Jonny L is late. I'm supposed to be meeting him in a north London pub at 3 o'clock to talk about his new album "Magnetic", but he still hasn't showed after half an hour. Suddenly he enters and apologises, explaining that he had a heavy session at his nearby studio the night before and he's just got up. So after an orange juice and a quick fag for breakfast, it's straight down to business...

Jonny always wanted a career in music as it's all he's ever liked. He was encouraged towards anything musical at school and even learnt some classical theory. This interest developed further after his father bought him a little keyboard when he was about 12. The big difference for him was that it was electronic. He never really enjoyed the rules at school, and so left early to work as an engineer at a commercial recording studio. Meanwhile, he also had his own small studio through compensation money from a car accident. He was heavily into making demos and a hardcore rave track on one called "Hurt You So" got him a publishing deal with Virgin. His father's work already involved sorting out contracts, so he became Jonny's manager and went off to get him a recording deal. There were a few offers on the table, but Jonny decided to sign with XL in 1992.

Although XL is still an independent label, it's one of the biggest and run like a major. Bizarrely, the first thing that XL told him after he signed was that rave had died. They had enjoyed a brief period of success with their "Chapter" compilation series and The Prodigy, but they now wanted to move away from breakbeat. This was obviously different to the direction Jonny was going. He wasn't really in complete control in those days and couldn't really argue, after all, he had just signed a big deal, so he felt obliged to at least move a little bit. Also, Jonny admits that his head wasn't quite sorted out after a few years of heavy raving and wasn't totally sure himself. So he tried making some other types of music just to make sure they weren't what he wanted to do. So, there was interference for a few years, but around '94 Jonny asked them to let him get on with his own thing and this meant a return to his breakbeat roots, specifically drum & bass. The relationship has got a lot better ever since. Jonny now not only has pretty much control over all the music, but also gets involved in other things like the artwork.

"They listen to me a lot more now," says Jonny. "For example, I told them this album had to come out this year - got to. 'There are things going on, vibes', I said, 'just trust me.' They wanted to bring it out next year, but I think now they see I'm more in touch with the people in the scene and I'm going to the raves, so I know what I'm talking about. They've been good in that they're trying to meet what I want more and backing it as well."

"Magnetic" is Jonny's second album. His first, "Sawtooth", was only released a year ago, so he's certainly making up for lost time. ""Sawtooth" was a nice starting point, but I wasn't happy with it and wanted to go straight into a second album," he confesses. "I definitely feel happier with this one. I'm looking forward to coming with a third as well, because it's the sort of thing where you've just got to write loads of tunes to really find your personal sound. That just comes with making and releasing a lot of tunes." Jonny feels he's still finding his sound. He doesn't know what he's looking for either. He'll only know when he finds it, so he's just keeping going until that day.

"I wanted to widen the scope, make it a bit more diverse than "Sawtooth"," he continues, "and just try some different things. I didn't listen to drum & bass for the period I was writing it, as I didn't want to be influenced by anything too much. I was just thinking 'how can I push it on and offer people other ideas.' It's more of an ideas album. It's also a progression personally - I'm trying to get the production better every time. I'm still trying to mix music with nasty beats 'n' bass and trying to find a way of getting vocals in with it still being 'clubby'. I'm just experimenting."

It's important to Jonny that he goes as far as he can in his experiments and quest for originality: "When I sample something, I rarely leave the sample as it is. I have to change it on the computer with software until it sounds completely different. Everything I do, I at least try and do it slightly different than the last time. You need to have people who make similar records to have a scene, but you also need people to move things forward, or at least try to. I'm not saying that all of my stuff works, but there are tracks on "Magnetic" different from anything else out there and if that influences someone to make something a bit different again, then the scene moves forward and stays fresh."

Jonny even learnt to play bass guitar for this album in his drive to push the boundaries: "I love the sound of the bass guitar, and I've been practising for a while. It's a fretless bass, so there's no scale and you can play any note you want - it sounds better over drum & bass. Obviously, I'm trying to play it in a way that doesn't sound like a Roni Size track. I used as the second half of the b-line in "Brother". I played it, sampled it and just reeled it off."

