Everybody wants to be a dj

When people ask me what I do, I normally say one of two things, I do project management in the NHS to which I am the recipient of a blank look and silence, like when I tell people my degree is in Classics and Philosophy. The second answer, I play records, often gets a raised eyebrow, this is normally followed by the line, 'oh I've always wanted to do that, how do I get into it? '.

So looking at one of those responses I give, being a Dj. I started out at the tender age of 18 playing punk/rock/metal at the Cavern on Thursday nights, I think I sort of fell into this because I worked at HMV, so bought a lot of music, and also because I was at the Cavern all the time. I really enjoyed it and continued doing the Thursday nights until 2005.

By 2004 there were less rock kids and more indie kids, as someone who had started out as an indie kid, I was pleased to see this return and decided to start up a night on a Saturday. As part of Exeter's alternative, I, like my peers wanted something to do on a Saturday night, and maybe that punk-rock DIY ethic came through. There was nothing that played the Strokes on a Saturday night in Exeter, so why not start my own? I'd also just started my degree and needed some additional income. I started up doing it with my old school friend Tom, who now is a bar manager at the Cavern, and while I was at uni, I did the Lemon Grove on a Friday night too, my weekend was sorted.

So fast forward to 2011, what has changed? Well not much really, I'm still at the Cavern on Saturdays, where I started out with CDs and vinyl, I now use a Macbook and Traktor. The nights are busier than they have been for years and I look forward to every Saturday night as if it was my first one. Is it easy? Well actually it's not, and people say it's just playing CDs but to me it's so much more than that, I see it as an organic process. I like to respond to the crowd I have in front of me and never plan in advance.

Steve Lamaq once said to me, 'to be a successful Dj, you need to choose a genre of music to play in, and play the most popular songs from that genre', and that in effect is true. Although I enjoy a lot of what I play out, it's really important to keep that distinction between records that are suitable for your bedroom, and those that are suitable for a club floor, a distinction I've seen many fail to make.

A technically good Dj I am not, I've never professed to be, and actually I have little desire to be. What I want to see though is a packed dancefloor, dancing to the music I choose, and when I have that in front of me, I wouldn't change it for the world.