Sixteen years on from the release of The Time Has Come on James Lavelle’s own Mo’ Wax imprint, UNKLE may look different having gone through various lineup revolutions but the mission statement remains the same, with Lavelle and full time collaborator Pablo Clements charting the unexplored regions of dark, dreamy electronica and as well as all the sonic planets within their orbit.

Most recently that resulted in 2010’s Where Did The Night Fall album and the companion EP Only The Lonely which bowed just last month. Out in the country to promote the twin releases as a part of the Groovin The Moo festival tour and their own immense sideshow dates, Lavelle took some time out to talk to inthemix about UNKLE’s legacy in popular culture, the project’s development and his thirst for creation.

Hey James, how’re you doing mate?

“It’s pretty early but I’m doing alright. We’ve got a full day of promo and rehearsing ahead of us.”

Right, and I imagine much of that would be for the Australian dates. As well as with UNKLE, you yourself are a fairly regular visitor out here – what keeps you coming back as frequently as you do?

“Well first of all I think that the crowds are brilliant. We’ve got a really good fanbase out there; people who want to see us. So it’s a really great place to come and play whether it’s live or as a DJ. Usually you usually get over there in the summer and that’s a great time to come and play but I know that whenever I’m there I’ll have enthusiastic people watching me, so I’ll come over any time.”

You guys are performing your Sydney show at the Opera House this time, which must be pretty incredible, right?

“Yeah, it’s amazing. That’s the kind of show that – no matter how many shows you’ve done before or how big you think you’ve gotten – gets you going. To hear that you’re playing at the Sydney Opera House with an orchestral accompaniment brings you back to the reason why you’re doing this in the first place. I never would have thought we’d be playing there, it’s like a dream.”

Thinking about the kind of level that you’ve attained and that show in particular, what were the expectations and ambitions you had when you started making music with UNKLE?

“Get a DJ to play something we’d made. That was it when we first started. To hear DJs that we admired playing our records, to hear Andy Weatherall playing one of our records or Giles Peterson. That was the motivation, we weren’t thinking about playing at the Opera House. The ultimate buzz for me was being able to get a record made and then to play it in a club, you know?”