Way back when we premiered a tune called 'True' from elusiveproducer Digital Farm Animals all we knew about him was that he was a 'he' andhad a cool pig logo. Now, you'll know him as the guy behind club smashes likethe R.Kelly-featuring 'Wanna Know' and his latestcollab'Millionaire'with Cash Cash and Nelly .

Having been behind Dua Lipa's stunning 'Be The One' too, the Brit producer - aka Nick Gale - is also a songwriter to the stars, so we justhad to pick his brains on who's songs he's been tinkering with lately and whether he could be the next Calvin Harris...

MTV: Hi Nick! What are you up to right now?

DFA: "I’ve been working on a Little Mix track, I was in the studio with them yesterday producing it up, but my computer just crashed on me, so currently I’m resolving my computer…"

Oh no, you didn't lose a masterpiece did you?

"Erm no, I’ve gotten pretty used to saving every 0.3 seconds!"

You mentioned Little Mix so let’s talk about that. You were in the studio with them yesterday, what were you working on? Was it new stuff for the album?

"Yeah exactly, writing for them. They’re really fun, they’re wicked. They’re so down to earth. I hadn’t met them before actually. You wouldn’t know that they were pop stars. They’re really cool and friendly and easy to work with."

Have you gone in with a game plan of how you want this particular track to sound or…

"I was thinking about that, but the guys were like ‘let’s see what we want’ kind of thing and that’s what we did. They actually get really involved with everything, even down to production and stuff, they seem to know what they want. It was really natural, there wasn’t any plan.!

Cool, is it still early days at this point whether it’s going to end up on the album?

"Yeah I don’t know. We did 3 songs so…fingers crossed. We’ll see. Fingers crossed. It was really good."

How on Earth does Nick Gale end up working with Nelly and Little Mix. How did that start?

"I don’t really think about it like that – it’d be quite scary if you did [laughs]. The thing is, whenever people hear [that] you immediately think they’ve come from nowhere, like it’s overnight. I’ve been making music since I was 14, so that’s 13 years now. I suppose it started off…well I was actually a law student, I did a law degree and I went on to become a lawyer and I was dreadful at it. I decided that it wasn’t for me and took a year out. That was four years ago.

"I used my savings and worked in a bar and basically just did as much music as I could and got my stuff to whoever I could. Eventually I met my manager, who has obviously been really important throughout this. We managed to sign a publishing deal around six months after that which allowed me to start writing for other artists.

"So I did a bunch of things, I did the Netsky album, I did a Dua Lipa single ‘Be The One’, I did the Galantis track ‘No Money’ – these were all done a while ago but have only come into fruition now. I’ve just been doing as much as I can, and then the Syco deal happened just over a year ago.Sorry that was a really long answer to your question!"

No, it was a good one! We wanted to hear the journey. How did the Syco meeting come about? Did you meet Simon Cowell?

"Simon is involved now, we met as soon as the deal was done and he’s actually really helpful in getting the songs right, he’s got really good ears. We don’t see each other every week or month, but when something important is going to happen, we sit down and go over stuff.

"With the original signing it was…it was one of the guys…I was actually going to sign with another label…but one of them heard my songs somehow and they rang us up and was like ‘I know you’re about to sign but could you please consider us’ and we were like - we can’t really pass this up. Too good a shot. So yeah, the rest is history I suppose."

First R Kelly, then Nelly – who’s next on your hit list?

"I think they've bothbeen amazing, I’ve been so lucky to do that. I think I need to work with someone who’s not necessarily like an R&B God. Someone from the UK, current. I’m not too sure yet. I think I might be doing something with Galantis actually, which is in the pipeline - can’t say anymore than that.I’ve got a track with Anne-Marie. She’s amazing. Her voice is incredible.

"She’s so funny as well. Have you met?"

"Yeah last week."

So is that going to be on her album?

"I think it’ll be on hers, not mine. It’ll be a single, nice and summery. She doesn’t like auto-tune, just to note. She hates auto-tune. But her voice is literally incredible."

