“I don’t work that hard to be honest, I’m quite lazy.”

I read that you started making computer music at secondary school. Did you realise it was going to be a serious pursuit back then?

Not really. I always loved doing it, but it was a bit more of a hobby back then. I started doing a media course after 6th form and dropped out after about two months. Music was what I was good at and wanted to do. So I dropped out and did music production in Leeds. I didn’t like it (laughs) but I met some good people. I failed the course and then came back to London, didn’t have a job, so just started doing music and getting really heavy into that.

In a way, not liking the course made me more determined. It made me realise you can’t really teach that stuff - I mean, you can to a certain extent, but it’s all about having the ear at the end of the day. Also there were so many people on the course who just weren’t that into music. So I kind of realised that if I really wanted to do it, I could, it’s not that hard. I had a lot of spare time (laughs).

How supportive have your family been about your decision?

I’ve had lots of other part time jobs, still do part time work. Yeah they’ve been supportive. Obviously they weren’t too happy when I dropped out, but they’ve always been supportive. I’m lucky in that sense. I still do part time work. I quite like doing it, it gets me out of the house, gives me some human contact. I’m working part time in a cinema at the moment.

If you hadn’t gone into music, would you have gone into something like film?

I think so, maybe editing or something. Definitely something creative, sitting in a dark room on my own (laughs).

Is that your favoured method, working alone, all hours?

Yeah I think so, just prefer working alone on stuff so I can get it right. I always find you can’t really let yourself loose with other people, because most of what I do sounds shit (laughs) - it’s all about trial and error. You have to sit there and thrash it out on your own. I’ve collaborated before, but by passing files back and forth.

Was Werk Discs the only label you sent your first demos to at the beginning?

I sent this one demo off to pretty much everyone, all these English electronic labels, and got no response. But then someone suggested Werk to me, so I checked them out and heard Darren’s first EP and loved that and so I sent them my demo. I came back and had two emails in my inbox from him, the first one said “thanks for the demo, I’ll get back to you”, the next one said “this is amazing!” so I met up with him. But ‘Onandon’ didn’t come out for two years after that. I kept sending him new stuff, and you always prefer your new stuff….so nothing from the demo made it. I think he just saw the potential in my demo CD.

Sounds like you’ve been working pretty hard on music since you came back from Leeds- what would you say is the key for maintaining your creativity?

I don’t work that hard to be honest, I’m quite lazy. It’s basically just having the patience really, and constantly listening to music for inspiration. I spend weeks sometimes without making anything and then I’ll hear something and spend two weeks making loads of tracks. I’m not one of those people who spends all day and every day in the studio, it does my head in.