Interview by

Hybrid have established themselves at the forefront of dance music both in terms of production and as a live act. The three lads - Mike Truman, Chris Healings and Lee Mullins - have been responsible for countless floor-filling tracks that quite uniquely sit as comfortably in the club as they do in the loungeroom. Perhaps more importantly, they have brought respect to a genre of music often doubted for its genuine musical talent, while simultaneously bringing a realism to dance music that in their absence could have remained absent.

We caught up with them before their DJ dates as part of the Gatecrasher Summer Sound System tour of Australia in late November / early December.

The lads explain that they formed over common tastes and a catchy illegal mix. These were the factors that were largely responsible for bringing together two already established DJs to produce under the tag of Hybrid.

"We met over a bootleg of Pink Floyd and, after talking, we realised that we had a lot of common records in our boxes, or at least stuff we both liked. That was, like, 10 years ago…It was just two DJs meeting who had got a bit bored with the records."

Questioned on what type of music it is that Hybrid play, they are quick to dodge the labels that tend to smother or pigeonhole dance music in general.

"I never use a tag, that's you guys' jobs… not that it needs to be done. If pressed I would definitely call it progressive, but by progressive I mean forward-thinking, that's what progressive means to me. We certainly have breaks and house elements but that's what we try to do, make forward-thinking music."

Progressive nowadays can be taken to mean anything a little different, a label that seems to be over and unjustly used. Hybrid's genre-crossing mixture however appears to do justice to the tag, indiscriminately mixing genres in the search for a superior sound. They refute that the name Hybrid was born of the direction and style they were intending to take, though it is highly applicable nonetheless.

"When we picked the name we kind of just liked it, it's more that our music has ended up been a blend of genres than something we intended to do, kind of grew into the name…but hen again if music is going to be forward thinking it probably is going to be a hybrid or combination of musical tastes."

Hybrid are known as much as live act as they are producers, managing to play live with a depth akin to drum 'n' bass contemporaries Reprazent. It is a duplicity that sits comfortably with Hybrid, though it is clear where they see the main value of their music lying.

 "We do both, I reckon. The first seven years we produced and basically didn't release one record, all we did was make tracks for ourselves to play... We are still more producers than live act, but that being said, the live act is definitely growing. We are adding more components. Also, the fact that we have been producing for so much longer than playing live makes us think of ourselves more as producers than perhaps the crowd would appreciate."