Selected by Son of Abe

I was born in Florida and grew up in London – my folks moved to Croydon, in South London, when I was about 6 years old.

My parents had eclectic musical tastes from Frank Sinatra and classical to soul, funk, reggae, jazz and country – they have been a huge influence.

London was also a massive cultural melting pot, with different styles of dance music developing when I was young and it was an exciting time. I had a huge group of mates and we’d set-up decks in each other’s places when the parents were away and played tracks all night. From when we were 13/14 we’d hit illegal raves, dancing to acid house, techno, garage and jungle all night (or until the police shut us down).

Despite the fact that  I’ve played for over a decade, it still feels like I’m still learning and constantly trying to perfect my sets.  

I pride myself on buying all my tunes – whether vinyl or downloads and I think that ensures that I make each one count. Any record I buy has to have depth and soul.

I also try to make my sets as dynamic as possible. I have been know to play 40-50 tracks in an hour and I pass through a variety of genres – throwing in accappellas or perc – although it’s all down to what I see the crowd reacting to. The most important thing for me is that the audience is happy – I get a real buzz when I see people dancing to records they’ve never heard before or when I present something old in a new way and it goes off.

Yeah, I’ve kind of done it the other way round to a lot of DJs – most create music and become big from that. I’ve been DJing for so long and playing parties, festivals and clubs across the UK and Europe, that I just wanted to start to produce my own tracks. In all honesty, I had been making re-edits and mash-ups for a while – I just haven’t ever released any of that material.

I still pinch myself, with some of the support this track has received already ahead of release – some of my musical heroes, growing-up (like DJ T) and the thought of them having my record in their bag, blows my mind! I’ve gone directly to my acid house roots for this first release and developed a subject I care about – celebrating the beginning of time and the uniqueness of our universe to allows life to develop. People probably don’t think about that sort of thing very much.

Ha! Definitely – I did a science degree at University – and that was where I started DJing at student parties, so it’s fitting in many ways.

I try to write and create most or all of the vocals for all of my tracks – it’s important to me as it’s a key element to making them unique and gives a record its human touch. It’s also something that grows and breathes as the track develops. I’ve always been good at voices and accents, so the geeky American physicist seemed to come naturally to me – ha! 

I travel a lot with my day-job, so most of the time I produce on my laptop while waiting in airports and on planes or trains. However, I love working at home. My kids are 6 and 4 and they listen to what I’m up to and sometimes they have an input, but they always have an opinion. I’m in the process of building a small studio at home, so can’t wait for that to be done.

There’s so many. One of the most influential artists to me has been DJ T. I’ve been collecting his records since I was about 18 and I’ll buy his vinyl whenever I find it. Some of his tracks are go-to tunes for me to keep the dance floor buzzing. The music from his early career is timeless. MJ Cole has also been hugely influential – his production quality is right up there – I don’t know how he does it.

Acid house and melodic techno with soul. It’s really important for me to create music that people can connect with. I love hearing dark techno vibes when I’m in a club but I stay on the more melodic, vocal side when I play out and I think my production style fits that vibe well in clubs.

Practise incessantly, don’t be afraid to make mistakes, make sure you know every tune inside out when you play out and always give as much of yourself to the crowd as you can, they will give back what they get.