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When we last met with Stuart Perkins and Mark Clements from Cause4Concern in early 2008, they had just put the finishing touches to their album Pandemic, after a two year hiatus from the drum & bass scene. The break was due in part to various big changes in the lives of the original four members of the group, including Ed 'Optiv' Holmes relocating to Berne, Switzerland. This time it's the turn of Optiv to act as spokesman for the three remaining group members.

After spending every weekend together, religiously cooking up new sounds in the studio, Cause4Concern initially found it difficult to coordinate writing new material with the trio spread so far apart. Pandemic was the start of a new creative process where Ed works separately from Stuart and Mark – both based in South East England. This creative process continues to bear fruit.

"We won't send a project to each other online," explains Optiv, "but work independently. They usually get out here every couple of months, for two or three weeks. It works out pretty well cos we spend the time apart working on the pre-production and when they get out here we just lock ourselves in and get on with it. There is always a lot of momentum in the studio when we work in that way which is great."

They become so locked in the groove during these sessions that they are even reluctant to do gigs during this time. "Generally we all DJ at the weekends but we don't often play together any more," admits Optiv. "We don't usually take any bookings when we're in the studio but if something works out that we can all play at then we'll do it. If it's half way through a session then you can drop some really fresh stuff. It's good to be able to hear it and then go back and work on it."

Their MySpace page has been revamped and they relaunched their own website, where you can now stream their back catalogue, over the summer. They have certainly been keeping busy and with Mark and Stuart set to hit the studio with Optiv in Berne again in January, we can expect a lot more from the trio in 2010, including Dead Weight (which opens their new Knowledge mix) on Loxy's Cylon label.

We can also expect a lot more product on the Cause4Concern Limited label as Optiv explains. "The Limited label is an outlet especially for other producers we like, to have a go at remixing our back catalogue. The results are great and we have remixes forthcoming from Break, N.Phect, Ill Skillz, Prolix, Raiden, Silent Witness, Abstract Elements, Rockwell and Gridlok."

They plan to use January's session to start working on the next Cause4Concern album. "We've already got a lot of material written and while we continue to release that as singles, we'll be working on the album. The next C4C release in January, Scare Tactics and Born Dead, is going to be a picture disc. I've seen the artwork and it's great. It's good to have a physical product in your hand and a picture disc is something that little bit special."

In the meantime, Ed Rush & Optical welcome the trio back on Virus with a new twelve. "With Stranglehold, we were experimenting with a lot of our old C4C sounds, combining our old synths and samples with more up-to-date production techniques. We ran our old dusty Supernova through the desk and back into the computer. Blabbermouth was a little idea Stu and Mark brought out to Switzerland. All we did was arrange and mix it properly over here. It's a nice, strong, rolling dancefloor kind of tune."

WORDS Stu Cronin