Joke turns into instant chemistry for Bodyrockers

Bodyrockers' British frontman Dylan Burns was in his car the other day when I Like the Way came on the radio. Feeling funny about listening to himself, he quickly flicked the dial. There he was warbling away on the next station, too.

"You literally can't get away from the bloomin' thing," he complains, with an exasperated laugh.

Then there's the barrage of tabloid attention paid to his limelight-loving partner in crime, Aussie DJ Kaz James. In August, the paparazzi pounced after he was alleged to have been seen locking lips with Kate Moss at a party.

Next thing he was said to be squiring Keira Knightley, never mind the fact she claims to have never met him.

"Basically, Kaz leaves out the front door, I leave out the back door," says Burns. "And that's just our nature. I'm a private person and he's not."

James' spit-swapping antics have done little to dampen enthusiasm for the duo. They have played recent gigs for Tommy Hilfiger and Versace, and Burns played at an after-show party for Madonna. In the United States, Bodyrockers have featured on ads for Diet Coke, American Idol and Heineken. They have also played in Russia, the Ukraine and Australia.

"When we released the record it was bigger than anyone could have imagined so we're sort of playing catch-up now and doing the touring and all the stuff you normally do before you have a big hit," says Burns. "All the festival gigs and everything."

All this for a couple of blokes who got together as a bit of a joke last year. I Like the Way, the pop hit that sounds like Jesus Jones with dancing shoes on, was dominating the charts a mere six months after they officially formed.

They met when Burns, a gravelly voiced "old rocker" who counts Led Zep and AC/DC as his favourite bands, was touring Australia with another dance-rock duo, Coloursound, with James as the support.

One night they were warming up backstage, Burns on guitar and vocals, Kaz on the turntables. "We started jamming and thought, 'let's do that out there', so we did and everyone went mental. Afterwards everybody was like, 'Oh my god, how long have you been together?' Well, we've actually just met. There was an amazing chemistry instantly with Kaz and I."

DJ Erick Morillo was the first person to play I Like the Way the night it was finished, swiftly followed by Pete Tong and soon after, pop radio around the world.

Even more staggering came the five-album record deal with Universal, which had a lot to do with his Dylan's catalogue of songs already in the bank.

Now Bodyrockers are at a crossroads between the dance and rock worlds. The Summadayze gig will be a DJ set but they have played Glastonbury and the V Festival with a drummer, a bass player and a guitarist, and hope to return Downunder with them.

"We do still like to keep our hand in on the DJ thing because it's not something you can just get in and out of. But we're moving away from the dance thing. I'm a songwriter and there's a lot of rock in there.

"We'll always do dance records and dance mixes but we are more of a band now than we are a dance act, that's for sure."

So does he dress like a rock star? "I've always been a bit of a dresser-upper. I like to dress a bit flamboyantly. I'm going to have to get myself a new wardrobe because it'll be boiling hot, won't it?"


Performance

* Who: Bodyrockers
* Where and when: Summadayze festival, Ellerslie Racecourse, today, 4pm-4am