Craig Richards and Lee Burridge- Tyrants Together Forever-

While Lee Burridge learned his DJ craft in Hong Kong and Thailand's infamous Kho Pha Ngan, former fine artist turned DJ Craig Richards developed his skills at Malibu Stacey, uniting as Tyrant in 1997 (alongside one Sasha). While Tyrant's initial set-up focused on Craig and Sasha (with Lee taking third member status) nowadays it's mainly about Craig and Lee, which is why the duo were in Kuala Lumpur, spinning to a packed Malaysian club.

Presently somewhat tarred with the progressive house tag (principally due to Lee's Global Underground CD) their long-term international focus has pushed them significantly beyond Britain's genre ghettoes though for Craig at least, his future remains uncertain.

"I've always said I didn't really want to work much past 40 and I'll be 36 in October," Craig tdld Skrufff's Angie Ng. "I still think I'll DJ but just slow down a little."

Skrufff (Angie Ng): How much are the club scenes in Asia catching up or even starting to surpass the UK-

Craig: "The dance scene is always changing all over the world at different rates and there are quite a lot of gigs throughout Asia, so I guess it's an easy place for DJs to tour. You can put a tour together and do 4, 5 or 6 cities and the more DJs who visit each city, the more clubbers there start to understand different types of music."

Lee: "It's good to expose people to more than just one sound because people WILL get into a style but they'll also tire of it quickly. Whereas if they're offered a few different choices, they can actually say 'No, I don't like this sound but I do like that'. In Asia, the whole club scene is a lot newer and it's still developing so it's less jaded than the UK's. It's exciting with good energy."

Skrufff: Lee, you played a big part in building the Full Moon parties in Ko Phang Nga, Thailand, how's the scene there these days-

Lee: "I guess it depends on who you ask because for me, it won't be the same as before but for someone who's never been there, it'll be amazing. It depends on what you want and what you're presented with. I went there in 1991 and it was all brand new. Dance music hadn't been around for long and had only had a three year history whereas now it's been going for15 years. I think it'll probably still be amazing in Thailand, though."

Craig: "Music's constantly evolving and every place evolves all the time. More and more people hear about things and then they go there and the place gets busier and busier and less pure but you can't really stop that process. Ibiza's really packed nowadays but there's still a lot of good things to be said about it and it's the same with Thailand."

Skrufff: how much has Hong Kong changed since China took it over-

Lee: "It's changed dramatically, in particular for me personally because Hong Kong was all about my friends and all the people that came and left in the period of 6 years while I lived there. Everybody I knew has left, because you can't just rock up (turn up) to the airport, walk in, get a job, earn money, stay and hang out any more. Now, it's a little more strict…er sort of middle class, it's a bit more about lawyer types and people that are involved in real jobs, rather than people like us who were avoiding having real jobs (laughing). I always pick on accountants and lawyers; you find a certain rugby-shirt-wearing type of person in Hong Kong who was always there but we didn't interact with them. There was a whole different group of people that happened to spend most of their nights in dark, loud, dingy, rooms."

Skrufff: Talking about your music: both of you are closely associated with progressive house…

Lee: (lets out a little choking sound) "Oh, are we-"

Craig: "Really- Hmm I don't know."

Skrufff: Ok what then-

Lee: "It's a hard term because it puts you in the same category as DJs who don't really do the same thing as we do; which is why when people ask what style of music we play, we try not to answer. We cover quite a lot of differe Tags

• lee burridge
• Craig richards