For many headz, decent dance music has always existed, but this wasn't always the case. Many years ago there was a time when the power of the breakbeat had yet to be unleashed. Who better to regale us with stories of these dark days than one of the most well-known names across all dance music, one of the original acid house DJs and a founding-father of drum & bass who was unquestionably there, Fabio.

"I don't think people realise how illegal they [raves] used to be. We used to break into warehouses, set up rigs and have a party. That was unheard of. We used to go to little suburban towns and do this. The local bobbies were like, 'what the fuck is going on here?' They had never seen this many people in their town, never seen these kinds of people. It was the craziest thing..." Fabio is in full flow, recounting this slightly surreal, but nevertheless amusing tale of real raving in the early days.

The birth of modern dance music, what was it actually like? How does something like that begin ? "It was in the period of 1986-1990 that it happened, we started playing funk and hip hop but you could tell there was something else going on, the whole electronic music phenomena was starting to build..." Where Fabio and Grooverider (yes, the partnership does stretch back this long, over 10 years) are concerned it all began at an illegal drinking den in Brixton, Mendoza's. The owner having heard them over a pirate-radio station and gave them a chance to DJ, with a remit to play acid house, which was unheard of. "There were loads of little reggae places. At Mendoza's he took a gamble with acid house and it paid off. Me and Groove, that's where we started off our partnership. It was wicked because it opened at four in the morning and went on till 12 the next day, on a Tuesday. Crazy days."

What about the arrival of ecstasy into the equation? "We've always been totally straight, so when the first ecstasy explosion happened we couldn't believe what was going on, it was actually quite frightening. We didn't understand what was going on at all, people going crazy, but we got used to it and it used to be brilliant." From there things just took off: "from Mendoza's we ended up doing the Biology's, Energy's and Sunrise's in the late 80s. A really, really exciting time, something different, something new, we were really young and it was mind blowing, what was happening. We didn't care if it was going to be a career for us, we were living for the day."

Fabio's penchant for risk-taking and the thrill he derives from spontaneity is something still apparent today, over a decade later, only now it is manifested behind the decks and through Creative Source. Fabio was one of very few DJs to stick to his guns musically, when the majority of people were following different aspects of drum & bass. The fickle mainstream media labelled his style 'intelligent', now he is the man responsible for putting the funk back into drum & bass and making it sexy again. As far as Fabio is concerned, it [funk] never went way, though admittedly more artists have caught on to the fact that music without soul can be very boring.

The fact that the early Creative Source releases came out during the dark phase of drum & bass is partly the motivation behind the long-awaited Creative Source LP, the aptly titled 'Liquid Funk 2000', which is due for release this month. "Me and Sarah (Groove Connection) sat down and thought a lot of these tracks got missed, they came out at a time when drum & bass had got darker and people weren't really going for what we were doing. If you listen back now, maybe some of those tracks were meant for this time, they still sound really fresh. So we thought it would be good to take a retrospective of what we have done since 1996." With 16 tracks running from the first ever release, Carlito's 'Heaven', through to more recent tracks like the 'Mindgaterz' (Peshay remix), plus a couple of remixes by Fabio, the LP is guaranteed to be a success.

Having found a niche in terms of a style that is well-received hasn't resulted in Fabio resting on his laurels. He has a personal crusade, from which nothing can, and will, distract him. This is the year that the perfect equilibrium between funk and hard breaks will be found: "I'm trying to create a medium between what Bukem does with what Peshay does with what Andy C does. I love the dark stuff as well, Bad Company, Ed & Optical and Andy. I think it can all, kind of, fit together."

His thirst for trying out different things is also personified in Swerve, the Wednesday night shakedown at the Velvet Rooms. It is arguably one of the principal reasons behind the night. "It's a little place where I can play stuff that on a Saturday night, people won't appreciate. Midweek you can get away with a lot more, if people come out on a Wednesday they don't want to hear Saturday night stuff, so they appreciate it." The only rules are, "musically, I try and keep it on a dance level." Fabio is quick to recognise that this is only possible because of the, "proper foot soldiers that come down, week in week out, they're up for all of it, it's brilliant. You can experiment once you get the crowd behind you."

Swerve has been running for two years now, which is roughly the same time that Fabio & Grooverider have been broadcasting to the nation, every week on Radio 1. Fabio still finds it unbelievable that they are on Radio 1. "It is a total honour to be on Radio 1, because pound for pound it is one of the biggest stations in the world." True to their maverick personalities, Fabio & Grooverider have confounded all critics of being given the Friday graveyard slot from 2 until 4 in the morning. "We've surprised them. We've been getting good listening figures, more than Westwood."

Behind the decks or on the radio, Fabio, likes, "surprising the crowd. That element of being spontaneous." The anti-thesis of which, brings us onto one of his pet hates and something he hopes to see change this year. "DJing by numbers, having it all mapped out and knowing what exactly what you're doing to do, it's so tedious. I want to see DJs drop a track and surprise people, let them go away thinking 'I heard something different tonight', instead of knowing exactly what a DJ is going to play. It's so boring." Nevertheless, Fabio remains optimistic of this sea-change because of what fellow DJs and producers have been saying, "if everyone sticks to their guns it's going to be a wicked 2000."

The topic of drum & bass abroad sees Fabio at his most animated. "I tell you that's where it's going off. Especially Canada, it was the first place after England that got into drum & bass, six or seven years ago, big style." It is also where Fabio performed at one of his most memorable gigs, in front of 14,000 people, coming on after Public Enemy and EPMD; which is tough by anyone's standards. "When I got there everyone was going wild and I thought, 'how do I follow this?' I went on and everyone went crazy, it was on fire! No-one left till 6 in the morning, everyone stayed. An amazing sight, the techno and house rooms empty, and the drum & bass room phat."

The gradual spread of drum & bass into North and South America (particularly Brazil), is well-documented, equally so in Australia and Europe. However, the location of Fabio's Millennium Eve gig might raise a few eyebrows though. "On top of the newest, most hi-tech and expensive airport in the world in Malaysia. Asia's getting into it as well, there may be a gig in Bombay with Talvin Singh."

And what does Fabio think of the latest winner of the Mercury Music Award ? It transpires that he has a great deal of respect for him and the feeling is mutual. Fabio explains, "he acknowledges that Speed was his open door into dance music." There is the distinct possibility of the pair collaborating in the studio this year, or even on stage, as Fabio says, "I'd love to get him to take a tabla to a track. We love that sound, and live he is amazing."

My final question to Fabio is what he thinks of the notion of drum & bass being a post-modern form of art. "If you listen to it properly and when it's done properly it is an art form. It is all these genres put into this futuristic melting pot and you come with this mad urban funk. That's what it is to me." Drum & bass for the Turner Prize next year then ? Now there is a surreal thought...