Many thanks for your time Joey, it is appreciated!!!

Firstly, how would you define your production style?

Tough but Soulful, or at least as close to both of those elements as I can get with a song / project...

When doing my research I found you attended the London school of audio engineering. Are audio engineering courses a path you would recommend to budding producers, or do you think the best way to get more out of something is to teach yourself?

Things have changed a great deal since I did my audio engineering course. Nowadays technology has come a long way with many producers needing only a small studio. Unless you're producing Westlife or something like that then there's little need for SSL or Neve Consoles, which are the desks I learnt to use at college. These days producers can get by with a powerful computer enabling them to mix almost everything within it. Also MIDI was still in its infancy back then so you really had to teach yourself with a lot of trial and error. In answer to the question, I have always found that the best way to learn something is to get stuck into it and learn by your mistakes. If you've spent 3 hours programming some drums then delete them by mistake, you're not going to press that button again...

What came first for you, production or DJing? And how did one lead into the other?

I started DJ'ing while still at school, I bought some 1200's and a mixer which totally distracted me from any schoolwork. I think I'd already decided that I wanted to do something within the field of music. After leaving school
I worked in a few record shops and then came across the Audio Engineering Course. I had heard from someone at school that Tim Simenon (Bomb The Bass) had done this same course, basically he went to the same school but was a few years older than me so I didn't know him personally. I thought this would be a perfect way to get into the production / studio side of the business. I
didn't fancy working for a record company etc etc, so this was the other route in...

When did you first play out? Where? How did it go? Did you suffer from nerves?

Oh God, this is going back a bit. Myself and a friend used to put on these small local nights when we were about 16 (1987) at a local football club. They were quite good nights actually except everyone was about 16 and used to
wreck the toilets so we would end up getting loads of grief and any profits would have to pay for cistern repairs and shit like that. We brought the speakers in so I think I was probably more nervous about someone pouring some beer into the cones rather than being nervous about playing records...

I honestly can't remember what my first DJ fee was. I think it was a week night at The Astoria and I got about £200 or something like that...

I also learnt that you used to work in a record shop - which one?

Ahh this is funny. It was a small chain of local record stores. The boss was never in the shop and I used to work there with a friend of my schoolmates. The pay was so shit so we just had a laugh the whole time. We used to make up for the bad pay by nicking all the promos as well as sleeping behind the counter, and generally doing about a 5 hour day instead of 8 hours...

Do you have any current residencies?

Not at present. I generally guest at a lot of places (UK & EU), however it is something that interests me. I would like to have a regular crowd that know
what to expect and you can go on and build a good musical relationship with the crowd...

You've clearly played in a lot of countries. What is the best country you've ever played in and why?

Hmmm.. I don't think there is a particular country that is better than others in regard to clubs. It all really depends on the actual night. You can play in Italy and the club itself might be shit, but then 6 months later you could play at a different club in Italy and its slamming. I've had some great nights in all of the countries that I've played, but I've also had some nightmares in those same countries...

It would seem The Cover Ups editions helped you make a name for yourself back in the day. How did it all start up?

Back in 1992 / 1993 I used to go to Glasgow for weekends away with friends just on a social one, going to clubs, bars and shopping etc etc. A friend of mine knew quite a few people up there so we always went to Sub Club, Tunnel,
Voodoo Rooms and other places, and met various people with record shops and clubs. I met the guys at Bomba Records (Now Closed Down) and they asked if I
fancied doing some cheeky sample based tracks on a P&D basis. I thought there's nothing to lose so why not. Obviously the tracks did quite well and then people began to find out who was behind them...

Refunkt, although in it's early days is already consistent. Do you have a certain criteria you work to? How do you aim to keep the standards as high for the future?

