How did you first get involved with DJing? What first inspired you to take to the decks?
“That’s a real loaded question! My first introduction to DJing was through my family – my dad used to run a record pool here in Chicago back in the late ’70s, so I was always around promo records and that was how I was first introduced to the idea of DJing. Later, I had a cousin who DJ’d, and I got fascinated by the idea of putting records together and matching them – just the whole art of it. When I was growing up, I came up through the early years of house music, so it was more of a cultural thing. I was immersed in the whole environment.”

When you first started, did you learn ‘on the job’ or did you have a set-up at home?
“I had my Gemini 101s at home, and later graduated to Technics. When I got the Geminis, that must have been like the mid-’80s. That was your first parochial turntable that had pitch control and was affordable. That was the only thing we could get hold of at the time – we were teenagers, struggling, trying to make out.”

What can you remember about your first gig?
“Oh, man! My first gig I actually did for a friend of mine who was having a birthday party. I must have been 1984/85 – I was still in elementary school. I didn’t have all my equipment together at the time, so I had to borrow this and that from people. It wasn’t unsuccessful, but it was a struggle! It was more like a house party. I later went on to do the graduation party and lots of mobile sets, which was a big thing at the time. Pretty much like the warehouse scene – there’d be a big group of DJs that would be hired in to all these different venues.”

Over the years you’ve spun in a lot of venues – what’s been your favourite place to play and why?
“Top of my list would be Yellow in Japan, and then Ministry Of Sound when it first opened back in the day. What’s good about those two venues is the quality of the sound and the people that come out to participate. The exchange that’s happening between the music and the dance and the whole thing – there’s a powerful connection, and that’s how it should be. I’d also like to mention Body & Soul, because I’ve played there four or five times and it’s been great. And of course my residency at Giant Step, which was a great experience.”

What’s been your most memorable gig over the years?
“Probably my own party that I did at Vinyl in New York in 1997, around the time of my African Blues project. It was myself, Joe Claussell and others – it was a wonderful thing. We did it after Body & Soul to celebrate Martin Luther King’s birthday. Body & Soul ended, everyone had an hour break and then we came back. Everybody just went for it.”

What’s been your biggest ‘DJ nightmare’?
“A couple of years ago I played in Amsterdam. A promoter brought me over to do a series of gigs. This must have been 1992, ’93. He didn’t know what he was doing, man. He had his mother-in-law driving me to the gigs, and he was just a mess. I was so stressed out I started getting nosebleeds! It was the first time I was getting used to the idea of international travel for gigs, so it left a very bad taste in my mouth. It was just ridiculous.”

You’ve been DJing for quite a few years now – what’s the biggest change you’ve seen over the years?
“You know what? All of it has changed. When I was coming up the audience was much more educated about the DJ and the music, so it made the DJ have to be on point. Now, a lot of the people who are DJing get in very easily, because the whole idea of DJing is based on the aesthetic. I’ve seen the bar get lowered over the years, just because of the lack of education of both the audience and the DJ. It’s kinda disturbing, but it’s the fault of some of the people who’ve been in positions of power.”

What’s the strangest request you’ve had while DJing?
“Somebody once came up to the DJ booth and asked to listen to what was in my headphones! Did I let him? Hell, no! I’ve seen someone walk into the booth at Shelter back in the day while Timmy was DJing, grab his headphones and start dancing in the booth!”

What do you think of the current state of dance music, particularly deep house?
“I think the culture and the music has gone a long way away from what it was, in terms of the aesthetic, the mission, the collective nature of what it’s supposed to be about. Some of the stuff that’s happening right now, it’s mass confusion. Everything’s got to change and evolve, I understand that, but when there’s no core, no base, just a whole load of music coming out and DJs playing every where, it makes it very transient – very hard to hold on to. It’s hard to get the message. We didn’t just go out there and play records and go, ‘Hey, I’m a DJ’, there was a whole culture, an art, it was a form of self-expression. Now most of the guys who are doing it are doing it for the idea of it, or the money that it brings, the elements that have nothing to do with culture.”

What’s your current fave tune?
“Actually, I can’t say there’s any real big records for me right now, but I can tell you about what me and my boys are doing. There’s an Erykah Badu remix I’ve just done, of a new single called ‘Honey’. There’s also a Robert Owens thing that I produced along with Simbad and Jeremy Newall from London. It’s called ‘Deep Down’ and it’s coming out soon, maybe this month.”

What’s your all-time favourite end-of-night tune?
“Oh wow… I really don’t have one, you know? It really depends on the mood – ‘Falling In Love’, ‘We Are One’, Raphael Saadiq’s ‘Sky’s The Limit’.”

What advice would you give new DJs?
“To take their time to study their history and study their craft.”