How did you get into music and what are your early influences?

I've moved to NY when I was 8, so I was coming back like once a year to visit my dad who still lived in London and I would go back with everything from The Stone Roses to Soul II Soul, just the coolest music because England has a bit more of a diverse approach to music and the stuff you hear on the radio in general as opposed to America. I was only 12, and my mum wouldn't let me go out to shows, so I got a job writing for the local music newspaper so I could have an excuse to go and see bands like Blur when they were coming over.

How does "Version" reflect your musical style?

I grew up playing guitar in bands and then I got really into hip-hop so I started djing. I guess I've been on these two parallel paths the whole time and this record is the merge of those.

How would your describe your taste in music?

My taste in music ranges all the way from hip hop to like, anything...I wouldn't go as far to say free jazz or Polka, just really broad and diverse. I like to be able to play everything that I like on my show.

What British acts have influenced you the most?

I think the Beatles have done some of the best songs of all times...this is funny actually but I collect records with bizarre covers and I have stuff like Barbra Streisand doing Life on Mars or whatever. I had this Sony and Cher record and there's this really cool snippet in the middle where Sony's like "it's hard to do a show these days without doing a Beatles tune, coz' they wrote everything didn't they". I also like The Smiths, I think Strangeways has one of the best songs ever, as opposed to everyone else that's into Meat is Murder or The Queen is Dead...I guess I've just discovered them later.

What's your secret to keep a crowd entertained?

I was djing hip hop quite often but I also love Queens of the Stone Age and all these bands so you can drop it when it's appropriate, but sometimes the crowd will go with you and sometimes they won't. I remember djing strictly to hip hop heads, playing in clubs where Jay-Z and all these guys would come in the mid-nineties and I would always try and find a clever way I could drop a rock record, whether was The Clash, or maybe Back in Black or something. You had to play in a way they didn't realise.

What was the criteria you adopted when selecting the tunes you would work on for Version?

I think that there's a certain kind of song that works. A lot of songs, even though they are indie guitar songs, revolve around blues chords that really lend themselves to the horn and those kinds of arrangements. There are other good bands that I love like Bloc Party and The Cure who come from a bit more "white classical" thing that don't sound so good with the horn and that kind of arrangement. All the songs in the album are just my favourite songs; songs that have always been special to me; songs I thought I could simply put a different slant on.

You will play a live set at Creamfields Festival: is this a fun album to be played live? What is being the public's response to this album in terms of live performance?

I definitely love playing it as a dj, I see people dance and I love the way it reaches everyone from the baggy kids, the hip hop kids and the indie kids who never have reasonable tempos that they can dance to coz' their music is so frenetic. But they really dance to these funky tracks and they know the words. It's fun to watch how people react to this record. I like it when they are so lost in the music they look like they have no coordination. We play these shows live, and that's how a lot of the people react to the songs.

How do you figure out what works best when producing a cover track? And how long does it take you to get them done?

I sit down and try to figure out: if Bill Withers was making Use Me in 1971, how would he have played the Kaiser Chiefs? It's almost a scientific experiment. And then I'd bring up a drum beat and just play. Some of them can be down as quick as 6 hours but to add some horns and strings can take a couple of days, I'd say "Stop me" (the Smiths cover) was finished over the course of 6 weeks because it was so much stuff that went into that and I love that song so much that I just kept going "no no, its got to be better".

Where did the idea of making a whole album with no original material come from?

While I was supposed to be making my own tunes or working in another people's records I'd just find myself procrastinating like "oh, I wonder if I'd take the guitar course from Justin and play The Jackson's 5 or something like that". By the end of some sessions I had 6 or 7 songs, some of them leaked out on the radio, did well, and I've found myself in a cool position to come to the UK and finishing the album. It was very premeditated but certainly my next album won't be the same as I don't want to be known as "the cover guy".

You've worked with two of the most popular female artists in the UK, Lily Allen and Amy Winehouse, who are also very well known for their strong personalities. Describe your relationship with them?

I've done "Rehab" for Amy, "Littlest Things" for Lily Allen and then got them to sing in my album. They are both great to work with, I think these girls own the female sector of the UK pop scene at the moment, so I'm really proud to have worked with them.
Lily was working as a waitress in a cocktail bar when we met, we became friends and she played me some of her demos, "Smile" and "LDN", which are pretty much the same then as the well known record and I loved it. I flew her to New York and we did "Littlest Things" and the song for my record. I'm really proud and happy to see how her album is blowing up in the UK and in the States like that.

Tell us about your work with Robbie Williams?

I was working with Robbie Williams on his album last year and when I was doing my first album I sort of stalked him to do a song with me but it never worked out. When he decided he wanted to do this new album with slightly different stuff I went to his house in LA and it took us forever to choose a song because we are into so much stuff. We would text each other with ideas all the time and we decided on "Only One I Know" because it's an amazing tune and because Rob is a northern dude like The Charlatans.

What are you most proud of in your career?

Covering all these people's songs and going to them for permission and hearing guys like Ed from Radiohead, who has written songs that have inspired you to make music saying "I like you version".