Basement Jaxx party into 2024

get a bit more choosy with the gigs we take on. We have been around the block. If you’re not selective, it can wear down your general enthusiasm for stuff. When you get back to writing music, you don’t want to be jaded, you want to be pumped and enriched.”

The two men project differences when it comes to their style of music-making, but there is a symmetry when it comes to the important stuff, such as their love of live performance and their ways of working.

“I suppose I think people sometimes fall

out because they’re similar, maybe, and they step on each other’s toes. Felix and I have quite distinct personalities, you know. We’ve never had a fight. He does his thing, I do my thing, we both love what we do. We love making stuff, and we’re both appreciative that we’ve been able to live a life like this. We listen to music in different ways and see things in different ways.”

Unlike Daft Punk, there’s no costume or mystery. And unlike Portishead, there’s no mythos. All they have to rest on is their music and the hope that it will live on. The refrain, “Where’s your head at”, instantly calls to mind the era of Trainspotting, The Beach and that brief shimmering movement known as Cool Britannia.

Basement Jaxx’s sound paid no small part in this brief upsurge of affection for Britain’s cultural scene, a kind of fondness that feels unlikely in 2023.

“There’s lots of things [to success] - it’s admitting that you’ve had luck and making the most of your luck, I suppose.”

Just because you’re partying like it’s 1999 doesn’t mean you’re not relentlessly experimenting. Ratcliffe has been in Japan this year, with his jazz group, after a stint hosting the prestigious Ronnie Scott’s club in London, alongside Basement Jaxx shows in Ibiza, Belgium, Detroit, Australia, and New Zealand already earlier this year.

As trailblazers for the dance scene, Basement Jaxx still play to sell out crowds.

Now, the band are veterans of the scene - but it’s testament to the legacy of their sound that it still feels new.

“For some reason, stars aligned, and it’s not just one reason, it's not just ‘cause a track was good, it’s thousands of things.

“I was a nerd that liked making music.”

Basement Jaxx is playing at the Love Your Ways Music Festival, on December 29, 2023, at the Hunting Lodge Winery & Restaurant, Waimauku. Tickets are available now.