Love him or hate him, there's no denying that Judge Jules is one of dance music's most colourful institutions. To many the shamelessly commercial side of dance music, to his fans the DJ of the people or a truly modern entertainer, the name Judge Jules inspires extreme feelings amongst most clubbers. While his predominantly trance-oriented sound guarantees Jules' placing at the very top of the premier DJ league remains secure, there's far more to the Judge than a former law student turned record selector. Eminently quotable and opinionated, Jules breathes some life into the often faceless DJ world; indeed in a milieu dominated by Pete Tong's gravitas, he comes across like a cheeky little brother.

Despite this playfulness, Jules is the antithesis of out-to-lunch superstar spinner. Down to earth, business like and professional, talking to Jules one very quickly gets the feeling that he knows what he wants and how to get it. 2001 is probably Jules' biggest year; the next twelve months see the release of his debut album as well as Da Judge embarking on a new series of mix CDs.

"I'm doing an artist album as well as a mix album; I've stopped doing the Ministry mix series and am doing a new series called Clubbed, which will be a little bit more personal than the Ministry mix albums, more representative of my own DJing style," he explains over the phone en route to a Radio 1 gig. "I'm also releasing an artist album under my Hi-Gate nom de plume which, in typical artist album fashion is taking forever, dithering with insecurities. The album will be released at the beginning of the summer and it's summer-oriented. One side will be quite ambient and the other side will have all the mixes of dance floor stuff we've done, put together in one DJ mix."

Jules is full of surprises. When I ask him about his favourite type of dance music, his reply is similar to the kind of answer you'd get from a train spotter and not a crowd pleasing DJ.

"I think the great joy of dance music is that it's riddled with one-off producers so it's more poignant to talk about styles," he says, adding that "the two key genres I've been excited by in the last year are what I'd call progressive trance, not the mono, linear progressive material that Sasha & Digweed play, and not as bright and over-happy as trance, more the stuff that meets in the middle. There's also a lot of breakbeat stuff I can actually play out nowadays," he says, which sounds completely at odds with his rave monkey-friendly sound track. "In the past, I was a big fan of people like Adam Freeland, but it was always totally inappropriate for the crowds I play to. There's a whole range of break beat I can get away with nowadays; it has become much more dancefloor-oriented."

Whether or not Jules' new found break beat direction will make an appearance at Gatecrasher at The Point Depot, Jules' next Irish date, is a moot point. Although the club has been accused of deserting its trance sound for a more mature 'progressive' style of late, Jules is quick to defend his Sheffield residency.

"Gatecrasher gets very full from 10pm onwards and what they're trying to do is build things up and vary it a bit. They haven't changed fully, but you have to move things on and incorporate a number of styles. Myself and Scott Bond are both residents and we still play trance."

Never a fan of the 'Crasher kids at the best of times, Jules is also happy that the club is restricting the amount of day glo clubbers that pass through its doors these days:

"I think their attitude towards the 'Crasher kids is that they didn't want other people to suffer; it reached a point where the 'Crasher kids would just sit around and gurn and didn't add anything to the UK's best dance club."

While the 'Crasher look hasn't exactly caught on in Irish clubbing, the use of Internet technology and in particular the Sonarstate.com web site has helped unearth a number of potential Irish Mobys, Timo Maas' and MJ Coles. The winner of the competition will be playing alongside Jules at the Gatecrasher event, and Jules, who works as an adviser for UK music site Peoplesound and whose own site, Judgejules.net is one of the most trafficked UK dance web sites, is keen to encourage such online activity.

"Sonarstate is a great idea; it's a very difficult business to make any headway in - the one way in is to make lots of good records. A few Gatecrasher residents have done it recently - Timo Maas, Sander Kleinenberg, DJ Tiesto. If you want to make your way as a DJ, that's the only way to achieve it."

Has his recent marriage and the birth of his son, Jack, given him any thoughts about hanging up his headphones for good?

"Giving up DJing isn't a choice you make, it's forced upon you when you lose touch," he reasons. "As soon as I lose touch my bookings will wane and it'll wind down. Having a family hasn't forced me to cut down on my work load because the hours I work let me see my son much more than people who work day jobs."

Judge Jules plays Gatecrasher/Sonarstate.com, The Point Depot, Dublin, February 3rd