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Gilles: But I think club culture has definitely been hit. There are all sides of the scene that seem to go through these things. I?m really pleased that the dance thing has gone anyway, I mean has gone down, because it was rubbish a lot of it. And a lot of the people involved in it were rubbish as well. I didn?t really want to be associated with those sorts of people in what I was doing, because it was just cold and corporate and everything.

So I?m kind of please that everyone's come out of that, and then the people who are really into the shit survive. It?s the men and the boys thing. I?ve been DJing for twenty years now and I?ve been through so many ups and downs and in the end you just keep going. If you?re hit listed, if people like you at the moment it?s great but if they don?t, then I don?t care either. That?s how I approach it, and I?m still enjoying it and making it.
Emm: Cool, that?s good. Twenty years?
Gilles: More actually, it?s twenty-five, yes, I?m forty this year.

Emm: How did you initially get into radio?
Gilles: I started my own pirate station. I got some transmitters and stuff. In those days pirate stations didn?t go on for twenty-four hours. They?d go on for like four or five hours on a Sunday. There was one station called Radio Invicta, which was the first black music pirate in London back in the day, and they lost their equipment. Their gear got taken by the home office, by the police, and they were like, oh my God, we haven?t got a transmitter.

And they?d heard there was this young boy that had a transmitter. The guy who built their transmitter put them on this annoying little bloke who lived in south London (laughs). So they the called me and they said can we use your gear. And I said, well as long as you give me a show.

Emm: Right, sure.
Gilles: I was seventeen by then and I started working for Radio Invicta, and that was really cool, because that was where the best DJs were and they were playing good shit. It was like just all soul so it was quite urban. It was very much to the London audience rather than the suburbs. In England you?ve got two scenes. You?ve got the kind of urban scene, and then you?ve got the suburbs. And so if you look at like the DJs who are here in Miami, people like Pete Tong or Judge Jules, they?re very suburban, you see what I mean? And these stations were very much more urban, so they were blacker in a way, but it appealed to a more mixed crowd. So for me being on that station, it was really cool. From that point onwards, I started working at little clubs. My mum didn?t know I was DJing, so I?d have to lie. I?d tell her that I was just going out. I used to work in a gay club actually, on a Sunday. And I?m not gay, but I mean basically I?d go there because they kind of liked the look of me. I used to do nine to one on a Sunday and they wanted gay music. They wanted a kind of gay disco, and I played more boogie kind of stuff like Prelude, D Train and Unlimited Touch, things like that. I started getting a bit of a black crowd coming into the club, and the gays started complaining because it wasn?t a strictly gay thing anymore, so I got barred from that. That was my first sort of travesty. And then I started working in clubs all over the place. I had to earn my money, you know, because I didn?t have a job and I?d fucked up my exams. My studies had gone out the window. I was really into football. I was a sports boy when I was little. I played quite seriously, football, and rugby amazingly.

Emm: Which is your favourite football team?
Gilles: I?m an Arsenal fan. Yeah, so I was doing a lot of sport but then suddenly I just got into music and that really took me away. I never really thought of it as being a career thing, as a child. My mum and dad left England when I was seventeen. My dad is French, so they moved over there, but I stayed, and I just made it on my own. I made a living, so I?m happy about that.

Emm: How do you compare the experience of being a radio DJ versus playing out? Are there aspects of one that you like better than the other?
Gilles: Well, I?ve got a family and I?ve got kids and so I need to do a little bit less DJing and clubbing, but I love it. That?s the thing; it gives me a lot of energy which I hope I bring onto the radio. I think that?s what gives my radio show that edge in a way. I?m listening to music from a club and radio perspective. So I can hear how certain records work. If I?m listening to them at home, I?m like that?s alright. But if I?m playing in a club, certain records just take a whole different light. So in that respect I think the show?s been a quite good line between the club and the home with the headphones kind of thing. And actually I get more money doing gigs. That?s my main source of income. You don?t really make a lot of money on radio, in England anyway. I don?t know but it?s probably the same here.