Firstly, why don’t you tell us a little about how you came to work with Dave Forbes making music together, and what direction you’re taking your sound?
We have known each other since back in the early rave days circa 1990. We got together after working in the same studio complex for years, then we decided to get into production together. We did some releases for Ministry of Sound, Limbo, Eve and produced 4 tracks for the Public Domain album Hard Hop Superstars and worked hard making what was then a studio band into a LIVE touring band, playing all the major events and festivals around the world. Our own production work is made up of three different styles all getting release on our three record labels.

Redmonkey Records is for trance and harder trance, none of your fluffy stuff, just good euphoric dance music. We release tracks under several alias’s on this label they are – Lost In Translation, C90 and TDM Project. We also released Mark Sherry’s (Public Domain’s) first solo release “Afterdark” and American/UK combo Signalrunners who are set for big things. We also release stuff under our own names David Forbes and Mallorca Lee. David followed up his biggest release “Questions” with “Answers” which we are still selling by the bucket load from New York to Moscow!

Debunk is for our house/progressive/tech-house productions under the name Scanners. We work with several vocalists and live musicians to deliver what we call house. Just “having it” dance floor tracks aimed to make it quake, in a format for DJs to mix up. Things are getting bigger and bigger, we have had releases from Mike Monday, D:Fuse, Northface and Steve Lawler with DJ support from Sasha to Erick Morillo, Marco V to Fergie. Were are almost at our 10th release and looking to release and album to celebrate the labels growth. We also have a monthly club night in London that we moved from Glasgow after 2 mental years in the city centre, which gets very VERY messy.

Then, Inside Out Recordings is our latest label where we are concentrating on big room techno. We work with the biggest hard dance giants, and Inside Out was voted by Mixmag as club of the year. The labels first release was by Forbes Lee Foy (David, myself and IO resident DJ Simon Foy) and was remixed by Adam Sheridan. We are now working on future releases and a DVD mix CD box set for the summer.

How do you think working together has changed your styles?
I think working together has strengthened our musical styles and know-how, where one of us has a weakness, it’s usually the other one’s strength, so it’s all good in the proverbial hood! We have learned so much from each other and push each other daily, pushing the boundaries. The good thing about what we do is there are no rules so it’s all just experiments and if we like it, it goes on wax.

The name Ultra-Sonic has been in rave culture since it’s beginning, what’s happening with US now?
It’s been well documented on my website and the dance press that I no longer work with the other guy I started US with. We basically came to the end of our working relationship, we burned each other out. After the success of Public Domain it really all went a bit Spinal Tap. He started doing oldskool gigs in the UK under the name Ultra-Sonic, I lost all respect for him and we drifted further apart. After he had done these shows I decided to accept an Ultra-Sonic live Australian tour for September 2002.

I had always refused in the past as I no longer worked with him and thought it would never be the same, but since he thought it was ok to do it, I agreed and embarked on a sold out tour of Oz. We had both decided to end Ultra-Sonic in 1998 because from 96-99 we were also working on a project called Bikinni State (a full on live band set up), it was a mix of hip-hop, breaks and electronica. In early 1999 we signed a world wide recording deal with BMG and the band fell apart soon after while recording the album, locked up in some farm/studio in the English country side – rock and roll style thanks to drugs, breakdowns, internal arguments. The band got dropped by the record label and split as a result. We all continued to rock and roll 24/7 until reality kicked in.
After some serious problems I took myself out of that picture and went to the Island of Skye (the Highlands of Scotland) to dry out, then on my return I went to Ibiza with my brother and found what I thought I had lost – dance music. It was the summer of 1999, when trance was resurrected. I met my wife soon after, chilled out and started working with David after years of the both of us saying it would be a great idea to work together we finally hit the studio as a team.

And what about Public Domain, are you both still members of PD?
David and I left Public Domain at the end of 2002. We had given that project 110% and in doing so our labels and solo work really suffered. So we thought it was best to move on and concentrate on our own stuff. Before we left we hooked the guys up with MC Cyclone, who David used to work with under the name Active Force, so they would not be in a jam. We are still all best of friends and push each other in production every day.

Do you feel you will ever be able to get away from the Ultra-Sonic/Public Domain name and stand alone as Debunk/Scanners?
I don’t want to run from those names because its stuff that I have done in the past and work I am very proud of and I don’t only want to be known as Scanners, I just want to be known as a producer who works on many different projects in just about every genre in dance music! There was a lot of blood sweat and tears in amongst the US and PD strobe lights and sound systems! Its just sometimes hard because those projects were so successful, it sometimes over shadows what I am doing now.

I suppose doing several things at once is my fault because people sometimes don’t know what hat I am wearing, especially when promoters bill one of our DJ shows as Ultra-Sonic live or a Scanners house set we are doing as Scanners – “the guys who gave you US and PD”. That kinda stuff doesn’t work as it confuses people, management usually take care of it but mess ups always happen. I guess it will be a problem until David and I have another very successful track that eclipses what we have done in the past.

Why is it that tour agents and promoters keep billing you as Ultra-Sonic or Public Domain, don’t you think it would be better to try and get away from the name all together?
I guess it’s the promoters greed and unprofessional approach, although there are some innocent mistakes I guess, so I am told! I know promoters want to pack a venue and make candy but there are ways about doing it correctly and usually we find out after the damage is done. It’s hard keeping track on things especially in Australia. I would say the Gold Coast and Adelaide have been the main offenders but most other cities do it right, we try to make time to check flyers and billing.

This time round only the Gold Coast show have messed us around. It’s crap really because the public think they are getting one thing, we think we are billed correctly as DJs and when we get there we get the blame if its build as a live Ultra-Sonic show, the promoter makes all the money and the punters feel let down, until we start our set. One promoter billed one of our DJ sets as Ultra-Sonic Vs. Public Domain live, that was a shocker.

When we DJ anywhere in the world playing our harder set we are billed as Mallorca Lee & David Forbes, it’s no problem for us if they put under our names Ultra-Sonic/Public Domain because that’s parts of what we have done but when they bill it as Ultra-Sonic live then at the bottom of the page in small text ‘DJ set’, that is right out of order. On this most recent tour Adelaide had originally billed us as Ultra-Sonic because they had Dye Witness on the same bill, but we were alerted to it early and they fixed the billing to what they had actually booked, David and myself to DJ.

I only played live as Ultra-Sonic, touring Australia once in September 2002, that was billed as the last ever show by promoters wanting to add a bit of hype to it. I then returned to play one other show a year and a half later (November and December 2003) in Sydney to help an ex-mate’s party take off. Every other show has been billed as a DJ set by David and myself except in a few cases where the promoters screw us around.

Our new Australian tour promoter, Simon Barwood from the club Rise in Perth, has been doing a wicked job for us this year and we know how hard it is to get everything right. Especially when we demand the M&M’s get divided into individual colours in our dressing room next to the hookers, live stock and circus freaks that re usually on our rider, haha.