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Jay Haze is tall, lanky, with pale skin, Irish blue eyes, and mousy hair peeking from beneath his pushed back Etnies cap. Adrift in the middle of the Privilege DJ-booth-cum-island he's a slight figure, working his way steadily through one deep, magnetic tech house tune after another, somehow injecting warmth into the cavernous space. His arms are dotted with tattoos: the logo of his label Tuning Spork on his right forearm, the word "Irish" in green across his left bicep, and assorted other scrawls. There is a random quality to them, as if each was inked in a moment of impulse. In conversation, Haze is similarly disjointed.

He speaks earnestly and is visibly sincere, eager to be understood. But his memories are less a tapestry than a wild tangle of colourful yarn from which he plucks threads at random, talking his way to the end of one strand, then grabbing another. In the course of an hour - during which he slides from boastful, to pensive, to grateful, to angry, to magnanimous - he talks about prison, drugs, success, suicide, homelessness, and how music ties his life together.

Haze is fascinating and improbable. Not everything adds up. He says he made his first record with regular collaborator Michal Ho when he was 18. Later, he says he first tried producing when he was 19 or 20. Yet his recollections are remarkably detailed (he remembers the name of a cellmate from 12 years ago). He makes the sort of sweeping statements - like saying Berlin is "full of amateurs" - most people politely avoid. Yet he can be disarmingly sweet.

It's hard to know what to think. He is undoubtedly a vastly gifted producer, songwriter, engineer and DJ. But often his headline-grabbing quotes get more attention than his music. Is he a blowhard braggart or a misunderstood genius? At some level, Haze seems aware that others find him puzzling, irascible even, but he lacks the verbal filter most people employ. Like a kid, he says exactly what pops into his head judging how it might be perceived. But he also has the wariness of kicked puppy. Ultimately, the clues lie in those threads of memory. He says he had an abusive childhood in a poor town and I's not an unlikely tale coming from small town Pennsylvania (one of the most notorious heroin hotspots in America) and however exact the details, it accounts for both his defensiveness and his eagerness to please. For his pride at having made it out and - one imagines - the nagging question: "Why me? What did I do to deserve this ?"  

Tell us about Michel Ho.
"We made our first song together 10 years ago. Let me put it this way, Micha's the real deal. He's such an amazing producer, he's such a production force. When you work with him you always get something really fat. if you listen to Samim and Michel stuff and you listen to Samim's stuff on his own. You can see which brought which elements. Micha was more of the production, the groove, Samim was adding the details, sexy things."

Was your family musical?
"No. I don't come from a cultured family. I come from a very poor town. There's not very much encouragement there. A lot of the people there from when I grew up are still there."

You say that like you're worried you're going to run out…
"I'm very aware that at any given moment you could. I'm a happy guy but part of being happy is knowing there are people who are not so happy. [And] when people aren't happy they fuckin' hate it when people are happy. Especially people who aren't supposed to be happy, like me."
In jail for 16 months, living in the streets for two years. I've been in the most fucked up situations you could imagine.

Why do you say you aren't supposed to be happy?
"Look at my life. I come from an abusive childhood, I was in jail for 16 months, I was living in the streets for two years. I've been in the most fucked up situations you could imagine. I had to do what I had to do, and I've been in a lot of fucked up places doing it. And I made it out. I'm a self-made man. I've got German friends who the biggest thing that ever happened to them is their girlfriend left them, or something. People who have a real struggle threaten people who don't." 

When were you in prison? What for - dealing drugs?
"When I was 16. Nothing to do with drugs. Just stupid bullshit. Some friends and I didn't want to take a science test so we called in a bomb threat to our school. It was just a stoned prank. They nailed me on it, and all the assholes who did it with me sold me out, the motherfuckers...

The first two months I did in a room where I could touch the walls, completely solitary. That shit makes you into a man, real fast. After I got sentenced the cell block where they put me was full of big fuckers and I was the only white guy. But I never got into one fight. I was good at sports so everybody wanted me on their team. [And I was] teaching them to play chess, they loved that shit. It was cool. I look at it as a positive experience. I don't fear anything now."

Berlin is great. It's just that you get a lot of pipe dreamers coming to Berlin, who make up their profession as they go.

You seem to set very lofty goals for yourself. Are you your own worst critic?
"Yeah. But I'm good to myself."

In what way are you good to yourself?
"I wake up in the morning and I do what I love to do. I'm not going to lie and say I never get depressed. There was one time I was so depressed I was ready to jump, really." 

Why?
"[long pause] Nothing. It was a ridiculous thought a week later. It was after I got kicked out of Amsterdam, and moved to Berlin. I didn't fancy going back to complete nothingness. Having 200 euro in the bank, not knowing anybody, not speaking the language. It was so bad I wanted to jump, but those times are few and far between." 

Do you think you're unapproachable?
"No. I just know sometimes - things can always be misunderstood. That's something you have to be aware of. Sometimes people who are very aware of these sorts of things, and want to be known as nice guys, and want people to connect to their personality, they end up playing a bit of a game for the people. They're extra careful. I came into the airport today, I'm waiting at the gate - to give you an example - I see Timo Maas, who I'm playing with tonight, is at the gate. I've never met the guy, but I know from some of my friends he likes my music. When I got off the airplane I wasn't in the mood to go over and introduce myself. I got a lot of shit that I'm thinking about right now, I just want to get into the car, go to the hotel, prepare for this interview. So I know - not for an absolute fact, but I'm predicting this - but if I analyse it there's the possibility that Timo might be thinking "what was up with Jay Haze ? Why didn't he come over and say 'what's up ?' - who does he think he is?" if I were worried about that I would have gone over and said, hey, I like your records, I'm really glad to be playing with you later."

In your MySpace blog  you wrote that Berlin is not the best place for the professionalism you need… what did you mean? 
"Berlin is great. It's just that you get a lot of pipe dreamers coming to Berlin, who make up their profession as they go. Show me a booking agent with a degree in artist management. Show me one!" 

But you're a self-made man…
"Obviously there are a lot of people doing great work, for sure." 

So you're not planning to leave Berlin?
"Berlin has been more than a second home to me. I've been able to turn my life around and I'm living the life I'm comfortable with. I don't want anything right now and that's great. The positives outweigh the negatives by 100-fold. For the most part 2007 has been a great year. One of my best yet."

Jay Haze new album Love and Beyond is out in Feb 2008.