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Finishing off Octobers's interviews we have the mastermind behind the label Hardwired T-Bot.

T-Bot has been in the hard house scene for over 10 years now, and while he may not be as well known as Nick Sentience or BK, T-Bot continues to push the hard house scene in the United States with all he can. Most recently he has brought over Marc Johnson and Rodi Style to play in San Francisco at the Lovefest Parade. When not throwing giant parties, T-Bot is busy in the studio crankin out tracks, with releases on Toolbox Choons, The Beat Ranch Digital and of course his own label Hardwired.

Thanks Tom for takin the time out to do this.The word on the street is that you come from California, is that true?

Yes, I've been a California resident for about 10 years which is when I first really got into the Hard House scene.

Coming from the US, the laws there are very strict in regards to the "RAVE ACT". How has that affected the scene since it has been in place?

Well it's really brought things back to a much smaller underground level to be honest. Back in the mid to late nineties we had regular venues that would accommodate 2000 person underground parties weekly and 10,000 to 15,000 person parties at least once or twice a month! Hell sometimes you'd start off the weekend with a mini-massive and then hit up to 10,000 person event the next day with an after-hours on Sunday. Now it seems like if you can get a couple hundred kids in a warehouse and not get shut down by 2am you can consider it a successful show.

How long ago did you get into clubbing? Did you always want to be a dj?

Well at one point I was taking a lot of electronic / music classes in college but had no idea what techno was, just always drawn to synthesized sound. I was nervous as hell to attend my first ‘rave’ which was a huge event called Metropolis in the nineties. My two friends with their big pants and strange candy bracelets dragged me along to wait in line with thousands of other ravers. By the time we got in and had a strangely flavored tic-tac I was hooked to the groove. A truly life changing experience, it only took a matter of months before I had my first set of 1200s.

What has been your favourite or most memorable djing experience?

I’d say my favorite gig to date has been this years San Francisco Lovefest. Nothing like knocking out some hard arse NRG along side Marc Johnson and Rodi Style in front of 65,000 people!

And your worst experience, have you had any strange requests for 50 Cent?

Haha good one, I was playing at an underground once underneath a bridge in San Francisco. Some homie came up and asked me how much he'd have to pay me to shut off the decks and put on a stereo with some hip-hop. Hopefully it wasn't my mixing.

Did you always play hard house, or did you start off with something different? What was it that drew you to hard house?

Well out in the states no one really knew what hard house was. A few djs would throw some hard trance into there sets so I always gravitated towards the harder sounds. As I started hearing more Stay up Forever, Noom, Tripoli Trax and eventually Kaktai that’s when my sound really started to develop.

You are the head of the label Hardwired. What were some of the challenges involved with starting up a label in this digital age?

The biggest challenge has really been quantity. Unless you’re a Vicious Circle or a Flashpoint pressing large numbers is really pointless if you dont have a large garage to store all your back-stock. I play a lot of digital myself but there’s always going to be room in my crate for vinyl, it just feels better and sounds warmer.

What can we expect from Hardwired in the coming months?

Just going to press this week is HardWired #3 with a slammin remix of my track ‘Whiplash’ by Kam-pain and Dan Dyson. The flip is The Mizniss & Louis Fernio ‘Afraid of Us’, I really like the direction their sound is going hard and dancey.

HardWired #4 will feature James Nardi’s ‘The Joker’. Another one of my favs at the moment, he really keeps it filthy and driving. The flip will have a well overdue remix of another one of mine called ‘Unnatural’.

Do you think you may go digital in the future?

Well I already play a lot of digi just because it can come straight off your hard-drive and into a club that same night. As far as the label goes I’ll be keeping it strictly wax.

Tell us about your production experience, what program(s) do you use?

I use to tinker with Opcode studio vision when I first started out then moved on to Cubase VST 32 from there. Currently I run Cubase SX3, Abelton, and occasionally rewire into Reason. As far as hardware I’ve only kept my Access Virus B, Alpha Juno 2, MOTU 828 interface, Dynaudio 5A monitors, and am looking to pick up a TB-303 at some point. A pretty minimal setup but it’s been working out quite well.

Who or what have been your production influences?

That would really be a long list! My favs have always been Paul Maddox, Dom Sweeten, Captain Tinrib, Andy Farley, and lately Nardi / Dwyer.

Are there any favorite VSTs or plugs that you use?

My favs have always been the Waves bundles, AudioRealism Bassline, Z3TA, the Korg stuff, my TC PowerCore card and other free bits picked up here and there.

What can we expect for the future of T-Bot's productions?

Only time will tell but I always try to keep it danceable (so not too fast), hard, driving, and with a heavy bass and groove, guess those are my top elements. Always been a sucker for a heavy synth line aswell.

Is there any producers that you would like to work with in the future?

Paul Maddox, Dom Sweeten, Captain Tinrib, James Nardi.

What labels are doing it for you at the moment?

Toolbox, Mad Cow, Vicious Circle, Flashpoint, SpinHard, Deprivation, and of course HardWired.

Any last words of self promotion or anything?

Sure! Myspace.com/nrgdj tend to post all my stuff up on there. Also with Kam-pain and Dan Dyson’s version of ‘Whiplash’, my original will be coming out digital on The Beat Ranch Digital. Another one of my originals ‘The Pulse’ will be coming to Toolbox digi, Check em out!

Thanks for having me and I’ll have an exclusive mix for you soon!