Our new Novadance.com boy Stephen Wynne Jones talks to Tim Deluxe about Miami, Paddys Day, and re-hashing old Garage classics! Read on!

Stephen Wynne Jones: You're playing the Redbox on Paddy's Weekend, but you have also appeared several times in Irish clubs over the past year, in the Tivoli, the Point, Lush and Spirit to name but four. What keeps you coming back?

Tim Deluxe: I don't know, I just like the vibe of Dublin, it's cool- Ireland in general is cool. I'm Irish anyway, Northern Irish- I was born in Portrush. I played Lush there last weekend- it was really good to see all my cousins come down.
The energy is always good- I've got loads of friends there aswell.

SWJ: How does the Irish crowd compare to somewhere like Ibiza?

TD: In some ways it's just as good, because the energy and the vibe are there- it's the same in Ibiza, that's what makes it so special. People's energy tends to be more up, you know, you go to clubs in the UK in the middle of winter and people's energy is not as potent as it would be if they were in the sun. Ibiza has that on its side. The good thing about Ireland is that they're up for it no matter what time of year it is.

SWJ: Sticking with Ibiza for the moment, how are you preparing for the Underwater parties coming up in Pacha from June?

TD: Yeah, I can't wait, that's gonna be rocking. We've got some really really good guests coming out supporting us aswell- X-press 2 are exclusive, Lottie, Sneak, Josh Wink. Darren and myself are really looking forward to it.

SWJ: I believe you're planning a number of live sets out there?

TD: Over the summer, hopefully, once I get the album finished, I can take it live- we've got some really good musicians working around us who I'd love to bring out on the road. It's all a bit up in the air at the moment, you know, I have to finish the album first and start taking it from there. It's a big operation to go live- it's expensive aswell.

SWJ: When the album does come out, the media response is going to be "has he released an album just full of 11 'It Just Won't Do's". How would you answer those critics?

TD: I wouldn't be making an album if I thought it would just be about 10 or 11 tracks that sound just like 'It Just Won't Do'. There are a lot of different sounds and styles on there. The party vibe is still there, as on the new single 'Less Talk More Action', and there's another single on the album aswell on that vibe. There's also some deeper stuff, more chilled stuff aswell so its looking good- it's shaping up nice. At the moment the release date looks like being the 14th of July, and that will be 2 weeks after the single, so we'll be trying to push the single in Miami (Winter Music Conference)

SWJ: You've never been shy to experiment with your music-are there any homages to your speed garage days on the album? Maybe another Double 99 album?

TD: Ha! I was thinking of re-doing RIP Groove. I wouldn't say its making a comeback though- maybe a housey version!

SWJ: Any collaborations of note on the album?

TD: Sam (Oberinik) is going to do another track. There's an Indian girl doing some bhangra vocals on there. Its really just different musicians and friends- most of whom would be pretty unknown- apart from maybe Sam and Ben (Onono). There was no need to go looking for big collaborations- there's always big expectations when collaborations come into the mix- people go "Oh, its Tim and 'blah blah blah'" and it never lives up to expectations. 
If I had to choose someone to work with I wouldn't mind working with
Coldplay- but it changes month to month.

SWJ: Were you surprised at the response to 'It Just Won't Do', and 'We all Love Sax' before that?

TD: I kind of knew when I was making it it was a really strong record. The first time, believe it or not that 'It Just Won't Do' got played was in the Redbox. Darren played a really early demo version over a year ago- he had a spare flight ticket to Dublin so I laid down a basic version down for him.
And the place went ballistic so I was like "Wahey!" But for it to cross over like it did, not just here in the UK, it went gold in Australia, we just picked up an award in Denmark for it....

SWJ: It's all happening really fast?

TD: ....Yeah. From the first single 'Sirens/ We all Love Sax' to now producing an album- its just gone boom boom boom- one thing after another. It's been good- now I have to try to keep it up! I haven't done that many remixes though over the last year, only really Basement Jaxx (Do Your Thing) and that retouch of Layo and Bushwacka with Kings of Tomorrow which has done really well over here. Also I worked with Ben Onono on a track which hopefully will be big out in Miami.

SWJ: I hope you don't have to fly out too soon to Miami after Paddy's weekend?

TD: Yeah we do! Our bloody flight is at something like 9am on Monday morning! I'm going to be there from the Saturday though- so I'll be in the spirit of it. But I won't actually be there on the Monday- on St. Patrick's Day, which is a bit annoying, you know, but Miami is calling! It's going to be a good weekend though.