X Press 2: Lazy Nights.

X-Press 2 play Vibes On A Summers Day at the Riverstage on Sunday.

The members of X-Press 2 and their most famous collaborator, Talking Heads' David Byrne are all sitting on a couch. It's easy to tell the generation gap. Byrne is reclining dressed all in mission brown, from his brown grandfather pants to his brown business shirt, collared all the way up to the slight wrinkles on the nape of his neck. The only colour is the vibrant silver mane of his hair that matches his silver two-toned shoes. Byrne is flanked by the three members of X-Press 2, who have given him his most successful song of the past decade with the infectious Lazy. X-Press 2 is Ashley Beedle, Rocky and Diesel, all dressed casually in jeans, t-shirts and thongs. Together the unlikely pairing created one of the anthems of the year, and helped cement X-Press 2's position as one of the rising stars of the dance scene.

"So many of our dear British workforce can connect with it," says Rocky of the song that reached number two on the UK charts. "You can just imagine guys on building sites on their thirteenth cup of tea of the morning singing along, 'I'm wicked and I'm lazy’."

The film clip for the song features a man too lazy to leave his couch for anything, including getting food and so resorts to eating a chocolate bar that has been under the couch for way too long.

"I once cooked four sausages and I two of them dropped on the floor as I went to get them out," says Rocky as he explains the idea for the film clip. "They looked exactly like the Snickers Bar in the video and for just a split second I thought should I just run it under the tap? But then I passed on it."

"I thought there was the three second rule," says David Byrne, resplendent in brown. "If it hits the floor and you get it before three seconds then the germs haven't jumped onto it," he says as they all crack up laughing.

No one can accuse X-Press 2 of being lazy over the past couple of years. Fresh from a successful album (Muzikizum), several record boxes full of remixes and, of course, the Lazy single, X-Press 2 are bringing their live show to Australia as part of the Vibes on a Summer's Day festival. "It's not strictly live at the moment," admits Beedle. "We work with six turntables, two CD J1000s, a midi sampler called Cycloops, an effects unit and I've got a microphone so I can spin my voice for effects. We are working towards a fuller live show later in the year." But it's not all bad news for the live fans. "It still looks good," laughs Beedle. "It looks like Kraftwerk with movement."

Although they have been around for over a decade, the attention X-Press 2 are receiving right now, including nominations for Best Breakthrough Artist and winner of Record of the Year at the recent Dancestar World Dance Music Awards, still leaves Beedle a little speechless at times. None so more evident when his lifelong dream to appear on Top Of The Pops was realised late last year. "We didn't actually play, we just sat there and didn't do anything. I think that was a first for Top Of The Pops. There's no point in us trying to kid people that we were these amazing live musicians. David Byrne sang live and we just sat behind him in a set that looked like someone's house."

The last time X-Press 2 toured Australia was as part of the Vibes tour in 1996, a journey that Beedle says has "memories of the beach and Norman Jay playing a blinder." This time round, the sound has matured and they are determined to surprise us with their tag-team set, increasingly becoming notorious for the addition of a 'curveball' record to keep the crowd on their toes, be it Kylie or Kraftwerk.

"We always take three of four different curveballs with us to throw into the set," says Beedle. "Nine times out of ten it works but there has been the odd time when people look at us and go 'what the hell are they doing?'"

X-Press 2 are signed to the Skint label, the home of Fat Boy Slim, Midfield General, Lo Fidelity All Stars and Freq Nasty. Although other labels were chasing to sign the group, it seems that they found their home in Skint.

"They came up with the best deal. It wasn't a money deal it was a freedom deal. They let us run riot basically and let us get on with what we want to do. It is a very rare thing for a record label to understand where you're coming from and it's a bonus. If we went to some massive label, we would probably be dropped by now.”

Unlike most artists, Beedle is not shy of acknowledging they have a very distinctive X-Press 2 sound, no matter if they are recording in a garage somewhere or in their newly built studio.

"We always have the rolling basslines and the drums and whatever else is going along. Put us in the most expensive studio in the world and it will still come out as sounding like X-Press 2."