrous, Devils Heaven, and a few other small events here in Wales, Plus we are booked at the Hardcore Weekender this year in the Bionic arena which we are looking forward to.

JTB: We also have a big project coming up that’s being kept under wraps for the time being, watch this space.

Q)What DJ's and producers are you digging at the moment??

Chuck-E: We like Nish, I like some of the stuff coming from the Dave Joy camp- Synthetic is 1 of my fav’s, In 2006 Fellow Welsh man Vandall was one of my main sources of sound, & Chris & Matt Kidd last couple of tunes have impressed me. In the past it has been Scot Project, Reverb from the S.H.O.K.K & Flutlicht teams and DuMonde. All of these guys were amazing at the style they were producing.

JTB: For Hard Trance Producers at the moment… Nish in Japan is up there, We are well in 2 his stuff,, Slideout & Alphazone for Hard Trance production at the moment.

Chuck-E: So many styles, so many DJ’s..!! Sticking with hard dance You only have to look at who’s performing and making people dance {and talk} every week to see whos doing it DJ wise in the UK, Obviously Kutski, Cally & Juice, Organ Donors, then you got the other big guns like Andy Whitby & BK who aren’t what we are in to musically, but are the top of their game. Then overseas u have Danny D, Bas & Ram, and then all the big hardstyle DJ’s that are legends in Holland! Back here, Avaline & Charlie G from Tranzaction, Mark EG, M-Zone & Vortex who are the living legends of underground dance in the UK, I’m also in to Andy C, and a bit of Scorpio & Producer if the occasion calls for it. My 1st love is for old skool hardcore & the 1992-1995 sounds of DJ’s Slipmatt, Dougal, Druid, Hixxy, Ramos & Supreme etc..

Chuck-E & JTB: For us musically though it’s, Dave Joy, Alphazone, Nick The Kid, Jay M, Bas & Ram.

Q)Any other DJ’s or up and comers to keep an eye out for?

Chuck-E: Going away from the big names and With out sounding to bias I think the area’s we come from {South Wales, & South West England} are two of, if not the top 2 places for up and coming DJ talent in our scene. In Wales the majority are hardstyle, so I cant comment on their sound but there’s DJ’s with huge support who are doing well whether it be with 1 thing or another, so seeing I have a chance 2 mention a few names, Fattman & ICE, & Swankie DJ & Kashi, Who are getting there stuff played by the likes of the Trance Generators & Cally & Juice, We have Estee & MCP, Then you have the more established names of Brian M vs McBunn from Bionic & Blutonium, Frisky and also Vandall from Trancewarez. Plus the bucket load of up & coming talent running there own small events and keeping Wales right up to date and involved with hard dance!. There’s so many I couldn’t go thru them, as Id end up missing some body out but they know who they are! For every good DJ there’s always the idiots who create the bad side of things, and they know who they are to, but the majority of the people in the scene working the right events are all going well at the moment.

JTB: Up and coming producer and DJ SFM – his tracks are rocking.. Just needs some support!

Chuck-E: The south West have up & coming DJ’s like Mark Hashimi, DJ The Corbz, MNKY & Ryki, there’s loads more, but these are the guys I would mention, and the guys I’m involved with, Just don’t tell my girl friend. {For the record, I’m not gay u know!}

Q) Can any of you remember your first gig?

JTB: Yeah I was 13, it was 1995, and we were putting the night on in our local youth club at the time! Happy Hardcore all the way. No messing about.

Chuck-E: The very 1st time I played in a club was in Barry, a small Town where I lived just out side Cardiff. It went OK until some body spilt beer over 1 of the decks when another DJ was on. The guy who ran this event went on 2 stage lots of other small party’s & it was during these events that I started and learned to DJ live. I think my 1st booking in a club out side Wales was probably The Depot in Bristol, Probably for MGK or some body like that. Almost all the DJ’s who started out with me, playing the same events and things have vanished, there’s 1 or 2 doing small events in Wales and that’s about it.

Q)What is your fav instrument in your studio?

Chuck-E: I think Jon’s is his lighter for firing up his Biffs. Bidi-Bino! I can defiantly say the worst ‘apparatus’ is my chair. It has no back, it’s like a fold up Kitchen stool and looks like a pit droid from Star Wars, He’s gonna have to sort that 1 out I think. We can make sum bad ass noises on the triangle 2.

JTB: My lighter and the Virus TI. Also to chuck: I aint buying you a chair you can buy it yourself… my chair is fine

Chuck-E: Virus rocks!!

Q)Who are your music idol's of all time?

Chuck-E: Steps come to mind, Bob the Builder and So solid crew are defiantly Jon’s hero’s. Seriously, My self, For music makers, Michael Jackson, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Slipmatt, Scot Project, Jon the Baptist, Marco ‘Reverb’ Guardia, Jam X & De Leon.

JTB: I honestly couldn’t say there’s been so many in the past few years!!! At one point I would have reeled off the big hard trance producers of the time, but now I take my influences from just about anyone whose music has a bit of originality.

Q)What artists have inspired you in terms of DJ'ing and production over the years?

Chuck-E: Back when I first started I was influenced by the hardcore DJ’s like Hixxy, Ramos, Billy Bunter, Druid and the DJ’s from that neck of the woods, production wise on the hard trance tip I’ve always added my own flavors to the Jon the Baptist mixture & have worked on the sounds I love & wrote them both as a music lover, and as a DJ.

JTB: Carl Cox, Slipmatt, Chris Liebing, Mark EG, Eddie halliwell, loadz!

