James Ford was part of a band called Simian. Simian begat Simian Mobile Disco, which begat a bunch of the tricksiest, bumping songs around. Ford tells Jim Carrollhow filling the dancefloor after gigs led to collaboration with Mystery Jets, Klaxons and the Arctic Monkeys.

IT STARTED with a mix-tape, but no one thought it would come to this. Back when James Ford and James Shaw were half of a band called Simian, the pair put together a mix-CD for some DJ gigs as a sideline.

The mix was highly eclectic: out-there stuff such as Sun Ra, Silver Apples and Moondog went shoulder to shoulder with r'n'b and electronic tracks. The title for the CD? Simian Mobile Disco.

A couple of years later, and tracks from Simian Mobile Disco's debut album will star on many playlists and mixes this summer. Attack Decay Sustain Release is a grandstanding state of the indielectro nation address, a wonderful clatter of sleazy and slippery beeps and bleeps encased in proper songs and shaped with bumping melodies.

According to Ford, he and Shaw have begun to take the band seriously only in recent months. "SMD has only become a real proposition since we signed the deal with Wichita earlier this year. It was always in the back of our heads that it might be worth pursuing it a bit more. It started as a laugh, and all the tunes were made in that spirit."

That's in stark contrast to how the Simian story unfolded. Formed when Ford and Shaw were studying at Manchester University (biology and philosophy, respectively), Simian began creating psychedelic sonics which landed them a record deal. While their debut album, Chemistry Is What We Are, was a huge critical success, sales did not match the reviews and problems set in.

"The second Simian album was made under duress," remembers Ford. "We had a lot of pressure from the label and management to make a poppy record. We were in quite a weird place as a band in terms of our relationships with each another. I just remember the end of Simian as a very unhappy time."

Ford is determined that the same thing doesn't happen to SMD. "We learned from being in Simian what we didn't want to do. We ended up in a situation where we were just not having fun and it began to be reflected in the music. This time around, we only wanted to do this if it was going to be enjoyable."

Ford and Shaw found their initial release from the Simian pressures by DJ-ing as SMD. "We just started DJ-ing after Simian shows and we were playing really eclectic sets. We learned via DJ-ing that if you're playing anywhere bigger than a bar, you have to keep people on the dancefloor so naturally, we started playing more party-electro tunes and electronic music.

"We started playing bigger and bigger venues and that started feeding back into the music we were making because we started making music we wanted to play and hear in clubs."

One act who showed SMD the way to go were French duo Justice who entered a competition to remix a Simian track. While the Justice remix didn't win ("as far as I can remember, the remix which won was really noisy as if you'd put the whole track through a distortion pedal"), the subsequent release of their We Are Your Friends remix set a whole scene in motion.

"Ever since then, we've kept tabs on Justice," admits Ford. "They've definitely got their own sound and voice which is really good, but I'm not so keen on all the stuff that sounds a bit like Justice. There's a lot of it around, but most of it is not very interesting. Justice have a real sense of melody, and the imitators lack that. It's good, though, that there is so much dance music made by non-traditional dance producers which is getting attention, like us, Justice, Hot Chip and LCD Soundsystem."

Ford has also begun to make a name for himself as a producer, with some high-profile credits to his name, including the Arctic Monkeys (Favourite Worst Nightmare) and Klaxons (Myths of the Near Future).

He says he was always fascinated by the recording process. "Simian were always self-produced;, it was all hands on deck. The first album was very much made in our bedrooms and it was trial and error because we were operating in our own space and at our own pace. We learned loads about how to make a record by just doing it.

"I suppose I was the one guy in Simian who pushed the buttons and twiddled the knobs a lot more because of my controlling nature. It was always in my head that this was what I wanted to do. It was a natural thing then to start producing other bands and doing the odd remix here and there which led from the likes of Test Icicles and Mystery Jets right through to the Klaxons and Arctic Monkeys."

Ford also finds that his time in bands pays dividends when it comes to dealing with studio politics. "Having been in bands, and I was in bands before Simian, that experience really helps you a great deal when you're producing," he says.

"You understand band dynamics and how important it is to get on with people. As a producer, it's really important to try to balance a band's creative forces, but it's just as important to be able to communicate with musicians on their terms."

See/Hear

Hear tracks from the album at www.myspace.com/simianmobiledisco or see a rake of SMD videos at www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=B1A8E6E79F7D9603 Attack Decay Sustain Release is out now on Wichita Records. Simian Mobile Disco appear at the Electric Picnic on September 1