>> how was eat static formed and what was involved in choosing the name ?
eat static was born out of a band i had going before i met joie hinton and steve everitt called ‘wooden baby' - it was kind of psychedelic punky goth stuff. i met joie while going for an audition to drum for the ozric tentacles, which i ended up getting the job of. joie and i were kindred spirits and had a lot of the same influences and interests, especially in the world of alien abductions, cover ups and sci-fi movies. we decided to start making our own music together outside ozrics - a project which was initially called ‘the pants’ - which, to this day, remains some of the maddest music i ever did. shortly after that we hooked up with a friend of joie’s, steve everitt, who immersed us into the world of the sampler. we did our first recording session together in 1989 not even knowing what style of music we would end up doing. acid house, aliens and world music were the three main driving forces behind our ideas so our unique take on dance music was born. our main goal with all of our stuff was to inject humour into the music, to make the synths sound silly and fun, especially as ozrics was such a serious muso band.

i came up with using the eat static name after seeing a star trek movie in which the line ‘let them eat static’ was used. it suited our spikey, noisy music perfectly.

>> who was involved in the making of back to earth?
i am usually the main producer of all the eat static albums as it's been my baby from the start. steve left and went on to a very successful career in tv music in 1994 and in january of this year, joie left too as he was struggling with all the time spent away from home and missing the family. steve occasionally gets involved with the odd album and indeed, on this one, we co-wrote 4 songs together. ed wynne also co-wrote a tune and i also ended up doing a collaboration with steve hillage and miquette giraudy from system 7 after doing a track with them for their album ‘phoenix’. in addition, my brother in-law yossi is scraping a vase in a cave in the israeli desert for a tune too.

>> when was most of the material written?
well, i started it around october 2007 and thought it was close to being finshed in early 2008 and then decided to write some newer stuff as i was liking the direction the music was taking at that point. i had found there were too many tunes with the same kind of feel/tempo so i went down the road of experimenting and even though the album was not finished till much later, i am much happier with the final outcome. it now sounds like a classic static album, in that i mean you have no clue what the hell is coming next! it's like a round the world trip now incorporating latin, jazz, dub and middle eastern elements plus some classic neo electronica.

>> how did you first meet ed from the ozrics?
when i went to audition for the ozrics in 1988. just before, my previous band ‘the funeral party’ was gigging with a band of joie’s (oroonies) so he had asked joie to check me out. i was off my head at the time and think that joie gave me a good report!anyway, after that i went to london for the audition, and though there may have been better drummers there, i knew all the tunes and had a personality that fit with them perfectly.

>> bozzy has done much of your album art - how did you meet?
can’t quite remember the actual meeting but he lived right next to my grandmother's place which had large playing fields and a huge orchard. we ended up playing together and generally being naughty boys, stealing apples and stuff like that - we must have been around 6 or 7 years old. we hooked up years later when we formed a band together called the strontium dogs. we both moved out of our parents' places and got a run down house together which was worse than any squat i have ever seen…and yet we were paying rent for it! all i remember is the stench of cat piss.....
about bozzy though, i always loved his artwork - a mixture of graffiti and comic book style with some classic air brushing styles too. i had been an avid collector of that style of stuff from jim burns, boris vallejo, etc.

>> who ran alien records?
alien records was financed by a good friend of mine, shane thomson who was one of the original free party dj’s. he came up to me after seeing a really early static gig and said to me ‘i wanna release a 12’’ of you guys'. that was that! we did about 4 ep’s together which all sold out in less than a week.

>> there have been many ufo references in your music over the years - what inspired this?
joie and i had always been obsessed with ufo’s and aliens. we were huge fans of b movies while growing up and when we met, we were both reading countless books on the real alien subjects by budd hopkins, whitley streiber, stanton friedman. it was still very much an underground subject back then, even one that was ridiculed. this was well before x files and the countless documentaries that followed and no one had even heard of area 51 or roswell back then. it was a fascinating and exciting subject which only a few people seemed to know about. i guess that’s why we always got a lot of respect from people over our love for the subject as people knew we were totally into it and not jumping on the bandwagon when all this stuff became much more public in the early 90’s.

