Lisa Lashes is the number one female DJ in the World. She's also one of the pioneering DJs in hard house and hard dance. On May the 2nd she will be headlining Slinky's birthday party at the Opera House... which will kind of be a home-coming for her given her attachment with the venue and event. Should be a good one!

1. Hi Lisa, thanks for agreeing to the interview before Slinky’s 11th Birthday. Just to start of proceedings could you give us a brief lowdown of where you currently are, what music you’re currently listening to, and what your last dream was… dirty is good, bizarre is good, dirty and bizarre is even better.

I'm at home in the Midlands at the minute. I've just got back from a weekend in Norway which was fantastic. I'm currently listening to Kutski from Radio 1’s hip hop CD. That boy is a wizard at cutting and pasting tunes together seamlessly.

The last dream I had was really freaky. I have a new four month old puppy called Chester. I dreamt a ghost was trying to take him away so we were both playing tug of war with him and ended up ripping him in half. Sorry, no dirty dreams unless you count me stepping in puppy poo when I went to check on him. Hmmm nice!

2. You were recently voted as the world’s top female DJ in the internationally recognised DJ Mag Awards. What type of value do you place on these type of accolades and do they in any way help your career?

I think the awards do help your career a lot, especially in Europe and also Internationally. I’ve had quite a few bookings come through in Finland, Stockholm, Norway, Russia and Singapore which are new clubs I’ve not DJ’d in before and are directly due to the No 1 DJ award.

3. Given your standing in the DJ rankings it would appear that you’re at the height of your career. I would imagine you don’t see it that way and are still very ambitious to achieve more. With that in mind, what is left for you and where do you want to go next?

I still really enjoy being on the road and DJ'ing in the clubs but I'm also loving going into the studio every week. I'm working on a project with BK at the moment so expect quite a few tunes to come out on the Riot and Lashed music labels.

4. So it must be quite good being Lisa Lashes, international jet-setter, playing to adoring fans every week… and of course getting paid for the privilege. But, and it’s a big but, is there anyone else you wish you could be, even if it was just for a day?

I wish I could be a fisherman for the day. Sounds strange but my friend Neil bought me a fabulous fishing rod for Christmas and I have an amazing reservoir within walking distance from my house so that’s where I would like to be for a day very soon... with my cooler box of wine and munchies watching the world go by with my rod in hand. My life is pretty hectic all the time so its great to do something right at the other end of the spectrum.

5. When was the last time you went to a nightclub, and weren’t actually DJ’ing for the night? Or do you tend to steer clear of the places when not working?

I had a Saturday off in September 2007 so decided to go over to Birmingham with my girlfriends. We went to the Custard Factory in Digbeth to a Breaks night run by Spectrum from Nottingham. We listened and danced till the early hours, round our handbags, to the breaks tunes of Stanton Warriors and Hexidecimal and loved every minute of it.

6. We recently asked Slinky’s past and present what special memories they from the last eleven years. You must have had some amusing or memorable times with us down the years so would you be able to share some of those?

There are so many.. The most memorable one for me was playing for Slinky at the BIC where there was over 9000 people going crazy. I played last after Jules and it was my birthday, somebody grabbed the mic and started singing “happy birthday” to which 9000 people joined in which was amazing, I shed a tear or two that night!!

7. You were given your big break by Madders from Sundissential where you went on to become resident, which must have been crazy. It almost seems today as if there are so many young and aspiring DJs out there so it’s even harder to become noticed. What advice could you give to new talent, and are there are any aspiring DJs you’ve seen recently that could be the next big thing?

I really think the way to get on with being a DJ is to produce a tune. Everybody these days can mix and do exceptional mix CDs but you really have to have some production behind you to get noticed. I'm always on the look out for aspiring DJs but unfortunately I don’t get chance to listen to a lot as I'm always on the move.

8. Alongside Rachel Auburn and Lisa Pin-Up, you put together the classic Tidy Girls EP back in 1999, which contains four of the most well known hard house tracks of all time. This was produced with Amadeus Mozart from Tidy Trax and now Slinky. Could you tell us how you first got involved with the whole Tidy Girls theme and got invited into this project? It must have been fun!

I received a phone call from Andy Pickles telling me about the project and wondered if I would be interested. I had played with all the girls previously so knew what they did so jumped at the chance.

It was my first tune so I was really nervous going up to Rotherham and sitting in a big studio with a shedload of buttons that I had no idea what they did. Loved every minute of it though and loved working with the Tidy crew. Got to meet all the girls at the album photo shoot too, we all had a great day together getting dressed up for the pictures with our hair and make-up being done. We drank tea and ate sandwiches whilst being pampered. Rock and Roll!

9. Towards the end of 2007 you released a self-titled album on which you collaborated with producers such as BK, Alf Bamford aka Technikal, and Ingo. How do you go about collaborating in such a way? Do you tend to come up with the ideas for a track, riffs, samples, vocal sequences etc and then sit with the engineers to pull all the pieces together?

I do usually have an idea before I go into the studio as it's pretty hard to think of doing a track if you haven’t got a clue which direction you want to go. Without the engineers and producers I work with, I wouldn’t be able to do the programming by myself, far too difficult, I would be in the studio for weeks scratching my head.

10. So what about now, are you currently putting any new material together? And generally what are the plans for you in 2008 on this side of things?

Yes, I'm in the studio each week, this week in fact I've been in with Anne Savage as we want to do a big tune for the festivals. I'm also working on a soundtrack for a horror movie with BK which is really exciting.

11. Slinky must be like a second home to you, given the countless times you’ve played for us down the years and this will be your first time at the Opera House since the refurbishment and Slinky’s triumphant return. Slinky clubbers always give you a massive welcome so what do you have planned for the birthday for them?

I’ve got some new tunes that are exclusive to the night as I only finished one this week. I've also done edits of my own album tracks so Im looking forward to doing a fast “cut and Paste” style set. Make sure you don't miss it!

Slinky's 11th Birthday @ The Opera House - Friday May 2nd