Jim: Well when I first got into music I was just a full on rocker!! I still love a lot of the stuff I used to listen to back then like Pantera, and I recently got back into Guns N' Roses!!!!! Appetite for Destruction is a fucking great album!

But I suppose dance music has been the biggest influence on me as it totally changed the way I approached playing guitar, Liam Howlett was a big influence as well as a lot of drum and bass, breakbeat and funk. Before i was in 'shifter or knew them "Infotainment" was quite an influence as well.

WW: What's been happening lately with Pitchshifter after completing and releasing PSI?

Jim: We have been waiting for the right time to do a cool tour, in the past we have toured too much and wasted a lot of time touring for months playing gigs which have really not helped us much, we wanted to be more selective this time round.

For "www.pitchshifter.com" and "Deviant" we toured for 10 months in a year, this time round I think we all felt we couldn't do that again so we just kept a low profile and got the UK tour together which is where our best support and fanbase has always been.

WW: Your latest album PSI is now available to buy. How would you describe it to any music fans discovering Pitchshifter for the first time?

Jim: Thats a hard question as anyone discovering us for the first time will probably spend the next few months totally confused as they listen to the back catalogue!! I think you have to take each album at a time and try not to cross reference it with previous albums, if you are the kind of person who likes bands to keep chucking out the same albums every 2 years you are gonna hate us! - I'd describe it as a cross between "Deviant" and "www.pitchshifter.com" with more emphasis on writing songs rather than 'dance' tunes, also the production is great and I think the whole album sounds very modern.

WW: How would you describe it to people who are already fans of previous Pitchshifter material?

Jim: Hopefully as a cross between all the best bits they might like from previous albums (baring in mind that Jon will never go back to singing like he did on desensitised so get over it and move on)

WW: PSI was written when you weren't signed to a label, did this help the writing process in any way?

Jim: Yeah, we just had fun and didn't play the tunes to anyone or try to get anyone's approval, labels can often try to steer bands a certain way so not having one meant we had none of that and just had fun.

WW: You've been around for a while now and must've seen a lot of bands rise into the "mainstream", is it frustrating that Pitchshifter, despite lots of hard work, have never really hit the big time?

Jim: In a way but I don't really see pitchshifter as ever being that type of band, we have quite a lot of respect given to us by new bands that we tour with and huge bands like Deftones, Korn, Quicksand who all love the band. We have a certain amount of underground coolness.

The trouble is that I'm sure me and Jon could write poppy metal songs that might chart, but to me thats shitting on the legacy of Pitchshifter. I was a fan before I joined and I don't want to turn the band into something its not. Also if we charted at 30 then went straight out the next week, would that make the band any more successful or viewed differently by the mainstream press? I don't think so.

WW: Pitchshifter make a pretty original 'noise', have you purposefully tried to incorporate a lot of different influences into your music?

Jim: We just incorporate all the styles of music we like, it would be hard for me to write basic metal or rock and feel like i'm giving my all, we all listen to alot of different types of music and are capable of write different styles, we are lucky in this band as far as people expect us to do something different, i'm sure if Nicklebacks next album is drum and bass influenced it won't do too well.

WW: What's your favourite Pitchshifter album, and why?

Jim: I love "www.pitchshifter.com" because I have fond memories of coming into this really cool writing period with Jon and Johnny in their mates garage and just thinking 'fuck me, these boys are doing exactly the type of music I love'. There was a cool vibe at that time and it was really exciting as we knew what we were doing was really fresh.
But I also really like the new album "PSI", we had a giggle writing it and recording it and theres lot of cool guitar bits and sounds in there and working with Machine (producer) again was great.

WW: You're off touring the UK in September/October... any surprises for your audiences (a naked JS onstage maybe)?

Jim: Christ! I hope not.

Questions by Impey

Pitchshifters latest album, PSI is available now at http://www.amazon.co.uk.