Matt was born and bread in the heart of Belfast in Northern Ireland. He first got into dance music listening to the likes of the Prodigy and Altern 8 way back when he was 12 & 13. He used to go to the local under 18's raves dressed up like a complete rave monkey, dust mask and all. Matt saved like mad and annoyed his parents until he got his first set of decks when he was 15. After a slight spell of buying anything with a kick drum he got into labels such as Perfecto and gained admiration for what Paul Oakenfold was doing in the early - mid nineties. He then heard his first Sasha set and that was the start of his love for the Progressive sound and all other genres close to this musical style. If he had to define a tune for his love of this music it would be Sasha's 'Be As One' or Bedrock's 'For What You Dream'. As well as Paul Oakenfold and Sasha being responsible for influencing him, he has gained much inspiration from established artists like John Digweed, Orbital, Leftfield and Chemical Brothers.

Matt currently records under the names Piece Process & Phunk Police, he is also one half of production duo Gaston & Phillips. Matt has recorded and remixed tracks for labels all over world including Japan, USA, Canada, Portugal, England and many more. He never has pigeon holed himself to one brand of dance music & hopes he brings that out in his productions, for matt he's making dance music, that's good enough for him!!

Matt Phillips Discography

Piece Process - 'Deepside' (Pod)
Piece Process - 'Adrenalin' (Pod)
Piece Process - 'My Mind Is Going' (Pod)
Piece Process - 'Esoteric (ocean of dreams mix)' on The Afterhours EP (Pod)
Piece Process - 'Solar Myth' (Release Elements)
Piece Process - 'Right or Wrong' (Loöq)
Piece Process - 'Move Your Body' (Loöq)
Piece Process - 'New Driver' (Shine Music)
Piece Process - 'United Nations' (Shine Music)
Piece Process - 'Iron Fist'' (Institution Recordings)
Piece Process - 'Synthsations' (Shine Music)
Piece Process - ' The Preacher ' (Loöq)
Piece Process - ' The Tease ' (Loöq)
Piece Process - ' San Francisco ' (Loöq)
Phunk Police - Falling Stars (Loöq)
Phunk Police - The Problem (Loöq)
Gaston & Phillips - 'Insolacion' & 'Teknolgy' on The GAP EP (Pod)
Gaston & Phillips feat. Neve - 'Insolacion' (Vocal Mix) (Pod)
Gaston & Phillips - Big city Boppers (Loöq)

Inner System - '$oul Trade' (SOGchrome)

Matt Phillips Remixography

Basscamp - Intentions (Pod)
Rhythm Masters - 'Heavy soul' (Neo)
Sasha & Emerson - 'Scorchio' (BMG/DMC)
Brent Laurence - 'Aint gonna' (Neo)
Rocco & Heist - 'Rescue me' (Neo)
Dj Nukem vs Chab - 'Forward' (Cyber)
Dj 19 - 'I C' (19 Box)
Smith & Lavelle - 'The Legend' (Pod)
Kalista - 'Here In The Sun' (Stereo 7)
Girl Nobody - Come & Find Me (Release digital)
Psalt - 'No Start For A Change' (looq)
Jurgen Vries feat. Andrea Britton 'Take My Hand' (Sony/Direction)
Descent - Virtual (Open up)
I.B - Flame (Punks not dead) (looq)

Bootlegs

Phunk Police vs Jimi Hendrix - Foxy Lady
Phunk Police vs The Streets - Lets Push Things Forward
Gaston & Phillips - Metropolis
Streetlife Djs vs Phunk Police - Trouble Dust

Interview

What initially sparked your interest in producing electronic music?

Producing was the natural progression for me, after buying, playing or dancing to dance music for around 10 years I wanted to know how to create that wicked loop or that unforgettable melody. I have been producing for around 8 years and what excites me is as the electronic scene evolves working on the next project is always like a learning curve.

What would you say was the turning point of your musical career...what was you first big break?

I was very lucky to catch a break early on, I had produced my first track and I posted it to every record label I had an address for. Stewart Rowell at the time was label manager for neo records (UK) he asked if I would like to do a remix on spec, neo accepted my remix and that started the ball rolling. Stewart left neo to set up Pod Recordings alongside Louis Gaston and they asked me if I had any material I would think they would like, by now I had a few tracks put together as a show reel and luckily enough they wanted to sign them, this was my first release Deepside & 2nd single adrenalin.

Your past and recent productions have been getting full support from the likes of Sasha, John Digweed, and the like. Do you feel this stable support from these top jocks has had a direct effect on a wider range of support?

