by Louise DeAndre

Sci-fi Steve of Bis was a little apprehensive about the band's forthcoming Australian tour. When the trio came Down Under for some promo dates a couple of years back they were all in a foul mood. At the time Bis were wrapping up an extensive world tour and felt so jaded that they were on the verge of calling it a day. 'I think we were a bit of a handful for the label,' the amiable Scottish laddie says with a tinge of guilt.

Steve needn't worry about a repeat experience. Bis are hot. He, brother John Disco and Manda Rin haven't acquired a local rep for being brats. And Bis haven't split up to run an, er, 80s memorabilia store in their native Glasgow. Since the band's last visit they have in fact recorded their second album, the rather fab "Social Dancing". The album has even given a surprise crossover hit in the exuberant 'techno-pop' ditty "Eurodisco".

Mind, to dub Bis a techno-pop group (as enshrined in their label blurb) is something of a misnomer. Still, "Eurodisco" definitely betrays some unorthodox elements for a band with a mainly Indie following. In some ways the band harks back to the early 80s, when the line between punk and New Wave was more fluid. It turns out that Bis, who came together in 1994, are well acquainted with both contemporary electronica and indie rock. After all, Glasgow boasts one of the UK's best club circuits. Scotland has cool producers and underground labels like Soma. And so Steve can discuss techno and house with the authority of any DJ. In a sense the house-meets-guitars "Eurodisco" sees Bis playfully merge two subcultural sounds in a pop package. 'I think a lot of British bands especially try to do that but end up sounding really dated because they don't understand dance music. I'm not saying that we're underground techno stars in our own right or anything, but we appreciate that for us to make a total full-on techno record would be stupid because it wouldn't relate to our band.'

Indeed, Bis are hard to sum up because of their many incongruous influences -- which comprise everything from punk to 80s New Wave synth-pop to contemporary indie to techno.

In the US, where Bis are aligned with the Beastie Boys' Grand Royal empire, they have attracted a huge punk audience. Yet back in the UK they have toured with New Wave icon Gary Numan. In the latter part of last year Bis were also offered a support gig for Duran Duran, which they turned down because of scheduling conflicts. And in this country Bis remains a Triple J entity -- with a cult Indie profile. 'We've always said that first and foremost we try to make what we consider to be pop music, although it might not be other people's idea of pop.' Steve points out. 'We don't indulge ourselves in 20 minute guitar noise frenzies, because enough people do that already.'

A year after actually cutting "Social Dancing", Steve feels chuffed with it. He hopes that the album will stand the test of time better than their first, "The New Transistor Heroes". 'I think "Social Dancing" is much more of an experience. The first album functions as a punk rock record. You know, it's not lo-fi as such, but we did record it quickly and we wrote the songs really quickly. I just think that this time we placed much more importance not only on our songwriting, but also the actual recording as well. It's a much more considered record. It's a logical progression for us -- there's a huge variety of sounds on there that I hope people appreciate, and, yeah, there's much more of a rhythm, there's more pop and there's just more experimentation.'

For this latest project Bis brought in an outside producer for the first time -- Andy Gill of Gang Of Four fame, who, Steve reveals, was not 'too scared' to force the group to challenge themselves. He made Bis more musically aware, worked the group to the bone, and helped them lose what Steve dubs their 'ramshackle' element, which has, in turn, strengthened their live shows. 'The main thing that he established when he started with us was just to consider the structure of the group and stuff like that. I think we've always worked in a way where, once stuff was written, we never changed it. He made us really think about it.'

"Social Dancing" is out through Shock. The latest single is "Action And Drama".