NuBreed interview

For most established electronic music acts, the prospect of no manager, one band member down and confronting an identify crisis of sorts would raise warning bells to say the least. In the case of Melbourne three piece NuBreed, it simply spells the next exciting chapter in a history rich in both challenges and accolades. "We now share the management, marketing and PR responsibilities among the three of us, explains Danny Bonnici. "It's not hard, just time consuming to have to keep pushing things, getting the word out and letting people know what's going on. The most difficult part is switching head space from making music to doing business. It's also a positive though, because you've got a better perspective when you can see the whole picture. You gauge what you need to do to keep your future going. As well as writing, we're going to keep doing it ourselves for a while, and see where it takes us."

Their hard work is already paying dividends, a tour of the USA, Mexico and Asia looming. "That came about because last year we toured the USA, hooked up with a few different people and they were rapt to have us back basically. And other opportunities opened up from different promoters who came down and saw our shows in America. A lot of it is also ringing up certain people, sending them packages, show reels, biographies and telling them what we've done. After the U.S. we come back for a week or so then head to Asia for three or four gigs."

NuBreed are no strangers to Asia having previously played Ministry of Sound in Taiwan, an outdoor festival in Malaysia. Jakarta and in Kuala Lumpur with Junkie XL. Just as enticing is the prospect of a tour of Russia. "It's on the cards but for later this year," reveals Bonnici. "Most likely October or November. For summer it's mostly the festivals and then the clubs will start putting on more gigs when it gets a bit colder and people start going to clubs again. With gigs in Russia, we've never gone there so most clubbers don't know who we are, even though we're constantly surprised by the amount of people in far flung places that are into what we do. It's been amazing really. We've met some people in the weirdest places in the world, who are fans. It's good to know that the music gets so far. I think a lot of this has to do with the internet because distribution in some places isn't as good as it could be. So they end up downloading music and thinking 'I'd like to find out more about that artist'. So exposure is a benefit of the illegal downloads."

And what of the identity crisis- "Rather then produce breaks as NuBreed and 4/4 under the Dirty Fours alias, I think we're going to mesh the whole thing like when we started NuBreed," explains Bonnici. "So we'll mix the Dirty Fours and the NuBreed stuff all under the one moniker and do house, breaks, electro and all sorts of different styles, and just vary up the set so that we don't become a genre specific entity. When we produced 'The Original' it was a breaks specific album, so it labeled us as breaks artists even though we'd done heaps of 4/4 stuff. But now we like to mix it all up in the one show. We like making all styles of music. Jase is doing a solo hip hop album. I like making a whole heap of down tempo stuff, and. I'm thinking of beginning a full band project, or song based guitar stuff. The thing that I like about electronic music the most, is that it challenges me in the sound design. I have to actually try and make things from nothing. That's exciting, making music from whatever and making it all work and sound musical."

While NuBreed added a guest drummer who worked with them on productions and live sets for a number of month, they have reverted to their original lineup. "It's back to the way we had it, and that's the way it will stay for a while," confirms Bonnici. "At the moment we're finding it hard to get into clubs that don't usually have live acts, only DJ.s, so when you hit them with the specs sheet of what you need the Tags

• nubreed