Youtube Channel. We've just given our YouTube channel a much-needed tidy-up and added lots of new content. In addition to showcasing regular JOOF releases, we've included many of my now obsolete mix compilations and BBC Radio 1 Essential mixes. We've also uploaded numerous live sets recorded at gigs and created playlists for all of them. Here's a big one: from now on, all new JOOF Radio episodes will be posted here. Inside this playlist, you'll also find nearly all the archived 'Global Trance Grooves' shows. We've been extremely busy! The latest JOOF Radio show, featuring a guest mix from Pau ..read more

You wanted my feedback on the last Sync chat we had, with crash helmet on, here we go: The best knowledge and advice I've acquired over the years has come from delving into the life stories of successful individuals across various fields: entrepreneurs, sports pros, and musicians, etc. One piece of advice that struck a chord with me is to not immediately push back with my perspective when confronted with differing viewpoints. Instead, I've learned to dive into research and figure out what I might be missing, exploring how others approach the subject, what tools and technology they employ, and ..read more

A few weeks back I asked your thoughts on the sync button and why is it still frowned upon by some, so here’s my view. A DJ should be armed, skilled, and knowledgeable to deal with any situation they are presented with, ranging from technical aspects like identifying problems in the booth, switching out leads/equipment, and speakers, to reading a dance floor and instantly changing the vibe to connect with the crowd in front of them. This includes being able to mix tracks without relying on sync. In some cases, the LAN connection might fail, or sync buttons might malfunction, requiring manual ..read more

As a fully self confessed gadget geek, I’m a sucker when new equipment gets released and have to drop everything to go and investigate. I haven’t managed to get my hands on the new Pioneer DJM-A9 mixer, but like most of you I’ve been looking online at reviews on Youtube etc and thought we can have a chat about it and share our views. This mixer is a pretty big deal as its predecessor the DJM 900 Nexus become pretty much the industry standard around the world, and this DJM-A9 will probably be the same, so has big boots to fill. First impressions, they seemed to have bought over many features f ..read more

How I deal with writers block. I often see people asking me how I deal with writers block so figured its easier to post here so everyone can read and hopefully get inspiration to get over this challenging hurdle. Touring life as a DJ is fun, I get to play and see some amazing parties around the world but the downfall is fatigue from the constant long haul flights and late nights that causes havoc on your inspiration and self worth when trying to make music in the studio and this is when the dreaded writers block tends to hit me. On these dark days I can spend hours watching the curser go rou ..read more

I can’t believe it’s 20 years ago since I remade this classic track by Simple Minds, they absolutely loved it and gave their full blessing to for release and it went on to enter the national single charts, surprising as it was made to be a club track.  Back then studio technology was way different, computers and sequencer software didn’t have time stretching capabilities, working alongside my old studio partner Chris Daniels we had to painfully time stretch every vocal word, phrase and syllable painfully in the Akai sampler until it was the right BPM using a calculator to figure out the ..read more

I’ve seen many changes over my career but one that stands out recently is DJ’s and producers getting obsessed with sales chart positions, and when they proudly show off that trophy of their number on their socials what happens next? Well they soon find out, not a lot. That big euphoric burst of excitement soon gets replaced with frustration, its like they are waiting for their inbox to fill up with gig requests from promoters as they prepare in their heads to go on a world tour, but unfortunately it doesn’t happen and soon come crashing back down to earth. Its really easy to reverse engineer ..read more

Grab a coffee, a long post…. Many of us dislike putting genres in pigeon holes and would rather focus on the feeling instead, but unfortunately genres will always be here to stay. Established artists, DJ’s and producers are fortunate as we already know their sound/brand and how they will entertain us musically, but for the next generation of both artists, labels and fans, they will always need a starting point and that’s where genres come into play. I dedicated a big chunk of my career to the Trance world and still add those influences to my productions and DJ sets today to create those hypno ..read more

It’s been tried before a few years ago by Native Instruments Tractor alongside Beatport selling stems launched with some huge fanfare, then eventually slowly disappeared. It seems Stems are back, this time Rane and Serato giving it a shot, but I honestly don’t see the outcome being any different, even with fancy software that creates stems from the original track. The results will always be the same, some DJ messing around trying to mash together what were perfectly good tracks into something that simply doesn’t sound good and trashes the original. The best ‘mash ups’ are always the ones made ..read more

Embed Block Add an embed URL or code. Learn more Coming from the days of hidden DJ’s booths and no camera phones with no attention to the DJs created a safe space for me, especially being introvert and a person that doesn’t enjoy the limelight. As my career grew I was forced in front of cameras for artwork and press releases, something I could just about deal with as it was an occasional occurrence, I could then get back to the job in hand in dark clubs and focus on being a DJ or the comfort of being locked away in my studio. Then came along social media that completely changed the whole ..read more