Give us a thirty second introduction about yourself Jurrane….. ready, get set….GO!

Just thirty seconds? OK – here goes: I’m a Dutch-born DJ and producer who’s made my home in London pretty much since I can remember. I’ve been playing out for the last three or four years although I started my life in music as a classically-trained pianist – I began piano lessons at the tender age of four! I was a producer before I could DJ but then turned my hand to DJ’ing as I took inspiration from all this wonderful music I was collecting and wanted to play it to a wider audience. Since then, I’ve played for virtually every London trance promotion and also a bit further afield.

Describe your musical style, and the tracks, artists and labels that characterise it.

I love really energetic trance music: nothing too hard but just stuff with a natural exuberance and energy to it that makes people smile, clap and cheer. Sometimes people forget that trance is intended to be party music – there’s a danger that it can occasionally just get a bit clever and lose itself in the detail – I love trance when it’s really pumping, bouncy and is simply made to rock the dancefloors. There’s a lot of stuff I hear that sounds great in the car or at home but which just doesn’t have the energy to make people dance in the clubs: for me, trance has to have that ability to make you get up and dance, no matter what time it is or how tired you’re feeling.

In terms of producers, tracks and labels, there are dozens: I think 2006 has been a great year for trance music. Ian Betts is probably up there as my producer of the year: all his tracks and remixes have been of an incredibly high standard, and Sean Tyas is another who just seems to churn out quality tune after quality tune. Bryan Kearney and Thomas Bronzwaer are also a couple of names to watch: they’ve had some great releases this year as well.

2006 has been an amazing year for you. What’ve been the highlights?

There’ve been so many highlight moments this year and I’d incredibly grateful for the opportunities I’ve had. Several stand out as being amazing memories: first and foremost is playing the closing set at The Gallery after a 3-hour set fromGabriel & Dresden and having the opportunity to rock the club with some uplifting trance after a night of prog. Certainly, standing there in the booth with my younger brother at my side as the lasers rippled over a sea of hands during my final tune was a memory that’ll always stay with me and one I’ll never forget. Turnmills was recently voted one of the best clubs in the world and having played a closing set in the main room, I have to agree: the booth and sound system in there are second to none and it was a real thrill to play in a club that’s played host to so many great names.

I’ve also been lucky enough to play a headline set in Cape Town, South Africa, at a club which puts many in the UK to shame. Watching clubbers from halfway across the world go crazy to some of the trance tracks that clubbers in London enjoy so much was a really humbling experience and one I’d love to repeat again. There’s also a recent three-and-a-half hour back-to-back set I did at underground phenomenon Planet Angel alongside one of the guys who originally got me into DJ’ing and who probably comes as close to an idol as anyone I can think of…. god, there’s been so many great nights this year – I could go on for hours!

Over the past few years, you’ve built up a solid following in London and play at club nights across the capital. Can you name one set in particular you’ve enjoyed the most?

That’s a tough one! I think in terms of most gratifying, it’s probably the warm-up set I did for the final show of K90’s ‘Destinations’ world tour at the Fridge in Brixton. I had two hours to go from the club opening at 10pm until midnight when Mark played his live set so I had the opportunity to move from progressive, to trance, to some harder-edged stuff. It was a wonderful feeling, starting with an empty dancefloor and building it up bit by bit until there were over a thousand people rocking on the dancefloor just before midnight!

You started life in dance music as a producer. Tell us a bit about your recent studio productions.

I really feel I’ve found my niche in the studio recently by teaming up with fellow London DJ and producer Sly One. We’ve been great friends for ages and worked on Magic Beans Records together a few years back but never produced anything together until the second half of this year. We’ve just completed our debut collaboration ‘Time Bomb’ which is like an eight-minute snapshot of my peak-time sets compressed into a single tune and which looks like it’s about to be signed to a very exciting new label (you can hear a clip on my website). I’ve also just finished a remix of a track called ‘House Of Musik’ for Ian Betts’ superb Six:Thirty label, due for release in early 2007, and Sly & I are due to begin work on the follow-up to ‘Time Bomb’ very soon. I’m thrilled with the results we’ve achieved – we seem to bring out the best in each other in the studio and ‘Time Bomb’ certainly seems to be doing the business on the dancefloors!

