Brixton boys Simon and Felix aka Basement Jaxx are enjoying mainstream success with their latest album 'Rooty'. They are set to gig as part of Radio 1's One Live in Birmingham offering and they took time out beforehand to drop by for a chat on a cold Friday night in London. Pete Tong made them welcome, we gave them beer and, even though they said they didn't like doing webchats, we sent them away with smiles on their faces. Read what Felix and Simon have to say about the Rooty gorilla, the future of dance music, DJing naked and the perfect boiled egg.

Alan: Are you single?
Felix: Half and half.
Simon: Not at the moment.

Jo B: Which of you would win in a fight?
Felix: I don't know, we're non violent. Verbal fight I don't know. We never really row. We try and promote harmony!

DJ Ginger: What inspired the moaning on the 'Rooty' Album?
Simon: Sex and lustful exotic love. It's done by a girl called Crystal who's a stripper we met in Toronto. She inspired it all.
Felix: She's in London at the moment so go out and have a look for her.

Matthew: What was the inspiration behind the track 'Romeo'? It is fantastic.
Felix: The breakdown of a relationship. It started off from a male perspective. Moving on and letting it all go.
Simon: The perspective changed when Kele Le Roc sang it - it was originally Felix singing but Kele sounded better.
Felix: She really breathed life into the track. The live lounge performance we did was really good.
Simon: It was nice to work with proper musicians. Kele is really good too. Unfortunately we don't think Kele will be in Birmingham with us.
Felix: We've got a singer called Charlene who's doing most of the big songs with us.

Jermaine McSporran: How did it come about that Kele Le Roc sang on the track?
Felix: She was on the radio with some kind of panel of people and she said she loved us and she wanted to work with us so we got in contact. It all worked out really well.

Ears: Why the name Basement Jaxx?
Simon: Why the name Ears?

Ears: Because of my sticky out ears!
Felix: We started in a basement and the original dance music was jaxxy so a mixture of the two really. The underground sound.
Simon: We're doing what we've always done but some of our stuff is catchy and crosses over and gets played on the radio which is great. We've been doing Basement Jaxx for eight years now.
Felix: A lot more people come to our gigs now whereas eight years ago we were dragging our friends along even though it wasn't really their music.

Felix: "A lot of the best music I hear isn't from big DJs, it's from people following their own vibes. Believe in your vibe."

Oprah Winfrey: When did you first realise the extent of your fame?
Felix: Doing Glastonbury last year. Going out on the stage in front of about 30,000, that was really wow. That was a moment when we thought we'd done quite well really. We tried to make it a show that people can enjoy. I find some bands really boring to watch, especially dance music.

Ally M: Not that it matters but what genre of music would you say you are?
Felix: What would she say we are?
Ally M: I'm a bloke.
Simon: Never mind, It's all free love in the Basement Jaxx world!

Kev: Do you guys ever think about producing harder stuff or are you happy with the Jaxx thang?
Simon: Some of our stuff is harder.
Felix: Occasionally we'll make a hard house track but we don't release everything we do. Some of the stuff we play when we DJ or B sides of singles.
Simon: We test a lot out when we're playing. We tested the album out like that.

Page 2: Naked Djing, cannabis and advice for hopefuls...