>> ever been to roswell / area 51?
no, would have loved to have gone there. i spent time ufo spotting while travelling in nevada but did not go as far south to those places.

>> of the old static tunes are there any that stand out as particular favorites?
the actual tune ‘eat static’ is probably one of my faves. 'synapse' is also a killer but its never been released. i still have many early static tunes that have never been released as yet.

over the years you've used some very unique and obscure vocal samples - where do you source most of your samples from?

the most obscure b or even c movies! i try not to use stuff from anything too well known. i also mutate the sound of them sometimes or even just use them as a texture behind.

>> planet dog records was a favorite of mine - what, in your opinion, was the best release you did with them?
that’s a tough one. all our albums have their own unique thing about them. i always try and make each album a timeless piece…something that you can put on in a few years from now and still get a buzz from. we did a lot of singles with planet dog too which was a lot of work because of the formatting rules as we were doing 2 x 12’’ plus remixes for each release.

i guess the release that had the most impact was implant which hit the uk album charts at number 9. since this i have met so many people and artists who said that album had changed their lives, inspired people to go write their own material, or changed peoples perspectives on dance music and proving it could be emotional and deep.

>> what is your lasting impression of megadog events? how do they stand up in comparison to current uk festivals?
i do miss the megadogs - they were epic events. we all used to put everything into those events including all the profits! no one really made any money as it all went into huge lightshows, good band line ups, etc. they were the only events at the time to combine live music with dance music with festival vibes and professional productions. i still have some of the early posters and saw one the other day with higher intelligence ageny, eat static, underworld and orbital all together at the rocket in holloway road…what an epic line up for such a small venue! i also drove past the george robey last week while on the way to mastering this album and that was quite a moment for me, all those ghosts and classic nights where the original club dog was really born.

>> outside of the uk, what festivals do you rate the most?
solstice festival in japan is a good one, moksha in israel, samothraki in greece, rainbow serpent in australia.

>> what’s best live act you've seen in ages?
now that’s a bit of a sore point with me lately! i have become quite disheartened at the state of the live dance acts, all of those who seem quite happy to stand behind a laptop, chatting to each other and generally looking pretty un-entertaining to joe public! not all do this but a bloody high percentage and it all sounds like finished stereo files being played which is technically no different to dj'ing cd’s. where is the danger? where is the spontaneity? people want to see an artist perform, to feed off their energy, to feel that what comes out of the speakers is a unique thing to that evening. i guess that’s where my rock band background comes in handy.
anyway, back to your question, my favourite recent live act has to be gary numan doing the recent replica’s tour - a right old blast from my past.

>> who are current artists you respect?
i have been recently getting into non-dance acts again probably due to seeing a lot of the jools holland ‘later’ series. it's been quite nice discovering fresh music that i probably would have missed as i don’t spend much time in record shops anymore. recent ones that stand out are beirut, arcade fire, grinderman (i was a huge birthday party fan), pj harvey, interpol, b52’s (bought their first single in 78!). i guess the dance stuff i still adore would be the rip off artist, aphex twin, squarepusher, sven vath and a lot of underground stuff.

>> what are your top 5 musical influences?
that’s another tough one! i guess if it’s the acts that made me wanna record music in the first place it would be can, kraftwerk, very early roxy music (with eno), gong, tubeway army.

>> what's your favorite bit of gear?
well the akai sampler probably had the biggest impact on my music - it opened up a whole universe for me and i am pretty grateful that i got into making electronic music before the advent of all the computer software that’s on the market now. my favourite synth would probably be the roland sh5.

>> what monitors and mixer do you use?
i use a mackie digital d8b for mixing and dynaudio bm15’s for monitoring.

>> mac or pc?
i am still on my trusty old pc! i love the diversity of mad software you can use with it and am still using steinberg cubase sequencing programmes. logic looks like an accounting program to me!

>> any essential reading you would suggest?
intruders – budd hopkins
any jg ballard
fear and loathing in las vegas – hunter s thomson

>> 3 favorite films...
liquid sky
golden voyage of sinbad
it came from outer space