A musical ambassador since he was in short trousers, a professional DJ since his early teens, a veteran of acid house and a champion of techno, Carl Cox emits a love of his work that is dangerously infectious. Check him when he's behind the turntables and you can't mistake his ecstatic visage, dripping with sweat as his head bobs up and down to the beat, his hands pumping the air whenever they're not manipulating the turntables, his body swaying back and forth, frequently taking to the mike to share word on the latest underground tune he's about to break. You name it, Carl's been there and done it, but he's never lost sight of the point of it: playing music, breaking tunes, spreading love, celebrating life.

In 1977, aged 15, Carl got a set of turntables and began working as a mobile DJ. Disco captivated him. "I liked how it was orchestrated in such a way that a record could take you somewhere," he enthuses, citing Sylvester's 'You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)' because "it had a 4/4 beat, it had energy, it had breakdowns, and it had a diva singing his heart out - or her's."
The early 80s saw Cox playing the same music as other young London DJs - rare groove (obscure funk), New York hip-hop and electro. He was perfectly placed to hear Chicago house music in its earliest forms, and when the epic 'Acid Trax' by Phuture (a.k.a. DJ Pierre) came out in early '87, "I was just 'This is it.' I would do my parties, and I'd play old rare groove and hip hop and soul and I would say 'Right you've got to hear this Phuture track and people would just stop. 'What the hell are you doing?' I was just like, 'You've got to check this out, the 303s, the 909s...' I just had to go there. It's funny because all the people who thought I had freaked out then, are the people who are making the music now."

As a founder of the sound, Carl rode the exploding British rave scene. He played the opening night of Danny Rampling's legendary Shoom, co-promoted The Project with Paul Oakenfold, held a residency at the Zap Club in Brighton and at the Sunrise rave in 1988, hooked up a third turntable for his dawn-breaking set, got 15,000 kids back on their feet, and established a personal rep for three-deck wizardry.

The next step was to make music, and Carl's 1991 debut single for Paul Oakenfold's Perfecto label, 'I Want You,' gave him a top 30 hit and a Top of the Pops appearance. Two more singles also made the charts. But Carl was a reluctant pop star and as the masses moved onto fluffy house and trance, and the hardcore created jungle, Cox retreated into the club world that had nurtured him and instead embraced the underground sounds of techno.

"Techno drives home somewhere," he says of his core music. "It takes you to an element of surprise, not knowing where you're going. It's scary but wonderful at the same time." A 1995 mix CD, 'F.A.C.T.', became a techno benchmark, selling over 250,000 copies. His own 1996 EP 'Two Paintings and a Drum' again broke the British top 30. With then-wife Rachel running the business side, Carl set up Ultimate Music Management, which counted Josh Wink and Laurent Garnier among 27 clients. There was the Ultimatum record label, for which Cox recorded his third top 30 UK single 'Sensual Sophis-ti-cat.' And inevitably there was a weekly London techno club, Ultimate B.A.S.E., for which Carl was resident.

After forming his Intec Records in 1999, alongside DJ C1, the label went on to score a series of underground hits. “In only a few short years Intec has already become an integral part of the dance industry,” he explains. “It’s fantastic to be able to showcase quality music that I really believe in, to a wider audience.” Continuing his mission to conquer the entire world, Carl now also has a weekly radio show fittingly entitled Global, which is syndicated to over 10 million people including listeners in China, Argentina, Colombia and Istanbul.

2002 saw him further add to his “little empire”, by launching 23rd Century Records, an outlet for his own burgeoning production output. “A lot of the industry are not signing artists anymore,” he laments. “They go for bubblegum acts of five good looking girls and boys who dance around to pop…it doesn’t leave much room for what I do! So I thought if the majors don’t really understand this music, then I’ll have to put it out on my own.” The label’s first release was Carl’s acclaimed collaboration with Christian Smith a speaker–freaker entitled ‘Dirty Bass’. “I’d just finished that track and I took it with me to Miami.” he recalls. “I went up to Danny Tenaglia while he was playing one of his legendary sets in Space, and said ‘you need to play this record right now.’ It was 6.30 in the morning, he put it into his CD deck, gave it a quick listen and then mixed it straight in to his set. The place went absolutely ballistic.”

The summer of 2002 also saw Carl launch his now legendary residency at Space in Ibiza, offering clubbers a chance to get into the club for half the normal entry price. Carl flew over a seemingly inexhaustible supply of worldwide DJ talent to join him behind the decks and the night proved such a success that he’s returned to the White Isle every season since.

Carl’s highly anticipated third album, ‘The Second Sign’ will be out this summer and is anything but a straight up techno affair. “I’ve been working with Roni Size, Josh Wink, Saffron from Republica and Onallee of Reprazents. There’s drum & bass, punk, house; it’s got a real festival sound to it. Of all my three albums, this is the one I think I’m most happy with.”

Later in the summer Carl is also going to be releasing his DVD, ‘Carl Cox and Friends’ recorded from a recent live show in Rotterdam. “The venue we filmed at usually hosts people like Britney and Sting,” he explains. “It was amazing, there were 12,000 people going crazy and we had DJs like Kevin Saunderson and Michel de Hey, alongside live percussionists and vocalists from the album including Saffron from Republica. It went on for 7 hours,” he laughs. “I’ve been doing this for 34 years and I just stood back from it all and smiled. It made me feel great knowing that I could still move people that way after so long.”

As a result of the huge success of Carl Cox and Friends, Carl wanted to take this one-off event a step further and kicking off 9th April in Rotterdam, Carl and friends will be taking their huge sets, vocalists and epic performances on a thundering tour. Carl makes his UK comeback at Heaven, London with a marathon six-hour set and is then set to take in the Midlands, Scotland, Paris and Strasbourg plus there’s even plans for a Carl Cox and Friends tent at this year’s Godskitchen Global Gathering.

“Even if I'm just playing records, I'm into the moment of playing and with that, if I'm dancing, and I'm enjoying this moment, then I'm sure you guys can too, without the record having to be the focal point of why we're here. That's why I find it a lot easier to push new music on people - because I believe in what I'm playing, full stop. And everyone can feel that, and go with it, and then they can walk away with the experience of Carl Cox."