Shapeshifters are on the verge of wrapping up what was a very busy 2009. The London house music production team (the same guys that invaded clubs all over the world with their 2004 anthem Lola’s Theme) have been touring virtually nonstop over the past 12 months – more than any other year – taking just enough time between tour dates to lay down remixes for the likes of Empire of the Sun, Natalie Imbruglia and Candi Station. Besides joining the Defected stable in 2008, the house duo has also been steadily nurturing the growth of their own imprint Nocturnal Groove, kicking off with an exclusive remix of their biggest hit, Lola’s Theme last year year that spent 7 weeks in Beatport’s #1 spot.

This December has just seen the launch of their double disc compilation Summadayze 2010, giving fans a little Shapeshifters teaser before the tour kicks off in Sydney on New Years Eve. The guys can’t wait to tour Australia again, returning for the first time since playing Future Music Festival back in 2008. Don’t expect them to take a break just yet, though; the two are itching to return to the studio after all of the touring, so they can get to work on another album to be released in early 2010 under Defected. However, ITM still managed to get Simon and Max to sit still long enough to tell us what we can look forward to on the Summadayze tour.

We’re obviously right near the end of the year, how has 2009 been for you guys?

It’s been a brilliant year for us and we have been touring non stop which has been a lot of fun, but kept us out of the studio for most of the year, so we have been ordered back in there recently and have begun working on our new album.

You’ve released music for massive labels like Defected, but you’ve also got your own imprint Nocturnal Groove. How important is this label for you in 2009?

It’s very important to us; we have always said that artists like ourselves need to support the new and less well-known producers to help keep the scene alive. Without labels like Nocturnal Groove, Defected, Toolroom, etc., it would be pretty dull out there.

We’ll be seeing you here in Australia over new years to perform on the Summadayze tour. They’ll all be pretty massive shows, are you looking forward to the tour?

Yes; a lot this year as we have not been back since we did Future Music in early 2008, which was amazing for us, so we can’t wait.

We’re talking to you because of both your Australian tour, as well as your double CD mix you’ve put together for the Summadayze release. How did you get involved with that?

We were asked by the guys at Future to do it! That simple, really.

Often you might share a CD compilation like this with another artist, but in this case you’ve been given two CDs to do your thing. Were you excited with the opportunity to have a whole two CDs to showcase your sound?

Yes we were surprised at that as well, as usually it is done by two artists, but we didn’t really dwell on it and set about smashing the arse out of it!

I’ll start by saying how good the CD is. I was almost surprised at how good it is, and how broadly it covers the different areas of house music. What were you trying to create with these mixes?

[Laughter] That’s funny! We have always been non genre specific and professed our love of all things ‘house’, and that’s always reflected in the way we play. It comes from doing our own Nocturnal nights for 8 years, where we would play for 5 to 6 hours and create a journey throughout the night. It’s the way we always approach these things; if a record moves us, we’ll play it, irrelevant of genre!

There’s quite a few of your own productions and remixes on there. Tell us a bit about where your head is at with your production in 2009?

2009 has been a bit of a transitional year for us, and as I said before we have not been in the studio working on our own productions very much this year (much to Defected’s disgust), because we wanted to have a bit of a rest and stock pile some ideas for a new album we will deliver in March 2010. We have done plenty of remixes for the likes of Empire of the Sun, Natalie Imbruglia and Candi Station, but kept it to a minimum and toured more than any other year, and now feel ready to jump back into the lion’s den!

We spoke before about the very broad range of sounds on the compilation, from funky to soulful to tech to progressive. Is this a good reflection of what you try to do with your sound and your DJ sets?

It’s exactly the groove we are on right now, and you will hear many of those tracks in our set mixed in with some special edits we have for the shows. The only difference is at festivals you never have as much time as you would like, due to amount of artists on the tour, so it will just be a condensed version. That’s what you can expect to hear on the Summadayze tour.

Summadayze 2010, mixed by The Shapeshifters, is out now through EQ/Stomp. Catch them on tour:

Thur 31st Dec – Summanights, Sydney
Fri 1st Jan – Summadayze, Melbourne
Fri 1st Jan – Summadayze, Adelaide
Sun 3rd Jan – Summadayze, Perth
Saturday 9th Jan – Summafieldayze, Gold Coast