What can be said about this gent that isn’t some kind of massive understatement. Many may know him from his roots-influenced project from ’92, Lionrock, with Roger Lyons and MC Buzz B from back in the day. Others may know him from his days as the Balearic master Revtone on the rather brilliant Nuphonic label. Perhaps you know him from his oft turn as remixer du jour, his dextrous hands re-jigging the likes of post-punk funkers Radio 4, electro feline Felix The Housecatt’s ‘Harlot’ (the track being an essential for any discerning DJ during the summer of 2001) or perhaps the ever iconoclastic Bjork. Or maybe, just maybe, it’s been the fact that Justin tends to blow up spots with his diverse take on electro-tech/disco leaving a throng of Justin Robertson fans in his wake. Who knows how you know him, but the odds are you do. And as the saying goes, if you don’t know, you better get to know. And sharpish. We caught up with him to ask him about Balearics, philosophy, diversity, record stores and house music.

You studied philosophy at university, do you think this influenced your outlook on music in anyway? 
Not directly. I probably have a slightly awkward view on the world sometimes. I don’t think it makes any direct impact on my work, though I’ve named a few tracks after philosophers. I don’t really know how it affects my life. I think it gives one a kind of critical edge to looking at things.

You’ve been in the industry for over a decade, what do you think have been the most interesting changes over that time? 
I think the electronic music scene has a fairly remarkable story really. I remember when it first really started to break in the late 80s and early 90s. There was a lot of cynicism about house music surviving. Especially by the mainstream music press it was portrayed as being a flash-inthe- pan, not worthy of critical analysis, not worthy to be talked about too much. I remember an NME phrase that came to me the other day, it was something like ‘Dunce House’ or something [laughs], they thought it was just going to be a fad and last a couple of summers and that would be it. As it turns out it’s been really resilient due to the fact that it doesn’t really have any rules to it, so it’s sort of mutated and changed.

But surely there must be some rules? 
The only sort of rule it has is that you have to dance to it and in fact even that’s not necessarily true. It’s also tied with the technology, so when the technology changes the music changes as well. It’s been through a few ups and downs – some people declared it dead a few years ago – I think what they were referring to was the phenomenon of the superclub and the commercial side of things. But the underground or the interesting music, whatever you want to call it, never really waned, in fact it’s probably stronger than it’s ever been. There’s a whole new generation, new names, new DJs, new producers, new kids into it. You know, it’s not like going to a Status Quo gig you know? It’s brought a new crowd because the sounds have evolved and are still sounding fresh. The day it stops sounding fresh is the day it will die. But I can’t see that happening because there’s so much innovation around and the sheer amount of different forms is amazing. Does that also apply to your own work too? From the hip hopinfluenced LionRock project to the techno on Bugged Out… I’ve got quite broad tastes, I like lots of different types of music from early 70s reggae and dub, Studio One, soul and also good Chicago house. They all have a gritty rawness to them that appeals to me. A passionate feel about them. I think that’s what attracts me to that sort of music. So whether it be a jacking house track or a spaced out Lee Perry record, there’s just a certain sound that I really get off on. I’m just a fan of music really, it’s not a case of analysing it too much, it just comes naturally. In fact I’m part of a fair few different projects that are very different but they seem to fit together.

Do you think working in a record store back in the day broadened your musical horizons? 
Well how it was, I was brought up as part of the John Peel generation. It’s those kind of broad tastes that I heard listening to his show. It exposed me to reggae, hip hop, stuff like that as well as the guitar stuff I grew up with. Then when I moved to Manchester, obviously there was the Hacienda. Going there was the first time I heard acid house and thinking ‘This is crazy alien music, I’ve got to get more into this’. And yeah, I think working in a record store helped, at the time I think we were selling a lot of guitar stuff as well as house music. So friends who worked at the store exposed me to quite a lot of interesting stuff I probably wouldn’t have heard of.

There was a time that your sound was considered Balearic. Any thoughts on returning to the sound in light of the nu-disco phenomenon? 
(Jokingly) I’ve always thought I had a rather Balearic edge to my music. No, recently I’ve had to do a couple of mixes, one of which was for Midlake on a track called ‘Roscoe’ and I did a very Balearic mix of that and I’m still trying to look to work with a few more band things. It takes me back to working The [Happy] Mondays and The Stone Roses and things like that and adding a Balearic feel to it. So yeah, I still like that kind of music. I’m also making another Revtone album at the moment that’s a little bit more electronic, but there’s definitely a certain Balearic edge to it. Of course, now there’s a lot of stuff out like Quiet Village and Idjut Boys and people like that… there are a lot of people making that sound. Your first Revtone album was originally released on Nuphonic (now Tirk), a label renowned for giving their artists creative freedom. Do you think there’s a lack of labels that allow their artists to be flexible? I think it’s a good time to be an independent. It’s a good time for labels. You know, I’ll be starting my own label again in a month or two’s time. I think people are more open minded than ever. Also the way people access music now, with downloads for example, they’re a lot more open to different things. It’s not so controlled by the majors or even a lot of the stores… there’s just a good variety of music. I think artists can afford to be self indulgent again [laughs] which I think is a good thing, you know? Yeah you make music for people, to communicate with people, but you also make a lot of it for yourself too. I think that’s quite important.