THE HISTORY OF THE music industry, from Perry Como to Perry Farrell, might be littered with burned-out artists hyped as the Next Big Thing, but the House music industry doesn't live by those rules. An ingrained cynicism toward "one hit wonder" means singers and producers are constantly paying their dues through a stream of original productions and remix projects and tours of every town with a nightclub in it until one day - and it seems like it's "overnight", but those who have watched the process unfold know better - you're suddenly a walking, talking, living legend.

Together since 2001 but with more than four decades of experience between them, Evan Landes and Parrish Wintersmith - the LA-based DJ and production duo known collectively as Groove Junkies - can tell you something about the work involved in making an "overnight success". They've toured Europe and North America several times over and remixed and produced dozens of hit records and best-selling mix CDs, but it's only recently that they've graduated to the status of being considered giants in the dance music industry.

You know their sound for sure. Their remix of Frankie Knuckles' "I've Had Enough" (featuring Nicki Richards on vocals) was a club hit - and, in Chicago terms, a rare "crossover" that found favor with both old school and new school DJs. Their original productions such as "Music's Gotcha Jumpin'" and "Dr. Feelgood" have made their MoreHouse Records label one of the few imprints that distributors, stores and DJs purchase on sight, without hearing a note from a new slab of vinyl. And last summer, Frankie Knuckles (one of the earliest Groove Junkies supporters) included three of their mixes on DubJ's D'light, an album of Frankie's classic material remixed and reworked by a handpicked group of elite producers. Their mixes were featured alongside those of Blaze, Eric Kupper, Quentin Harris and others - good company, by any definition.

Ahead of the start of a worldwide tour, a slew of new releases prior of the Winter Music Conference in Miami in March and their second ever trip to Chicago to play at Sonotheque on March 16, 2007, I talked with Parrish and Evan about the long road to their becoming an "overnight" success.

You both live in Los Angeles now, but you're both transplants, right?

PARRISH WINTERSMITH: I'm originally from Detroit. I moved to LA about twenty years ago, so LA is my home now.

Did you ever get into the early sounds from the Detroit techno movement - Juan Atkins, Carl Craig, etc.?

PARRISH: I really didn't get into it when I was living in Detroit. I guess I got into Detroit techno later on. I didn't come to House music until around 1989, through Masters at Work, Todd Terry, Kerri Chandler, Tony Humphries . . . I was totally engrossed in it once I discovered it.

EVAN LANDES: I'm originally from New York City and lived there until I was 19. I made my way across the country and lived in Minneapolis for about eight years. I was actually introduced to the DJing world back in that era. It was an interesting time because that was when the Minneapolis sound started to evolve. I started going to nightclubs in New York in the mid-'70s, but I really caught the bug in Minneapolis in the late-'70s. I was in a record pool with Jimmy Jam before he was with The Time and met Prince back in the early days.

Eventually I came out to Southern California in the mid-'80s, and that was really when I caught the House bug. I've been DJing for 27 years, but I caught the House bug in the late 1980s, and really started honing my own songwriting skills from that time through the early '90s. Slowly but surely, I started to inundate myself with all of the material - playing it in the clubs, living it, eating it, breathing it . . .

So how did you guys first meet?

PARRISH: Evan and I first met at a club we were both DJing at out in Santa Monica back in 1997. Prior to joining forces, we'd already had our own things going on. A friendship grew from there, though we didn't actually start working on music until 2001. Between the time we met and the time we started working together, we kept in touch and kept an eye on one another until we finally got together at the Winter Music Conference in Miami.