“Maybe we’ll get really up ourselves and do a progressive ambient jazz album. No one will understand it, but we’ll be really pleased, and then we’ll have breakdowns,” proposed Felix Buxton of Basement Jaxx in a 2005 interview with ITM. Four years have passed and this time we’ve got Simon Ratcliffe on the phone. So what does he make of Felix’s prediction? No breakdowns as yet, Simon assures us, however he does allude to the fact that the past few years have harbored some dark times for Basement Jaxx. “Felix has had a rough time, that’s part of the reason the new album is called Scars. It’s not been a bowl of cherries, there have been a few challenges and he’s had issues going on in his personal life. I think we’re both feeling slightly older, some of our innocence has been chipped away a little bit”. But it’s not all doom and gloom assures Simon. “The theme of Scars is about picking yourself up again and being proud of your scars, and letting them be things that make you who you are”.

I ask Simon to describe the new album. “Well, it’s Basement Jaxx in 2009.” I wonder if this is all he’s going to give me, but he soon opens up and reveals that Scars took the longest out of any Basement Jaxx album to make. Why the hold up? The age old pursuit of happiness, apparently. According to Simon, he and Felix stop working on a track when they are both happy, and this time around, “for some reason it was hard for us to be really happy. It just took a long time for things to really find their groove and to get the right voice, then get the right arrangement”.

The delay can also be accredited to their enviable relationship with their label XL Recordings. Since they joined the label in the mid 90s, Basement Jaxx have enjoyed creative freedom and little pressure to work within time constraints. “We probably could have done with someone breathing down out neck a bit more, we probably could have done with a few deadlines”. With no one hassling them to finish the album, Simon and Felix found themselves exploring new ideas and styles that resulted in them presenting the label with 40 tracks for the album. Rather than struggling for material, Basement Jaxx were struggling with direction. “We just had too many different ideas all of completely different styles, we needed to get some glue to stick it all together”.

So, after setting out wanting to avoid the “woo-hoo moments” that had defined Basement Jaxx in the past, Simon and Felix “came out of our cloud and realised we wanted to make something that could be played in clubs”. The result? “A very full meal that’s hopefully very satisfying – but not bloating,” declares Simon. It’s a full meal alright, 12 out of 13 of the songs on the album feature a guest artist and, although this is nothing new for Basement Jaxx, what stands out this time is the caliber of names on the tracklisting. Listen to the album and you’ll hear Dev from Lightspeed Champion, Yo Majesty, Yoko Ono, Santogold and *Sam Sparro*” alongside a list of other high profile voices.

So how do these collaborations come about? Is it about talent, or about choosing the ‘it’ artists of the time? Earlier this year at the International Music Summit in Ibiza, Pete Tong said that Basement Jaxx always have the right singers at the right time. I ask Simon if he agrees. “No, it’s totally who’s good,” he stresses. “I mean, if we could find somebody who lived just 2 minutes from the studio who was awesome, who was completely unknown, that would be fantastic. We used to try and do that more and more, but it’s just harder and harder to do”. Not convinced? How about their work with Yoko Ono. “She’s not particularly hot at the moment is she?” asks Simon (I remain neutral, but I’m sure Beatles fans would agree). “But first of all we heard she was a fan of Basement Jaxx and we always thought it would be nice to meet her, and the it ended up in trying to get her to do some singing for us.” It was while Basement Jaxx were in New York hanging out with Yoko back that they thought, “well let’s get as many people as possible” to appear on the album. This is where their collaboration with Santogold originated. “Santogold was an unknown, but she lived in Brooklyn so she wasn’t far away so we got her to come in”. While Scars is a very different record to the one Simon and Felix set out to make back in 2007 at Brooklyn’s Stratosphere Studios, it appears as though Simon is pleased with the result, even if he never says so directly.

Wait, what about that progressive jazz album Felix alluded to? “We haven’t exactly done a progressive jazz album, but it’s the beginning of one and quite honestly I’d like to do more of it”. Yep, you heard it; due for release in a month the follow up to Scars will be a soundscape album featuring the darker, ambient and more mellow tracks that didn’t suit the feel of the current album. “We’ve sort of always threaten that we were going to do a double album. Felix likes world music, we both like jazz and jazz fusion, music that’s more liberated, not pop music, not club music, music that you just chill and almost meditate to it”. More reflective music I suggest? “More reflective, exactly!” exclaims Simon. “Since we’ve known each other, for 15 years, we’ve always been into that, and we’ve always included little bits of that on our albums. People might skip those bits, but for us, we like those little moments and we’ve always said it would be lovely to do an album that’s just this. So that’s nothing new really, it’s just that this time we’ve done it”. The album will run for just 35 minutes, its short length possibly due to a last minuet decision to include two of its tracks Distractions and Gimme Somethin’ True on Scars instead – a teaser for what’s to come Simon suggests.

So with a new album out and another one on the way, can we expect Basement Jaxx to tour Australia this coming summer? “We’ve been going to 2 different countries every weekend. And been back home for 2 days in between, and having to go into the studio for those 2 days”. Look’s like it’s been a hectic year for Basement Jaxx, but there is hope. “If we’re wanted enough we’ll definitely come,” promises Simon. I assure Simon we’ll make sure lots of people buy the album, so they have to come. “That would be good, that would be great, thanks”. No worries Simon, anytime!

Basement Jaxx’s Scars is out now in Australia through Remote Control Records.