Its been a while now since the release of Connected- nearly a year to be precise. Its been tough to get my busy DJ schedule sychronised with Smith and Pledger's busy studio commitments. However, I pleased to inform everyone that the next single is well under way and we will be looking at an early summer release. The track is as yet untitled but what I will say is that we have made a real effort to come up with something a little different from our first two offerings which I think will take our production together into new territories.

I often get asked about the thought process that goes into producing a new tune so I have decided just to take you through an average first day in the studio to give you a little insight. We normally start about 10am. This gives myself and Mark the chance to get over to the studio in Hackney from the other side of London.....Olie lives there!! We'll normally kick things off by going through all the materail which is out there at the moment that is inspiring us. We found on this occassion that there were very few trance tunes which were doing this. Not that there aren't loads of terrific club trance tunes out there but we look for something which really stands out and is a little out of the ordinary. We ended up going through piles of house and progressive house records. The next task is to take the great elements from these tracks and let them influence us in what we are doing. But before that we will have lunch- by now it is about 1.30. When it comes to producing with Smith and Pledger you come to realise that lunch can be as creative as the production process. Both Olie and Mark are very particular about their food....the kitchen at the studio is a hive of activity at this time but you can always count on them to come up with some terrific food.

Back to the studio abot 2.30 all ready to crack on. We start off by agreeing a tempo.This time we started at 130bpm. Then we'll get some percussion down to be followed by a bass-line. It is important that the bass-line and percussion really work off one another as these are the basis for the drive of the track.....so this can take a couple of days sometimes. On the first day we managed to get this done by close of play which must be some kind of record for us. The bass line in the new tune is in my humble opinion amazing- I cant wait to hear it in a club. So by now it is nearly six o'clock and time for home as our ears are now hurting and our sense of what sounds good and what sounds bad is a little blurred. It is better to come back the following day and listen with fresh ears.

So there you have it...the first day in the studio. The next stage will be laying down some chords and from that developing the main melody. The reason I enjoy working with Smith and Pladger so much is down to their attention to detail. When you hear the main melody of the new track, just listen to the sound used. It is so distinctive and fresh sounding and is testament to the time Olie spent developing it. From there on in it is all a matter of developing cohesion between the elements in there and then adding further elements to compliment them and add texture to the track.This is the stage which we are now at. Ill keep you all posted on the tracks progress and hopefully you will be hearing it in the clubs in the not too distant future!!