My influences came from Sasha, Bedrock, a lot of artists on the perfecto label, Tilt in particular. As my sound has evolved I have crossed in and out of various dance music genres so I don't like to pigeon hole myself to a certain style. I have had support from a wide spectrum of djs on various productions, Radio support from John Digweed, Seb Fontaine & Judge Jules to name a few and I think its fair to say they are 3 different djs in the dance music scene. I do think support from top name djs does have an effect on who buys and plays your music but I like to think people would play my tracks based on their own opinion and love of the music.

Your recent release on Looq Records titled "The San Francisco/The Tease" has been extremely well received throughout the industry. What is it about this release that you feel makes it so special?

I think Loöqs description about '' The Tease '' sums it up really ' To the folks inside Loöq Towers, "genre" is a dirty word. And that's great because when you come across a track as good as The Tease, you don't want to worry about the fact that it conjures its delicious mainroom floor-filling effect from the different worlds of funky house, tribal, trance and probably a few places we haven't even heard of. Behold - the borderless world of multi-genre electronic dance music.' I can remember sending them the track and saying I wasn't sure if it was a track suited for their label but it turned out I was wrong, it was a chance to cross over into the genres i listen to and incorporate them into one tune without coming up with a Frankenstein!! As for San Francisco basically I wanted to write a track I could play for my trip to San Francisco, its got a more big room feel to it and I was very pleased with the outcome on its debut play at the world famous Qool night, its another example of my theory of expect the unexpected, if I was producing the same thing over & over i would get bored.

How did you first get involved with the Loöq family?

I first heard of Loöq when Jondi & Spesh did a remix for Pod recordings where I was signed to so that's what got me into the label as a dj, when Pod recordings ceased I became homeless so to speak, the UK market was in a real dip one reason was when vinyl was being taken over by digital formats and also progressive house seemed to have peaked and was on a decline. After about 8 months of working on new material I sent Loöq a cd and I haven't looked back since, what i think is great about the label is that they have the balls to stray out of the box and release music of different styles from artists from all over the world.

How was your experience hanging out with in San Francisco with Jondi & Spesh at Qoöl, their world famous Wednesday happy hour?

I had such a great time on my trip to San Francisco, Qool is such a unique atmosphere, you can lose yourself and swear its 3am on a Saturday night when its really about 9pm on a Wednesday night. I cant wait to get back over and experience it again. Jondi,Spesh & Jackie at Loöq looked after me very well, They also know some great eateries off the beaten track in the city too!

Is there a particular artist or group that you are/would be interested in collaborating with in the near future and why?

I could probably name a list the length of my arm here but if I had the chance I would love to work with the Chemical Brothers, they in my opinion are in a league of their own when it comes to pioneering dance music. But on a more realistic note it would be great to collaborate with Jondi & Spesh, I still haven't got them on remix duties so that may be something I would like to pursue.

If you could say that you are proud of something/anything regarding your musical career/endeavors, what would it be... a production project, DJing gig?

There have been many highlights for me in my music career but a recent license to the CBS hit television show CSI was a very proud moment, it was only a short clip but I'm certainly not complaining. Its a new area I haven't really looked at until I got involved with Loöq who I have to thank, though before this I did produce a track with Louis Gaston & Dave Wallings under the name of Inner System which got licensed to a Porno movie in Switzerland, I never did get a copy!!

What is your thought on the current state of music as it relates to the quality, sound, and sales?

I look at the current state of the dance music scene in different lights, I think there are many great artists out there producing ground breaking music but on the other hand there is also mass produced rubbish out there as well, but this also can be a positive as those who are pioneers will produce something on a new level which keeps me excited about electronic dance music. I can see positives and negatives in a lot of the areas in the advancement of dance music, technology is whole big can of worms in my opinion, a lot of good and a lot of bad coming from the rapid advancements in djing and producing.

Are there plans in the future for starting a label of your own?

I'm one for saying never say never, but to be honest if you feel at home with the label your signed and who understand your creative freedom why change things?

What can we expect from Piece Process in 2007? Piece Process album possibly?

I have come to the point in my career where I have spent almost 8 years producing singles and e.p's and I think it is the right time to produce an artist album, Spesh kind of planted the seed in my head while I was over in San Francisco and now I have started working on new material for an album, I don't want to produce an album full of 4/4 club orientated tracks which I'm probably most known for so its cool to work on different styles and tempos, hopefully later in the year I will have made sense of it all and the final tracklist will be compiled so I know its a cliché but watch this space.

What are your top 5 choons as the moment?

In no particular order
1. Chemical Brothers - Electronic Battle Weapon 8
2. Peter Bjorn & John - Amsterdam
3. Kavinsky - Testarossa Autodrive (Sebastian remix)
4. Momu - Mavericks (Jeff Devas 3 dollar mix)
5. Starkillers - Scream