What’s this we hear about will.i.am – because we hear he’s beenin the studio with you. What's it like to sat next to a super producer like him?

"Yeah he’s amazing. The thing is, there’s no secret or anything different to anyone else. He’s just super creative and intricate with stuff. I remember we were sitting there and he wanted a vocal for a weird kind of vocal. You know when you get these automated services when you call up Vodafone or one of these companies? He started sampling one of them. I wouldn’t have thought to do that. He also gave me some really good advice - 'make sure there’s never more than four or five different layers in a song'. So you have a bass, a vocal, the synth or something. He’s all about simplicity – but making sure that every part is great. An important lesson. That was amazing. Really good fun."

You said that you started when you when you were 14. Calvin Harris started in his bedroom…and look where he is now – do you plan for similar success?

"[Laughs]If I can do anything near to what Calvin has done I’d be happy. He’s the ultimate idol in what I’m doing. He’s amazing."

What did the earlier music sound like? Do you ever look back and cringe?

"I should do that! I’ve been through so many computers…actually one of my friends who’s a producer found a link to something he made when he was 12. I wonder if I’ve got anything similar…"

Do you remember the first song? Or the first song title?

"I think it was called ‘Ready For Love’. I don’t think I was ready for love back then..."

That brings us onto ournext question. You got your name from your uni room – it was looking over a farm. So A) where did you go to uni and B) did that have an effect on brining any ladies back to the room?

"[Laughs] I went to uni in Nottingham. I’m not sure if it was a proper farm – there were just a few animals. It was pretty weird actually. And no it didn’t stop anything [laughs]."

As a bedroom DJ, what advice would you give to other aspiring DJs to make their mark?

"Firstly – just experiment with every style of music that you can. Don’t pigeonhole yourself into doing just hard house or deep house. Essentially it’s all the same. Through studying other types of music you learn a lot.

"Second thing I’d say was from a production point of view, we all sit there trying to get things sounding like the stuff on the radio and as good as that. But actually, it’s a lot more difficult than people make it. People chuck EQs and all kinds of things over their songs when really it’s all about good sound and melody. The song is always the key.

"Now. That’s one thing…I’ve changed quite a lot. I used to be quite a fiddly producer who used to sit down and tune a kick drum for fivehours. So now it’s more about big songs and choruses and things that people will sing along to. My mum doesn’t care what the kick sounds like but she’ll remember the hook."

Have you had any DJ set horror stories yet?

"Not yet. No actually there was something quite funny – we played a gig about a month ago, we played a festival and a friend of mine – Kideko– came along and I was like ‘yeah yeah I’ll play your song next – that’ll be really fun’ and he was all excited and as soon as I pressed play the whole set powered off. I was like oops! Sorry mate."

What would you say is your most surreal career moment so far?

"Probably seeing the track I made for Galantis premier at Ultra in Miami. We were stood on viewing stage and there were 60,000 people going mental to it. That was pretty crazy because that started in a garden in Swindon, that my mate’s kid is singing on…to see it translate from being in a little room to the other side of the world with a massive crowd was just amazing."

That must have been epic. So you’ve been meeting people like Little Mix and Dua Lipa – have you fanboyed over anyone?

"When I met Dua Lipa nobody knew her back then. Do you know what…who was it…it was a really weird one…I’ve met a lot of ‘celebrities’ in inverted commas and the one got weird about – this was about a year ago – was when I met DJ luck and Empty Meat who aren’t even that famous now, but they were when I was growing up. I was like ‘oh my God it’s Dj Luck!’

And our final question: what is your favourite track right nowand why?

"I really like Coldplay ‘A Head Full Of Dreams’. I like the whole album. I’m just a massive Coldplay fan. I’d definitely be weird if I met them. They’re my idols.I’m meant to be remixing them so that should be quite fun. I don’t want to jinx it though..."

'Digital Farm Animals x Cash Cash - Millionaire Ft. Nelly is out now.'