Having emerged from rehab with a new lease on life, 2011 proved to be Norman Cook’s busiest ever year of DJing. The man otherwise known as Fatboy Slim puts the figure at roughly 70 gigs over the 12 months. “I’m happier, healthier and I’m doing a better job,” he tells inthemix when we get him on the phone. “I beat my demons off with a stick.”

This March, Fatboy Slim returns to Australia as the ‘special guest’ of the Future Music Festival 2012 tour, sitting alongside the Swedish House Mafia and New Order at the top of the bill. The heavy run of touring of late has allowed the DJ to fine-tune his set, particularly on festival stages much like the ones he’ll be commanding down under. As he explains to ITM, his performances now are as much about synchronised visuals as the “full on acid house party nonsense” soundtrack.

“I’ve got a audio-visual show coming,” he says. “I’m more of a VJ these days. We write visuals first, and as I play the CDJs, they trigger the synched visuals.” Each tune in his bag apparently has a “film” attached, making it more of a spectacle than a straight-up DJ set (you get a quick look at the concept in flight in the Big Beach Boutique 2012 video below).

“I’ve always got something to prove – no one does it quite like me,” he muses on making a much-talked-about return to Australia with Future Music Festival. “You’ve got your young contenders like the Swedish House Mafia – ultimate respect to them, but I plan to give them a run for their money every night. They’ve got that huge, big room commercial sound down pat, so I’ll be probably wandering down a noisier, more raucous path.”