Back to the jack.

An under-the-radar 303 devotee, Likeatim never strays too far from home. His almost 20-year career has seen him work with a small number of labels – Djax, Alec Empire’s Geist and a couple of releases on Clone and Rephlex – before settling on his own, Like, for the last six-odd years. Musically, Tim van Leyden’s approach is similar – he may have strayed into experimental, electronic pop territory on occasions, but the man Clone calls “the craziest average Joe on the planet” always comes back to the acid. Kenny Hanlon is intrigued…

Though you have been around for nearly two decades, you remain a cult figure. To the uninitiated, how would you describe Like A Tim?

It's difficult for me to put it all in words. Whenever I need to explain what I do to someone uninitiated, I just say I make electronic music - and I quickly refer to www.likeatim.com if they want to hear or see more.

Before starting your own label, Like, you worked predominately with Djax and Alec Empire's Geist label. Was it a case of them coming to you, or you wanting to work with them?

Both Djax and Geist came to me. On Djax, I released for a period of six years, Geist two.

It wasn't until 2003 that you set up your own label. Why did you wait until then, what gave you the impetus to go it alone?

In the past I was happy with having my stuff released through other labels so I could fully concentrate on the music. But at some point I got tired of dealing with labels and the people running them. I wanted total freedom.

The Dutch scene has evolved since the early 90s, when acid was at its peak. How do you feel about this evolution?

It was more a global thing to me. I never looked at the Dutch scene as a separate thing. I guess the evolution has brought good and bad things, same as the rest of the world.

Where do you think you fit within the Dutch scene now, or does that matter to you?

No it doesn't matter. I never felt part of a group or movement within the scene. Just did my thing. Nowadays people associate me with Clone because they distribute my label.

A lot of your work over the years has had a real analogue feel to it. Do you bring out the hardware for live shows or have you - like many others - gone down the route of using computers/software?

I choose to bring one piece of hardware for live shows. No computer/software but then again most (modern) hardware stuff is also a computer running dedicated software.

For some time your releases have been accompanied by your own artwork, creating a strong identity of their own. Do you think that by releasing digitally, your work would lose some of its character?

Yes unfortunately, a digital release with accompanying jpeg as artwork is a joke compared to vinyl with artwork.

Do you pursue your art outside of the sleeves/labels for the records?

Not professionally. Some people told me I should but I’m reluctant – I’m afraid the art scene is even more fake then the music scene!

You’ve remixed Steve Poindexter and Robert Armani in the past, but you’ve rarely had anyone remix your own work. And with Like, you only release your own material. Any particular reason?

In general I mostly prefer original versions over remixes. Personally, I like to work on my own ideas from scratch instead of building on someone else's blueprints.

Some of your music seems to have been influenced by computer games, especially some of the releases on Geist. Are they a main source of inspiration?

The analogy has been made before and I can understand why but it wasn't an inspiration for the sound. The production on some of those releases was dry, lo-fi and I guess the result sounds similar to certain computer games.

After close to 20 years producing, do you see a point at any stage in the future when you will stop?

I expect to enjoy experimenting with sounds for some time but i can definitely see a moment where I would stop releasing.

What current projects are you working on?

Not anything in particular. Just playing around with sounds and beats, jamming and recording it.