It has been big part of my life since my early childhood. I've always loved and listened to all kinds of music a lot, but because I never really had a practical musical education in my youth, it wasn't until highschool that some friends started a band and my fingers started to get itchy. I bought a bassguitar (because it's always been a favourite instrument of mine) and joined the band.

This band thing started late 93, I think it was early 94 that I got my first tracker software for pc to write music with (fast tracker v1) . This was the first opportunity I got to write entire songs all by myself and that became really addictive really fast, so making music has been my main thing from day one I guess.

First of all I don't think it's necessary to spend a lot on your basic setup. A single pc (if powerful enough), can do the job pretty well and there's plenty of excellent software out there that provides all the means to write pro sounding music (Logic, Absynth, Reason, Buzz etc). When you have your software, it's important to develop both production technique as well as an individual style. My advice would be to experiment with all styles you like to listen to and have other people give feedback on the stuff you make.

I haven't really had any succesful collaborations on the d&b front yet to be honest, I got some things pending with Deepflow and ASC, there are some other guys with whom I did some brainstorming about co-op projects, but it's mostly future talk here. Apart from that I've worked a lot with my friends in the band, they come over from time to time to record some instrumental parts.

Well I'm trying to develop my musical style all the time and the tunes that have been released so far are all pretty old but I think my tune ''Sphinx" pretty much shows what I'm about. The three main influences for me are dance, movie soundtrack and ethnic/world music and I'm really into the darker side of things.. I really like to make all kinds of music but when it comes to d&b, I want my music (and I'm probably the umpteenth to say this) to have a steady groove to dance to as well as enough musical depth to appreciate it at home as well, in or in your car for example.

Hmmm.. I don't think there's a specific set of elements a tune has to have in order to make it good. Besides, I don't think the quality of a song can't be measured, it's a matter of taste really. The balance between groove and melody has to fit the mood of the song, so that depends on the intentions of the producer who's making the song. For me the only real important thing is that a tune has an intro, a climax and an outro and that it has a unique element in it.

Great I can tell you a phat p.a. system sure beats the hell out of my home setup! Of course it's wonderful when the crowd likes your tune because in the end that's what it's all about.. I make dance music, right! :)

Right now I'm working on an EP and some single releases for Purified Audio, which will all be coming out in the next six months. I also plan to do releases for other labels but that won't be before next year and there are no real plans yet either.

I'm sorry to say there's not much on the co-op front either. I plan to write some stuff with ASC and also Deepflow in the near future though, and right now I have a project running with Virgo.. but we haven't had much time to work on tunes lately.

So far Purified Audio is the only one.. I'm sure others will follow in the near future..

I'm playing wherever I can really, I did some gigs throughout the country this year including Waterfront in Rotterdam, Paradiso in Amsterdam the Sound/Vision festival in the Haguebut. We've also started a two-monthly Purified Audio night in Aalsmeer, that Deepflow and I wil be hosting.

I guess that has to be the IO Festival at the technical university in Delft two years back, where Deepflow and I played. We did a back-to-back set that just worked out perfectly and there were over 500 people having a great time.

I don't really have any dj trauma's, it's always horrible when the crowd won't get into the stuff you're playing, or when there's hardly any crowd at all. That has happened a few times, but I try to forget about that of course :)

That's another tough question, I think the combination is what really does it for me. If I had to choose between either one of them, I'd say producing. They are both different forms of expression and for me producing is the right instrument to express the ideas that I have.

I'm not sure whether you mean that personal or in music in general.. personally my highlight is that I've been given the opportunity to release some of my music that I believe in and that it's actually being picked up..

The future is as unclear as ever.. I think will focus on music as much as possible and see how far I can take it, but life has many surprises so I don't know where I will be in like 5 years. I really want to work with other artists more and keep experimenting with different styles, I feel there's so much more to explore that I just don't want to take any real direction at this moment.