The band formerly known as 65dBA have re-launched themselves as dba and released a hot new album. Dave Drodge asked the electronics maestro Robbie Bronnimann some questions.

Where does the rhythm come into it?
"The rhythm is almost always my starting point - getting a right groove going is the most important element with dance music! So I get something that really works and pretty much build the rest of the song around it. Then the other elements of the sequenced drums and drum loops have to be set up, which can take a long time."

What types of studio equipment do you rely on most?
"The main things I rely on when writing are my samplers, analogue keyboards and hard disk recording. I always record the vocals straight to hard disk. But the whole studio revolves around the computer, an Apple Power Mac with Logic Audi, a programme which combines a powerful sequencer with hard disk editing facilities. Having said this, when it comes to really detailed editing on the vocals, I use a different programme called Sound Designer II. The main workhorses of the studio are the Roland samplers, of which I have two with 16Mb of memory each. I use quite a few things directly off my CD-ROM drive (all legal of course!) and use optical and zip drives for saving songs and sounds."

Do you try to give each song its own 'signature'?
"Yes! With each song I try to generate at least three or four totally new sounds on my analogue keyboards so that I don't end up with what I call 'preset bashing' music. Another way I like to individualise a song is to feed external sounds like vocals, or even keyboards through the powerful filter section on my current favourite - the Sequential Circuits Pro One. This can alter their character dramatically, turning a normal sound into a much more original one. It's a brilliant analogue keyboard that's over 15 years old. I only bought it recently but the sounds it makes are really mad."

Which keyboards do you prefer to work with - analogue or digital?
I much prefer analogue keyboards because they're far more programmable and have a 'warmer' sound. You can get down to the raw basics of sound generation with them. The only digital synthesiser I have is the industry standard Roland JV-1080, which I like because it's both powerful and expandable. The LFOs (Low Frequency Oscillations) can be synchronised to MIDI clock to generate sounds that evolve perfectly in time with the music."

How are the songs' tracks stored for final mix down?
"Everything's digital. There's no need for a reel-to-reel in the studio since each different track gets stored digitally at CD quality on a massive hard disk inside the computer. One of the many advantages of this is that I can make changes to the songs literally right up to the last minute. It enables us to cut everything up and alter tuning, etc. There are also facilities for doing much of the mixing within the computer but I don't really use them because I'd rather do it all properly from the mixing desk. And where vocals are concerned, I find that the nature of digital recording can leave them dry and bland. So they first get passed through some serious valve compressors and equalisers to give them a warmer, more natural sound. Valves definitely seem to smooth out the sterile nature of digital recording. It's the perfect set up for capturing Shaz's warm vocal sound."

Can you talk us through the songs? Let's start with the first one, "Spiritual Woman".
"This was the first song we wrote for the album, way back last year, and is the number one contender for our first single release. It features a huge church organ sound in the chorus, which was inspired, believe it or not, by The Phantom Of The Opera and all those old B movies! It's a Euro-dance tune but you could call it Hammer House Euro because of its (tongue-in-cheek) dark and mysterious overtones."

"Time"
"This song was written as an update to 'Circle' from the last album. It has very uplifting lyrics and a happy house sort of sound. Included is the dba trademark Rainbow keyboard riff which gets used occasionally. This time it was done on my Sequential Circuits Pro One keyboard."

"Universe"
"Another Euro-dance song, although this time it has a 'spacy' feel to it. The theme of the song is creation but the lyrics are written from the perspective of what you might see from space. The song features a split lead vocal and massive stab sounds."

"Reason Why"
"This one took a very long time to write, and metamorphosised into many different styles along the way until it settled down into a sort of Billy Ray Martin vibe with Spanish guitar and trumpet. We also put in an 'X-Files' type whistle sound to help emphasise the space theme which runs throughout the album."

"Rhythms Of Grace"
"This was a bit of an experiment musically and lyrically the idea of rhythms of grace was inspired by The Message. Its features are a slow swing beat and a distinct close-miked vocal from Shaz backed by a black gospel choir in the chorus. The choir we used was the BCCC (Bristol Christ Centred Choir). We had an interesting time recording them, especially since there were 15 of them crammed in the vocal recording booth at the same time! There's also an odd bagpipes solo in the middle which we put in for two reasons - we wanted to try to create a Celtic feel to the rhythm track, and to introduce people to the sort of cross-cultural music we're going to be exploring on the new Hydro album."

"I Say A Little Prayer"
"This is the old Bacharach/David classic. We've always loved it, so we decided to put in on the new album. There isn't supposed to be any hidden Christian message - it's just a coincidence that the title refers to prayer! The song has a fresh modern jungle feel with the new wobbly dba trademark sound that inspires flashbacks of Stingray and old sci-fi movies. Surprisingly, we did that sound completely on the Novation BassStation."

"Planet Love"
"This is another Euro-dance tune with an uplifting love song lyric written again within the space theme. This song has a classic Shaz vocal and also includes high strings and a catchy Euro bass line and buzzy synth riff. It's a strong contender for a single release."

"Kiss The Sky"
"This is the only ballad we wrote this time round. It's a follow on from 'Sea Of Love' on the last album 'Shout'. This is an unmistakable dba ballad, with close, delicate vocals from Shaz and a soaring melody over a deliberately electronic backdrop. It also has samples of astronauts and a spacy ambience to fit in with the album's theme. Shaz wrote some of the lyrics and they're very much from her own personal perspective."

"3-D"
"Very much a conceptual track, this one, but with a definite melody. It features airy vocals and has that dreamy sound that has become popular recently with chart hits like 'Children' by Robert Miles and the 'X-Files' themes. It has long snare fills with high strings drop outs and searing (Roland) 303 lines, with big build ups that bring in everything but the kitchen sink. There's a simple lyric that was inspired once again by The Message. It picks up very much from 'Purify' but it's much more progressive and up to date."

"Rhythms Of Grace Remix"
"On the sleeve, this track got called '? By The Riddler' because we weren't sure, at the time, which song would be remixed or even who would be doing it. Bearing in mind that it's a classic club mix, listen very closely and you might work out who did it but we're not giving any other clues away as to their identity."

"Universe Remix"
"Hardcore inspired is what I call this! It's full of screaming synths and distorted drums that I was dying to put in somewhere on the album. In fact, I basically just tried to make this remix as fast and furious as possible but this was about as fast as it could be done without the vocals sounding silly! It's a bit tongue-in-cheek. Jan Willem Vink (Alliance Benelux) found it particularly amusing, but it's a great mix to play live."