Chuck-E: Oh yeh forgot Carl Cox!! Absolute legend and my 1st hero in Dance!! Haha!! Cally & Juice, Pod from Ripsnorter, and a guy Mike Scott who I haven’t seen for a good while are my biggest influences on my actual DJ career, and have given me the breaks, advise & told me things I need to hear.

Q)What do they think of the current hard trance scene?

Chuck-E: It’s not at its finest hour, put it that way. It’s not the people or the music, all is still awesome there, it’s the lack of music! Going back to say, 2002 where there where so many producers creating so many good tunes! I don’t think some of the older sounds had their day, when Scot Project was peaking the hard trance scene was THE place to be, especially down the South West area. A lot of people think the sound went stale, I disagree, I think too much change was made to quickly, and the ‘Tech’ thing come in like a tone of hard bricks. There was a time of ‘not much material coming out’, It wasn’t a time of ‘no good material coming out at all’. To much change is bad IMO, It end’s up being totally different, that’s not progression, and that’s not what the majority want, and I know there’s loads of people who agree with me on this. In the end, the big producers have to make a living, and will do their best trying 2 write what sells at that particular time, But obviously there’s still plenty with there heart in hard trance, and like every other genre that has a big following it will do the full circle, I mean look at Hardcore today!

JTB: Well it’s a bit dead on the music front – in the clubs it’s still as healthy as ever – it still goes off as much as it ever did. We all just need to keep them new tunes coming out so peeps don’t get bored.

Q)What do you think about hardstyle music?

Chuck-E: Would I be wrong in saying that Wales is the home of hardstyle in the UK? I’m around hardstyle almost every weekend, it’s not a particular favorite of mine, but the people I see who are in to it love it, & its massive right now. To be honest, especially at 1st, I never really thought of it as serious music {Some thing which was said to me when I was in to hardcore all those years ago} & thought it would be a passing phase that kids were in to, but its stayed strong & is a massive part of the dance music scene.
I don’t like 95% of it as music, But can respect it for what it is, and buzz off other people enjoying the vibe in packed arenas, though its nice to get away from it at events such as Ludicrous, Tranzaction, Firesky etc.. where its minimal or none. I’m not sure which way its going to go, or how it can progress though, A lot of the DJ’s I know who play it are worried about the Jumpstyle thing talking over, But I have no place to talk about that.

JTB: it’s the same as any other form of music really… when done well with a bit of originality it f’kin rocks! When done to the same old formula using samples taken from the last dudes track, and bass sampled from this guys track it gets so boring. Hardstyle is easy to write using samples which is why u get so many similar sounding tracks. HARDSTYLE PRODUCERS – TAKE A BIT OF TIME OVER YOUR TUNES AND TRY MAKING THOSE SAMPLES YOURSELVES!!! – its not too hard, the usual fx + a lot of distortion…

Q)What are your top 5 tracks at the moment?

JTB & Chuck-E: We’ll do 5 of ours, & 5 others that we are playing.

Ours Chuck-E: I’ll have to say Intolerance, as that’s still going strong a year on and I’m always asked 2 play it, Excitement the forth coming Intolerance Release, and our new remix of ‘Virus’ that we talked about earlier.
Ours JTB: Magic, and Il Futuro on Future Sound Corporation make up the 5.

Others JTB: Alphazones remix of Sagittarius by Nish, Bliss also by Nish, and another by the man Nish- ‘Talk to me’
Others Chuck-E: 12” by Rocco & Bass T, & LED’s remix of the BK remix of Playing with knifes.

Q)Is there any artists that you would really like to work with in the studio?

Chuck-E: Not really off the top of my head. I have respect for a lot of producers but I think I’m working with the best already in Jon, and I’m also set to do some original stuff with Vandall. I’ve been talking about getting those two together with me for a couple of studio sessions, and I think we could come out with some good shit, but I don’t know if we would be able to put up with him {Vandall} for a decent amount of time to get tunes finished. Then there’s your obvious choices like Scot Project etc.. but the sound is totally different now. I reckon Dave Joy would be a coo1 1 to.

JTB: Chuck-E has asked Kutski to come down to do a hard trancer with us, which he ahs taken us up on, it’s just finding time when all 3 of us are free, which is going to be tuff!! I’m also going to be doing some work with Marc Smith from the hardcore scene this year.

Q)Is there any DJ you would like to play back to back with?

JTB: Not really.. ?

Chuck-E: I’ve already played b2b with Kutski-he would have been the answer but I have to say, I have the best TWO DJ partners I could wish for at the moment. All the stuff I’ve done with both Jon and Frisky has been amazing, Doing this now with Jon, is what I’ve always wanted to do, make hard trance music and showcase it in our sets, its something that I’m very grateful for and a dream come true. The memories I have of sets with Frisky are unreal, playing in Ireland at a packed Nerve Centre for Fresh Clubbing, Emptying the main room at Bionic on our back to back debut in room 2, Slammin Vinyl’s West Fest last year, Theres a long list of wicked memories that I have. To answer the question though, probably Dave Joy or versus Cally & Juice would be fun.

Q)Is tiny Tim still alive? (Directed at Jon from Jay M)
{Jon had a fish with a gimpy Finn}

JTB: No Tim is dead. It’s a sore subject

Chuck-E: Ha Ha. I almost killed the whole lot {fish} the other week, I unplugged the filter and everything over night whilst charging my phone up so we could give Vandall funny phone calls at silly ‘O clock in the morning.

Thanks to Hardstyle UK for the Interview

You can catch Jon & Chuck E @

"Prepare yourselves for one of the mentalist bank holidays of your LIFE as the South Wests newest event, Firesky, takes on Wales biggest hard dance event, Bionic!"