Today, the guys of Apollo Four Forty are in their Liverpool studio doing yet another remix for an act they won’t divulge. Still, they tease, "Let’s say it’s a biggie."

It’s their first time in the studio in a few months, as they’ve been on the road further perfecting their already tight eight-piece live band presentation. Club success with "Ain’t Talkin’ ’Bout Dub," their drum-n-bass take on Van Halen’s metal classic "Ain’t Talkin’ ’Bout Love," pushed Apollo into the melange of "electronica" outfits hitting Stateside shores with differing beat-filled takes on classic rock. But doing remixes for other top artists – Manic Street Preachers, Puff Daddy/Jimmy Page, EMF, U2, Deep Forest, INXS, Rozalla, etc. – was the initial springboard for Apollo’s success, and now they’re back at the lucrative venture.

"When we started out, we wanted to make a techno record, so we did," says Howard Gray, one-third of the Apollo troika. "We got such a good reaction, people wanted us to remix stuff straightaway, so we kind of got into doing that. It was great for the first few years because it gave us a chance to develop the Apollo sound – the aesthetic really. Having been through that, we’re not interested in doing other people’s records every week. We’re much more interested in doing our own."

In keeping with that sentiment, Apollo Four Forty – Howard, brother Trevor and third partner Noko – has recently completed its third major label full-length, Gettin’ High On Your Own Supply (550 Music/Sony). And unlike the prior two efforts, Millenium Fever (the dance album) and Electro Glide In Blue (the bluesy album), Gettin’ High On Your Own Supply (the rock party album) brings the group’s live element into the studio. Previously, the group played everything on the album and toured with hired guns. This time the hired guns helped record the album from scratch.

"We’d done it ourselves on the previous record, using a lot of different guest singers," says Howard, "and this time we really felt we’d established the identity of a band because we’d played together so much. The eight guys that played before actually made the album, which was a great experience, and I think some of the vibe of that comes over. That’s one of the reasons we picked [that] title, because we felt like we were getting high on our own supply."

Accordingly, the studio set-up was expanded to house the additional musicians and to accommodate a new songwriting process. Apollo Control Mark Three, as their work environment is known, actually consists of several studios. There’s a writing room where Noko composes and performs overdubs, a rehearsal room where the two drummers (one digital and one traditional) work, a little room called "the gimpbox" where DJ Harry K and vocalist Mary Mary (formerly of the Gaye Bikers On Acid and Pigface) do their things, and a main mixdown room. At the studio complex, the group employs Cubase VST as its digital multi-track system and has use of an AMEK BIG 28-channel console, Dynaudio M4 monitors, and a medley of old analog effects and instruments.

"We had it going the whole time we were making the album," says Howard. "You’d get bored and go in the other room, get a vibe on a track and think, ‘Hey, let’s set some mics up – let’s record that,’ which was great, as opposed to sitting in front of the sampler. Even if everything still went into the machine and got chopped about, it meant there was a different process, people bouncing off of each other, rather than us getting people in."

According to Howard, the upcoming American tour holds promise for the group. Most Americans know Apollo Four Forty best for "Ain’t Talkin’ ’Bout Dub." This time around, however, the group hopes Stateside audiences are left with a memorable impression from the live show. "We’re really looking forward to doing our stuff in front of American audiences because there’s such a tradition of live music," says Howard. "Every bar band in America can blow most English bands off stage. In terms of playing, that’s the truth, absolutely. We consider ourselves a pretty rockin’ band, so we’re looking forward to giving it a shot."

– Lily Moayeri