The Buzzin’ Fly label head, DJ, producer extraordinaire and veteran member of ground-breaking duo Everything But The Girl talks to Tim McNamara about his new inthemix compilation, the changing face of the world house scene, and what we can expect from him behind the decks ahead of his Australian tour. Speaking from his studio in south London, where since 2003 he has steered his own Buzzin’ Fly imprint to the top of the world house heap, Ben is relaxed and chatty, speaking glowingly of the new inthemix compilation he mixed and compiled alongside Australian DJ Ivan Gough.

Featuring a selection of the most upfront house tracks currently being hammered in clubs worldwide, including cuts by Jimpster, Justin Martin, Djuma Soundsystem, Spencer Parker and the new Buzzin’ Fly single ‘Mind Games’ by Abyss, inthemix.2006 is, as Ben explains, a reflection of his own musical tastes and influences at present. “All I ever do is try to respond honestly to the times that I live through and this is the music that just seems to be exciting me at the moment,” he explains. “I try and filter everything I hear through my own taste and sensibility; a lot of things don’t change. I’m still after things like depth, pathos, humility, all allied to a rocking groove that sounds fresh. I’m not bound by genre. If I hear it in German minimal, if I hear it in New York soul, I’ll probably use it.”

And use it he has, both on this second annual inthemix compilation, and on his own burgeoning Buzzin’ Fly imprint, which is now firmly established as one of the most credible and forward-thinking labels on the international house scene. Alongside Germany’s Sonar Kollectiv and the UK’s Freerange imprints, Buzzin’ Fly is championing house’s evolution into a darker, more minimal sound, one which has been showcased on several Buzzin’ Fly 12” singles and Ben’s own hugely-successful Buzzin’ Fly compilations. As he explains, this foray into a more driving brand of house is reflective of the changing nature of the scene as a whole. “I think what’s happening is there’s a coming together again,” he says. “I think there was kind of a mini earthquake a few years ago and the techno-electro crowd really broke away from what the sound was becoming.”

“The afro-Latin, deep soulful sound really did dominate the house scene for a few years but as it started to plateau and stagnate, people who have always looked towards techno and electro for their inspiration broke away and started their own scene. It coincided with the press looking for a new sound, and what we’re seeing now is the unification with labels like Freerange, Sonar Kollectiv and artists like Ame. They’re trying to unify and create almost like a new deep sound which is taking elements of the Germanic minimal sound, adding a bit of Scandinavian space disco, adding a bit of deep soul and creating this new sort of warm hybrid which, again, is just a fresh sound. That’s what always interests me, finding the fresh stuff.”

It has been over the course of Ben’s 25-year musical career that he has been able to perfect this ability to recognise the ‘fresh stuff’. With production partner and wife Tracey Thorn as globally-acclaimed duo Everything But The Girl, Ben experimented with a variety of genres across the duo’s seven studio albums. In 1998 Ben departed the mainstream and, with Jay Hannan, established Lazy Dog, the innovative deep house brand that held weekly house events at London’s Notting Hill Arts Club and The End, in addition to releasing several acclaimed mix compilations. It was through Lazy Dog and remixes for the likes of Sade and Maxwell, that Ben’s ear for and understanding of deep emotional house was further refined, as was his knowledge of what made a great party. “When we started Lazy Dog the idea of a house club which started at 4pm on a Sunday was quite unusual at the time,” he says. “We weren’t the first, but certainly in 1998 when we started it there was hardly anything else like that that you could do. Of course nowadays you can’t move for bars and clubs and after-hours and stuff. It does become a lot harder; there’s lot more competition out there.”

Increased competition hasn’t stopped Buzzin’ Fly holding its own monthly events at East London’s Plastic People however, events Ben admits he stays ‘very relaxed about’. It’s not meant to be a roadblock, whamma-jamma ‘look at us, we’re huge’ thing. It’s more of a Sunday social thing,’ he explains. “Some weeks we go down there and the place is packed; some weeks you don’t quite know why but there’s only 120 people in there. It’s just clubbing in London these days. There’s a lot of choice out there and for me the Sundays at Plastic People is more just a kind of get together for friends, people from the label and DJs. It’s a chance to road test new tracks. I often play a lot of demos I’ve received just to see how the crowd responds.”

With regards to road-testing new tracks for release on Buzzin’ Fly, Ben admits A&R for the label is a ‘one man show’. “I come at A&R with a huge amount of confidence,” he says. “I just have an outlook on music that I think I’ve always had since I was a teenager, about the things I like to hear in music. I just know that if I plough through enough of this stuff that comes through the door I will find the record that speaks to me. That’s my only criteria. I often listen to stuff blind, I don’t read press releases that come through the door; I just put records on. There is no secret; it’s just the way I see it, the way I hear it.”

Now looking forward to returning to Australia for the first time since February 2005 – when he toured as part of the annual Good Vibrations Festival – Ben intends to bring the complete Buzzin’ Fly sound down under, something he couldn’t do entirely in 2005. “That Australian Good Vibrations tour was quite tricky for me because Lazy Dog was a big thing in Australia,” he explains. “I had never been out and played and I had two hours to please everybody and it was a festival. You’re playing maybe 18 records and you’re trying to play a bit of the past, a bit of the present and a bit of the future.”

“I didn’t just want to be completely bloody-minded and just play everything I’m into now; I felt I had to – certainly at a festival – give people a bit of everything they wanted. They were an interesting few gigs; they were very good and very successful but I felt it was like sort of a greatest hits tour (laughing).” There will be no such greatest hits tour this time around however, Ben says forthrightly. “I think this time, having been out once already and also having seen Buzzin’ Fly establish itself a lot more in its own right since Good Vibrations, clearly I’m going to be playing stuff which is more in the direction of the label and more in the direction of the inthemix CD, so it will certainly be a more contemporary set,” he says.

Good news indeed for serious house fans, but the question on many peoples’ lips remains whether Ben will again link with Tracey Thorn and reform Everything But The Girl. While he explains neither are ‘quite in the mood to do it’. He does reveal that Tracey will release her own solo album on Virgin in February 2007, ‘a beautiful record’ which will feature a number of collaborations with producers including Ewan Pearson, Caged Baby, Buzzin’ Fly artist Dark Mountain Group, Metro Area and Loveslap Records main man and West Coast House supremo Charles Webster. But, Ben warns those expecting a punchy, four-to-the-floor album will be disappointed. “It’s very much a song-based record,” he explains. “There are as many ballads as there are up-tempo tracks. The Charles Webster thing is this beautiful ambient ballad with flutes and stuff; it’s not like a house track. Some people she’s worked with have been doing tracks which they wouldn’t normally be known for; it’s just a great mesmerising pop record in a way.” High praise indeed from one of the most ‘mesmerising’ DJ-producers in the world.

Witness the genius that is Ben Watt as he works his way across the country this December.

inthemix.2006, mixed and compiled by Ben Watt & Ivan Gough, is out now through Central Station/MRA. Head to the ITM Shop to order your copy!