It's about 10.30pm in England and Aston Harvey - one half of electronic stalwarts the Freestylers - has lost track of his interview schedule and along with it, his body-clock.
After "years of late night abuse", 15 of which have been spent performing as part of the Freestylers, Harvey is used to the nocturnal party lifestyle that comes with DJing night after night.
Forging their style from their experiences of the 1980s British dance scene, Harvey and fellow producers Matt Cantor and Andrew Galea in 1996 joined forces to become the Freestylers.
With Galea leaving soon after, they duo released four albums, collaborated with acts like Pendulum and Public Enemy, and scored hits such as Push Up, which soared in the New Zealand charts for 19 weeks in 2004.
So, it is with practised endurance that Harvey greets his latest caller, the latest in a string of night-owl interviews following the recent release of the Freestylers' latest record, Over You.
The single features former Basement Jaxx singer Ami Carmine, trademark relentless breaks and plenty of sub bass, and is their first release with Dutch label Rub A Duck.
A fist-pumping affair, it is tipped to launch their New Zealand set as the Freestylers make a flying visit to play the inaugural EarthTonz New Year's Eve festival at the Gibbston Valley Winery.
"It's an exclusive, one-off set," Harvey explains.
"We're not even playing in Australia; we're literally flying all the way from the UK to Queenstown for one show and then we'll be off again ."
Nevertheless, the duo are looking forward to escaping the English winter to make what will be their second visit to Queenstown, among a handful of other New Zealand appearances.
Harvey has fond memories of playing New Year shows at the now extinct Phat Festival near Nelson, and assured it would be a good night, even with the expectations people heap on New Year's Eve.
"I'm not sure what time we're on the stage, but if we're on at 12 o'clock, I'm sure we'll make it rock as hard as we can," he says.
"Matt and I will be playing at the same time and he'll be playing the tunes and I'm sort of scratching up, doing a capella and sound effects over the top, so it's a proper sort of show."
Also tipped to feature in their set will be content from their upcoming album, which Harvey hopes will emerge with Rub A Duck next year.
He admits the process is "moving slower than anticipated" and has him locked in the studio Monday to Friday, working to transform a slew of "really good backing tracks" into the real deal.
Despite the rapid rise and current dominance of dubstep in the electronic music sphere, he says only "elements" of the bass-heavy genre have so far snuck into the album mix.
"Obviously, since we've done our last album dubstep has become massive, but I haven't really gone down that path. There's so many good producers making it and we've got to stick to our own unique sort of sound."
For that, Cantor and Harvey are harking back to the basics, taking inspiration from their 2002 to 2004 period.
"It's raw, it's breaks, it's bassy and there'll be some tracks there that we have already released in the past, which will go on in an album format."
These include recent releases Frozen and Killa Sound, and go as far back as 2009's Cracks - a track which has close to 10 million views on Youtube, albeit as a remix by dubstep producer Flux Pavilion.
When asked about the success of the remix, Harvey says it came completely out of left field.
"When we did the original, it was kind of a completely different track ... We heard it [the remix] and thought 'yeah it's really good', but I never knew it was going to be such a massive tune," he muses.
"You don't know what makes people go more crazy for another tune than others, but it's great that the tune's been really successful, anyway."
Even with three decades of electronic music experience, he's at a loss to pick out one defining development in the field today.
"Honestly, I don't know. There are artists I like and I'm playing their tunes, but there's so much music, I can't say. If it's good music I like it, if it be rock, pop ... well, not pop, but anything cool .. "
His flow is cut off by a ringing cellphone, signalling the beginning of yet another interview, and the start of another late night for the Freestyler.
• Party time
EarthTonz is a New Year's Eve gathering with dance music artistes from around the globe providing more than 30 hours of entertainment. Camping facilities for two days include food, drink, showers and security. Early-bird camping starts on December 30, and music runs from 2pm to midnight that day, then from noon on December 31 until 3am January 1. Artistes include Crystal Method, Tommy Lee and DJ Aero's wicked house set, The Freestylers (UK), DJ Muggs (of Cypress Hill), Kraak and Smaak (Holland), DJ Dara, AK1200 and MC Messinian from Planet of the Drums, Boombox, Ana Sia, Heatbox, Minuit and eight other New Zealand bands.
