Danny Howells talks quickly, as if his mouth can’t keep up with his thoughts. He skips from topic to topic with glee: sushi, Thunk, masturbation, ten hour sets and twelve minute disco tracks all pop up. A prolific DJ, his mix CD from late last year, Renaissance: Revelation (with Nick Warren) is indicative of what he plays when he is kicking it on the wheels of steel. Ashley Beedle, Spin Cycle and Hipp-E remixes. But he is an unpredicatble cat and that is the beauty of his take on the progressive sound. Howells invigorates his sets with distinct style, described on his website as ‘deepsexyfuturistictechfunkhouse’. Try dancing to that with a mouth full of raw fish.

“I’ve found a lot lately that the last two albums I’ve done; a lot of the gigs I was doing kind of dictated what went on those albums,” he says, talking of Nocturnal Frequencies 3 and the Renaissance effort. “Especially with the older tracks like the Mother’s Pride track ‘Nightlight’ at the end on the Renaissance:Revelation album. I was gobsmacked at how good they sounded and the reaction to them. When I’m doing a mix album I have a rough idea of what I want to use and I’ll play them out.” Howells hints at a future direction he would like to take, revealing he “would like to do a harder-edged album. I keep threatening to.”

Last time Howells dragged his record box around Australia he was on the brink of being a superstar. Now, with his residencies at Vinyl in New York (a 10 hour set each month) and Renaissance in Nottingham, Howells has reached headliner status at every festival he chooses to play - he is becoming the most sought-after progressive DJ. Danny is among the nu-breed (pardon the bad pun) of progressive dons with Lucien Foort, Steve Lawler, Sander Kleinenberg and Seb Fontaine, who are flying past the Sashas and Oakenfolds of the world with luge-like speed. Gratuitous Winter Olympics reference.

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At the time of his last tour, Infusions’ ‘Spike’ was hot property, Howells dropping it at least three times in his sets. Understandably, Howells is in the loop with our local producers. “I just got some new bits by them (Infusion). I follow a lot of stuff that comes from the DMC crew. That would be Phil K, also Nubreed and Kasey Taylor. On the Perfecto release ‘Underground Sounds from Down Under’ the PeeWee track is fucking brilliant. The Thunk stuff is brilliant too, I always stick their stuff in the box. Whenever I go to Australia I tend to meet a lot of producers and they give me their stuff. I do tend to come home with a lot of stuff that gets given to me.”

He certainly gets around, accepting vinyl treasures in the last two months from gigs in Netherlands, Canada, Japan, America, Ireland and Bali. Despite all this travelling, Howells made it his priority to belt out new material in the studio during January. His website diary (www.dannyhowells.com) reports “it wasn't long before boredom kicked in, thus I found myself back in the studio with Dick Trevor for the first time in ages (with, in my opinion, great results!)”

“You’ll be hearing it when I come out – it’s a twelve minute disco track. We’re just trying to work out whether it should be a Science Department record or not,” he says, getting the mouth watering. Science Department has inked a record deal with Renaissance Records, it seems Howells has them in his back pocket at the moment. Howells is also vibing in the studio with Stef (of Paco, Stef and Frederick fame) but grants that he doesn’t know when they are going to finish two tracks they have started, concluding with a carefree laugh.

Although he has turned his hand to remixing for David Morales and BT among others, Howells has a firm belief that his own productions are paramount. Simply, he won’t be doing any more remixes any time soon. “I’ve never been in the whole remix treadmill, I’m just trying to build up my own tracks.” Indeed, accepting remixes is often a trap producers fall into without realising. Howells is well aware. You start getting loads of stuff offered to you and because the money’s so great that you hear too much of some people. When they eventually release their album you can kind of hear that most of the best ideas they’ve had have gone into the remixes.” Additionally, working without a deadline suits him better than when a record company calls up wanting a remix done by yesterday. Maybe they should convince him with a platter of exotic Sushi.

Five Essential Items When Playing 10 Hour Sets:
1. a good supply of Sushi on standby all night
2. ten of those cold coffee things you get in a bowl from Starbucks
3. A lot of records
4. A good nights sleep the night before
5. A wank beforehand. Sometimes I get a nice girl to help me out. (laughs wickedly)