Hi Mark, can you tell me a little more about your website Blackout Audio for those who have not heard about it?

Yeah sure. At first I set it up just to give people information on our techno record label Blackout Audio. Then it just developed from there, especially after we put up the forum about seven years ago. Now, it’s a thriving community of fellow music heads Producers, DJ’s as well as people who have nothing better to do than talk complete crap all week. I love it!

You have been around on the scene for many years now, (I even remember listening to your tape packs from the old Helter Skelter raves when I was a wee nipper!). How have the clubs and music your involved with changed over the years?

The music has changed massively of course, and that’s a great thing because you have to keep moving forward. At the moment it’s such an exciting time for music, with people really breaking out of moulds and trying new things at every corner. As far as the people are concerned, I still find an incredible energy in the crowds I play to – nothing’s changed there!

You are well respected right across the Hard Dance, Hardcore and Techno scenes, something which very few DJ’s have achieved! How has this come about and do you find it hard mixing between the three?

No, I love it. Variety is the spice of life and putting on different heads for different types of parties is a real challenge. It makes you a better person musically. DJ’s who get caught in a trap of playing one type of club and one type of music are really missing out, through no fault of their own. The music industry is geared towards putting you in a neat little box and placing a stamp on your head, but I never wanted that. I just wanna get people into music I believe passionately in, no matter what it is.

Your also very busy on the international circuit, which countries are kicking it at present?

Of course Holland has one of the biggest and best scenes for all types of music at the moment, but for me the one place that has been constantly standing out recently has been Russia. There’s something powerful about going to weird clubs and cities where you just would not expect there to be such a huge scene and finding thousands of people devoted to the music. Russia is one of those places, with an unparalleled enthusiasm for the music at the moment.

Over the last 15 years or so, you’ve played pretty much the world over. Do you have a favorite country or city to play in?

All this global traveling is all well and good but when you’ve done it for so long, nothing beats playing at a club in your home country, where you’re seeing a scene develop before your very eyes. I care passionately about England and I find myself developing close personal friendship between many promoters and DJ’s over here.

Is there any venue you consider “coming home” when you play there?

The hardcore scene was for me, the first place where I got a lot of gigs and developed a following. So for me that scene will always have a special place in my heart. The energy level in hardcore is ridiculous and I find 99% of the DJ’s and promoters in that scene are involved in it for the right reasons. That scene taught me so much and contributed massively to me breaking out of any musical moulds or snobbery that I had developed as a kid.

Prestatyn might, on the face of it anyway, seem one of the more unlikely locations for one of the most important events in the Harder Generations clubbing calendar, what’s been your favorite weekender so far?
I think there’s been two outstanding ones for me. The first was the very first weekender I played where I managed to sneak in a bag of flour (how the hell I did this I’ll never know) and proceeded to pour it all over myself at the end of my set. The second was one on New Years Eve, purely because I was really pleased with the music I played. Actually there’s a third and that’s definately TW14. I’d pulled a muscle in my chest that week and was soooooo high on painkillers it was ridiculous. The feeling of achievement at the end of that was huge.

You’ve kindly agreed to us recording your Tidy Weekender 14 set to form part of the Tidy Weekender 14 album due out on 14 April, can you tell us more about what you played and what we can expect to find on the CD?

Sure! Well the music in my box that night was killer and I managed to get a good cross section of the harder hard trance stuff and also hardstyle in there. That new Kamui is really pressing my buttons at the moment – I’m loving that electro thing that’s going on in there. Then of course there’s that superb track my Gary D with a 303 riff to die for. I can’t believe I found that DJ Brush track in my box to mix into it, cause if you listen carefully the 303 in that one compliments it perfectly. All in all, I’m really happy with the way it all turned out.

As a music genre, the European ‘Hardstyle’ sound that you play is immensely popular in the UK at present, do you feel that this music is just another passing musical trend or do you think that Hardstyle is here to stay?

Everything is a musical trend and the sooner people realize that the better! But yes, I think we’ve got a long, long way to go with hardstyle at the moment – some of the ideas we’re hearing and production techniques are so clever and fresh. I love what it’s doing for people on the dancefloor at present. But to me hardstyle is just another leg of my fantastic music journey over the last twenty/thirty years. Roll on the next fifty years!

Tidy Weekender 14 Live: The Album – Featuring BK / Mark EG / Ben Stevens is available NOW from all good record stores!
www.tidy.com / www.hmv.co.uk