The duo known as Freemasons ­ Russell Small and James Wiltshire ­ produced one of last year's biggest dance tracks: "Love On My Mind." They were also the guiding force behind the successful remix of Faith Evans' "Mesmerized" and have re-worked tracks for the likes of Jamiroquai, Heather Headley, and Angie Stone. They continue to produce original work and have another hit on their hands with "Watchin'," a driving disco house track using part of the lyrics from Deborah Cox's "It's Over Now."
Amidst their busy schedule, Small and Wiltshire graciously took some time out to answers a few questions.

Where in England are you from?
Russell Small (RS): I'm from Brighton, the San Tropez of England that's an hour south of London - by the sea.
James Wiltshire (JW): I was born in Andover, a small country town 60 miles west of London.

How did you each come to be in the dance music industry?
RS: I started DJing when I was 13 and by 19 had a residency at the Escape club in Brighton. I then moved on to the legendary Helter Skelter nights at the Zap Club from 1992 -1997.
JW: I came into the industry via the production side when I was 16 and have since worked for just about every major studio in London, gaining experience, knowledge, and quite the caffeine habit.

What kind of music influenced your early development and style?
RS: Disco and Motown have always been my first love.
JW: Same for me historically. I think House music is the sound clash of Disco, Soul and the electronic music that had come out of Europe during the 1980s.

When and how did your partnership begin?
RS: After building a reputation on the club scene, I joined up with fellow Brighton DJ Jason Hayward to form Phats & Small. We brought James in to help with our Phats & Small albums. When Jason went off to work with more live-orientated music three years ago, James and I started producing our own music.

How did "Love On My Mind" come about? Was the classic disco track "This Time Baby" by Jackie Moore the primary impetus of your song.
JW: Initially after a couple of revisions we realized that we needed more vocals than the two lines we had from Miss Moore. We then came across the acapella from Tina Turner's song "When The Heartache Is Over." So the lyrics for "Love On My Mind" is a combination of the Tina Turner chorus, which we turned into a verse, and the first two lines of Jackie Moore's verse. A few more revisions later and it had a life of its own.

Did you have a sense right away that you had a big hit on your hands with "Love On My Mind?"
RS: No never. However, we started to think we had something good when Pete Tong played it about six times in a row on his Radio 1 show.

Where did you find this Amanda Wilson, the vocalist that you've use?
RS: Amanda has an amazing voice. We met her through our record company and have used her on three other tracks.

What does the near future hold for you two?
RS: We are recording tracks for a long player of sorts, which will be out this summer.
JW: It's halfway between an artist album and a compilation - new Freemasons material and some of our best remixes.