How are you and what have you been up to recently?
I am well, I’ve been in the studio working on new projects in between the usual DJ dates.

What are the five albums that have most influenced you?
London Calling - The Clash, Check Your Head – The Beastie Boys, Fat Of The Land – The Prodigy, Bleach – Nirvana, Brothers In Arms – Dire Straits.

You grew up in the midlands. What was that like for a budding musician?
I got into music at secondary school but was not from a musical family. I got more involved in it through dance music, which had a healthy scene in Nottinghamshire through people like DiY etc.

What’s the best concert you have ever been to?
Sex Pistols last year at Brixton, just cos it was the Sex Pistols!

If you could have been a musician in any era when would it be?
I quite like now but would have loved the energy of punk rock, I would probably have been sick at the hippie movement.

What’s the best gig you’ve ever performed?
Exit Festival three years ago. It was to 20,000-odd people on the main stage as the sun came up. What a surrounding for a festival. Simply stunning.

Is there any particular venue you would like to play?
I would love to play the Viper Room in LA and would have loved to play CBGBs before it closed, both for the history. When I toured the US, I played Max’s Kansas, which is one of the infamous stops on the Pistols US tour which was a great moment for me.

Have you ever played a show when everything has gone completely wrong?
Yes, I’m in a band that works with computers. It really is a recipe for disaster. Don’t work with children, animals or live with computers!

What books have you read and films have you seen recently?
Books include Rubicon, Angry Island by AA Gill (which has proved to me I am a stereotypical Englishmen for all the bad things we are/do) and am currently reading Kerouac’s On The Road in its original unpublished (until now) format with no paragraphs, no chapters, no concealed names. Amazing read and having toured America on a bus it means so much more to me now than when I first read it as a teenager. Films wise, I watched Control, which was alright, On The Waterfront - an old classic which I couldn’t see the excitement in, Hellboy which was entertaining and RocknRolla which is OK.

If not a musician, what job would you have had in the real world?
An archaeologist or historian of some kind. I love history and am thinking of taking an OU degree in the subject soon. I live in a Jacobean house and would love to know more about that period.

Do you prefer playing live or recording in the studio?
Both, can’t beat playing live or being on the road but the studio’s in my house so it’s nice to walk upstairs and be in the office!

Any burning ambitions?
Get a degree in history and keep seeing more of the world. I got to see the Terracotta Warriors last time I was in China, which was one of my ambitions. I’d hate to win the lottery as I’d have killed any ambition I have.