Danny Hargreaves: Tell us about your introduction to electronic music and your earlyinfluences.

Tom Churchill: I suppose the first electronic music I really heard was pop music on the radio, when I was growing up in the 80s, and the first pop stuff to really grab me was the crossover house stuff like Bomb Da Bass and S'Express, when I was about 10. At the same time I was learning the piano, and getting interested in computers and electronics, and the idea that I could make music using a computer and/or synthesisers immediately captured my imagination. From there I discovered electronic music by people like Brian Eno and Kraftwerk (plus Jean Michel Jarre and Tangerine Dream, but I quickly grew out of that!). Then I remember buying LFO's first LP on Warp, and reading an interview with them in Music Technology magazine where they were talking about Derrick May, Juan Atkins, Carl Craig and people like that, which set me off down the Detroit techno route - it was like finding the music I'd always wanted to hear but never knew existed. From then (1991 or so) onwards it was a steady diet of techno and house, and later jazz, soul, funk, disco, hip-hop etc. Probably the biggest influences throughout those early years were LFO, Black Dog, Aphex Twin, Derrick May and Carl Craig, then later on people like Ron Trent/Chez Damier, Blaze, Abacus, Joshua, early Herbert...

DH: Soulful, melodic techno has been a mainstay of Headspace's output, a genre which, it could be argued, has been undersubscribed in recent years. Can you tell us your views on this?

TC: It's been undersubscribed in terms of its profile and its sales, but musically I think it's stronger than ever at the moment. There are a lot of consistently good producers and labels putting stuff out as a labour of love, and it's a very friendly and close-knit kind of scene. I think maybe one reason soulful/melodic techno isn't bigger is that a lot of it is kind of retro, stuck in a mid-90s blueprint, which if you haven't been into that sound for a long time might not be so interesting. It's definitely quite a specialist scene, and a lot of the tunes aren't as instantly accessible as, say, some of the acid/bleepy house stuff that currently seems to be in fashion, or as cutting-edge as some of the European glitchy minimal house stuff that's also really popular (people like Villalobos, Luciano etc). Personally I love all these new styles too, but my taste is rooted in music by people like Carl Craig, Stasis, B12 and Black Dog, so I'm always going to be turned on by producers who are inspired by them too. I guess the trick is to balance reverence and respect for the past with a forward-thinking attitude and modern techniques - that's what techno's all about to me.

DH: Headspace and sister label Emoticon's roster reads like a who's who > of leading lights in their respective fields - how do you go about > signing up such a diverse range of artists?

TC: The majority of the artists are people I've been keeping in touch with via email for years, and a lot of them I've met through lists like tech-house and 313, funnily enough. Some of them are people I've met at parties, or booked to play at club nights, or met through mutual friends, and we've just hit it off. I've never really contacted anyone out of the blue and asked them to do something - all the projects have just seemed to happen by themselves.

DH: Aside from your superb double 12" 'Project One on DiY, you've yet to produce a full artist album. Any particular reasons for this?

TC: Lack of time is the only reason - that's why I've hardly released anything for the last couple of years. Sadly music isn't my full-time occupation, so after I've balanced work, DJing, partying and label admin there aren't enough hours in the day to get much music done! But I'm slowly getting more productive again and I'm definitely aiming to get a few more records out in 2005, plus hopefully a full album for Headspace and/or Emoticon.

DH: Clearly you're a busy man on the electronic music scene - tell us about your most memorable gigs / performances of this year.

TC: I've had loads of memorable nights in Glasgow this year, mainly with the Traxx crew, where I'm resident DJ. We did a party with Juan Atkins, Louis Digital and CiM back in March that was great, and an incredible party with Rob Hood in April. Then I did an Ableton Live set based around loops from the entire Emoticon catalogue as a special event with Scion doing their Basic Channel thing, which was good fun, and I had one of the most enjoyable DJ sets of the year at Traxx's monthly residents night at the Liquid Lounge a couple of weeks back. Other gigs that stand out are a five-hour set in a Frankfurt beer cellar in the summer after an outdoor party was thwarted by a thunderstorm; and a Wednesday night with the Dstoremix guys in Copenhagen, at a club which was full of the most beautiful girls I've ever seen :)

DH: You have an artist album from the fantastic Vince Watson due out in the new year. Care to give us some more details about this?

