He's a Dubliner based in Berlin who also works as features editor for little known dance magazine Mixmag, as well as releasing quality house muzak on top labels such as Moodmusic, Aus and True To Form. Gavin Herlihy meets the ATL autobot...

ATL: Hi, and how the hell are you today?
Tired! I'm new to Berlin and for once I've stayed in midweek to watch a DVD which is some how more knackering than staying up til 4am in a club (that was last night!)

ATL: Let's get started then. First musical memory?
Music's always been around me but my most vivid memory is of going on holiday as a kid. Before plane flights to the Med, that involved a long drive with the family and my dad hammering Simon & Garfunkel and Kris Kristofferson on our car stereo. All those songs I still cherish. And I will always associate the excitement of going somewhere totally new with the adventure of discovering new music.

ATL: Have you ever played Ireland and if so where, when and how was it for you?
Yes it was for The Temple Theatre in Dublin. I was palying before for MYLO in place of Erol Alkan - a tough enough job when you don't play electro - and the kids in the crowd thought I was Erol. After trying to tell the tenth guy I wasn't Erol in vain I gave up and got on with it! I tried to get my mum and dad to come down but they couldn't face the loud music. My sisters fully represented though. We had a crack on in a swanky hotel afterwards and their rock n roll antics put me to shame.

ATL: Now, what prompted you to get fully involved in dance music?
I remember stumbling to my tent drunk at Feile festival one year at 9am aged 12 or 13. It was probably the latest I'd ever stayed up and I'd just about made it to the campsite after dining out on rock music and warm cider (I was big into bands back then). Oblivion was seconds away. It was one of my first experiences away from home and I didn't want it to end although the alcohol had other ideas. Then I saw a rave in the distance. About 300 people dancing like crazy around a sound system to techno near the site with no signs of stopping. The last thing I thought before I passed out? �How the hell are they able to stay up this late and whatever they're doing, it looks way more fun!� My next discovery of electronic music was staying at a friend's uncle's while visiting London and hearing early jungle on pirate radio. It sounded like the future being beamed over the airwaves and I've been chasing that futuristic sound ever since.

ATL: What's been your best clubbing experience?
There are so many to choose from. Watching Richie Hawtin destroy a nuclear bunker in Berlin for a party called Beatstreet. Any number of Ibiza closing parties and afterparties. The Tribal Gathering Warehouse party in Manchester in 2003 that proved that dance music was anything but dead. GoIng to Warung in Brazil was a pretty special experience. The club is inspired by the Balinese long house huts the owners found on their travels and is perched on the edge of the rainforest on a beach called Praia Brava in Brazil (the inspiration for my track of the same name). When the sun comes up over the sea it shines in through the open end of the club and over the crowd inside and if that doesn't give you goosebumps every time you need to start following another passion.

ATL: We regret to inform you that your house is on fire, you can only carry one piece of vinyl or CD out, what will it be?
Well it depends on how fast the house is burning down because that one CD would be used to burn a data disc of as much music as possible. Is this a cheeky way of avoiding picking my favourite record of all time? You betcha!

ATL: For non dance music, what are you listening to at the mo?
It's an obvious choice but Radiohead �In Rainbows' is faultless. It's rare that a band so experimental as them can be so successful. They're easily the Pink Floyd of our times I even think they're better than that. They're also often criticised for being to melancholic. This bucks that trend. I've played this a lot while travelleing and if you see me with headphones on a train somewhere with a beaming smile on my face then you'll know what's causing it.

ATL: So, do you have any famous DJ mates and if so, who, and what are they really like? Go on you can tell us...
I have lots of DJ friends but most of the super famous ones you'll want to hear a story about  live such bizarre lives they don't make the best of pals. I much prefer to hanging out with my normal friends who are usually far more fun and much more crazy.

ATL: What is really the best club in the world?
The best club in the world was Circoloco at DC10. Almost everyone I know, I know them from that club or because of a connection to that club. Its still going strong but the time when we all discovered it, from 2001 to 2003 was everything that a club should be. A crazy mix of people of all types, races, sexualites really letting loose to cutting edge, stylish electronic music. A little later secretsundaze in London and the Panorama Bar in Berlin were pulling a similar dynamic of people to their parties in London. But sadly a club can only stay that great in your eye for a year or two before it becomes too familiar. That's not to say that someone discovering them now won't have just as an amazing time but I'm waiting for my next discovery.

ATL: Your criminal record - whats the worst piece of music ever played out?
I played a club in the Ukraine once and when I got there the DJs were playing r 'n' b and the crowd wasn't exactly up for my kind of music. Luckily I had some pretty naff promo's from my job at Mixmag at the time so I didn't hold back. I'd rather make people dance then be too cool for school and ruin their night. I think the worst it got was Deep Dish �Flashdance.'

ATL: Who is the best DJ in the world and why?
I spend a lot of time thinking about this and I think currently the mantle is being continually swapped between two people: Richie Hawtin and Ricardo Villalobos. Richie's continuing strive to push electronic music forward means his sets are always challenging. Ricardo on the other hand may be an old school vinyl purist but he feels the music and the emotions of the crowd and controls the energy of a room like no one else. He's unafraid to finish a night with a bizarre piece of gypsy folk music that captures the strangeness of the moment and that for me is real Djing. Teaching and entertaining at the same time.

ATL: And when will we see you again then?
Sadly I'm not back in Ireland until Christmas but you're very welcome to pop round my mam's for a drink.

ATL: Now before you go, give us your top five tunes of the moment...
Tony Allen 'Kilode (Carl Craig Remix) (Honest John's Records)
Matt John 'Boing Hi Fly' (Perlon)
Donnacha Costelloe 'Black Bag Job' (MInimise)
Onur Ozer 'Red Caberet', 2000andONe remix (Vakant)
Heinrich & Hirtenfellner 'Ear Worm' (Karate Club)