Tim Deluxe

Skipping ahead, how did that lead on to the decision to make a new album? At what point did it all come together?

Well, what I noticed was how connecting directly with the music began to get my creative juices flowing again. It was refreshing to approach things from this angle. I remember one day early on, playing for 10 hours on and off, practising, jamming, just really enjoying it. It was interesting seeing ideas begin to form – chord progressions, melodies that would appear.

I then began to record them and think about them becoming finished compositions or tracks. ‘Transformation’ was my first piece that I felt I was getting somewhere with it all, and I had a new vision, so to speak.

I noticed how connecting directly with the music began to get my creative juices flowing again. It was refreshing to approach things from this angle.

The process of making the new album must have been quite different to what you’d typically done in the past. ‘Feelings’, for instance, has Jay Phelps on trumpet, Pete Wareham on sax, Ben Hazleton on bass and Rod Youngs on drums. How did you find the other musicians?

I had become good friends with Ben Hazleton, who plays the double bass and performs a lot across London’s jazz scene. Ben introduced me to the musicians who feature on the album. I would go to gigs that he was performing at and listen to him and the other musicians.

Ben plays a regular Sunday night slot at The Haggerston on Kingsland High Road. It’s a pub, and on a Sunday night around 11pm it turns into a mad jazz sweatbox, with the house band The Alan Weeks Quartet. A lot of the guys have played at The Hag at some stage or another – there’s a lot of crossover in the jazz scene, with musicians playing in different bands with each other, which is really cool.

And how did the process work in the studio? Did you present the musicians with tracks and tell them what to play, or were they more deeply involved in the process?

I had quite a fully formed idea of what I wanted as I had prepared a lot of the stuff at my studio upfront. All of the tracks were already formed musically and the general direction. I recorded the musicians at my good friend Fraser T Smith’s amazing studio. We did two recording sessions about three months apart, so I had a lot prepared upfront and knew what I needed from the musicians.

Going into the studio, I had quite a fully formed idea of what I wanted as I had prepared a lot of the stuff at my studio upfront.

With the piano I had a lot of the parts worked out and then got John Donaldson to replay them on the real piano and also add his flavour on them.

For the horns, I knew that I wanted tenor, trumpet and baritone to feature as solos and on what tracks. I would use jazz drum loops and then get Rod or Enzo to replay them or express a similar vibe along the lines of my demos.

I would then take the sessions back to my studio to edit and complete the album. I would comp together the recorded material and try out different parts with each other to see what worked before finally mixing the tracks down.

What kind of music has been inspiring you over the last few years? Are there any records in particular that have been important?

Jazz, blues and minimalist composers. Terry Riley – A Rainbow In Curved Air, John Cage – ‘In A Landscape’ and Morton Feldman albums in the main.

During the album making process it has been Duke Ellington – Money Jungle, Bill Evans – Everybody Digs Bill Evans and Explorations, Alice Coltrane’s Journey In Satchidananda, Charles Mingus – Oh Yeah, Miles Davis’s Kind Of Blue, Thelonious Monk albums, Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers – Moanin’ with Lee Morgan on trumpet, Big Mama Thornton, Fenton Robinson and Jaimeo Brown’s Transcendence.

If the new material represents a new chapter in your career – both in terms of process and style – were you tempted to change your artist name at all?

Good question. Yes, for sure. It did feel different and it had crossed my mind. The one thing that made me decide not to do it in the end was I felt enough time had passed that it didn’t really matter. In some ways, I may have made it even harder for myself if I did. It would have been like starting again. I think it’s nice that one can look back and see an artist’s evolution.

There’s an Ice Cream dub of ‘Feelings’, which is a throwback to your garage roots. Having been involved with that scene first time around, how do you feel about the revival of those sounds recently? Does any of that music interest you much or does it feel like you’ve already been there and done that?

It’s just the cyclic nature of it all, I feel: life imitating art or art imitating life, dependent on your viewpoint or philosophical standing. It’s funny because I have friends who are like “you should be making garage… garage is back”. That was then. I was 16 or 17 and life was very different. It would be sad to return to try and cash in. I like living in the now, so my Ice Cream dub is definitely more of a nod, or paying homage to my garage roots, as opposed to a fully-fledged return to making garage.

I have friends who are like 'you should be making garage' but that was then. I was 16 or 17 and life was very different. It would be sad to return to try and cash in.

It seems like there are so many young DJs now burning the candle at both ends and working themselves into the ground. People don’t really like to talk about the fact that some of them are inevitably going to suffer from that lifestyle. What kind of advice would you give to DJs who might find themselves in a similar situation to you?

The scene will not disappear; take time out for yourself away from it all. Learn how to switch off from it. Have some sort of physical activity that you enjoy in your life to counter act or balance things out a little. Earplugs and water!

Tim Deluxe’s ‘Feelings’ is out now on Strictly Rhythm. The Radicle is out on October 30th. Tim plays for Strictly Rhythm at Great Suffolk St Warehouse, London, Saturday October 17th – full line-up and tickets. Find him on Twitter and SoundCloud.