He hit number 1 last year with summer anthem 'Louder', now Daniel Stein AKA, DJ Fresh, is back with new track 'Hot Right Now'. We caught up with the drum and bass legend himself, to chat new music, live shows, childhood regret and more!

Hey DJ Fresh! Welcome to Craveonmusic! We're here at Ministry of Sound and it's a Monday morning when most DJs are no doubt asleep! how are you doing?
Yeah, good! It's quite early for me! *Laughs*

'Louder' was a huge hit last summer, and now you're back with new single 'Hot Right Now' featuring Rita Ora. What can you tell us about it?
It has been something that I've been working on for quite a long time and it's the second single from the new album which I think will be coming out around August. So lots of other exciting stuff lined up after this, but this is the beginning of the lead into the new album and all of the new stuff.

Rita's very new to the music scene, how did the collaboration come about?
I wrote the track and was trying to find the right person to sing it. I was in a studio session with some guys that worked with Rita and she was coming in the next day and I was trying to find someone to sing it. It's in quite a high key, so I tried a couple of people on it already and it just wasn't working out. They were like, “yeah, we've got this girl in Rita Ora, we're not really suppose to talk about her as she has this big deal with Roc Nation and they're waiting for the right single” and blah, blah, blah. I saw a YouTube clip of her and I just knew right away that she was the right person partly cos she's so animated, she has got so much charisma, she's hot and fresh, everything really that I wanted to be vocal on that song. She came in the next day and demoed it and it sounded amazing. It kind of wrapped up really quickly after that. It was really exciting and really, really cool to be part of her first proper release as well.

What would you describe 'Hot Right Now' as being about?
It's kind of a little bit tongue in cheek in a way. I mean, it's just quite light hearted, a fun song you know, but it's kind of a little bit about people jumping on bandwagons...

Oh really! What was the inspiration for that then?
*Laughs* Oh nothing! Nothing at all *winks* It's also I kinda like writing tracks and using track titles that have lots of different meanings. It can also apply to lots of different things. It's just like a fun, dance, high energy, feel good track.

Obviously you spoke about the album coming out. Can you tell us anything else about it?
I can't talk about anybody who is actually featuring on it yet.

Any hints?
There are some guys and some girls... *laughs* I can't unfortunately, I really wish that I could! I'm excited about it. It's all in this sort of vein of what I'm doing at the moment. It's all quite uplifting, you know, kind of like, high energy, feel good, hands in the air kind of stuff, you know.

Perfect for the summer then!
Yeah! It's all kind of that sort of vibe everything between drum and bass, dub-step more kind of housey stuff, but it's my kind of sound, but with big cool progressions.

Does it have a title yet?
*Checks with assistant to see if can reveal the title* We haven't quite decided yet!

Boo hiss! Well, you do have some live shows coming up don't you. Last year your Fresh/Live tour proved a huge sell out success and was really pioneering with what you set about doing. What can we expect from your live shows this year?
Continuing on that theme. It's quite a delicate balance between sonically keeping it as close as possible to the record because it's electronic and the sound of it is very difficult to reproduce live. For me that's a big challenge and part of why I wanted to do it. As time progresses, the focus is to make it sound better and make it liver and liver. It is 90% live at the moment, but I want to continue experimenting and having more freedom on stage with the band. Yeah, It has been going really, really well and the reaction has been great. It's something that I have always wanted to do so it's really exciting.

You're a DJ and producer, what encouraged you to first get started?
I've been making music since I can remember. Since I was 4 or 5 on the piano. When I was at school I used to sit there and play the piano and write songs and stuff. That has just always been the way that I've been

Are you classically trained then?
I had piano lessons as a kid, but I was a bit rebellious and kind of dropped out! *Laughs*

Did you get any piano grades?
Grade 4, not too bad!

Yeah, not too bad!
I think my parents were expecting that I would do a lot better than that. I actually did a test when I was at school, it was a musical aptitude test, and they said that I had the highest results on it that anyone had ever had apparently.

That's brilliant!
It is, but that's why it's pretty crap that I only got to Grade 4! *Laughs*

No plans to go back to the piano then!
You know what, actually I would really like to. It's so funny because my dad was in a band and he always said I should take my piano lessons more seriously. I was in a band and I always wished that I could play the piano better and now that I'm playing live I'm really realising it would be helpful and music theory as well. Hopefully at some point I'll find the time to get on it.

Can you play any other instruments?
Not really. I can kind of mess around a little bit on most instruments, but piano is really the main one. I use it for everything, writing dance music and stuff, you just need a keyboard all the time. That's what I have become used to using

What advice would you give to people looking to following your footsteps?
Be prepared to not get a lot of sleep! Also, be prepared to not get very much time to make music! *Laughs*

Wow, so what's a typical day like for you then?
It kind of depends really. It's weird cos it's like, I got back from holiday – I try and do that now every year. I'll go away in January for a week and reset myself. The week after I got back was pretty quiet and it was amazing. It was like, wicked, I could just get up and go in the studio and make music, now it's getting back to normality again which is just complete, utter manicness. It has been that way since I was probably 19, and now the stuff that I'm doing is crossing over more, but I was always at the top of what I was doing within drum and bass, so I've always been really, really busy. I'm the kind of person who likes being busy and I like challenging myself. It's pretty full on, pretty intense. I'm definitely not complaining, it's great to be able to make music. If that's what you love doing then it's like living a dream.

