DJ Times: How is your label, Pharmacy, doing?
Lawrence: We?ve gone all-digital. If I do a compilation, I might do a physical CD because there?re still a few people who want something tangible with artwork. When my last CD came out, there were people at a party coming up to me with homemade copies they?d ripped illegally before it was released, asking me to autograph copies! People were like, ?Oh yeah, I downloaded it! Can you sign it?? People today who?ve grown up in the last 10 years don?t understand! It?s fine for me, because I tour a lot and that?s my main income. But all those other artists on the CD, those artists sitting in their rooms producing tracks are not getting royalties. If they can?t buy food, they?re gonna stop making music! You just hope that people will realize it?s easier to go to Beatport and pay the small fee to buy the track. It?s much safer and cleaner from Beatport; Beatport?s revolutionized the industry. I love the brick-and-mortar thing, where record shops are a communal place for hanging out with other DJs. But I?m on the road so much now, it?s just not physically possible to do. So, when I have time in an airport or hotel room, I can listen to tracks and buy them off Beatport.

DJ Times: Your latest compilation, Gatecrasher ? Live In Moscow (Ministry Of Sound), is one of your best mixes I?ve heard from you. Other than retail sites, how are you getting your music these days?
Lawrence: I?m in the fortunate position that a lot of people email me links to their music. There are tons of people out there who do promos not the traditional way; they just target easier and send you music.

DJ Times: Other than Beatport, what are your primary sources for buying music online?
Lawrence: Yes, my primary source is Beatport. I also use Juno.co.uk for physical records. What I like about Beatport is the option for a full .wav file. I won?t play MP3s out. Some stuff isn?t available as downloads, so juno.co.uk carries a lot of vinyl. Another is Psyshop.com for psychedelic trance. I get a lot of my psychedelic trance stuff from them?it?s a completely different culture from what we know as trance. They don?t release music as singles; most of their stuff?s released as compilation CDs, unmixed.

DJ Times: How would you distinguish the two?
Lawrence: Psy-trance is a whole other genre of trance that?s existed since ?95. It?s developed completely separately from the trance we know. It?s more like what acid-house is to house, what acid-trance is to trance. Most of it has got a fast-but-groovy bassline and it sounds like it?s got a 303 bassline. The psy-trance scene?s huge, but it?s grown and existed completely separate from the mainstream trance we know of. The psy-trance parties in Brazil are 40,000 people! When it?s me, Paul Van Dyk and Ferry Corsten, we get 15,000 people. But out there in the jungle, it?ll be a psy-trance party with 100,000 people! A lot of psy-trance is made by Israeli producers. The largest psy-trance artist is Infected Mushroom?they?re no longer just DJing. They have a full live show now. Then there?s [Israeli DJ/producer] Astrix [Avi Shmailov], who?s quite big right now, and he?s crossing over. The crowd in psy-trance is more underground. Psy-trance is a very sophisticated sound for a very mature audience. You?d hear it out at Burning Man. It?s not just for kids. The whole middle section of my Gatecrasher CD is psychedelic trance.

DJ Times: What physical demands of being a DJ were unforeseen when you first started DJing?
Lawrence: Hearing loss. You know, that?s an inevitable thing. I?ve got tinnitus in my left ear?it?s a constant ringing. I wear a custom earplug in my monitor ear, facing out to the loud sound. That really helps a lot. That way, I can keep the volume low in my headphone. That?s really helped. The advice I?d give is, get the custom-made earplugs, even though they cost more. They attenuate at all frequencies uniformly. The second point is, put the earplugs in before you even walk into the club. If you put them in right before you play, you?ll say you can?t hear and pull it out. Music?s important to our lives, and you wanna be able to hear when you?re 70-years old.

DJ Times: How has your booth setup evolved over the years?
Lawrence: Turntables have disappeared. Now, there?s no vinyl?but at home, I still have two turntables because I still buy vinyl. There?s still things not available as digital downloads that are only available on vinyl. I?ll buy the record and convert it from analog to digital and then burn it to CD. I don?t think we?ll go back to vinyl, ever. It?s romantic and nostalgic, but we?ll never go back. It?s just a very inefficient way of distribution and it?s a waste of materials. There could be 10 records on a shelf in Miami that nobody wants, when someone in Seattle would really love them!