How would you describe your playing style?

I'm a 'feel' player. I've picked up elements of the styles of bass icons but have always aimed to have my own sound and style. I don't paint by numbers. It's got to come from the moment's inspiration using what you know, but not from some pre-determined formula.

What are you aiming for?

Sometimes it's easier to see what you want to be doing, by what you don't want to be doing. I play bass because I'm motivated to play bass. I have no option. I have to play because I'm not happy when I don't.

Music I like isn’t mainstream, so I expect not many people to like it. Songs don’t really appeal to me. Instrumental music is much more interesting. Making money from playing doesn’t interest me. Selling music doesn’t interest me. Money is a distraction.

I fuse a jazz/funk/fusion bass background with a progressive dance/electronica and avant-garde outlook. I don’t subscribe to the traditional viewpoint that bass has to underpin. If you’re open-minded, you'll know that any instrument can move freely in time and space!

What do you listen to?

It's kind of cyclic really. I tend to get deep into different genres of music at different times. I'll go for a few months listening to one type of thing, then switch to something with a different slant for a while, then on to something else. Then I remember what I like about a particular thing and it's back to that. It's always evolving...a process of constant rotation, discovery and renewal.

Currently it's dubstep, nu-jazz, fusion, afrobeat, broken beat, DnB/jungle, hip-hop/jazz, breakbeat, progressive electronica and anything in between. I'm moving away from thinking about and defining music by genre.

What music genre do you most relate to?

I get seriously worried about saying I like this genre or that because I don't want to be misunderstood. The 'headline' music genres are broad and can mean different things to different people. I think I relate most to groove, progressive, experimental and future. I think I will always have one foot in jazz, partly because of my upbringing and because in it's best forms, it encourages player development through freedom of expression. My other foot is firmly planted in the future.

What do you look for in music?

Chord progressions, whether actual or implied, are really important to me in what I hear. Whether I'm listening to music or playing with other musicians, music needs to be chordally rich to inspire me. It's easy to tell if a player has a good sense of harmony by the chords they choose to work with and the progressions they choose to make.

Rhythmically, I prefer the flams and shuffles of groove-based music to straight beats.

Do you prefer music created from organic sources to contemporary sources?

Electric bass is far from organic. Although it's in an instrument player's interest to support live music, I have an affinity for music created from all types of sound sources. I take the view that what sounds good must be good however the sound is produced, although I give more credit to the talented player.

How many strings for a bass?

It doesn't matter...4, 5, 6, 7 strings or more. It's just a tool to put across your music. Some of my favourite bass players are mainly 4-stringers. It's more about whether you like the sound. I prefer a Fender Jazz Bass tone as a starting point. Stanley Clarke's 4-string piccolo/tenor bass tone is timeless. I have a 7-string build under way and I'm excited about what that might enable me to play.

What is your view of improvisation?

It's about using what you have, your musicality, to create something 'on the fly'. It's about freedom of expression but listening to what others are putting in and how you're going to fit with that too. To me, improvisation is more than playing around a familiar tune, it's about finding something new through freestyle play.

Why freestyle?

Freestyling is about being free to adapt to what's happening on the night, with the 'buzz' of not knowing in advance what style and key you're going to play in. It's a creative playground for players who can freestyle, but less secure for players who prefer to have a structure to play to. Either way, it's great development.

What do you get from organised jams?

Jams are great for meeting other musicians. I like to play with musicians who can truly improvise on the spot, with no pre-planned ideas about what they're going to play or how they're going to play it. People who don't need to talk about a key, time or tempo.

If your 'ear' is good and you know your instrument well enough, you don't need to say anything. Playing is the communication.

I dream of a true 'blue lights in the basement' jam, an inventive playground where everyone feels their way and shy away from those where you play renditions of songs that people already know. True jamming is free-form.

Do you write your own material?

I've been writing my own stuff in my project studio since around 1983, although I prefer playing live to the stop/start nature of recording. I've always been able to 'hear' in my head what I want to hear aurally. I start from an instrumental/sonic standpoint (not lyrical) and layer the elements I want. I have a degree of perfect pitch and I'm proud of that. Right now, I'm more focused around playing out but some point I'll produce a bass orientated album.

What's exciting you now?

Superbike racing in 2009. Short circuit road racing on a Yamaha YZF-R1.

Currently listen to Luke Vibert, Aphex Twin, Squarepusher, Prefuse 73, Mark de Clive Lowe, Jazzanova, 4hero, Ursula Rucker, The Heritage Orchestra, Victor Bailey, Gary Willis, Anthony Tidd's Quite Sane, Dapp Theory and pirate radio, with revisits of Return To Forever, Stanley Clarke and Weather Report.

Saw Prefuse 73, Stanley Clarke, Mark de Clive Lowe, Ursula Rucker, Return To Forever, 808 State, Nostalgia 77, Victor Bailey, Yellowjackets, Mira Calix, Squarepusher and LFO in 2008.

What disappoints you most?

Non-musical people!