'I work mainly as a composer and DJ at the edge of concert hall and club culture,' he explains. 'Mostly I compose for crossover classical stuff, and for my music project, Brainchild.'

Matthew's currently remixing a glut of tunes, adding strings to hip-hop beats and rhymes. 'I'm trying to introduce a hip-hop audience to classical music and vice versa,' he says.

He'll be spreading the word with Brainchild - piano, bass and decks and a newly added string section - in a tour next spring, but doesn't see himself as a musical crusader. 'I'm more of a subtle soldier, plugging a hole in music rather than educating the masses,' he says.

'My music reflects what I grew up with - I've always been into both hip-hop and Mozart. And I think it's time we put it all together: I think we're ready to mix it all up in a kind of hot house.'

More like a deep freeze if the chilled out sounds of Brainchild's Lemsip are anything to go by, which serves up the sounds of summer with its beautiful bassline and porcelain piano.

So how does Matthew's creative process work? 'It varies track-to-track,' he says. 'If the thrust of the song's dance then I'll lay down the beat track, we'll lay some chords on top and finally add some strings to change the original impulse and break up the relentlessness of the beat.

'But if it's an abstract tune then inspiration can come from anything. I've used the sound of the sea, sampled the sounds of buses going past to create chords, and using my decks I'll mimic the sound of strings.'

Matthew maintains that you have to be open to all things at all times; that you have to be a 'sonic sponge' when creating music. 'I'm a firm believer in experimenting with something, leaving it for a while to see if it stands the test of time and then coming back to it. The two styles allow for a lot of collision. And it's this friction that makes the music work.'

-Tom Morgan