So what do you do on your down time – when you get it!
Make music! *Laughs* I guess pass out and recover. I'm working pretty much all of the time, I don't really get to go out, I don't really get to see friends much. Which is the down side of it really. At the same time, you meet people within the world that you are in, so a lot of my friends are people that I work with and have a lot of good working relationships with people, I don't get a lot of time, most people go out at the weekends and I'm always Djing, so my old mates who do different stuff I barely ever get to see and I miss them. For me, as long as I'm in the studio and I can write, I'm happy!

You mentioned there will be more collaborations on the album. Although you can't name any of them, who would be your dream collaboration?
I really want to work with the Fleet Foxes. They are brilliant, I'd really, really like to work with them – I was listening to their stuff again the other day. The thing is you never really know what you're going to get. You could think ok, well if I work with this person it's gonna go like this, or go like that, but you never really know how it's gonna go. Half the time it's to do with personalities and peoples energies and the way you get on with each other. I think the best collaborations are the ones that happen naturally and almost by accident. There have been some really – I wish I could talk about them! cool experiences with stuff that's going on for this album. I'm looking forward to getting that out there.

Oh, come on, you can't tease like that and not elaborate! Are you saying there have been some stories whilst recording your album?
Yeah, there have been, *laughs*, but I definitely can't talk about those! Yeah! It's kind of funny, as I'm getting to work with the bit more well known calibre of artists, obviously it changes. You hear about people being divas and stuff in the studio... I haven't had to deal with any of that as such, but at the same time you kind of – this definitely doesn't apply to Rita by the way, Rita is absolutely gorgeous. Some of the people who I've worked with and am not actually releasing stuff with. It's kind of like you have to tread on egg shells sometimes a little bit. The same with me really, people just take what they do very seriously and when you have really strong egos and really strong ideas in the room, it's almost like a separate skill being able to negotiate your way to come out with something that everybody is happy with. No specific tales, but there have certainly been some quite amusing moments.

We take it you're not a diva yourself then? *Laughs*
I'm sure I probably am! *Laughs* I try not to be though! I want to try and stay as down to earth as possible. It's weird because you get so caught up in the artistic side and the more credit people give you, start to just believe the hype and think that what you're doing is a lot more important than it actually is. Hopefully that's not rubbing off on me, we'll have to wait and see!

What keeps you grounded then?
I don't know, I think just the way I grew up really. My mum was very open about people and very understanding. I don't know if that's how I am, but it's how I would like to be. I try to not judge people and try to treat everybody the same and accept - it's like me doing what I'm doing. I'm so, so lucky to be doing it... if anything, I owe it to people who aren't as fortunate as I am, like, I need to be even more cool to them, do you know what I mean? Not less cool. It's something I've always thought right from when I first got into drum and bass and I used to see these interviews with people standing against walls trying to look really cool and kind of giving it like, you know? I used to think that's so whack! Why can't you just be yourself? I'm trying to remain like that – hopefully!

This year sounds action pretty packed for you. What are you particularly looking forward to?
Yeah! Live shows, finishing my album and a lot of DJ gigs. I think we're doing quite a lot of the big festivals this year so it's looking pretty ram-a-dram!

You've got quite a growing following on Twitter
It's getting there! *Laughs*

Have there been any unusual fan experiences?
Yeah! *Laughs* I'm not going to hail them out, but yes, there has been a few. It's funny doing stuff that's obviously reaching a totally different audience and younger kids as well. It's definitely a different kind of thing cos drum and bass, the main part of the scene is on average between 19 and mid 20s and obviously some of the people who are buying 'Louder' are a lot younger than that. It's kind of funny being around that. It's like when 'Louder' came out, a lot of Example's fans started hitting me up. You knew it was them as they had Example on the end of their names. So things like “Tasha Gleaves” or “Blah blah Gleaves”, which is Elliot's second name. It has been interesting seeing that. You read about it, but when it's actually directed at you and it's like, WOW, pretty crazy.

There hasn't been a “Mrs Fresh” yet then?
You know what, no, there hasn't! I'm kind of disappointed and waiting for it. I suppose though that's a good thing as you don't want anybody too crazy following you, do you know what I mean!

Who inspires you?
Lots of stuff, lots of people. It depends what you mean by “inspired” but I tend to have really specific ideas for tracks before I start. I'll often get inspired by a type of music rather than a specific artist. It just depends, there are so many different people.

Lastly, we like to sometimes throw in a bit of a random one. If we gave you an elephant to hide, where would you hide it?
In my studio! Laughs What a predictable answer!

Perhaps, but just make sure that you have someone to feed it whilst you're out on tour! Thanks for taking the time to chat to us DJ Fresh.

'Hot Right Now' is available to download from 12th February.

Take a look below to watch the official video: