>> What is YUNX? and where did you get the name from?

Yunx is the name of a small bird.....!!!!!! We can't remember any specific
reason why we chose the name........We were flicking through the dictionary
looking for inspiration and Yunx just looked and sounded right for what we
wanted to do. It also had potential from an artwork perspective......

>> Who / what are your inspirations / influences?

Iain: I was inspired to start creating music after hearing the early Warp
records. I'd just finished University and was bumming around and was
fortunate enough to have a friend who had some gear.
Darren: My inspiration for music started with early electro and kraftwerk, I
started with a old Atari computer with a simple sample package and a roland
drum machine.

>> If you could steal a favourite track from any artist / group to release yourself, what would it be and why?

Iain: Spooky - Little Bullet Part 1 - it defines what dance music was and should be.......

Darren: Carl Craig - Covert Action - Just for the memories

>> Please choose any film, cartoon or comic ROBOT, and tell us why you would love to be them.

Iain: Bender - he just robs and drinks............and bends!!!!! What more do you want?

Darren: Buzz Lightyear - I'm on a mission from star command?

>> What are you hoping to accomplish, and where can you see yourselves in 5 years?

For the first time since we began doing this, we feel we're with the right
label to move us forward. Our previous output hasn't had the right focus and
commitment......We don't play live or DJ so we need the label to develop the
name and sound!!!! Ai are starting to break through the mould of your usual
run of the mill labels and we feel it's the start of something truly great.
In 5 years time we'll still be releasing music though. We'll outlive
artists/genres and fake personas to continue on our journey.

>> Which artist / group produces music that makes your heads open up and listen?

Iain: Flaming Lips
Darren: Helios

>> Is your interest just in electronic music or do you have a broader taste?

Iain: I recently got an iPod.....It's rejuvenated the way I listen to music.
Current faves are As One "21st Century Soul", Acid Jazz (various
compilations), David Bowie "Best of" and the Beastie Boys "To the 5
Boroughs"....

Darren: I love all types of music, Electronic, Jazz, reggae and anything
that sounds good, but at the moment I'm listening to a lot of jazz.

>> What was the last piece of music that you listened to?

Iain: Royal House - Can you party

Darren: Boy Robot - Sweet Honeybee Of Infinity

>> Describe your main aim under the Yunx name.

Difficult to answer this after 8 years of doing this.......Only time will
tell what the future is for Yunx, but it's definitely getting more funky.

>> If you could organise a live night, where you and five other chosen acts would all be playing live, who would join you on the night?

Iain: BDP, Flaming Lips, Spooky, Happy Mondays and DJ Shadow.
Darren: Drexciya, Helios, Plaid, Atjazz and Bugge Wesseltoft

>> What are your thoughts on file sharing over the internet? do you think it has a negative effect on you?

We both feel that file sharing is a part of the next phase of the music
industry......Whether right or wrong, it will continue and smaller labels
will not be able to do much about it. The majors are starting to take people
to court but I've only heard of a handful of cases where anything's
happened. Compare that to the millions of people who have access to the
intranet.....It's good that Ai are working with Bleep and recognising this
important part of the market. We can't quantify whether it has a positive or
negative effect on us. You would need to conduct some market research with
the people who buy it and ask how they heard about us!!!!!!

>> If you were a robot, where would you work and what would your name be?

What's the fascination with Robots here???
Iain: SunBot - I would test sunrust cream for the major pharmaceutical
companies.....

Darren: Bobby the bomb disposal unit - I would detect the bombs and detonate
them with their rightful owners?

>> Any live dates in UK coming up?

We've never had the inclination to take the Yunx sound on the road, so no.
That may change with time though.........

>> How did you meet?

We knew eachother in our early teens. In our early twenties we met up again
in a pub and formed Yunx.

>> Which other artists / labels are you into?

Iain: Mr Scruff, Paper Recordings, Pepe Deluxe and all my old vinyl
collection

Darren: Claro Intelecto, Helios, Plaid, Koop, Atjazz, Bugge Wesseltoft,
Wagon Christ - I could go on but you would be reading for a week?

>> What are your top 5 albums of all time? [any genre]

Iain: BDP "Bytes", Spooky "Gargantuan", As One "Reflections", Flaming Lips
"Yoshimi battles the pink robots" and KLF "Space"

Darren: Kraftwerk - Man Machine, Black Dog - Bytes, Beaumont Hannant -
Texturolgy, Mc Shan - Down By Law, Courtney Melody - Modern Girl.

>> Which print / online magazines / newspages do you regularly read?

Iain: I read my local newspapers........Online I read tesselate of
course!!!!!! Otherwise I just surf around but I don't have any one site that
I regularly visit to read it's content.
Darren:

>> How would you describe your music in ten words?

Smooth, eclectic, disjointed, melodic, fast, ambient, slow, funky,
atmospheric and alive.......

>> How did your relationship with AI records come about?

We first had contact with Ai when we received an email form Steve asking if
we'd listen to their first album and provide them with feedback. We we're
more than happy to do this. This continued for a few releases and then the
label started moving along and we lost contact. Last year, we decided to
release some music under a new name and we approached Ai to see if they were
up for it. We're happy to say they were. At the same time we decided to stop
our own label as it wasn't really working for us. We both agreed that Ai was
a good place to house the "Yunx" name. This goes some way to explain why
"Snake in the Grass" has a looser feel to it as it wasn't meant to be a Yunx
EP.....But it worked as Yunx in a different way!!!!!!

>> Where and when did you begin working on music?

Iain: In Rochdale in 1993.

Darren: Manchester 1991.

>> Can you tell us what equipment and software you use.

Iain: Cubase, Yamaha, Alesis and the odd piece of software

Darren: Nuendo / Cubase, Waldorf, Emu, Oberhiem and a couple of plugins for
Nuendo / Cubase

>> How often do you work on your music?

We both have studio set ups now and due to work and home commitments it
makes sense for us to work individually and pool it all together.

Iain: I'll switch on for an hour or two most nights, but I'm at my most
creative at the weekends when I'm more relaxed and have more time!!!!

Darren: I try to stick to Mondays / Wednesdays but it does not always work
that way but any spare time I get I will switch on

>> How does the your process for selecting the tracks you release work?

We pool all our music together and then pick out the highlights. The best
tracks will get sent to the label and they'll have the opportunity to pick
out what they want. As our music can be so diverse it's not always that easy
for the labels to do this so we might need 25/30 tracks before we get an
album. As it's all us we not bothered which tracks they pick. Some we like
more than others but we trust the people who do this and they know much more
about what sells that we do!!!!!!!

>> If you had the power to go back in time and alter it somehow, what would you do and why?

Iain: I'd go back to the big bang and witness the start of the
universe........I wouldn't dare change anything though as the consequences
would be incomprehensible!!!!!!!

Darren: I would go back in time with the lottery numbers and win my millions
to better my bank account and my studio?


Thanks to Iain and Darren for taking the time to answer the questions and also to Steve @ AI for passing questions backwards and forwards.