So Ashley, how did it all start for you? When did you get your first taste of dance music and did you instantly want more or was it more of a gradual thing?

It was when I was about 14 or 15. I got into a few different sub genres of trance e.g. Hard Trance and Psy Trance and decided that it was the music for me. I was instantly hooked. I bought my first pair of decks and started DJing (or learning to) when I turned 16 and I used to spend every last penny I earned from my supermarket job on CDs and vinyl. I used to collect all sorts of stuff as well and you’ll find anything from drum and bass right through to some downtempo stuff in my collection. My main passion has always been trance music in its various forms though. Other music just doesn’t have the same kind of energy to it.

Most people first heard about you from your involvement in the legendary free Addiction parties in London - now a major event at Hidden and The Fridge. How did you get involved with the promotion?

I played the first ever set at Addiction, when it was at The Southside Bar (Central London) and was a resident from day one. I’d known Andy (and Mike, who is no longer with the party), who runs the party, for a little while and I guess I shared the same vision of wanting to see a quality promotion, showcasing new talent amongst established names, whilst at the same time having a platform to promote ourselves and program a night of quality music for like minded people. We have always strived to try and promote DJs that we think have a real something to offer and a few of them, most noticeably Mat Lock and Phil Metcalfe have gone on to start to make good names for themselves in what they do. We’ve always tried to be a little different as well, especially when booking the big names. Obviously we book the big London names but we always try to get headliners that don’t generally get to play in London as much, e.g. Adrenaline Department, Wid & Ben and Ilogik.

How long have you been producing for and what was your first release?

I’ve been producing now for about a year and a half - just under that I think. My first release was "Haunted" on the Addiction Resident’s EP 4 with Olly Perris’ "PSS 21" the other track on the EP. Apparently people are still buying it. I'll credit you with that one Ben for giving it such a good review!

It sounds like you’ve come on in leaps and bounds since then...how have you refined your skills? Just lots of practice or have you been learning off other people as well?

Thanks. I’m a really fast learner and in fairness, got taught a lot of stuff by Alf Bamford. When I first got into it, luckily I had a lot of free time to be able to sit down and teach myself things - all day long if need be. I don’t get to do nearly as much these days so I try and spend as much of my free time as possible writing tracks – I think my girlfriend gets a little annoyed with that sometimes. I often work really late into the night on stuff and end up feeling knackered at work the next day, but it all pays off when you hear your tracks thumping through a giant system at a venue like the Brixton Academy or The Fridge. It definitely makes it all seem worthwhile. I like to trawl the net for new, unusual sounds and plug-ins to download as well to make me sound that little bit different. I’ve been taught a few other little things by a few people but to be honest you start to snowball when you just sit there and teach yourself. I’ve sat at my computer for hours on end just exploring the possibilities of one VST. I think that helps in creating your own distinctive sound.

Do you feel that your involvement with Addiction has really been a major stepping stone for your career? What’s planned for the party in 2007?

Absolutely. Being part of Addiction is absolutely fantastic and it's definitely helped me to get my name out there. Over the past two-and-a-bit years we've built ourselves up a solid reputation and a great crowd as a quality Hard Dance / Trance party. It's great working with people like Andy, Olly, Mark, Matt and Luke - they're all absolutely brilliant people. Andy is a very organised and determined person and that's exactly what you need to be to be able to promote a party to the best of your ability. We all have our roles to play and this contributes to the ongoing success of the brand. We’ve got a couple of parties lined up in the New Year, but seeing as the details haven’t been announced yet, I can’t really divulge that information just yet. You’ll just have to wait and see…

You’ve been getting into psy trance in a big way over the last couple of years. Do you think that a lot of people have some big misconceptions about the music?

I’ve been into it for longer than that. The production and overall sound of the genre pretty much pisses all over almost anything else from the highest of heights. It’s just got such an amazing energy to it and there aren’t really any major rules to the structure of it, unlike other genres, which means that it really keeps people on their toes and can afford to be that bit quirkier. As for the misconceptions, I guess a lot of people think it’s music purely made for hemp-wearing, dreadlocked, hippie types and that’s not true at all. There are misconceptions about almost every form of music, usually formulated by those that have never experienced what something has to offer. One thing that you’re guaranteed at a psy trance party though is an atmosphere and general feeling of friendliness that you won’t find anywhere else. At the end of the day it’s all about hedonism isn’t it?

Who are your favourite psy trance producers and what makes them so good? Go on, sell it to us!

I could go for the slightly more obvious Astrix, G.M.S, Alien Project type favourites but everybody knows why they’re so good. My favourite trance producers are actually Broken Toy, Rinkadink, Shift, Tickets, Wrecked Machines and Freakuliser. As for what makes them so good, I’d have to say that they’ve all got such individual and innovative styles. You can instantly tell one of their tracks, which makes them stand out producers in my opinion. I like it when a producer has their own take on a style, a definitive sound. Broken Toy has this awesome, twisted up, electro tinged Psy Trance sound whereas Tickets for example makes euphoric, melodic, morning trance but with a really unique edge to it. A lot of people think all the best producers from Israel and in a sense a lot of them do but in my opinion the best trance right now comes straight out of South Africa. There's a very distinctive, bass driven sound about it which I just can't seem to get enough of.

You’re playing in Baklash’s room at Heat NYD: Aftermath at The Fridge on January 1st. The main room is pretty much all tough and dirty hard house and techno - so what will you be brining to room 2 to compliment these sounds?

I think that it will probably be a blend of hard, acidic, psy-edged trance. I’m really loving the new stuff Nick Sentience is putting out. It’s kind of the best of both worlds with all the quirkiness of Psy Trance and all the energy of his own unique style of Hard Dance. His recent collaboration with Alf Bamford entitled ‘Wake Up’ is probably my favourite track of the year. It’s a turbo charged monster of a tune. Absolutely immense. Add to that a whole host of others like ‘Dynamix’ and ‘Innovation’ and I think we’ve got the making of an amazing sub-genre. I've started making some similar stuff actually - I'm working on a couple of new tracks at the moment. I'd always wondered what the result would sound like if the two genres properly collided and it's great that people like Nick Sentience and James Lawson took the initiative to get the ball rolling.

Who else on the line-up are you going to be checking out? Any recommendations?

Andy Farley and Spencer Freeland. I haven’t seen either of them play since the summer, so I’ll definitely be checking them out. They’re two DJs that have been very influential on a number of people, myself included and you're pretty much guaranteed a great event when you see either of them on the line up. A sort of stamp of quality I suppose. I’m also quite looking forward to seeing Paul Glazby play. I’ve always loved the output on Vicious Circle and he is one of few harder edged / filth DJs that can keep my attention - his track selection is brilliant. In fairness the line up is fantastic so I’m going to be checking out most of the DJs I should think.

Finally - what releases/productions etc have you got coming up?

There’s a couple of things in the pipeline that haven’t been completed yet for Addiction Digital. Along with that there are a few other bits and pieces that should hopefully be getting a release soon on a couple of other labels, including a collaboration by myself and Alf Bamford entitled ‘Futureform’. We made it in the early summer and it seems to do the business everywhere we’ve played it. I’m also working on a couple of tracks at the moment, have been doing a little bit of engineering work and have some big collaborations coming up in the near future so watch this space.