A decade and six albums since being unearthed by JJJ in 1996, Endorphin is in a happy place. His new album, Soon After Silence, sees him veer into a textured world of sound that’s moodier, deeper and less beats driven than before. The DJ and composer meet and exchange notes. His wife and two daughters make it a family picture. She took the photos for the cover, the girls sang. He produced as well. Once a major league star, Endorphin is now impressively free.

Soon After Silence is both subtle and personal; a homage to his French roots – he lived in Paris for many years before coming to Australia in 1984 – and the places that have coloured his landscape since.

“I wanted to make an album that was very artistic and inspired by France and Brooklyn and Japan, the places along the way. It is my personal record, for a lot of reasons. The way it came about was I moved house about one and a half years ago into an amazing environment. I’m still in Sydney but now my studio has a view. And I signed a big contract with a music licensing company in Hollywood for which I write a lot of music for film so the financial pressure became a lot less great. That allowed me to decide that I’d do what I wanted to do and do something close to my heart.

“I decided I wanted to do an album that didn’t have any commercial ties. I didn’t want to release a single from this album so that wasn’t a consideration. And I wanted to something chill; something people could put on their iPod at any time of the day. I didn’t want to make a dance album – that’s not me, where I’m at. I had absolutely no urge to do a dance track for this one. The result is what I think is my most coherent record since my debut, Embrace.”

This could all be a man struggling to come terms with a different reality after leaving a major label and the subsequent drop in star power. Often enough you here the ‘happy-to-be-free-and-independent’ spiel in this game when really the artists is internalising ‘hell-now-what do-I-do’. Happily, that isn’t the case with Endorphin. The man has balance – it’s in his voice and what he says and it’s in this understated and smart record he’s made.

It’s also in some nice realities; there’s the afore-mentioned Hollywood deal that keeps the moths from his trouser pockets and there’s his on-going success in China – the next big thing. Recently, returned from seven weeks touring the land of the long wall, he’s more than enthusiastic about the potential it offers. China, it seems, is in the middle of a club boom.

“It was amazing, really different. The population is incredible – Shanghai has 17 million people, Beijing 21 million. We did 13 cities and we thought a lot of them would be little places but they were all home to more than five million people. The shows were in really big nightclubs, the billboards covered the sides of buildings.

“China is in the middle of nightclub boom; they are being built and opening up everywhere. After the Cultural Revolution ended all the young people initially got into bands for a few years and then that went out the window and they moved into the club and DJ culture. Now that is changing and they are after electronic performers with a live element, a visual element. All the clubs we played had fire-eaters and jugglers and the like. We were playing in huge halls where I could plug my visuals in and I took my stilt-walker and a dancer.

“China is just this huge new market. All the big DJs are touring there. But, more than that, it was a real eye-opener. Once you get there and see the way it’s developing you think ‘My God, this is the place that’s going to lead the world in a few years time’. Shanghai is unbelievable; it’s like the new Tokyo. We were really blown away.

“And all the young people are really hip and Internet savvy and into My Space. It really is staggering.”

Endorphin’s future is anything but quiet. His world now embraces many corners of the globe – Hollywood, China, Australia, Europe and he’d like to tour India. His journey continues well over the horizon.