They're three guys with two identities depending on the bpm of the track, and how bass heavy they go. Old friends Dave Wallace, Kieron Bailey and Brent Newitt who had all been producing under many a guise for a few years got together and decided to record a couple of drum and bass tracks. Aquasky, their drum'n'bass outfit was born with the release of the single 'Dezires/Images' on Shadow 64. An interest in breakbeat saw the three shift to releasing new tracks, slower and inspired by a collection of records with beats that no one else has ever used. Aquasky vs Masterblaster had arrived, allowing the group to separate their breakbeat tracks from their d'n'b work.

I caught up with Kieron to get inside who does what, who is coming to Australia on their forthcoming tour, and what's going down at the Aquasky studios.

Which one of the Aquasky Vs Masterblaster members will we be witnessing DJing at 33&1/3 in Australia?
It’s gonna be Dave and Kieron.

Who does what in the group when it comes to DJing vs production – in other words, who racks up the most frequent flyer points with the airline companies and who keeps the home fire burning?
It’s an equal share. We try and share the different shows between us as fairly as possible, and if someone has a particular preference to do a show then they do it. With production we all work together as much as possible in the studio at the same time.

Your back catalogue of releases, and range in style from drum'n'bass through to melodic breakbeat, is testament to your skill in the studio. Where is your current focus in production - drum'n'bass or breaks?
I guess at the moment we are spending more time on breaks stuff, as it good fun and the scene is really starting to become something fresh, where there is an opportunity to do something different. But we still are into our d&b and are still producing it.

How much hard work is there in running two different record labels, with Passenger for breaks and Sonix for d'n'b?
We actually have 3 labels. There’s another d&b label Incident which covers the more musical stuff. And we’re also setting up another breaks label called 777, which we have had to start due to the amount of good music we get sent for Passenger. The release schedule is full. We can’t keep up with it all, so we are setting up 777 to run along side Passenger. So yeah, its lot of hard work involved, and we do most of it ourselves, but its good to be in control of it all!

Are both labels primarily for the release of your material, given that you don't have a lot of different artists on signed to them? Or do you aim to foster new talent with artists such as like Baitercell & Schumacher (NZ) and Backdraft (Manchester, UK) on the Passenger imprint?
Originally the labels were set up for us. But we do get so many good tunez sent to us. We have started putting more and more of others artist’s tunes out. It’s great to see all these cool new producers coming through. We sign stuff from total unknowns and also established artists, which is a good mix I think. It keeps the label’s sound moving forward. I think this year there will be a lot more tunes we will release by other artists. We have already signed new tunez by Baitercell and Schumacher, also Backdraft, Tranformerman, Thebreakfastaz , Darqwan, and Infekto. And also we’ve got Gridlock, who usually does d&b, to do us his first breaks tune. So there are loads coming this year.

The group seem pretty up for remix duties. Are these a collaborative effort or first in best dressed depending on how much you like the original or want to remake it?
We always work together on stuff,so to mix a tune we have to like some of the parts of the original or we dont do it. There has to be something to work with that you like or its really difficult to do a mix, you just end up writing a new tune and calling it a mix, which is not so good really.

You've been together since 1995. Has it got easier over time - Djing, producing, running the labels - than when you started out? Any hard lessons you have learnt along the way?
I don’t think it gets easier. We just become busier! But it is a great job to have so its not really a problem. There are lots of lessons to be learnt and you only learn them the hard way. I guess the main one is to be very careful who you trust, especially labels you are recording for. So many people get fleeced it’s amazing, and also a shame it happens so much. Get everything you sign fully checked out by a lawyer!

Lastly, what kind of sounds will you be dropping in Australia? What fresh new stuff have you got tucked away in the DJ bags?
Ohhh, lots of good stuff is tucked up in our bags. I guess the Aquasky DJ sound is similar to the music we produce. I think the LP “Stay Fresh” is a good insight to what we’re feelin’ at the moment. Lots of funky break beats and big big basslines to get you movin'. We will be playing loads of new stuff from various different artists that are recording for us at the moment along with some hot nu things we have been working on, and of course a few classics thrown in for good measure!