In many ways, Est. 2003 has been nearly two decades in the making. Ineffable, from 2014, marked DJ Q’s arrival on Tom Lea’s Local Action label. But it also signaled the start of a new era for the Huddersfield-hailing producer, as he cast his gaze forward—toying with breezier house influences and heavier 2-step sounds, but still mixing in the sugar-rush vocal chops and slick ’n’ bouncy bass that’s become his hallmark. “Two thousand and three is when I started professionally as DJ Q,” Shollen Quarshie tells Apple Music. “It's the first time I properly made any sort of money from music, it’s the first time I got booked to play at a nightclub, and it’s the first time I got national radio play. It all happened in 2003. So, it just made sense because the journey started there. This is an album of music that is influenced by all the styles that I just love from being involved in the garage scene from when I started.” But this is far from a retrospective, and there are no rehashed ideas. It is all completely box-fresh. The bulk of the album was pieced together during lockdown, when there was nothing to do except lock himself away and produce. While that was going on, he was texting back and forth with Lea on “the perfect DJ Q record,” sharing tracks and ideas for a shifting music mood board. Est. 2003 features many special guest artists, including Shola Ama, a singer responsible in large part for helping to shape garage’s more soulful inclinations in the 2000s. In contrast, it also features new-school talent Hans Glader (with three appearances from the San Francisco-hailing producer), bringing these generations together. That fusion of eras—putting different artists from different generations against each other and in new contexts—is another defining idea here. The only other unifying element is Q himself. Whether it’s the soulful house leanings, the chrome-covered, slippery basslines, or the juiced-up 4x4 garage, it’s disparate yet immediately, identifiably DJ Q. Here, he runs us through his album, track by track. “Pipe Dreams” (feat. Hans Glader) “This was the last song to come together for the album, but it made sense to be at the beginning, just because of how it sounds. Hans Glader is from [San Francisco], so we usually work over the internet. This is the third or fourth track we’ve done together, so we’re used to getting our vibe that way.” “It’s You” “This is me making the type of garage I love to listen to, heavily inspired by Todd Edwards. I started with the vocal jabs, sample jobs, and then the beats and bassline just came together.” “Speedy Gs” (feat. Finn) “This track is special. I’ve been a fan of Finn for as long as I can remember. We met through Tom [Lea] at [London-based record label] Local Action, and we’ve played a few sets together. What I’ve noticed about his vibe is he’s like me—he loves speed garage and bassline. He came over to my studio in Huddersfield, and we came up with this idea. It's funny: We got started three years ago, and only at the beginning of 2021, I reopened the project and finished it. And here it is. This is the only title we could have given it, really, and it’s very fitting that this sound is coming back around.” “I Can't Stay” (feat. Shola Ama & Hans Glader) “I’ve been a fan of Shola Ama from when she first started releasing music [in the mid-’90s]. She was one of a few singers at the time who always released garage remixes. And they used to go off! I’ve always been a fan of her vocals, and I’ve done remixes for her before, but we’ve never collaborated on original music before. This is another track where I felt that Hans would be able to add something unique and give it that little bit of an edge.” “Sweet Day” (feat. Todd Edwards) “I’ve been a fan of Todd’s for as long as I can remember. I’d been buying his vinyls and mixing his music for years. Way back in 2012, I did a mix: 80 minutes of Todd Edwards tracks. He saw it, and we connected that way. We’ve always spoken and shared music with each other, but after a show in LA, we ended up in the studio, vibing. After one track, which was banging, Todd said, ‘Let’s do something that doesn’t sound like me.’ So, we started this track. Everything down to the samples we picked, we made sure it was just a bit different from something Todd would normally put together by himself.” “Love Me Like” (feat. Lily Mckenzie & Star.One) “I’ve worked with Lily before. We’ve got quite a few tracks, actually, but with this one, she had the initial idea with Star.One. I got the track and the chords and added in my stamp to what was already a wickedly written song.” “Thief in the Night” (feat. Hans Glader) “We made this before I even knew I was doing an album. This is vibes. I woke up one day, heard this vocal sample, and I couldn’t get it out of my head! So, I laid it down, chopped it up a bit, added some chords, and a full intro. If I’d produced it by myself, it would’ve been a totally different track; it would’ve sounded like a typical DJ Q 4x4 bassline track, but I think Hans’ vibe took it to a different level. It doesn’t sound like a DJ Q record—it just sounds like something much more than that.” “Heavy Like Lead” (feat. Sharda) “Sharda is a producer that I’ve been a fan of for ages. He’s always had that 4x4 bassline influence in his sound, so it was more than obvious that we had to link up. I think we might have still been in lockdown when we started this—I remember playing the original idea in my sets coming out of lockdown. We were in a group chat: I would send in ideas, he would send in ideas, and we got it finished pretty quick, to be honest. It was that good.” “Close Your Eyes” “This is an ode to a good friend of mine, [UK DJ and producer] DJ Paleface. He had a track years ago, before I knew him personally, [2000 single] ‘Imagination,’ which had a full version of these vocals that I’ve chopped up. I used all of his vocals on that track and put my flip on it. This is a tribute to him because he’s a sick producer and a heavy influence, also.” “I Couldn't See” “I did a tutorial for a company called Play Virtuoso on how to make a bassline/garage track—and this is what I made for it. They run a subscription model, where you subscribe and receive master classes from a wide range of producers, DJs, radio hosts, just anything to do with dance music. Anyway, it’s such a vibe that I was playing it in [live] sets. At that time, the album was ‘done,’ but I felt like it needed this kind of vibe on the album.” “All That I Could” “The track that started this all off is the last track. And the track that ended it comes first. It’s a full-circle thing.This is me making the perfect DJ Q record. It’s got the hard drums, the basslines are in there, it’s got the garage skip, and the vocal chops and sample chops are on there as well. Everything’s in here. The vocals are what I started with. I heard an R&B track—it was in three-time by an American singer called Colette Lush. I grabbed the sample, made the track, and then just built it around those vocals.”