TC: It's called Sublimina, and it's basically a platform for Vince to explore his deeper side - there are plenty of club-friendly tracks on there, but also a few more downbeat and experimental things. I think he's going from strength to strength at the moment so it's a real privilege to be able to work with him - and he lives just down the road from me in Paisley, so hopefully there will be more to come in the future as well. The reactions to the Lost Episodes 12", which is the latest Headspace release, have been amazing, and if you like that then you'll love the album.

DH: Will Headspace / Emoticon be entering the digital distribution arena anytime soon?

TC: Yes, within the next few months, probably in partnership with an existing online service. There are quite a lot of options at the moment, so I'm still researching the best way to proceed, and the best people to work with. But yeah, it's definitely going to happen.

DH: What are your predictions for electronic music in the new year? Can you give us any hot tips on artists to watch?

TC: The people really doing it for me at the moment in the 'deep techno' field are Vince Watson and Arne Weinberg, plus Glasgow's Iridite crew (Rei Loci, Jason Brunton and Elijah). I'm also really digging people like Luciano, the Further Details/Real Soon stuff, some of Jeff Samuel's stuff, Aardvarck, Soloaction... I was also really impressed with Actress from London's Werk crew when he played up here, and a local guy called Magic Daddy blew me away recently. As far as the big guns go, Juan Atkins is back on top form with the Fast Forward EP; I'm probably more into Jeff Mills at the moment than I have been for years; and John Tejada keeps breaking new ground and evolving his style into new directions. I also think Mathew Jonson and Claro Intelecto, two of my favourite producers of the year, are going to keep getting better, and I'm dying to hear more from Adam Johnson, whose stuff on Merck and Narita really impressed me. There's certainly no shortage of amazing music out there...

DH: Do you have any mixes or archived live performances available online?

TC: There's a recent mix up at www.traxxevents.com/music, and an older live set at
emoticon-headspace.net/tomchurchill - there should be another mix up on the Traxx site by the end of the year.

DH: Your productions have a distinctive sound, particularly with regard to the drum sounds and percussion, which have an almost 'retro' '90s feel. What kit do you employ to achieve this?

TC: The drums are mainly just samples - I used to do all the beats in an Akai but these days it's the Battery plug-in in Logic. There's nothing particularly esoteric, just sounds I've collected over the years from sample CDs, sound libraries, and the odd sampled hit off a record. It's all about the programming really, and a spot of judicious compression and EQ.

DH: Do you regularly perform live? If so, what can we expect from such a performance?

TC: I don't do it regularly, but I've done a few sets using Ableton Live. A bloke hunched over a laptop and controller isn't a very exciting performance to look at, but it is pretty 'live' in the sense that I work with lots and lots of component loops and just combine and tweak them. Recently I've started using Ableton to re-edit records and it's becoming part of my DJ sets at Traxx - we're trying to push things forward a bit and use our own re-edits and drums as well as just playing records. Francois K is a big inspiration in this department, although I've got a fair way to go yet!

DH: What was it like collaborating with Dennis DeSantis on the Spaces / Leisure split 12"? Any plans to repeat the experience, with Dennis or otherwise?

TC: It was cool, although it wasn't a collaboration in the traditional sense - we just remixed each other's track. But yeah, it seemed to work well, so I'd like to do it again. No plans to do it with Dennis at the moment but I've been talking to a few other people, so maybe another split 12" or two will be on the cards next year.

DH: What's in the pipeline for Headspace and Emoticon?

TC:
Headspace: Vince's LP in February, then a 12" from Dave Anderson (who's one half of the Otomi project on Emoticon) of more dancefloor-based stuff, then hopefully another record by me, and something by Elijah (aka Laurence Hughes, my DJ partner in crime at Traxx).

Emoticon: we've just released a 12" from Yotoko (aka Domu and Shifty) - after that there's nothing concrete ready yet, but again I'd like to do a 12" and album of my own. I've currently got an enormous pile of demos to get through, so I'm sure there will be a new artist or two making their debut next year, plus some more material from some of the existing artists. Possibly another compilation CD too, but that won't be until the end of 2005.

'Lost Episodes' ep by Vince Watson is out now on Headspace

'Bullet Time' by Yotoko is out now on Emoticon