You’re also one half of the promotion and resident DJ team behind London trance promotion Boundless: United Futures Of Trance. What’s happening with Boundless these days?

Well, after a couple of very successful standalone parties, we’ve been teaming up with various larger promotions to run trance back-rooms. We worked with Innovate at the Fridge last year and will be teaming up with hard dance superpowers Tidy & Extreme Euphoria for their party at Heaven at the end of January. We’re also thrilled to be working with Polysexual over the May bank holiday weekend as they take over the hallowed halls of Ministry Of Sound: to be putting on trance party there is a real dream come true!

We’ve worked very hard with Boundless to make it a definable brand within itself: we want it to be a forum that showcases the very best in future talent as well as the big names. My co-promoter Paul Mayes and I always make sure that at least one of the names on our lineups is someone who’s sent us a demo – we love the idea of helping up-and-coming talents establish themselves. This will always be the case with Boundless: we’ve a demoist playing for us at Heaven and we will have when we come to booking DJs for the Ministry Of Sound party with Polysexual.

You’re very active online and have what looks like a very nice website. Tell us a bit about that.

I think, in many ways, the internet has replaced some of the more traditional elements of the way the dance music scene works. A large proportion of DJs buy their tracks or receive promos online rather than go to record shops, message boards and internet forums have replaced some of the more traditional means of physical networking, and web promotion is becoming all the more important. I’ve always prided myself on having a good up-to-date website: I update it as regularly as possible (at least monthly, depending on time) and make sure there’s a fair amount of exclusive content on there such as DJ mixes and production clips. The website’s www.jurrane.com, and is designed and maintained by Matt Smith at Match Design – how’s that for a blatant plug?

You’ve already played two closing sets at Turnmills in 2006: one for Vaccine back in March and another for The Gallery in July. What’re you looking forward to the most about your next closing set for Vaccine?

Right now, for me, Vaccine is THE standout trance party in London. We’re unfortunately in an environment at the moment where a lot of parties are struggling to make ends meet and these days, Vaccine is pretty much flying the flag for trance in London. I love their combination of booking real headline names from across Europe – DJs and producers who real trance fans really know and love – and then combining this with some great up-and-coming talent.

I had an absolute blast playing closing set the last time I played for Vaccine and can’t wait for this one either. It’ll be great playing alongside some of the legendary Dutch guys such as Mark Norman, Cor Fijneman and Phynn, and also playing to one of the best crowds in London – no matter what time of night it is, be it first thing or last thing, that Vaccine room at Turnmills is always packed!

Vaccine’s party on January 12th also plays host to some of the best DJ talent from Dutch superlabel Black Hole Recordings. What’ve been your favourite Black Hole artists and tracks?

There’ve been plenty over the years – it’s one of the reasons I’m so excited to play alongside such a great DJ lineup from such a fantastic label. Photon Project: ‘The Inside’ is one of my favourite tracks of all time, I love Midway’s stuff - ‘Monkey Forest’ and his remix of Solar Stone’s ‘Solarcoaster’ stand out as still being jaw-dropping - and I can’t get enough of Mesh’s music, especially ‘Purple Haze’. Of the DJs playing at Vaccine, I’m a massive fan of Phynn: he’s an amazing producer and a real name to watch for the future.

Finally, what’s in the pipeline for 2007? Any aims or objectives for the New Year?

I always set myself mini-objectives at the start of each year but nothing too major because I just want to carry on doing what I love and seeing what comes naturally. There’s some incredible parties in the pipeline but I’m just grateful to have the opportunity to continue what I’m doing in playing really fun gigs and having a great time in the studio making tracks. I’ve been fortunate in that my career’s seemed to grow exponentially each year so I guess I want 2007 to continue that upward curve. I hope that means playing more of the bigger events in the UK, maybe more gigs abroad, perhaps in Ibiza during the summer, and have more productions signed to various labels. I think the year’s looking like it’s starting off well by beginning with Vaccine vs Black Hole Recordings so I just hope it continues in that vein.

For more information on Jurrane -

www.jurrane.com

And to listen to a sample clip of his new colloboration tune 'Time Bomb' forthcoming on Flux Delux please click http://www.jurrane.com/MP3s/timebomb.mp3