Once described as "Football hooligans at a disco in hell!", Deja Vu have always had their fingers on the pulse of the dance scene. In the early days, they promoted the infamous Deja Vu nights, later moving on to Monkey Drum, and fuelling the 'Madchester' craze with the likes of The Happy Mondays, Stone Roses and Soup Dragons. Around 1990, they launched Naked Lunch, which lasted for three years, showcasing bands like Flowered Up and The Farm in London. Seeing their success, they thought they'd have a go themselves.

Co-producer Ollie-B takes care of all their programming. In his late teens, his programming credits include dance outfits like Leftfield and Rozalia. So what are the band up to in this project?

"Ollie uses samples, and we use live instruments and percussion. I do the vocals. Blane does the percussion, Liggy does the guitars — he's shit-hot. Over the last year and a half, the band's expanded like you wouldn't believe, and we've picked up tricks from different people."

The band's name is beginning to acquire a certain irony. A couple of years ago, they had a development deal with East/West and were heralded in the music press as, 'the new thing', but they didn't really have the material. Then something happened that would make them pay for some time to come, as Ollie recalls:

"We were doing a gig for 2,000 people on New Year's Eve that was sold out, at the same time as our single was supposed to be released. It got cancelled five hours before, to the tune of £16,000, and that totally blew our heads off. We had Esther Rantzen and God knows who on the phone, thinking that it was a huge con! We had to give all the money back, and it cost us 30 grand to put it on. We spent six months doing Naked Lunch every week and just giving all the money to people who'd lost out. What a way to start the year. January the first, and you're 16 grand down — nice one!"

The Deja Vu sound is quite a strange brew, with echoes of the Mondays, along with influences like dub, hip-hop and house. There's one track simply called '20,000 ft' on the Gangsters, Tarts and Wannabes album that I particularly liked. It's very uplifting, and I can imagine how effective it would be at a live show. Ollie agrees.

"That's one of my favourites, along with 'Slip Inside' and the title track. I think 'Gangsters' was a reflection of the way we were feeling — pretty pissed off at the time. There's certain things that you have to compromise for the record company, but apart from that, we've got pretty much what we wanted."

Barry doesn't mind DJs remixing his tunes, as he comes from the club scene, and knows what it takes to break a record on the dance scene. Deja Vu seem to be hovering happily somewhere between the club and the bedroom. "We do underground house as well, with DJ Andy Morris on Fabio Paras' label. What we're trying to be is a band that does albums that you can listen to at home, but with some stuff that you can dance to in a club — bang, bang, bang!"

One major catalyst to the band's breakthrough was their friendship with Cowboy Records' Charlie Chester, who had been a promoter around that period. He organised a big trip to Rimini with a host of DJs. As luck would have it, Deja Vu had made a record called 'Pictures In The Mind', which they took into Flying Records, and sold three or four thousand in one week. The record never went any further, but it did help pay for their trip to Rimini, an experience which helped them forge a closer relationship with Cowboy. Barry is a great believer in the power of live performance — a conviction effectively displayed in their many zany live performances.

"I can't bear to see bands playing to backing tracks in clubs, and having been in bands, I realised that you could do more. Obviously, when there's live drums the sound system level goes down, unless you put in more yourself, but when you're starting out you can't afford to do that. Seeing the problems, we started to get more stuff stacked up on samplers and sequencers, so you've still got the thump and drive, with guitars and stuff on top. The live percussion comes across beautifully as well."

The sort of equipment they take on tour depends mainly on the venues. It has to work to the absolute maximum in any conceivable surroundings. So what what equipment would they take to a gig?

"Our main pieces of kit are a Juno 106, a JD800, Jupiter 6, Korg M1, Akai S1100, SPD11 Octopad drum machine, Ensoniq DP/4 for vocoder effects on the vocals and other effects for the guitars."

At a bigger venue, it's normally possible for them to use live drums, whereas if they are in a club with a small system, sequencers and samplers are required to provide that extra punch. There seems to be very little regimentation to the way that Deja Vu work. So is there method in their madness?

"There's times when we'll sit down at Rolo's and write with nothing but a dictaphone! Sometimes we'll write together in rehearsal rooms, on the day of the recording. Normally I've at least got a verse and a chorus before we go in, but that's not always been the case!"

When they went in to do their first album they went out on a limb. They hired in sitar players, opera singers, 303s and expensive processors for the vocals.

"Everything we did, we put into the samplers, even though we had a 48-track. We had four samplers going, some of them with 32 Mb, and then halfway through the album we got the S32 that Ollie had got hold of, and that fattened up the bottom end. Everything was computer-controlled, because obviously you can do so much more with it. Even tune people up with it!"

But Deja Vu are no trainspotters. Not by any stretch of the imagination. Barry explained what his gigs were actually like.

"We just like mashing things up and having as much fun as we can. The first five dates of the tour have already sold out, weeks before the date. We haven't had a big chart record yet, but we've been gigging for three and a half years. I used to walk on stage and feel a bit glum, but now I'm just double on it! People definitely get into that... Touring is what it's all about. We're sort of dance world rock and rollers, but with more energy and 'lifestyle'. You certainly won't find any anoraks on us... or glasses!"

'Wanted' is an exclusive hippy-trippy dance remix which Deja Vu have recorded especially for readers of THE MIX.