Iskra's Chemical Brothers Biography

Edmund John Simons was born in 1970 in South London. His mother is a barrister, and his dad wasn't around much. As a child he had two interests... aeroplanes and music. His school was Allayns in South London. As an academic he excelled in English, History and Sport. He gained 11 'O' levels & 3 'A' Levels. His musical tastes at a younger age were The Smiths and New Order. He decided to do Medieval history at Manchester University, and sat down to his first tutorial in 1988 on the same day as Tom Rowlands...

Thomas Owen Mostyn Rowlands was born 1971, in Kingston-Upon-Thames. As a child he had an obsession with Scotland.His musical tastes at a younger age were Heaven 17, Kraftwerk, Cabaret Voltaire, and the Jesus & Mary Chain. He heard Public Enemy's 'My Uzi Weighs A Ton' at the age of 16, which he thought was the most amazing record he'd ever heard. He left school with 9 'O' levels, and 3 'A' levels. His main reasons for going to Manchester University were the music scene and The Hacienda.

The boys originally met in 1988 when they were both attending a history course in Manchester University. In 1989 the lads met DJ Justin Robertson (aka Lionrock), who influenced them greatly and introduced them to wild parties and the music scene, although they already had a love for old skool house music and My Bloody Valentine. Their first band was called "Ariel" and they released two singles: "Sea of Beats" then "Let It Slide". In 1991, they both started DJing in Naked Under Leather, a mates club under the guise of the Dust Brothers. In 1992, they signed to deConstruction records and released "Song to the Siren"which had been produced in Tom's bedroom, using a Hitachi Hi-Fi, a computer, sampler, and a keyboard. It sampled Meat Beat Manifesto and This Mortal Coil.It was later released on their first album, "Exit Planet Dust". They both left college with respectable degrees (2:1s each).They recorded "14th Century Sky" EP and took up residency at Heavenly Sunday Social. Recorded Exit Planet Dust which sold over 100,000 copies. They asked Tricky to do a stint at the Social's last night, but he was so crap at DJing that they stopped him early.

Contrary to popular belief the Chemical Brothers and the Dust Brothers are not the same. Tom and Ed were huge admirers of the Dust Brothers (who had previously produced the Beastie Boys album Paul's Boutique) and thought it would be a nice tribute to them if they used their name whilst they were messing around in their bedrooms and DJing at local venues, after all, where was the harm, it's not like they would be famous or anything.... Well, the inevitable happened and people started to take note of the new Dust Brothers, especially the original Dust Brother's lawyers, so much so that they contacted Tom and Ed and explained the various reasons why they could not use the name. So, the Chemical Brothers came to being and their second single, Chemical Beats (1994) and their first album, Exit Planet Dust (1995), were promptly released. It has been rumoured for a long time that the Dust Brothers and the Chemical Brothers had something of a feud going on, and all indications pointed to that being true, until recently when the Dust Brothers remixed Elektrobank on the Chemical Brother's newest release.