"It's drum 'n' bass all day, every day," admits Fresh happily as he frets over the limited number of Dillinja dubplates in his world while constructing a pint glass of coffee in the kitchen of his two-story flat in the Hampstead district of North London, "But I love it." Fresh's many labels, the staff that runs them, the main )EIB( studio, where he sleeps, as well as where one of his partners, Aaron Ross, sleeps, are all under this bustling roof.

Since the inception of )EIB( in 1998, things have moved with lightening speed for the foursome. Prior to )EIB(, Fresh (25) drawing away from his indie rock and classical music background, was DJing on the pirate station Fresh FM, recording for Renegade Hardware under the guise Absolute Zero, contributing material for the lost Lady Miss Kier album and making backing tracks for MC Moose. It was through Moose that Fresh was introduced to Michael "Vegas" Wojcicki (24), ragga and hip hop enthusiast, who was promoting parties in Japan at the time. Jason "Maldini" (29), dance music connoisseur, and Darren "D-Bridge" White (29), hip hop lover, were working under the moniker Future Forces, also on Renegade Hardware, when the quartet joined together.

Completely unaware of the existence of the '70s classic rock group, Bad Company, they took their name from the 2000AD comic strip in which Bad Company were a group of four mercenaries fighting against the dark side of the world. They had already released a plethora of material before being forced to become an unpronounceable Prince-esque symbol: )EIB(, finally relenting to the name Bad Company UK for American shores.

The prolific nature of the foursome, however, was already in place by this time. Releasing three full-lengths: Digital Nation, Inside The Machine, and Shot Down On Safari (whose domestic release on Dieselboy's HUMAN imprint features a second disc of their "greatest hits" entitled Best Of The Bad), as well as an EP series: Book Of The Bad, those are very few of their many outpourings. The )EIB( effect was felt everywhere immediately. Mangling dance floors internationally, call for rewind after rewind is a guarantee when a )EIB( tune is dropped, their percolating escalating beats, obnoxiously ornery basslines, contorting crushing rhythms inventively filthy and ratty, making for some fanatical reactions.

"The thing with drum 'n' bass is, there's not a lot of point spending weeks and weeks on tracks," explains Fresh as he interminably lights the next cigarette with the butt of the last one. "It's all about progress, the cutting edge of the latest thing you can do with a plug-in, or an effect, or a technique. It's technical show-off music. The most important thing is to catch a really good vibe. The best tunes are made in four, five hours. 'The Nine,' which was voted on Drum 'n' Bass Arena as the biggest drum 'n' bass tune of all time, was written in four hours. Simple, not too complicated, not too much going on, the DJs can play it. Your tune is going to sound amazing for about a month, then somebody's going to do the next thing. If I had to choose shelf life over dance floor, I'd pick dance floor 'cause that's what it's about for me."

Despite every DJ playing )EIB( tunes and the crowd's almost unwilling, rabid response to them, there are still accusations of being formulaic thrown in )EIB('s direction. This is a source of some conflict for Fresh whose intentions when creating the music are different from his impressions after it has been completed.

"When we first started, I had moments where I felt depressed about everything because I couldn't work out what to do," he says, fidgeting on the floor of his studio, alternating from crouching on one knee to the other. "My main thing is to make tunes I want to play as a DJ. I specifically make tunes that will hopefully make people go nuts. But at the end of the day, you can't watch what people think about what you're doing so much. When we do an album, we try and put stuff on there to show we're not all about one thing. But we do choose to do that one thing because it's what fits with DJing. People need to lighten up. It's not something you listen to in your bedroom and talk about lyrics that are meaningful. It's about the clubs, going out, having a drink, having a laugh, having a dance. There's no point in trying to make it anything else."

He continues contradictorily, "I hate [Shot Down On Safari] already. I'm not happy with any of it. When I listen to [Best Of The Bad], it sounds really same-y the whole way through. The [tracks are] all done to be technically different at the time, but all the big ones are simple tunes so when you stick them end to end they all sound really simple. And the ones we did that were complicated showpiece tunes, we didn't have enough room to put them on."

Although pushing themselves forward with their live band configuration called Digital Nation (where in addition to the core four, there is a guitarist and a vocalist), )EIB('s DJing relates directly to their production. Using DJing as a way to perform their material, get immediate reaction--positive or negative, hence feeling a direct relationship to the crowd. There have been instances where a track was played in a club and never played again, a luxury as far as Fresh is concerned.

"A lot of people have to trust themselves that the tune's good," he says as he plays some Digital Nation rough tracks: a cover of The Doors' "Break On Through" and "R13," all the while not knowing where to look while the music is going, seemingly embarrassed at having to sit there while someone scrutinizes his creations. "There's this vibe, especially [with] up and coming producers [who] feel the reason somebody isn't playing their tune is simply because they're not part of some elite circle. That's not true. But because they feel like that, it might cause them to be less fussy about what they release because they're convinced that the tune's good and the only reason someone isn't playing it is because of something other than it's not good. A lot of up and coming producers that are doing good tunes are let down by the mix of the music, which is the most important thing. They hear at home on their hi-fi and can't understand why DJ blah-blah who they gave it to comes back and says, 'It didn't really sound right.' When you hear it out yourself, you know there was too much bass in it or not enough high hats. It means you need to go back into the studio, change something, if it's even possible to change it, or scrap it altogether. It gives you a good insight into the production process."

