When James Ash and Steve Davis met they were both into different styles of electronic music and enjoyed listening to it for very different reasons. “People remember the massive raves (in 1989) but it wasn’t like that for us,” James said. He was listening to surreal, cerebral stuff like Brian Eno and Tangerine Dream and never really started going to clubs until he met Steve. “Steve showed me that you could dance to electronic music rather than just stroking your beard to it,” James recalls.

Steve’s tastes weren’t exactly mainstream for that time either, he was into black, soulful music and hip-hop. Hip-hop was in fact where the pair found some common ground and the first track they worked on was a hip-hop one. Steve, who had been DJing since 1985, also got James into DJing.

Over the years they released some memorable club tracks, such as “Out to Get You” and “Retrosexual,” under the name Union State. Their first success under the guise of Rogue Traders was “Need to Show You” a blast of disco house released under Melbourne’s Vicious Grooves label.

Their debut album “We Know What You’re Up to” (released May, 2003) received rave reviews for its willingness to break rules and cross boundaries with house music. “It is important not to be too generic when writing tracks,” Steve said. “For example, we like to use live artists and steer away from samples”. ‘Give in to Me’ the first single from “We Know What You’re Up to” featured the glorious vocals of Melinda Richards, a feature which helped the rack gain radio and club play. “We feel it’s important to tell a story lyrically and a good vocalist or MC can put that together for you,” Steve said.

Their mix of INXS’s “Need You Tonight” was an impressive effort which did a lot more than stick a 4×4 house beat over the existing track. Hearing Michael Hutchence’s voice with an eerie, ghostly effect on it creates some sort of twisted irony, particularly considering the singer’s mysterious death- but according to James and Steve it wasn’t intentional. “That came out of us wanting to create a lot of dramatic tension, when Michael sings everything else is quiet and then we kick it back in when the guitars start up. It’s this kind of juxtaposition between quiet and loud,” Steve said.

The pair is not concerned if people think they have ‘sold out’ by doing the track. “In the U.K no one would blink an eyelid if a big name like Judge Jules, for example, released a re-mix of a song by a popular group,” Steve said. He believes Australians would be more inclined to think they’ve sold out because Aussies take themselves more seriously and are very passionate about their music. Steve assured me there were no plans to gain notoriety or money by doing the mix. “It was simply an opportunity that was presented to us and we thought it was an important thing to do,” he said.

When James and Steve first got together their dynamic when working together involved meeting somewhere in the middle of their wildly varying tastes, but fifteen years on “we are very much on the same page,” James said. “We both share the same vision for the new album (being written at present) which is to sound like a band playing dance music.”

This concept arose from the pair’s frustration with the facelessness and disposability of dance music. “It’s all about: what record is huge this week,” James said. “We want to create some longevity with our music.” Part of this process will involve using live musicians such as new recruit guitarist Isaac Moran. This will carry over to future live sets which will be more hybrid style rather than straight DJ sets.

The Rogue Trader’s DJ sets are apparently really something to see, with the duo really getting into it and jumping around just as much as- if not more than- the crowd. “We love sharing in the energy of it all, James said.” The pair tries not to concern themselves with what the crowd wants to hear but more with giving the crowd a “representation of what we like and what we make,” James said.

James prefers to play a smaller, packed room and mentions gigs at The Loft in Melbourne and Lot 33 and Academy in Canberra as some of the best they’ve played in Oz recently – along with Mobile Home on New Year’s Eve in Sydney in the docks area under the harbour bridge!

James has a story of interesting cultural significance to tell about a gig they recently did at The Black Cat in Seoul, South Korea. “We rocked up and there was a karaoke session going on. We were thinking- fuck what are we doing here. Right before we went on a lady was singing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” After she finished everyone politely clapped- then we went on and the place turned in to a raging dance party. It turned out to be one of the best gigs we’ve ever played.”

Well the Rogue Traders certainly seem to be enjoying themselves and their new direction sounds like an exciting one to look out for. A piece of advice from James for all you budding music makers out there “Never take what you’re doing for granted and don’t take it too seriously.”

After the success of the ‘One Of My Kind’, the Rogue Traders’ INXS remix, and to coincide with their new remix album ‘INXS Squared’, the band have offered budding producers the chance to remix their classic ‘What You Need’. To read more on the opportunity, check out the website HERE.