John ‘00’ Fleming aka J00F has been likened to a cat with nine lives, for he's flirted with death and come out the other side a couple of times now. A dance music veteran who scored his first gig through his headmaster, John is now an industry legend who’s created some of the coolest compilations on the planet and, under a variety of guises, some of the most awesome tracks for the dancefloor.

This Bank Holiday Sunday 4 May he's launching his latest 3-CD project 'Psy-Trance Euphoria' at Psychedelic Academy 005 @ Brixton Academy, sharing the main stage with good mates Astrix, Infected Mushroom and many more. With the countdown to one of the biggest events in the psy trance calendar well underway, we spoke to him about his latest productions, the state of the dance music industry, and of course, this Sunday's party...

You’ve just released the awesome ‘Psy-Trance Euphoria’ triple CD pack, which went straight into the charts. How did you put the CDs together? It must have been difficult with so much good psy out there to choose from!

Yeah it was pretty hard trying to narrow down so much good music for the album. I was also trying to represent all aspects of the psy world from progressive all the way through to full-on. It was a lot of fun mixing it though!

The third CD is an artist album. How long did this take to produce and was there a particular idea or concept behind it?

My team behind me suggested the idea; and I thought it was brilliant. Myself and the Digital Blond — under our 00.db guise — had been producing tracks all throughout the year, so it made sense to get them released on the third CD as an artist album.

You haven’t always been a psy trance DJ and producer. When did you first get into psy trance and what inspired you to go in this direction? How would you say your sound has changed and evolved over the years?

This is the misconception you youngsters have of me. I was actually involved in this scene while you where still at school!! I was fully involved in the Goa scene in the early ’90s, playing regularly alongside Astral Projection, Juno Reactor and more. Even Duvdev (Infected Mushroom) remembers partying hard to my sets in Israel and India.

In the mid ’90s when Goa started to die away and get replaced by hard as nails music, I took the mainstream trance route. The days when it was more credible when the like of Sasha & Digweed were playing real trance music!

You’ve said before that psy trance is the most educated music around and it’s certainly the best produced in my opinion. By ‘educated’ do you mean well produced or something else?

It’s ground breaking, new, fresh. Something regular club trance scene is desperately lacking, hence why I came back over. The psy guys have a really serious take on trance music, and this is what I’ve always been about.

What other DJs and producers have influenced you the most over the years? And now?

I simply do my own thing, hence why I have my own sound. I play music that I like, it’s as simple as that. After all, this is the true job of a DJ. I prefer not to be a sheep and copy others.

Having DJed since you were at school, you’ve seen the dance music industry weather many storms and come out the other side. What, in your opinion, does the industry need at the moment to set it on a better path?

Unfortunately the scene seems to be hungry for success. In that, I mean many new DJs and producers see the success of the big guys, so they copy their style thinking this will be a short cut to their own personal success. It doesn’t work like that in the real world. So we end up with loads of music sounding generic. What happened to the days where people made music for the love of it, instead of trying to make a track to be a hit?

As a label-owner, recent changes in music production and distribution must have taken their toll. How are you adapting? Are you starting to come out the other side and see the advantages of digital downloads or is illegal fire-sharing still a major worry?

I was one of the first labels to start selling downloads, seven years ago now. It was done to raised eyebrows as the industry attacked me for killing music sales. But now they see the light and now ask me for advice! We can’t hide the fact that illegal downloads are killing music sales, so the artist has to make money from different angles. You need to be smart in the 21st century.

You’ve sold over 1 million comps in your career. What’s the secret to putting a successful compilation together?

My biog needs updating — I’ve sold over 3 million albums now! Rather than put albums together with all the latest hits, I opt for new fresh music so the album won’t date; that’s why they keep selling so strong still today.

Since you started producing there have been some pretty radical changes in technology. What software and hardware do you prefer to use in the studio? Do you have a favourite piece of kit?

It’s important to keep moving on in the times, it makes my life much easier. I’m not one of those geeks that updates software with every new version. I usually take my time, when I feel I need more then I upgrade and usually by then all the bugs are ironed out. I use Logic Pro on my trusty Apple Mac. I have to say my Mac is my most important tool.

You’ve had a couple of major brushes with death, having had cancer then being run over by a boat when wakeboarding. What’s the most important thing these close calls have taught you?

To appreciate every single day given to you because you never know what’s around the corner. I used to be one of those people that said ‘it will never happen to me’: well it did and it was the hardest kick in life I ever had. I live life to enjoy every single day, hence why I do this job that I love so much — it made me peruse this dream of being a DJ/producer.