Part of the ethos behind the many labels: BC Recordings, BC Authorized, Square One, Breakbeat Punk, Halo and Risky Business, the latter two dedicated to house music, is to provide producers at varying levels outlets that are right for them. BC Recordings is strictly for )EIB( and )EIB( collaborations. BC Authorized for credible, well-known drum 'n' bass artists other than )EIB(, the first release being "Barcelona" by Austria's DK, in February 2003. Square One for new artists whose current tunes may not be the ones they will eventually be praised for, presenting a place for them to start, learn and grow. Packaged with Halo and Risky Business, Breakbeat Punk is Fresh's personal label for his solo releases. Additionally, D-Bridge is launching a hip hop label, Curvatia Music as well as a side project, Da Istickz.

"When you already run a record label, a sub-label is just a catalog number," Fresh says. "We want to occasionally release a tune from somebody else, build [BC Authorized] up in the vein of Prototype to be a window on good drum 'n' bass. Artists like Dillinja are not going to be wanting to release tracks alongside people that haven't a name for themselves yet. We had to separate [Square One] in order to go to people like Andy C. and Swift. We want them to look at the track history of [BC Authorized] and be like, 'Oh right, the last release was a massive release by blah-blah-blah.' The idea of Square One is eventually at some stage, one of those guys will drop something on Authorized. That's their aim is to get from square one, which is why it's called Square One."

With there currently being four separate studios the individual )EIB( members work from, the requisition for what makes a )EIB( track is for there to be at least two partners in the room at the same time. Four at once proved to be the source of too much "constructive criticism." If only one person works on a tune it is released under that person's name with a "/BC" after their handle.

Fresh on his own has been working with Grooverider on producing the legend's next full-length, which brings up the point if a drum 'n' bass artist is, in fact, a producer, and Fresh is that, then what is Grooverider's role in this project?

"When Grooverider comes to the studio, he has a 16-bar or a 32-bar loop. If it's a vocal track, the vocals are already there. There'll be a break, there'll be sounds," clarifies Fresh. "What I do is add sounds, a riff, process sounds or tune things slightly differently. Where I come in is more about the arrangement and mix of the tune. We'll work it out together. It's an interactive process. Grooverider is a very knowledgeable, talented engineer, something a lot of people don't know. There's so much history of guys fronting and not doing the work behind [the music]. There's definitely something running through [Grooverider's] tracks. He's always bettering himself and moving forward."

Teaming up with another heavyweight, Dieselboy, not just for the aforementioned domestic release of Shot Down On Safari, but on the badHUMAN tour, the notoriously unfavorable relationship between )EIB( and American DJs/producers is blown to pieces. There are two reasons for this alliance. One: to be able to provide their music to their fans in every country, not just the US, at domestic prices (in Brazil collectors were paying 30 pounds for an album when they should have been paying four, "You're saying to your fans, 'Hey, I'm glad you like our music, give us stupid amounts of money for it.'"). Two: creating more awareness for themselves by licensing to a local company that would focus on promoting them in their territory.

Dieselboy, in turn, has had remixes commissioned of the )EIB( material, strictly for domestic release, something that has disagreed with the )EIB( camp in the past. "I don't like giving away the sounds," Fresh states simply as he stares at the first )EIB( video on his 42" plasma screen, one he helped storyboard for the single, "Mo' Fire," once again not knowing where to look during dissection of his work. "You build a trademark sound that takes you ages. When someone else rinses it out, you're left not having that in your armory. Partly that, and partly, I don't like the vibe of killing it with remixes. With a tune that's written to be a dance floor tune, it's doing its thing, what's the point of remixing it? You're only stopping people playing the original and the impact of that."

He continues, "One of our big tracks remixed wasn't something I leapt up and was 'yay' about. We wouldn't want something to be released that we weren't going to play. The US sounds different and Dieselboy figureheads the US sound so he might like a track that we don't. I would respect his judgment as to what works in America. We didn't really want to do a 'greatest hits' compilation yet, but we're going to be hitting an audience that we didn't hit before. They need to catch up on us, hear what we've done up. They need to put it in perspective so they understand when people talk about our sound or the kind of music we make."

A very effective and highly interactive way )EIB( have been able to keep the lines of communication open, not just between them and their fans, but the global drum 'n' bass community is through their website: Dogs on Acid. Starting as a straightforward, helpful message board, a place where )EIB( could offer information and a forum for people to become educated about their scene as well as discuss it, Dogs On Acid has evolved into a limitless beast. With the likes of John B., Bailey, Total Science, Marky, among others, posting and responding to the public's queries and comments regularly, Dogs On Acid has moved past the silliness and bitchiness to a lifeline of sorts. Stretching to incorporate a dubplate page, a radio page, editorial content, and soon, an on-line merchandise and record shop, Dogs On Acid strives to be a one stop for all your drum 'n' bass needs. However, despite any notice boards good intentions originally, they invariably end up as a place for people to be nasty.

"There is an attitude on Dogs On Acid that you don't get on the other boards, which is partly due to the fact that so many people from the scene post on there,î says Fresh, who agrees there is a malicious vibe on most Internet spots. "When somebody says something out of order, guys who have been around will interject. It's civilized. That is one of the most important things about keeping it how it is, making sure that people don't abuse it."

)EIB('s Shot Down On Safari/Best Of The Bad is out January 28, 2003 on HUMAN/System Recordings.
For badHUMAN tour dates, click here.