There are some really nice tracks forthcoming on Refunkt, so it is my intention to try and keep quality control as much as possible. Obviously the label is still very much in its infancy so the also at the moment the criteria is not to get too pigeon-holed and just release a variety of good house records. Although on a personal basis I generally love songs, I also accept that it would become a bit tiresome with every release being song based. I'm trying to mix things up so we have both vocal and tracky stuff on the label thereby not eliminating either set of record buyers.

I'm currently in talks with various clubs in London, outside of London and also abroad about doing regular Refunkt Nights. This will inevitably go back to your question about a residency. The idea is just to put on good house nights with guests associated with the label i.e. DJ's that have done mixes or tracks for the label with PA's from the vocalists that we're working with. Obviously I would be the so-called resident on these nights...

Are there any forthcoming release details you wish to share with us?

The next release after Santiago Soul will be Soul Xpress, a track titled "Celebrate Love". This will be a double pack with mixes from myself, JJ (from Stonebridge Productions), Mixmaster Padovano (Voice Of The Underground - Italy) and Mowree. Following that will be another double pack from Michelle Weeks, that track is called "Heaven" and will feature mixes from myself, Richard Earnshaw (Soulfuric) and Alliance DC (Bob Povey). Other forthcoming release include Rita Campbell - "Love Will Find A Way" (Pound Boys & Joey Musaphia Mixes), Sharna - "Lifted Me" (Audiowhores & Joey Musaphia Mixes), Joy Malcolm - "Beautiful" (Tom Gianelli & Joey Musaphia Mixes). There are also future releases from Sabrynaah Pope, Dave Storm, Two Sons, Michelle Weeks in 2003...

Which vocalist (past or present, dead or alive) would you most like to produce with?

I have always wanted to work with Martha Wash and Jocelyn Brown. However I somehow don't think either of them would fit into the Refunkt budget, unfortunately. It's a nice thought though...

If you weren't a DJ / Producer what career path do you think you would've gone down?

Pass...

When you aren't DJing and you're not in the studio what do you do with yourself?

I generally like to take it easy. I've started building a rather large DVD collection so I like to have a nice meal, watch a film, see friends or go out for a drink etc etc...

Before the mid/late 80's House Music boom I used to buy a lot of Hip Hop and 80's Soul music. Going quite a way back, I was always a regular listener of the specialist dance radio shows such as Mike Allen, Robbie Vincent, Dave Pearce, Tim Westwood, Steve Walsh plus of course the early days of Kiss FM which were all Pre-House. A lot of the records I bought were heard on these shows.

What do you listen to in the car?

I actually listen to News Direct, which freaks a few people out. I really don't like hearing house music in the car after having heard it for 8 hours in the studio. There are a few good pirate stations playing house nowadays so I've tuned them in to my presets in the car...

With all the hype about new innovative CD decks recently, and DJs such as Roger Sanchez playing most of their sets with CDs, what's your attitude to mixing on CDs? What's your preference CD or vinyl?

Vinyl without a doubt. CD's are useful to play things that either haven't been released or aren't being released for a while. They are also good to road test new productions or mixes, but given a choice I'd stick with vinyl any day of the week...

At a time when soulful house seems to be as underground as ever what do you think the future holds for the scene?

I think the Soulful house scene needed to go back underground a bit. I do think it will come back round again and it will always be there, maybe it will even come back stronger. Some of these pirate stations that were playing
UK Garage for years have either closed down or moved towards the soulful house scene. There's far more longevity in good music than in 'music made for kids'. At the moment I think the whole music scene is in a transitional period with a lot of people waiting to see what's going to happen over the next 12 months...

And with all this panic of super clubs being half empty and closing down do you think the whole bar culture thing will take over?

The bar culture is definitely becoming big due to various reasons such as licensing hours, cost of entry and also the intimacy of a nice bar rather
than a huge club. I think the punters are growing a bit tired of paying £15 or £20 to get into a club that is open till 4am when they can go to a bar for £3 or £5 that is open til 2am. Again, I feel the club scene is also in a
transitional period with more changes to come over the next 12 months. So really it's case of just seeing what happens in the near future...