For Ruf Dug, DJing is about far more than simply putting on a record and playing to a crowd.

The Manchester-based DJ, whose real name is Simon Hindle, has performed at Glastonbury, hosts his own show on NTS Radio and runs his own record label. But when he arrived in the island for a Waves of Wonder performance at Port St Mary Yacht Club, it was the place itself that quickly became a topic of conversation.

Travelling over from Manchester, this was Simon's second visit to the island, having previously visited around three years ago for a friend's birthday.

‘I've barely seen it. This is only my second time here. Maybe my fourth day in the island altogether. I like it. I'm fascinated by it. I want to know so much more about it.’

Despite having spent only a handful of days here, Simon had already picked up on what he saw as a connection between Manx and Mancunian identity.

‘There's a palpable feeling here, and I like it. I really like outsiders. I like the concept of the outsider as an artistic concept, and just as a general sort of ideological one that appeals to me.’

He said the experience of being in the island had also reminded him of the independent spirit he associates with Manchester.

‘I've been corrected several times already, and I like that a lot. I like that attitude, and I like where that comes from. You know, Mancunians are quite independent and quite proud and quite resentful of the rest of the United Kingdom in some way, and so I think there's a kinship there at least.’

But while Simon may have built a career around DJing, even that label doesn't quite capture his approach to music.

He describes himself as a DJ ‘first and foremost’, but his interest extends beyond the traditional club environment and into the history of recorded music itself.

He explained that DJ culture has a rich history, with roots in Jamaica, Colombia and London dating back to the post-war period. For Simon, however, it is part of a much bigger story about the different ways people have learned to experience recorded sound.

‘Recorded music has been around for 150 years now, and we've found all these different ways of listening to it and appreciating it.’

That idea was reflected in the equipment brought over for the event.

At first glance, it may have looked like a van full of speakers arriving on the ferry, ready for a DJ set. But the equipment has its own history.

Some of the speakers came from the BBC and were originally designed for recording studios around 50 years ago, while others came from a cinema in the 1990s, where they were built to produce the huge sound effects of films.

Rather than simply using them for their original purpose, Simon is interested in what happens when that equipment is placed in a completely different setting.

‘On the surface, we've put some speakers in the van and put it on the ferry, and we've driven it in, and there's a couple of lads now playing tunes that looks like DJing.

‘We're taking those speakers and we're doing something different with it.’

- Read our reporter’s take on the Waves of Wonder event on page 22 and 23.