GLORIOUSLY, it's that time of the year again. August bank holiday weekend is approaching, and with it the greatest music event the north of England has to offer.

Leeds Festival is ten years old this month, and the three-day extravaganza boasts a stellar line-up, with sleeping rock giants Metallica and Rage Against The Machine re-awakening to headline.

However, away from the history and drama of the main stages, acts like Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip – who headline the Festival Republic Stage on Saturday 23 – will provide equal excitement.

"Festivals are a really big chance for any band", says Dan (real surname Stephens), as he chats to me above the din of a crowded bus somewhere in Reading.

"When we sold out the Cockpit, it was brilliant to have 550 people watching us who had chosen to be there.

"But with festivals people often just go and see you on a whim. So you get a more true reaction. The festival circuit made us a good, confident live band."

Although, as Dan admits, "in some schools of thought" that status is a contentious one.

DJ/mixer Dan describes his wildly successful eighteen month collaboration with rapper-poet Pip (real name David Meads) as "utter nonsense!"

He continues: "It's pretentious breakbeat poetry. A typically English take on the hip-hop genre.

"In the past this kind of music has been used in a comedic way, the Englishness has been taken as the punchline. But we're just doing what comes naturally."

The duo burst into limelight in April 2007 with Thou Shalt Always Kill, Pip delivering a marvellously witty satirical savaging of 21st century British culture, set to Dan's unhinged, pinball electronics.

Their first single, it reached number 34 on the UK singles chart. And despite including the line "Thou shalt not read NME", it received the magazine's 'Single of the week' award.

"We'd written two songs and we were on Radio One!", Dan laughs.
"We sent the CD in to John Kennedy at XFM, possibly the most pleasant DJ in the world, and it went from there."

Debut album Angles followed a month later and went three places better in the album chart. The boys from Stanford-Le-Hope, Essex have toured relentlessly since, and have been able to devote themselves fully to giving hip-hop its brains back.

"We grew up in the same town, but didn't really know each other until I came back from Uni", Dan says.

"We started working in HMV together. I'm still getting to know Pip after six years working together.

"We've hit upon how marriage works – avoiding each other at all costs! Which is difficult when we spend 90% of our time on flights, in vans, and at gigs together."

Those gigs have included a slot at Leeds last year, as well as its sister festival, the more well-established Reading.

"I think Leeds has a nicer site and vibe – sprawling and hilly. It was nice to do Reading on Saturday at 3pm with a full tent, 3500 people.
"We hadn't played much up north at the time, and never in Leeds, Sheffield, or Manchester, so it was nice to have such a big crowd.
"I enjoy northern crowds more. London crowds are more chin-stroking "Is this good? I don't know?" type of thing."

Last Monday saw the latest slice of Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip magic hit the shelves - a second launch of single Letter From God To Man.
Lyrically the content is as title, with Pip the voice of the almighty, appraising humanity's performance and clarifying his own role in creation.

The suitably cavernous riffs on which the song is built will be instantly familiar to many rock fans, being taken and shaken from Radiohead's Planet Telex.

It was almost, fittingly, the duo's tilt at Christmas number one, but with Thom Yorke's mob busy with In Rainbows, they were unable to organise the legal niceties at the time.

"The sample came from Pip", Dan says. "He was listening to it as he wrote it, and it was the "everything is broken" bit which got him thinking and writing that way.

"I'm a bit undecided on sampling – if I do use other people's stuff it's because I want to remix it. I don't like to sample in original pieces.

"It can be a lazy thing – Kanye West is pretty lazy. If it's done in an intelligent way it can be wonderful, though.

"It can be repetitive, but I worked really hard to make sure that wasn't the case. It took months to learn the bassline."

But are Dan and Pip, as a partnership, here to stay?

"We want to carry on, we talked about it the other day actually. People ask us, "are you solo artists collaborating?"

"But we consider ourselves a band with odd solo projects. I think we've set ourselves a high benchmark musically and lyrically but we want to top it, if it takes six weeks or six years.

"I can earn money DJing and remixing which means we won't have to stop because of jobs.

"There's one other thing I want to do which is benefit other bands. Our job as musicians is to help each other.

"The only way the industry will survive is small bands. There's nothing better than playing in a 150-capacity venue, blowing people's brains out."