Jonny is both the engineer and producer of his music, so he has complete control over his ideas and music. It's obvious he knows his way around the equipment, but it never sounds too clinical or dry as some electronic music can. "You must program equipment with a human feel so it's not just computer music, like a drum machine playing on its own," he believes. "The key is to give it your touch so that it comes alive. I've also had some classical training, so I understand a bit of theory. I find this very useful as I know what notes do and don't go together and why. However, sometimes notes that technically shouldn't go together actually work. A lot of 'proper' musicians don't mix notes up because it's grammatically wrong, but many DJs mix records together that don't strictly musically fit, but it still works. I've got both sides in me."

More and more drum & bass is using sounds normally associated with techno. Even the "Magnetic" title of the album conjures up cold, metallic, futuristic, hard, industrial images. Both styles feed off the technology, but while Jonny freely admits to liking techno, he loves the scope that drum & bass gives him: "I have a few 70's/80's analogue synthesisers in my studio and they're what techno has been made on, so obviously you get a similar sound using them. There's no other music for me now apart from drum & bass. You get so much freedom making drum & bass - no matter what influences you use in it, it always seems to work. In other types of music, when you try and mix the styles up, it just sounds like a mess. It just seems to be like future music, because whatever you mix with it complements it."

Right from his car accident in his early teenage years to a particularly nasty incident when an E he took turned out to be ketamine, Jonny has had quite a few set-backs in life. The security his XL deal has given him has meant he might not have had the same struggle as other producers, but even here he has had to fight for the freedom to express himself. "Throughout my career I've fallen over and made all the mistakes you can make," he says honestly, "mentally, physically, you name it. That has just helped me to be more responsible about music and take a better approach. It's all about your outward approach. If your approach is positive, things will work for you. When you go around with the wrong attitude, doing stupid things, it comes straight back and kicks you in the face. I've been through a fair amount of things, but this has given me something to write about. A lot of people have had a smooth road in life, but they've got nothing to say."

Jonny has always been something of an outsider in the close-knit drum & bass community. I suppose with XL he was one of the first to sign to a 'major' label deal and this made him different. Releasing a few post-ravey vocal tracks before fully returning to the scene also might have been taken the wrong way. Whatever, this isn't the case now, but Jonny feels that he's still a slight outsider because he mixes in different circles. Not that he sees his own friends very much. His drive means he's almost constantly in the studio: "Musically speaking, it's sweet as a nut now. The name is riding strong and I've got a lot more stuff coming still. There is a little group there and everyone does know everyone. As far being 'in' with that group, I'm getting to know people, but I just do it naturally. I don't force my way in anywhere. If they call me up and are friendly, then I'm friendly back."

One person who has been highly supportive and influential behind his acceptance is Grooverider, especially with his remix of Jonny's most well know track, "Piper." "I barely know the guy," admits Jonny, "but recently we've spoke a few times on the phone and we're going to do a couple of things together in the near future as well." On "Magnetic", you'll also find a collaboration with Optical plus vocals from Lady Kier and Silvah Bullet. However, as Jonny is signed exclusively with XL, this is the only label that can release his work - under any name. "I don't like that part of my contract,"he acknowledges. "I'd like to have more freedom, but unfortunately they need that kind of word to feel safe. If it's non-exclusive, they're not going to give you any sort of advance, just 50/50. At the moment, the advances they've been giving me have helped me build the studio and pull in musicians if I need them. It helps me make it a bigger project at the end of the day."

Jonny has taken up a bit of DJing in the last year, but you've more chance of catching him if you live outside of the UK. He's still much more into producing music but he admits that it has already helped him with his studio work, particularly the more dancefloor orientated tracks. If Jonny had his way, this would be as close you would get him to performing a live PA. He feels you just can't reproduce his sort of music truly live unless you have mountains of equipment and this wouldn't be cost-effective either. This hasn't stopped XL from encouraging him to perform live though. Just after the interview finishes, Jonny gets a phone call from XL about a gig they want him to play. Reluctantly, he tells them he might be able to do it with Silvah Bullet rapping and his guitarminator. I ask him if this guitarminator is some sort of effect for his guitar. Jonny laughs. It turns out that Guitarminator is actually a far-out guy Jonny knows. He can't actually play guitar, but once onstage, some sort of mystical spirit possesses him and he actually carries it off. On that slightly surreal note, we shake hands and Jonny disappears out of the door into the hazy late afternoon sunshine.

WORDS: Colin Steven