Christopher Lawrence

Christopher Lawrence has been playing to huge crowds around the globe for over 7 years and he's grabbed the monicker of best US trance DJ along the way (Muzik & 7) but now that he's getting the recognition he deserves he no longer wants to be known as a trance DJ. To Lawrence the trance phenomenon of 1999 is embarrassing. 'Y'know those tracks with lyrics like: I was blind, now I see, with big breakdowns and key-change bass lines. It's so overdone and cheesy'.

So what is he about- Signed to Scottish label, Hook recordings, Lawrence looks to X Cabs and Transa for new tunes to put in his box. Of the hundreds of records he receives not even 1% get played, '99% will go straight away, then I go through the stuff that's not offensive and choose the tracks that I can play over and over. When I get sent the drum and bass remix of Talking Heads and other bizarre combinations I just feel sorry for the postal worker who has to carry that junk around'. Refreshingly, he says this with the enthusiasm that's usually reserved for younger DJs.

What does he think of the changing scene- 'People used to go for the party years ago, now people go for the DJs. DJs get more recognition than the people producing the music and I get treated like royalty while the guys in the studio are eating crisps'. Lawrence is so high profile that he's nearly always headlining events, 'I'll be playing a set and I look out and I'll be connecting with the crowd and that's when I think 'where do I take it now-' Touch wood, I've never lost it. But I've seen people who have'.

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• Christopher Lawrence