Lazarus

I'm a trance DJ, producer, and label-owner hailing from Doncaster in England.

No-one on this planet loves trance music as much as I do.

I consider the synthesiser to be the best invention of the 20th Century (apologies to sliced bread).

I made the natural transition from stereo-hog to DJ sometime around 1999.

I've never counted how many records I have or how many tracks I have because this would probably compel me to calculate how much money I've spent on music and I'd rather not know.

I grudgingly made the switch from vinyl to CD decks but only because you can hardly get anything on vinyl any more.

I will always prefer mixing with vinyl and have no interest in mixing with laptops.

I consider DJing to be a wonderful hobby and a fantastic form of stress relief, but it's hard to develop any delusions of grandeur when you're essentially just a glorified jukebox.

I love DJing in clubs, DJing in my bedroom, DJing in bars, or DJing at parties – I enjoy all of them equally but in different ways.

I listen to trance first thing every morning – my wake-up alarm is the breakdown from Sunny Lax – P.U.M.A.

I've never gotten upset if people don't like my sets or my tunes – taste is, after all, a subjective thing; I wouldn't get upset if you didn't like pizza or the colour purple either.

I've been lucky enough to meet some wonderful people throughout my life who have inspired me and still continue to do so.

I've been lucky enough to go clubbing at the finest clubs in the world regularly over the years, and was especially lucky enough to see Gatecrasher in its prime.

I've been lucky enough to have the opportunity to DJ alongside some incredibly talented people, some of whom are well known, some of whom are not.

I've been lucky enough to make my own music with some incredibly talented people, and will continue to do so.

I now manage a label called Defcon Recordings, and with two other people I make music under the artist name Defcon Audio.

I especially love to showcase the work of artists who don't normally get recognition but deserve it for all their talent and dedication.

I've been DJing regularly on internet radio since early 2004. Currently I play weekly on DiscoverTrance on Fridays and monthly on AfterhoursFM every first Monday. Defcon Audio also play every 2nd and 4th Sunday on DiscoverTrance and you've a 50% chance that it might be me.

I am not Damian Lazarus, nor have I ever been him.

I love to bore people with stories about Gatecrasher in its' heyday. Back when I were a lad there were none of this nonsense like you see in clubs today, it was all about putting pipe-cleaners in your hair and wearing as many flashing lights as you can.

I do all my demo mixes in a Doncaster Rovers shirt, I have to start on the left-hand deck, and I cannot mix unless I wear trainers.

I'm happily married with three cats called Angelus, Willow, and Xander, and I'm the only one in our house who's really into trance.

I consider myself to be a husband first, and a music enthusiast second. My DJing, music-production, radio broadcasting, clubbing, and label work are all simply by-products of this second fact.

I'm incredibly anal about daft things, and as anyone who's ever met me will testify, I'm one of the clumsiest people in the world. This is despite having a Mensa-level IQ.

I'm also an a writer – I have a degree in English, Writing, and Philosophy. I also have keen interests in things like theoretical physics, sociology, psychology, the paranormal, and I have an uncanny knack for assembling flat-pack furniture.

The thing in the world that pleases me the most is seeing people get what they deserve.

I hate talking about myself in the third-person like you're supposed to do in biographies. It would make me feel pretentious.