Kit Pompey was a lauded boxer in his day and was determined to see his grandson follow him into the ring - so young Luke spent much of his youth in training.

By his teens Pompey Junior was fighting with the Yorkshire Schoolboys Amateur Boxing team but, when his grandfather passed away and left him money in his will, he used the cash to buy turntables rather than gloves.

The truth was that Luke wanted to be behind the decks, not in a ring. Since the age of 12 he'd been inspired by his two bedroom-DJ cousins who would regularly attend family gatherings and, naturally, provided the music.

And considering he lived in nightlifeless Gargrave in North Yorkshire he needed all the inspiration he could get.

"It's just a really sleepy village in the Dales." says Pompey. "There was nothing going on musically really, certainly no bars or clubs or anywhere you could do DJing. In fact my first gig was at a bar in Skipton.

"I was actually 15 and so shouldn't really have been there because I was underage but I was so desperate, I just wanted to get out and I knew there was something else out there for me.

"Don't get me wrong, Gargrave is a really lovely place and it's really tranquil and friendly too but there was no way I could have done what I'm doing now if I'd have stayed there – I think I know I'm a city boy at heart."

Despite being brought up in such an idyllic place, it's fair to say that Luke didn't have a wholly traditional Yorkshire upbringing. His mother's of Irish descendant while his grandfather came from British Guyana, a former colony in South America. "We must have been the only mixed-race family for about 15 miles," he recalls.

And it was partly from this rich heritage that he gained a love of music – not to mention his older siblings who, back in the early 90s, used to pile home in the early hours of the morning from the Hacienda and warehouse raves.

Initially he left school at 16 to take up joinery and found himself earning a healthy £600 a week. At night he was still trying to get as much DJing work as he could, but it would be two years before he got his big break when he entered a DJing competition in Leeds.

Although he actually came second the 18-year-old Pompey impressed onlookers so much that he was patronised by the organisers – Leeds club night Kissdafunk and www.4clubbers.net. And from there the bookings started flooding in.

As he prepares to celebrate his 24th birthday this week Pompey, who quit joinery and moved to Leeds back in 2005, looks back on the past six years with disbelief.

It has seen him take to the decks with countless big names – Roger Sanchez, Eric Morillo, Tiesto, Basement Jaxx – and is gearing up for this weekend which sees him appear at a gig alongside Calvin Harris.

"It's just been amazing," he says. "The guys at KDF and 4clubbers have really taken me under there wing and getting involved with them changed everything for me – everything happened to me so early on too, which I think has been a good thing.

"I've had some absolutely unbelievable experiences which I never thought I'd have so early on. I was the youngest British DJ ever to play at Amnesia in Ibiza, which must be the ultimate gig really.

"I've been very lucky but I also think I have quite a different sound to a lot of the DJs in Leeds. They all really play to the whole electro vibe and I'm much more a fan of the whole house journey through different styles."

Although Pompey remains big on the Leeds scene – he appears at both Mission and Kerbcrawler next month – his name has spread far and wide. These days he's playing everywhere from Manchester to Jakarta, Indonesia, the latter he's set to play on New Year's Eve.

In fact he insists his workload is so vast he's had to be more selective about what gigs he takes on, particularly as he delves deeper into the world of production.

And these days he's turned his back on conventional records and is now totally digital. It's a move which enables him to indulge in more sonic pyrotechnics as he warps and remoulds tracks while playing them live.

"Now everyone seems to want to be a DJ," he says. "There are so many out there that you really have to do something special to stand out from the crowd and this is my thing. I think in a digital age there's so much more you can do - and in a way there's not much excuse for not doing it.

"But at the same time I also think it's a shame in a way, I think that with CD decks there are programmes out there which automatically mix tracks, rather than doing it manually like we used to with vinyl.

"There's now a whole generation of DJs who've never ever used vinyl which is a pity, I think some of the craft has gone out of it. I mean, the change was inevitable in a way but it does make me worry a bit.

"It makes me wonder if all the DJs are getting into it for the right reasons, whether they're getting into it just to get the limelight or whether they're doing it for the music, which really is what it's all about."

Luke Pompey plays Bitch at Mission on December 12 and a Barnado's charity night at Kerbcrawler on December 18.