Dance music is such a fickle industry that can sometimes be played through a combination of luck and timing. Then there are artists that have far more respect, understanding and genuine love for their craft. Mat Playford is one such artist.

Mat's passion for music began at the tender age of 5 years old, where he took it upon himself to be the tape operator at his mother's aerobics classes. This was a huge signpost of what was to come, and accordingly, throughout his teenage years and to the present day, Mat has spent many hundreds of hours and their equivalent in pounds tracking down keyboards of all ilks and vintages. After building a small studio in his mid-teens, Mat followed his inspiration and enrolled at Leeds College of Music for 5 years. By the 4th year he had been asked to lecture at the college.

Around this time Mat two US house producers who would further shape his future. It was 1996 when Mat met Sandy Rivera & Angel Moraes, and it was also in this year that he went to stay in Brooklyn to hang out, soak up their advice & skills, and consider his possibilities. A tour with Sandy Rivera came about where Mat built on his experience and found the most important thing to him was the ability to see beyond his surroundings. Experiences like this breed life-changing moments, and these times fuelled Mat's mind and gave him the confidence and drive to keep pushing forward.

A deal with Arista came about, based around a collaboration with acid-house exponent Paul Woolford, and Mat ended up scouting and signing a track by US house producer Matt DiMario (as M1 "Electronic Funk"), furthermore cementing his bonds with the world of A&R. Around this time Mat was also ploughing a huge amount of energy into his record shop, Play Music in Leeds, and in it's first year this was nominated as Best Independent Record Store in the Musik Magazine awards. The sheer volume of experience Mat picked up along the way throughout all these moments and right up to the present day has ensured that he keeps his mind open to new trends and possiblities within the scene, rather than choosing one direction and staying within that.

This year Mat will launch his own label, Social Problem, with the first release about to drop, his hugely supported bootleg of Josh One's 'Contemplation', that has been charted and played by artists from across the spectrum including Carl Cox, Laurent Garnier, Anja Schneider and Yousef. This together with further solo projects from him and collaborations and Tim Deluxe, Paul Woolford and Sandy Rivera are destined to propel the label into the spotlight. Mat has also recently guested on Radio 1 In New Music We Trust show and is set to play a string of dates at We Love in Ibiza this Summer. A man who is appreciated and comfortable across the various guises of the dance music World, 2008 is the year we all wake up to his sound.

To date, the list of studio collaborators Mat has worked with includes Darren Emerson, Drizabone, Angel Moraes, Robert Owens, Shelley Poole, Pete Herbert, Clive Henry and Steve Kotey to name a few. Testament to the scope of his approach being far and wide. Throughout all of this, Mat has been DJing at venues across the Globe alongside Dubfire, Masters at Work, Sandy Rivera, Nic Fancuilli, Roger Sanchez, Junior Vasquez, Paul Woolford and at venues such as the The End & Ministry Of Sound in London, Red Drum in Helsinki and holds a residency at London's best underground night, DDD. The scope of Mat's musical trajectory with his sets takes in all manner of house from deep New York-style tracks to the contemporary modern european style that has been so prevalent throughout 2007 and into 2008. The cliché "a man to watch" has never been so apt.

www.myspace.com/matplayford