Back in the 1990s, the world generally knew a lot less about music producers than we do now. There were few ways of getting more information about most – unless you had direct contacts in the industry, most people knew little to nothing about the producers making the tracks they were dancing to.

For example, Mood II Swing was a duo consisting of Lem Springsteen and John Ciafone. Between 1992 and the early 2000s, they used to remix all kinds of material and became known in the scene for their highly distinctive dub mixes – but few people knew anything about them. The two men never went to the likes of the Miami Winter Music Conference, nor did they do press interviews.

We know a little bit more about this duo now, but even today, our knowledge is limited. Todd Edwards, by comparison, seems to be a much easier person to interview these days – but back in the day, he was also an elusive figure. Despite also being well known for his dub mixes, few knew much about the man behind the music.

Edwards has previously spoken, for instance, about a notorious video of him DJing in the UK for the first ever time in 2003. Last year, he revealed that he was “scared to death” when performing, being seemingly unfamiliar with just how popular his music was on British shores.

And now, another mystery has been solved. Why did Todd Edwards never appear on Strictly Rhythm back in the 90s? He explains the reason in an interview with Chicago’s 5 Magazine…

“When I first started catching some attention in the early ’90s I released a couple of EPs on Nervous Records. Obviously, Strictly Rhythm and Nervous were two of the biggest labels I wanted to work with. I had spoken to Gladys Pizarro and George Morel at Strictly about working with them not too long after releasing on Nervous.

However, at that age I was struggling with depression which gave me social anxiety and many times I could not bring myself to go out to clubs or keep in proper contact with people. Unfortunately, that fact probably painted an image of me that seemed like I didn’t care about working with people when in fact I went through periods of complete shut down with no productivity or communication.”

Remember that this happened back during the 1990s, when there would have been less sympathy or understanding of things like this. We remain fans of Todd Edwards at Ears To The House – not least because he understands an interview is supposed to be interesting to the reader and reveal facts not previously widely known…