“So I'll set a cycle in motion and pop it into record and I'll lay down...” — Thomas Dolby Quote

So I'll set a cycle in motion and pop it into record and I'll lay down a drum pattern, a bass line, a keyboard and guitar part, and once the groove is going I launch into the song and sing my song over the top.

Well, you know, I mean, I first did my live shows in the late 70's and in those days I had a boatload of equipment that always seemed to be going wrong.

I was desperate really for people not to accuse me of coldness. It was taboo.

Then I have a head mounted display which actually was designed for the military to do synchronized building entries and that's looking down at my hands, so projected on the big screen behind me, you can see my hands as I'm putting the tracks together.

I played bass for a year, but I wasn't getting better at it, so I decided to stop so I could see my friends.

I tour a lot and interview a lot. I'm on the Internet and doing stuff. I go out and promote. I've got a bass drum and a sandwich sign and a washboard. You just have to shout louder and louder that you're still alive.

I went to my first drum n' bass rave when I was 16 and remember being terrified. Looking around, trying to figure out how to dance to this music, watching some girl in some hot pants, trying little ways to learn her movements.

Amon Tobin has been producing electronic music since the mid-'90s, and was a key figure in the rise of drum-and-bass. He's also written some of the genre's most compelling tracks, in the process delving into jazzy breakbeats and bass lines.