In South London, there's a venue called the Bedford. It's famous for many things, but one of them is its labyrinthine rooms hosting comedy, ballroom, jive, salsa dancing, gigs and God knows what else. When Eric Apapoulay finished the Nitin Sawhney tour he lay on a beach in Thailand for 3 months and decided he wanted to set up a jam night with a difference. He approached The Bedford. As a musician I have an aversion to jam nights but Eric, being the beautiful musician he is, had something very different in mind...

I went along on the first night, initially it was just Eric, Marina (his partner) and myself, no one else showed up. They didn't seem worried by the low attendance, percussion was laid on all the tables and we just started playing. Gradually, people wandered in, they picked up the percussion and became part of the music. Some of London's finest musicians showed, friends you don't get to see because of your own busy working schedules, but here there was no differentiation between players and non-players.

The night developed, attracting people by word of mouth. Where do players go when they're not touring, recording and working? Well places like this. You didn't know if the person picking up the guitar could play or not. Whether the dude getting behind the drums could lay it down or not. Some nights were special, some nights were lame, but that was the point. People gathered who just wanted to be part of the music, that's where I became inspired to put this project together. The talk of London's melting pot of cultures is defined by places like this, the talent out there is mind blowing. The essence of this project is based on real players who love playing, and will play anything. They reflect all that is good about music in London. They are London's melting pot.

High Barn is a venue and recording studio like no other. An oak beamed, expansive space which means you get this beautiful natural sound when you play. It's values, and its existence are based on passions very close to my own. I met the then A & R, John Clegg at a multimedia event, we discussed, as you do, the strange and confused practise that is the music industry and the ridiculous relationships between artists and label. He described the relationship his boss likes to have with his artists, It was music to my ears. Over the period of a year I've gotten to know Chris Bullen the director, and seen him develop this amazing project.

The essence of this project is to capture the energy of the band, and the beauty of this venue. The business is to have a relationship as simple as possible, based on mutual respect and effort - the type of relationship that often is missing in the music industry. I, as an artist, have complete control of the recording, of how it sounds and how it's recorded. It's exciting times.

Bassistry, the new cool. It's Outta Style, In Time!