ITM’s Barkus spoke to Chris Healing from Hybrid about the new album, new direction and what its all about. “The main idea with Hybrid is fusing things together that aren’t supposed to be together… almost making music that wasn’t supposed to work.”

So where are you at the moment?

I’m in dirty rainy Wales, Swansea, on my mobile driving through the rain on the way to the studio to do some work. John Graham our vocalist is down and we are busy doing a new track for our Australian dates.

How is the new album going?

The new album actually came out being very similar to what we had in mind. It’s doing very, very well indeed – in America in particular we have never seen so much press for one of our albums, some of which is even suggesting it’s better than our first album. I never thought anyone would say this as the first album was such an achievement for us. Press is the biggest indication of how the album is going. iTunes is [also] a really good thing as you can see how people react there.

How do you feel about the album now that it is out there?

I just want to back it up with a live show. You spend all that time working on the album… it’s a real fight sometimes. If you don’t push it or promote it, it just sits there. Most of the live show now is new stuff, we’ve really trimmed down and tightened up. 5 of us on stage now – 2 big keyboards, drummer, guitarist, bass and vocalist.

Does diversifying your sound lead to greater longevity?

One of my favourite bands is Radiohead. The reason I love them is they are diverse, they don’t mind taking risks, they will take you down roads that you never thought you would really like. That’s what I like to see in a band and in a live show. I like to see things progress and move in different directions and give people the chance to perceive them in different ways. That’s very important for a band and one thing we are trying to do now.

Tell me about Mike’s mum liking the latest album.

She has always been a big supporter of our stuff. She can even be thanked for ‘Finished Symphony’… Mike and I had been out raging all weekend… we came back to her place and were sitting in the kitchen, you know we had been out all night… we were still sort of going a bit, and we were listening to this classical music she had on. We sat there, listening and thought “you know what, you could really go somewhere with this”, and hence ‘Finished Symphony’ came out a week later.

So you still get out there and play as a punter every now and then?

Absolutely, you have to – it’s great to get out and hear other people. [It’s] good to keep abreast of the competition as such (laughing). We are playing at Fabric this weekend – it’s a club DJs night – a lot of good people playing. I went out with Phil K the other week, my favourite DJ, he is playing some amazing stuff at the moment. At Fabric we are playing between four and six – the graveyard shift – it might be a bit messy by the time we get there.

So, you have remixed some greats, have successful albums and played massive international festivals… thinking back to humble beginnings – would you have ever believed that this was possible?

Absolutely not. You know, I’ve always think about this when I started… standing in a field for six hours dancing, thinking to myself that I really like this music, being chuffed that you found something you really liked as well, buying albums, [your] first set of turntables… [we] never expected to get this far. Once you are bitten by it – and I was bitten properly – you can never really leave it alone. It’s all fallen into place really well for me and Mike.

The success… have you made it?

(Long pause) I suppose in some respects we have made it… in some respects it’s not really work, as sitting in the studio is great fun. Sometimes it can be quite hard meeting deadlines. It’s all good fun, and this is what we like to do. So, if you consider that “making it” is doing something that you enjoy doing, then yes.

What else is there you want to achieve in music?

I would like to experiment more with what we can do. I would like to do a chill out album, maybe something orchestral, something scary… [to] keep pushing the envelope of the music we do to see where we can take it, [and] see if our audience will accept it. This is something we enjoy doing. The main idea with Hybrid was fusing things together that weren’t supposed to be together… almost making music that wasn’t supposed to work. Orchestral music with really dirty baselines, they aren’t meant to go together, but we can make them fit.

Hybrid bring their live band to Australia for a national tour this summer. You’d be crazy to miss it!

The band’s latest album, ‘I Choose Noise’, is out now through Distinctive/Stomp.