Experimental yet functional: this is how Midland tames dancefloors

How do you prepare for marathon DJ sets and what is your perfect set snack?

Ha, "my perfect set snack"! Usually it's apples and peanut M&Ms, with tequila. [laughs] Preparing for them is just a matter of organising your music really, really well. That's not a matter of planning what you're going to play, it's having all your playlists and things really well organised. I rip all my vinyl so I have a folder with all my new vinyl rips, then I'll have a new folder with all my released stuff and unreleased stuff. Then it's broken down into subsections: disco, melodies, moments, vocals. If it's all planned out in front of you, it's like cooking a really complicated meal but having all the ingredients pre-chopped and laid out in front of you.

Do you think clubs are still really important as safe spaces for diverse types of people to come and let go?

Of course. Even though these sorts of places don't exist perhaps as much as we'd want, there are all sorts of club nights and collectives that are really focusing on that all over the world. In the US parties likes Honey Soundsystem, Honcho, Wrecked, Mens Room etc are tapping into gay history and reclaiming dancefloors and spaces with their own unique twists. I would highly suggest reading Andrew Ryce’s feature for Resident Advisor and Shawn Reynaldo's piece for NPR. In the UK you have nights like Chapter 10 and the whole Block9 crew at Glastonbury. Alongside this, collectives like Discwoman in New York and Siren in London are focussing on furthering the presence of women in dance music through parties, bookings and all sorts of avenues. To me it feels like a really exciting time because you've got all these different groups of people taking matters into their own hands and creating some really exciting movements in electronic music.

You’ve spoken a little about your experiences with anxiety and depression, which is something a lot more DJs are opening up about now, and how exercise helped you overcome it.

When I moved to London I was in a really weird position in my life and career. Music felt like it was stagnating and I was feeling really lonely living in London, which in turn led to quite a lot of serious anxiety. The problem is when you’re anxious or depressed the basics feel really tough and totally overwhelming so it can be a real mountain to climb to just get up and go outside. It got to a bit of a breaking point and I decided I had to try and do something to rectify the situation so I decided to give running a shot. This was the first time I had stuck with it for any length of time and suddenly I was getting to the end of doing a run and feeling really clear headed, like the cloud that was in my head and the lump in my chest had decreased. It was a pretty simple step that changed my life. When I stopped being able to run because of knees I started swimming, it's now something I do pretty much every day for that very reason.

It's obviously difficult to talk about private issues if you've got a big following, but I guess it might make it easier if you've got a big, adoring fanbase to support you.

Yeah, it's true. I'm trying to think who was it recently who sort of that they needed time out. It was Rustie wasn't it? There was an overwhelming outpouring of support towards him, which was great to see because it is slowly helping to dismantle the stigma attached to it within our world, but we need to remember a lot of people don’t have these support networks to fall back on and it can be so easy for people to fall down the cracks.

'Final Credits' is out June 3 via ReGraded

Patrick Hinton is Mixmag's Digital Intern. Follow him on Twitter here