Sometimes inspiration comes from the most unlikely of places, and it’s certainly true of DJ Gareth Cheshire. Having been involved in dance music for a few years promoting Liverpool clubnight Bubblegum, he was forced to take a break from DJing for twelve months when he ruptured his eardrums in 2007.

For some it would mark the death knell for their musical passion, but the time out proved to be exactly the vindication Cheshire would need, ensuring a swift resurgence once his ears finally healed.His epiphany would come firstly in a technological change. Switching up to use the Ableton software, Gareth began experimenting with reconstructing the tracks he was feeling to create looser and more personal representations of his influences. This led to him starting the Downstairs Mixup Project, a monthly podcast showcasing Cheshire’s revitalised DJing technique, and, almost instantaneously, his new stylistic change. Whilst his love rested with the jacking and west coast flavoured house beats emanating from over the Atlantic, he’d soon becoming equally entranced with the slowed down house of Scandinavian producers like Prins Thomas, Lindstrom and Todd Terje. The fixation lay with what modern producers were taking from seventies disco, where rolling funk, cosmic psychedelica and razor sharp synths all washed amongst the grooves. Cheshire was totally reborn.

The podcast platform proved a success, reintegrating Gareth into the Liverpool club scene and garnering a splurge of gigs, notably at three of the city’s most impressive small nights in Freeze, Pigeonhole Disco and Coco de Mer. Chopping each track on the fly and taking DJing beyond simply playing records, he was quickly blurring the boundaries between DJ and artist, utilising the software in every way it had been intended. Inspired by the edit culture that engulfed the nouveau disco scene, he focused on how the software could reanimate the music he loved, adding his own personal twist and stamp at every opportunity in much the same vein as the heroes of the genre, Larry Levan, Greg Wilson and Ron Hardy among them, had done previously.

It’s all led to Gareth reaffirming himself as an artist and DJ of real note and promise. His obscure disco edits of Talking Heads and The Police have found their ways into the boxes of Phat Phil Cooper, 40 Thieves, Steve Parry and Yousef, the latter who has been a keen supporter of Gareth since his early DJing forages. It was Yousef who selected Gareth’s remix of his own ‘Letter to No-one’ as the best amongst a glut of entrants of hopeful producers, gaining heavy support from Tommy Four Seven and SubClub’s Harri in the process with it’s heavy hitting acidic 808 wailing.

It wasn’t the only competition Gareth secured. He has also been winner at both of Circus’ DJ contests in 2004 and 2008, each time winning a set at Yousef’s clubnight. The latter was that evocative Gareth has made two appearances since, warming up for London’s salubrious worst kept secret Horsemeat Disco and playing alongside Eric Prydz, Groove Armada, Sebo K, Damien Lazarus and James Zabiela. He’s clocked appearances as far afield as Preston’s For No Reason and Sikamikanico and Club Cube in Oslo, his podcasts drawing international acclaim. Radio support has been thick and fast too, Juice FM showcasing mixes of Gareth’s on their ‘Red Zone’ and ’After Hours’ shows as well as Manchester Key 103’s ‘Back to Our House’.

So as 2009 gathers speed Gareth seems primed for the big time. Marrying the technological craft with an ever-expanding readiness to exploit the past as well as the future, Cheshire’s poignancy remains in positioning himself at the epicentre of the DJ’s craft in all of it’s roles.

With his production prowess increasing at an ever expanding rate, drawing stylistic inspiration from the unlikeliest of sources and rocking out clubs across the North West, the Gareth Cheshire juggernaut shows no signs of relenting. Ear Drums thankfully now intact...