Short version was that Neil from Chez called me up, he used to have a radio station and he was doing an interview with Eman. He said, "You know you have a really cool voice, you should do something for the label." Then Neil called me up and asked me if I would produce a track for Eman. Eman actually wanted to sing and I was like, "No way. We're going to do spoken word." I knew that he could do that kind of poetic way of talking over it.

He came by, he had the hook ("Do you want it? And if you had it would you flaunt it?") which was like from an old hip-hop record. He said he was just going to say that over. Basically I just had the beat, and he had written some stuff and I wasn't so crazy about it.

And then I spoke to him for a little bit... kinda told him the story, there's people in New York, people in Chicago, in Australia, in Japan... And there always seems to be this crew of Househeads or clubbers that go out and it doesn't matter if it's Monday night, it doesn't matter if it's snowing, it doesn't matter if you have to travel two hours. If you go to any city, you will always find this group.

That's when he wrote it... "What makes you journey into the night? Take flight on a musical bliss... chasing beats through ghetto streets..."

And that was it. That's the story behind it. Recorded him, the next day I brought in the saxophone player and Jillian did the hook, recorded the hook, mixed it down, gave it to Neil, and it was one of the quickest things I ever did. But one of the biggest.

So did it hit right away the minute you played it?

It was pretty immediate. I wasn't used to it. The conference was maybe five weeks after that and Neil was rushing to get it pressed. I mean it was like, I must have heard it at least seven or eight times down there.

What year was it again?

2001. It was a rush and then to come back and I thought another month, another three more months, and then I thought maybe until the end of the year... and it didn't stop. It just kept on growing and growing. The record went for almost 3 years around, and if you check the MySpace page, there are still kids that say how much they love it.

What other kinds of music do you listen to aside from House?

Today I listed to the Leela James album "A Change is Gonna Come". I listen to a lot of downtempo, any kind of underground hip-hop. Everything I listen to is underground, I don't listen to a lot of radio. Anthony Hamilton, old school funk or disco and that's basically what I listen to.

How important are vocals to a song for you?

The vocals are very important. I'm pretty much known for doing vocals but I haven't done a vocal in a long time. I'm actually now doing minimal instrumental tracks because sales-wise it seems to be working better for me.

Yeah, vocals are an important thing. The more techy, tracky kind of stuff is I think kind of for the guys, and then the more pretty vocals, the vocal that means something, the words if they mean something, is definitely for the girls on the dancefloor. It seems to bring the girls out.

The thing with the vocal is that if the harmony is good and the words are corny, we have to sit and get it right. The words - they have to mean something to me.

Have you ever been to Chicago?

A few times! I played a New Year's Eve party at the old Red Dog. I had played at that club around '97/'98 with Johnny Fiasco, and the Shelter for John Curley. That's when I first met DJ Sneak.

What do you like and not like about New York?

To me everything comes from New York. It's funny - overseas, the Europeans they all seem to watch what's going on over here but when you go overseas, unless it's a special party, it's not deep like how it was when I met you at Jellybean's gig.

I like New York because it's pure House Music, and I think with the exception of Chicago, it originates here. At the same time it could be a little bit stubborn because that's the only kind of style that they're going to go over here. I play New York-style obviously when I'm here, and overseas I still play a good, soulful set but still with much more power.