At school you were known as the music man and used to sneak out and buy records in your lunch break from your local record shop. Do your reckon digital downloads are completely destroying the social side of buying music, or have they opened up a while new world where music is more accessible than ever?

Downloads are a great idea, but it needs controlling as the shops are cluttered with so much crap, it takes hours to find one decent track. In the good old days of record shops, the owner would get to know my taste in music and find me the correct tracks to listen too. Digital download shops need to address this.

You’ve always been out there pushing the boundaries in dance music. Now that you’ve well and truly put psy trance into the mainstream, do you think it will stay there? All genres take their course: what do you reckon is the next big thing on the horizon?

I don’t think psy trance has properly spread its wings yet, especially in the UK. It’s just a London based thing, there’s a bigger picture outside the M25. There’s much more work to be done yet, but I’m spreading the love!

What do you say to so-called psy trance purists who think the over-commercialisation of psy trance is killing it?

You get purists in everything in the world. I admire them for hanging on to what they truly love; in a way I can be seen as a purist.

I love serious trance and want to conserve it. But I understand that the commercial guys also do a great job, they are the ones converting the masses to electronic dance music (many who liked bands etc before), once they get into dance they explore more avenues, then the purists could benefit from this as more people could find their take on dance supporting their scene.

You’ve played all over the globe. Over the years, where has become your favourite destination? If you could put on a party anywhere in the world, where would you choose and who would be on the line-up?

There’s too many place to just mention one. Every time I visit somewhere I find a new fav place! Also it’s not fair to mention a few artists, I’d have to have a two-week line up so I could play everyone!

You’ve now been DJing for over 20 years. What do you wish you knew when you first started out that you know now?

To start collecting airmiles back then! Little did I know I’d be living on aircraft!

There’s been a lot of controversy recently about retiring DJs and the most appropriate way to hang up your headphones. If you ever were going to have a pit stop, or worse, put those CDs in the garage for good, how do you think you’d plan it? Would you milk it for all it’s worth and use it to market as many gigs and releases as possible, or just have one massive party?

When the day comes, I will gracefully disappear so no-one will notice. I’m not one for showcase finales, sorry to disappoint you all!

You’ve collaborated with Tim Healy as Supakane, which you described as a trance band and have since spoken about putting another trance band together. In the meantime Infected Mushroom have taken the trance band ball and run off to LA with it. Are you still working on putting a trance band together? And what do you think of Infected now playing as a live band yet still making it into the DJmag Top 100?

Supakane was a great idea in theory, but trying to find studio time with two globetrotting DJs proved impossible. Myself and Tim have spoken about another single, who knows? Supakane is not dead yet ;) There needs to be some clarity between DJs and bands in the chart, then Infected can make that number 1 spot ;)

You’ve spoken out before about the DJmag Top 100 Poll and said that since it “turned into more of a commercial chart . . . the meaning and the purpose of the chart has slowly faded away.” After all the controversy surrounding last year’s Poll with its many cheats and piss-takers, do you reckon it still has any relevance at all in the industry? Or is the fact it’s now more independent then ever putting it back on the map?

Promoters have eventually got smart to the chart and now book acts that have true fan bases rather than computer generated numbers. It’s the punters that need to wake up to the chart, after all they get effected by hiked up door prices. At the end of the day the chart is a bit of fun, and should be looked at that way. Skoda was voted number one car in Car magazine last year, I’d still rather own a Lamborghini that didn’t make it into the chart ;)

With the massive triple CD project behind you, what do you have planned for the rest of 2008?

Myself and Digital Blonde (00.db) made so many tracks, that we have part two of our album to be released in a couple of months. Here we have another nine new tracks, we are on a mission!!! Also look out for some live sets, we are co-headlining Gatecrasher’s summer sound system festival at the end of May.

This is also your ‘third time lucky’ to be finally playing for Antiworld again. Will this be your Brixton Academy main stage debut? Given that Psychedelic Academy also doubles as the album launch party for your ‘Psy-Trance Euphoria’ comp, do you have any surprises up your sleeve?

I’ve played Brixton Academy a few times before, but many years ago. But this is my first Antiworld party there and to be honest it’s the party I’ve been looking forward to all year, especially playing alongside all of my close friends. Officially launching my album here is a true honour, I can’t wait!!!

Many thanks for your time John and looking forward to seeing you again at Brixton Academy!