It’s a long and bumpy bike ride through puddles and past fishermen along the tow path up to Bates Bike Lock on the Cam. This is pretty much out of the way, and a totally peaceful refuge for Andy Coleman to work on his music and little else, which is kind of exactly how he wants things. Having the opportunity to tour the world extensively as a DJ has only served to make him realise that that isn’t want he wants to be doing. It’s ironic that with so many Cambridge DJs and musicians pushing for recognition outside of their hometown, that Andy, who has been receiving shit loads of national press, NME interviews and the like, has no real interest in the media. "It’s all terrible," he says, or something like that. "I’m uncomfortable with doing interviews. I don’t like reading about myself. I had a load of stuff printed about me in Japan, and that was brilliant because they were doing double page spreads with photographs which looked really good, but I couldn’t understand a word."

So it’s kind of weird that ‘The Clap!’, accused in some quarters as being too frivolous, gets an interview. But maybe that’s the point, it doesn’t really matter. And above it all, he seems almost surprised that these ‘things’ are happening to him.
"The other day I was watching the news on BBC at lunch-time, and when it was over there was a trailer for a programme about car crashes and it had this tune on it. One I’d recorded for my first Bovinyl EP, recorded with a games sound card, with a little add on. It just did my head in - it’s probably going to haunt me now. But I like this idea that you can do these tunes on equipment that a music shop would say "you can’t make music on that" - and there it was up on the telly”.
So are you picking up royalties?
"Yeh, I’ve got a publishing deal with the Ninja publishing company and it could be just eighty quid or something like that, I don’t know. I did a remix of DJ Vadim on a Nija tunes remix album and that got used on channel 4 Basket ball trailer. It was on telly like 3 times a day quite recently but I don’t see any money from that - Vadim gets it. The publishing laws for remixes are just too new. When remixes first occurred somebody just took a band’s master tape into the studio and just changed the levels a bit, or did a tape edit, whereas nowadays remixes have become an entirely different song. My track sounds nothing like the original Vadim but he gets the money, which I think is going to be a grand or something".
How involved have you been with the local dance scene?
"I’ve done stuff with Charlie form Clueless. I’ve done a couple of parties with him, but with the music I make, even more so now, it’s just not really dance music. I’ve always thought less about a local scene and more about the wider picture. If you do make something that only a minority of people are going to get into you have to think about the wider picture. That’s what is so good about being signed to a label that’s going to distribute around the world. That’s a market that’s big enough to earn me some money and to get enough people to hear my stuff."
"I’ve done loads of things in Cambridge before where 2 people and their dog turn up or its just your friends, which is good for learning about what you want to do or being in public area but when you’re playing kind of hit and miss kind of music you can find yourself getting into disagreements with people. Some people’s attitudes to music can be so different to what I want to do. They can’t get to grips that people might want something which isn’t just about being happy. I have more ideas which are about being sad, I don’t know, a more wider range of emotions which is what I’m into. I’m interested in the full range of emotions that anyone can feel and that we all go through."

"Having one EP out on Bovinyl and being offered a three album deal on a major label is quite outrageous really"

So how would you describe what you’re doing?
"I don’t. I just feel lucky that I’m able to do it. Partly why I’m giving up DJ-ing is because I don’t feel very represented by what I’m trying to do. This year I’m going to be getting a live band together which won’t just involve me, but it’s going to be more of a gig situation rather than a club which is what I want to do. The music I’m into, I don’t want to have to cater for people who just want to dance which can narrow its’ appeal too much. It’s listening music."
So what market area is that aimed at?
"I don’t know…..I don’t really think about things like that. You can’t if you’re doing something that you have focus on and belief in, you don’t start thinking about the commercial constraints of it."
But somebody has got to come along and say ‘we want this….’
"Yeh, I mean that’s where Ninja come in, because of the size of company they are and the amount of artists they’ve got, and people are always interested in their artists. They’ve been very good about me not DJ-ing, very understanding about it. They want me to do the next album to the best I can and they’re happy to put it out and back it. I don’t really have much more grasp of what I’m doing."
Tell me about your releases.
Most of it is as ‘Animals On Wheels’. That name is kind of owned by Ninja, although I can release music anywhere I want under another name which is a very good deal. With rock music you don’t get that. You just get all your music as an individual signed to that company and everything you do you they have to listen to is first. Where as I could just go an do another album with another company under another name."
How does the deal with Ninja work?
"Three albums for which I get an advance (amount not quoted) which they can decide not to pick up if they don’t want to for whatever reason. It’s good because in the contract its got that I can release one EP a year on Bovinyl under the name ‘Animals On Wheels’ and they even let me put the Bovinyl logo on the albums."
Is your stuff very diverse?
Its becoming more. The first album has got a lot of variety which in a way I know turns a some people off it, but its got a nod to dance floor music which at the time I was really up fo. But now Iwant to make music which a lot of people who are into dance floor music won’t bother listening to" Is there anyone in particular you’re into now?
Mark Hollis’ new album (ex Talk Talk) which production wise I’m really interested in. I’m really interested in recording to be as subtle as possible, holding everything back. I’m not into doing loud things for the sake of being loud which I’ve done a fair bit of ‘cos I do work a lot. I’ve got a lot of dats with material, hours and hours. I’ve got a whole dat-full of really noisy kind of drum and bass stuff. I just want to explore things that interest me. A lot of people who start out to make electronic music are doing it from the dance floor angle, and it’s a completely different thing. I just want to do something that doesn’t need to be related to that club culture at all."

But how about when you started?
"Yeh, I wanted to be a part of that, but I don’t now."
Is that because you got your deal which gives you the freedom?
"Its more to do with the way the music I’m interested in is evolving for me. The deal was a bit of luck really. I just see it as being really lucky. I mean, having one EP out on Bovinyl and being offered a three album deal on a major label is quite outrageous really. Its funny ‘cos my perspective on Ninja tunes is that they’re always kind of hip hop, funk, party people and the bloke who signed me is backing me to do what I want to do and likes the idea of me making quiet music. I think that this year they’re gong to show much more of their music evolving."