Coming back from a wicked gig with Neonlight in Munich, Ignite interviewed them in their studio in Leipzig the Sunday after.
Hello guys, can you introduce yourself please!
Jakob: I am Jakob aka Pitch n Sulphur.
Tobi: Hi, I´m Tobi and I used to go by the name of Nize5ive.
Looking back on 2011, was it a good year for you?
Tobi: Definitely! A lot of things have changed in our everyday lives. Playing out pretty much, sometimes 7-8 gigs in a month. We played that much over 6 months last year. It was great to come to visit places abroad like Paris, Puerto Rico, Bruessels, Palermo, Vienna, Budapest, and big events in Germany like in Berlin, Braunschweig, Bremen and many more. And seeing the success of our tunes we obviously also took more studio time.
Jakob: It gave us faith to see that if you put a lot of passion and work into something you might get rewarded in the end, so to stay on the route that we just took feels absolutely right to us.
If you compare the events abroad to the ones in Germany, what´s different?
Tobi: Dresses are lower cut 
. Abroad it feels sometimes like there´s a lot more attention for Drum and Bass in general I guess, people are more „into“ it, they have more know-how on it. And they party harder.
Jakob: But that view on the German scene changed this year a lot. Just take Munich last night – best example. Everyone was really having it all night.
Tobi: Oh yeah true, .. and Bremen was massive as well!
Jakob: Not to forget Braunschweig, shouts to Lyyde Buddha btw!!
Tobi: Overall we had just as many great moments in Germany. All we want to express is that we are sometimes hoping for the german scene to grow a little bit more 
.
What do you think people like most about your music?
Tobi: Phew!
Jakob: .. who knows, the energy that is transported through it, we would like to think. The leadsounds and hooklines maybe, and the arrangement as well. The many little breaks and in general how we do it – I think it is different.
Tobi: When someone returns sad and frustrated from listening to music, he very likely did not listen to our music. Even if it gets dark you can still probably hear the humour and the great time that we had creating it. A positive vibe is definitely the overall goal in our tunes.
Jakob: And to always have attention to details as well, we´d never want to give the impression that after 2:30 we lost the notion to make the track special.
Tobi: The last remix we just did (of C4C´s – Never Acid Again) is a good example for this, we like to give it „a story“ like in this case the girls heart that suddenly stops in the breakdown with a long“beep” – after that breakdown with half time drums she changed her attitude to drugs and says “Never Acid Again”.
Jakob: And sure that is our statement against drugs as well .
How did you get to know each other? Is there a strict division of work tasks between the two of you?
Jakob: We already knew each other since we were little. Our parents are friends (and musicians as well btw). When it comes to music, we started to „work“ together at the age of 15. Back then on the „Fasttracker 2“, some early MS DOS music software.
Tobi: I am more the socializing part of Neonlight, I talk to all the artists and promoters, „have an eye on the scene“ and so on (laughs). It´s often like my initial very raw idea that Jakobs picks up and than will eventually become a finished track. I do the simple DRUM and BASS. But I really have to try hard to come up with something that will catch his interest and inspire him. Jakob is the man for the sound and refinement, he´s got a totally different approach than me. He loves to work on details for hours. Everywhere that I would get stuck with something he mostly knows the solution. You could say we complement one other.
Jakob: Still Tobi is the one who spends more time on it I think, while I come in later on to make details.
Can you tell us a bit about your musical roots … who influenced you, what bad music tastes would you rather forget about and how did the formula for your Übertracks come about?
Jakob: We grew up with the music that our parents listened to, bands like A-ha, Deep Purple, Genesis, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Mike Oldfield and Sting. Our Drum and Bass heros of the first hour are Ed Rush & Optical, Bad Company, Dom&Roland, Aquasky, Calyx, Roni Size, Ram Records, Tech Itch. The Prodigy and the Chemical Brothers also have to be mentioned! (T & J take the interviewers word that none of their mislead admiration for New Kids On The Block, David Hasselhoff or German pop star „Blümchen“ will be mentioned in the interview.)
Tobi: The formula!!! In general I think we are lucky that we can both go back to an extensive musical education. Maybe we even got some talent (both smirk). You have to know where you want to take a track. And both of us have a lot of listening experience in different many different genres, but bass music alone for 10 years!
Jakob: Often a compromise between our different opinions on something makes the best outcome. Apart from that we like to have a system in our tracks. And every song has got to have a musical „theme“ or a unique hookline.
Do you feel attached to Drum and Bass completely? Or will you take excursions to Dubstep or other genres?
Jakob: So far we kept very loyal to drum and bass production. But already within that genre the change in the last four years was immense. Back then we were known for our mighty amen breaks and dark basslines, and a certain „aggression“, primarily in our DJ sets.
Tobi: But right now we feel open to pretty much everything in Drum and Bass. With our partners Wintermute and sH1 (who you should definitely check out!) from Leipzig we work on some „deeper“ productions, which are very different from our solo projects. Not only the musical outcome but also the workflow is really different.
You will also hear other so called „Bassmusic“ from Neonlight! Some might see it as missing out when it comes to making Dubstep and „french touched“ tech house releases because it is hype at the moment. But we did not feel the urge to do it lately.
Jakob: Maybe there will be an Album one day where we will free to explore all that. Without lacking quality on the Drum and Bass tracks.
How did the connection with Trust in Music come about?
Tobi: For quite a while I tried to get a track signed with the guy of Trust in Music, Ignite. But he did not like anything in the beginning (both laugh).
Ignite: I really can´t remember that.
Tobi: He was like „yeah tracks are not shit, but you don´t have a name so far“. So he would not take the risk to put something out.
Ignite: But I am sure he said that he believes in the great potential he can hear in your music??
Neonlight: no he did not say that either. (all laugh)
Jakob: We are happy that the words of criticism from Ignite got less.
Thanks for the interview, could you give us small list of your favorite tracks at the moment?
NEONLIGHT-THE FROZEN TAPE (TRIM 026)
INSIDE INFO-REAL WORLD ft. NYX (VIPER DUB)
CAUSE4CONCERN-NEVER ACID AGAIN [NEONLIGHT RMX] (C4C DUB)
MISANTHROP – AMBOSS (NEOSIGNAL)
BLOKHE4D & GRIDLOK-BAD KAT(BAD TASTE DUB)
NEONLIGHT & MISS REDFLOWER – “Dessert” – REMIX COMPETITION this way please