Q.The Masters Series has become a real spiritual home for you. With all the constant changes in dance music did you adapt your approach to this latest volume?

A.Not really no. My original 1991 mix compilation manifesto stands true to this day. For me, it’s still all about throwing the metaphorical net out as far and wide as possible and sifting through the catch to find only the finest, tastiest specimens. Then, strive to take the seasonal ingredients and blend them into a delicious two course banquet, served with taste, texture and colour and presented with unparalleled attention to detail into one exquisitely paced feast to remember. As Bruce Hornsby once very astutely observed, “Somethings will never change”. Hahaha…..

Q. How did you go about mixing the album?

A.With a lot of patience, persistence, blood, sweat & tears. And a wonderful little software program called Ableton Live.

Q. You’ve did a lot of additional production, the extra elements over Jon Hopkins being one obvious stand-out moment?

A.Yeah, pretty much every single track has been edited and fiddled with, if you’ll pardon the expression. Some radically, some more subtly, but all for the good of trying to achieve a single cohesive and coherent piece of music. It’s a bit like an audio collage in that I’m attempting to make the whole composition greater than the sum of it’s parts.

Q. We ask this of a lot of our DJs: you still play CDs at your gigs, any plans to move over to computer in the near future?

A. I have been toying with the idea and have spoken to quite a few of my peers that have made the leap. Obviously, there are benefits. Namely, no more CD burning and much more control over managing and organizing your music. But unfortunately, I know of several DJs that moved over to Traktor or Ableton and are now back using CDs. The technology is still not completely trustworthy yet. So for the moment, I’m gonna stick with what I know. If it aint broke, don’t fix it. But never say never.

Q. If all your DJing and production dried-up tomorrow (well, it is the credit crunch!), what would your choice of profession be?

A. Oh God, I’m not sure I’d be much use to anyone at anything else. Maybe I could pass for Moby or the Greek footballer, Stelios Giannakopoulos on the lookalike party circuit. Although, to be fair, I’m not sure how much demand there’d be for that.

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