In an industry that revolves around the incessant pigeonholing of artists, Jamie Anderson has long been adorned with the ambiguous tech-house tag that often attaches itself to the grey area between loungin’ it and avin’ it. "Everyone likes to say ‘this person is this’ and so on," says Jamie. "For me that's difficult, because I'll write something that DiY would play in a deep house set, and then something that you'd hear Cari Lekebusch play. Call it what you like, I just call it Artform."

The 25-year old ex-Londoner has settled into a comfortable working routine since moving to Bristol ten years ago. His approach to music production owes much to his musical background, having been taught the basics of many different instruments by jazz players over the years. "You learn loads playing with a real drummer, a real vocalist, a real bass player, etc." Jamie elucidates. "You learn a lot about structure, and the way different instruments are played. A bassline that I come up with on a keyboard just sounds nothing like what a real bass player who'd trained all his life would come up with."

Having dabbled with the drums, trumpet and cello, he finally settled on playing keys – a role regularly fulfilled in a funk band up until just a couple of years ago. Yet Jamie's penchant for electronic music stretches right back to his childhood. While everyone else at his school was listening to Duran Duran and the like, he would be down at the local vinyl emporium, hassling his dad for the latest Grandmaster Flash tune. "I wanted a sampler ever since I heard 'N-n-n-n-nineteen," he laughs.

Soon after relocating in Bristol, Jamie became involved with the local club circuit, DJing and joining forces with friends to promote regular techno/house events such as Club Destiny and Elements. He admits to not paying much attention to the Bristol club scene nowadays, instead choosing to concentrate on his one true passion, making music. He's worked in his own studio since his sixth Artform release; "That's when my music started to become fine-tuned – when I could have my equipment set up exactly how I wanted it to sound. I try to keep the music ‘toned down’ on Artform – organic, jazzy and funky, kind of house-based, but with techno production to it. For other projects, like the stuff done on Rotation and the Swedish labels, I go for something more up-front and straight for the dancefloor."

Enthused by Jamie's material, Rotation boss Dave Angel called him up shortly after the first Artform release. "Dave did a remix for me" he explains. "We became friends. Because he's only just down the road we hang out, discuss technical things, play computer games..." Rotation now handle his DJ bookings also, resulting in an increasingly hectic schedule. "They want to get me around the whole world, which is fine! My bookings seem to come in lumps, which is okay as I've a backlog of stuff in the studio to finish." He points over at an ominous shelf full of ‘work-in-progress’ DATs in the corner. "I always have to crack on with my music. If I leave it for a day there's something wrong – it's that craving for the 909 again. When I've been away playing, after sitting on an eight-hour flight you wish you’d spent the weekend in the studio instead, but playing to a crowd in another country does also give you inspiration. If I've been in the studio for a month without playing out, my music becomes mellow and ‘Bristol-ified’."

Receiving no response from the tapes he originally sent out, Jamie decided the best way to present his music was via his own record label. "I thought ‘This could go on forever’. Until you have a name for yourself, no one really wants to hear your music. It took the first couple of releases before people really started phoning up. I’m glad I’ve got my own label – you feel in control, and even if you sell half the amount of records you would on another label, you still make the same amount of money, and you still own the music. If you give it to a label and the project doesn’t do very well, not many people are going to hear it, and that's the last thing that's going to happen to it."

So, did he find it easy to settle on the name Artform? "It’s kind of difficult coming up with a name for a label that you think you can stick to. One word or one phrase has got to say a lot about the whole musical direction and where you think it’s going to be in five years time. The way I approach writing music and the way I want the label to go is to be artistic-led rather than craze-led – not led by the fact that something’s ‘big’ at the moment. It’s about treating dance music as an art form. I’ve got my sketchpad here, and I’m going to paint some pictures."