I’ll never forget the day I ‘got’ house music. It was a Saturday afternoon, and I was grabbing a spot of sunshine outside with a dj friend who’d come over for some help. He wanted me, and he told me this quite seriously, to ‘sensibly jot down his action plan for dance music domination’. It was a lengthy list with the usual musical ambition; host his own radio show, start a record label, produce the sexiest deep house sound around and play his music on a main stage to thousands of people. And he wanted to do this for life. I was what one would call a ‘house head’ by then already, having long stumbled past the club circuit that promoted its vodka specials before the night’s entertainment line-up – I mean really, how long can a person actually do that to themselves? But I couldn’t help myself; I wanted to know, ‘why’? I’m all for a good dance but what on earth would possess a person to venture down this dogmatic road of artistic struggle? He wasn’t deterred in the slightest. He jumped up, hauled out his bag of discs and presented me with a mix and told me to give it a good listen. It was one of his first demos, painstakingly strung together through a collection of vocal tracks that told an intensely woven love story, right until the very last note. I was moved, partly because, the guy doesn’t get the girl in the end, but moved that someone could feel and hear so much in an arrangement of music. An hour earlier, it had simply been another bunch of songs I could dance to... I’m not sure when I consciously joined the struggle and became a martyr for every up-and-coming dj in the neighbourhood, but I understood their aural vision and I wanted to be part of it. As soon as I understood it, I wanted to live it too! The story so far, since then? That friend got his radio show- and a whole radio station to manage while he was at it, and we’re still not into the second half of the list! And so began my journey as a professional fanatic, indulging the music- and the madness- and making notes as I went. I’ve spent the past few years acquiring my electronic ear, appreciating all its glorious forms and trawling the club circuit with an unhidden agenda to dance to the best music I can find. And now I plan to share my experiences with you! Join me each week on defected.com as I document the best bits in the biz and keep you updated with the hottest bump-in-the-night news. The beat drops here! Little Lexi