The compact kitchen contains a well stocked fridge and across the corridor is the work-out room, a place sufficiently equipped with the tools of fitness to pass as a small budget gym. Somehow one can't imagine Arthur's substantial frame doing a great deal in there but it's a healthier style than the more common pool table and video games.

Arthur Baker's name was elevated to the ranks of in-demand producers following the success of the twin Bambaataa monsters 'Planet Rock' and 'Looking For The Perfect Beat' plus the phenomenal Rockers Revenge's 'Walking On Sunshine'.

Since then his name's been stamped on a host of projects. Most recently he's concluded the two album soundtrack for the Harry Belafonte film on the hip hop movement, Beat Street. Arthur Baker grew up in sleek. suburban Boston, listened to English pop music and it wasn't until he was holding down a record store job in that town's black area that he became meaningfully acquainted with black music.

"I became aware of Gamble And Huff, the whole Philadelphia sound and the work Norman Whitfield was doing with The Temptations. It wasn't just party music anymore. It had a message. That's how I got into black music while my friends were becoming hippies."

While at college Arthur worked nights as a club DJ until his own tastes superseded employer requirements:

"From there I dropped out of college with a little money saved. I took an engineering course, my main objective was to get to know the owner of the studio so hopefully I would talk him into giving me free studio time. That was about 77 or 78, from then on it was basically borrowing and saving money to go into the studio and do one project at a time.

Minor club success followed but the big jump was moving to New York two-and-a-half years ago when his wife graduated from law school and landed a $45,000 a year job.

"That was really the only reason we moved although I'd spent the summer of '79 in New York. That was when 'Rapper's Delight' came out. I went up to the Bronx, this was when Chic had 'Good Times' out and Cheryl Lynn had 'To Be Real', they were the first two records that the kids were really rapping over.

"Rap had been going longer but rap as we know it really started then. I remember being told 'Someone's gonna make a fortune out of this rap thing' and thinking 'no way'. The first New York recordings I did were at Intergalactic. I went to college with one of the guys there and got a really good deal. We did 'Jazzy Sensation' and 'Planet Rock' and a month later 'Walking On Sunshine', those first really good records all in a period of two months. Then they all seemed to hit at once."

Which you didn't expect?

"Before we did 'Planet Rock' we had a feeling it was special. It was different. It captured something that no one had captured before but I never thought it would sell what it did. I thought maybe 50-100,000 but 700,000! Walking On Sunshine' I knew would be a big club record. I'd never really thought of England as a market for my records. I didn't even think beyond New York when we did that record.

"Since then with most of the records I've made I've thought how will they go over in England'. 'Walking On Sunshine' really changed my opinions on making a record. I mean now I obviously think 'will they like it over there?'. Half the times I'll say 'fuck it' and not care but even subconsciously I think about it. "When I did 'IOU' with Freeez I knew it was a hit because it was tailor made. Same with 'Candy Girl', that was cut before the success of Musical Youth which primed the audience for it."

MAYBE THE strangest pairing was Arthur's work with New Order. The dance master with the UK underground teasers (cough!). The liaison resulted in 'Blue Monday' and 'Confusion'. Arthur looks back without relish.

"They wanted to work with me. I didn't really know New Order although I knew Joy Division and liked some of their stuff. They sent me 'Blue Monday' and their album way before it came out and asked if I wanted to work on any of the songs. I didn't like 'Blue Monday' at all. I said it sounded like old Sylvester disco. I was shocked when that record came out. People would say I was involved in it and I would deny it because I didn't like it. I would say 'I wouldn't make shit like that'.

"They sat around in their hotel. Everything I'd read about them said they were musical geniuses, but they weren't any better musicians than I am and I'm no musician at all. I just play and sequencers and that's all they were doing."

A case of reputation outweighing compatability. A symptom of The Producer myth. But what's clear from all the above is that Arthur Baker has a sound business brain between those ears. Something not always appreciated overseas:

"I've just been doing a Cyndi Lauper re-mix. These things are good, you go in one day and do something, you don't have months of headaches. But the press in England will say 'just another pay day for Arthur Baker'. That really cracks me up because I work real hard and on the things they say that about, the money isn't even that good. I'd rather be a writer and earn nothing but have less work to do.

"I've always said it's easier for someone outside to take your ideas and innovate on them. There are so many people now making records that take from the foundation that I got together. They're taking it further up. Like that Shannon record.

It's really hard for me to step back and see what I can steal from myself to re-use. In England I got a tot of good press when those first records came out there. But if you don't keep it up, and it's real hard to keep up having innovative bit records every week, then people start putting you down.

"I can't re-define music every week!"