What would be your most well known commercial?
Actually I haven't totally given up doing commercials. I still work on some every now and then. As a matter of fact, I'd say my best commercial is one that is yet to come, so I can't really talk about it at the moment. As for my most well known commercial it would probably be the one for Sprite. However, I like the one I did for the newspaper Le Monde better, even if it's a less know one.

It's a good thing to talk, but one has to act when the moment comes. I am an action man

Your first releases were 'Home Kickin'' and 'I Am An Angel'. What were they like/style?
My first releases 'Home Kickin'' and 'I Am An Angel' were part of a promo album that was released on November 2003 by the label Ice and Spice Records. The album named Demons and Saints was aired for quite a while on French and Belgium radio. Their style was more of a sulfuric house kind of tune. I would define it as jazzy electro house. Instrumental if you see what I mean. Actually if your curiosity is that itchy you can go to nufonix website and check 4 of these tracks out!

'The Quest' is a bit of a housey, trance, world mash-up with a repeated chant of 'Revolution is a Flower'. Were the student Paris riots in the mix for the inspiration for this?
No, the student riot in Paris has nothing to do with 'Revolution is a Flower'! 'Revolution is a Flower' alludes to the 1974 revolution that took place in Portugal. I am from Portugal, my dad had to flee because of the Portuguese dictatorship. The story of this revolution is that the army and the people rebelled against the power in place, which was the Salazar dictatorship. It led to his abolition.

'Revolution is a Flower' is about conflictual relations between those who have the power and those others who don't. Don't misunderstand me, I'm not calling for a revolution! It's just that the flower shows how fragile things are. What I mean is that a revolution can be due to nothing really. Just a little detail. To be more specific the flower here is a carnation. It comes from this story of an old lady who was selling dried carnations on the pavement, just the way many old ladies used to do in Portugal. As the army was sent on the street by Salazar, one of the gunman pointed his gun at her and her reaction was to insert a carnation in the gun. From that moment on the army started fighting with the people and no longer against it. There is this very interesting quotation from French poet Georges Moustaki "To those who lost their belief in reaching an ideal, tell them that a red carnation has bloomed in Portugal". So the track is a metaphor for this, the fact that sometimes something as serious as a revolution can come sort of out of the blue.

It's going to be a club smash (see reactions below already), but what are your favourite club tracks at the moment?
The first track that pops into my mind is 'UFO in Brazil' by Weisz (aka Megablast). I think it is a smashing hit! There probably are many others that I forget but this one is one of my favourite club tracks of the moment, that's for sure. This one and Zombie (Fela Kuti) by Bugz In The Attic that is awesome too.

So was it the Afro Art connection that made you think of getting Paul Murphy for 'The Quest' remix? And what do you think of the result?
Yeah, I was the one to think about Paul. I've been a big fan for a long time, I've always liked what he was doing, his sets and everything so it was just obvious to me to ask him for a collaboration -- I am so thankful he agreed!

I think he was really well inspired and the result is at least as good as I could have ever expected. He managed to make 'The Quest' his own, he perfectly understood the whole concept of the track, he caught very well everything that I had put in it and yet he could make a whole different tune out of it. It shouldn't even be called 'The Quest Remix' but rather 'The Quest' by Paul Murphy. It's a totally different track that expresses the same things. I love it.

The Quest video is great, where was it filmed? Has it been on French MTV?
The video was filmed on various locations in Paris, but we specifically picked locations that wouldn't be instantly recognizable. We wanted an urban, industrial look to the video that would make people think of big cities in general, not one specific city. It hasn't been on MTV France yet, but let's wait and see…

What have other reviewers said about 'The Quest' and the video? If that's you in the coat & beard, you look moody or was it cold? [The Camels and the Goldfish are nice touches].
Monofunk did a very nice synthesis of The Quest, he felt things just the way I meant them. Couchsurfer too! As for Kid Loco he thinks it's excellent. Whisperin and Hollerin did one of the nicest reviews, for example they said it "becomes infectious by the fifth play". And yes you're right this is me in the video. And yes again I am moody and it is cold!! Let me explain to you: I needed to look moody because it's all part of the contrast that's in the video between the guy, lost, and the concrete jungle he is in. He's chocking in a huge city. I look moody to enhance the contrast with the colourful images of the other world like camels and goldfishes.

As far as the cold weather is concerned, we filmed the video in two days, in the middle of November. It was freezing! We filmed part of it on a road under construction near Bercy that was fairly high and thus exposed to a very cold wind. The sun was out but it wasn't heating the atmosphere at all. The other part was filmed at night, around midnight and under the rain. So really there's nothing be happy about!

To talk a bit more about the meaning of 'Revolution is a Flower', the goldfish is reminiscent of the flower: seeing a goldfish in a rear-view mirror can happen just like it happened to see a flower in a gun. It just comes out of the blue, it is due to nothing. Revolution obeys the same process, or rather the same non-process, that is that it can be caused by something as meaningless as a Camel in a rear-view mirror.

What are the plans for an album?
I'm not working on any album plans at the moment. I'm thinking about it for 2006. Meanwhile I am working on my next vinyl releases. I am also focusing on my upcoming live set, which takes up a lot of my time.

The live set will be with an Electronic drummer, Warrior Jazz and a VJ crew Neurotika. When are going to do some promotional gigs with them?
The promotional dates are not set yet but the Live set is definitely gonna be worth checking out: Neurotika are creating a whole visual universe specifically for these live sets. And they will be mixing their images live every time, which means that they will be able to get inspired by whatever I am doing on stage and vice versa.

'The Quest' by Mod X with Paul Murphy remix is out on Ice And Spice Records on 14th February 2005. Hectic Rating 5/5. Full Hectic review on a web site near you soon. In the meantime, it’s not just me raving about this one. Here’s a selection of the best feedbacks at the moment:

"I will surely use in my DJ set. The remix by Paul Murphy is great for the dancefloor. The original version is fantastic as well. My compliments."
GERARDO FRISINA/ MILAN (Schema, Italy)

"The original MOD X - very interesting groove and nice blend of broken Afro beats, I'll definitely drop it in my radio show mix. However the remix by Paul Murphy is GROOVY, definitely more dance floor orientated. With nice Latino touch! Can't wait to play it in a club".
Vladimir DJELIC aka DJ Chile (COSMIC SOUNDS)

"The original builds nicely around an african-ish sounding male vocal up into this killer drop in the second part, all backed by some haunting stabs and tough bruk beatprogramming - tribal peaktime shaker. Flip for the remix treatment of Paul Murphy which might do even better on the floors as this is one bears one of the fiercest basslines I have heard for ages….. - play it loud. ouch!"
Monofunk.net/Joscha Creutzfeldt

"Paul's mix smashed Neighbourhood too bits on Saturday Night. It's going number one in my chart"
DAN / LIQUID PEOPLE / Defected Records

You will be needing this 12" and even though it's a bit early for tracks of the year, but this is going to be in amongst them. Bravo, c'est magnifique and merci Mod X.

Links:
www.iceandspicerecords.com [To listen to 'The Quest' sample]
http://www.adlzco.com/modx/ [ To see the Video]
www.nufonix.com/ [ Search on ModX for the 4 samples ]
www.neurotika.net
www.versatilerecords.com [See Château Flight cool stuff]
www.topplers.com [Distributed worldwide by TOPPLERS]
www.nouveaucasino.net
www.batofar.org
www.citizenjazz.com [2004 Parc Floral de Vincennes – June]
"the 'dream team' cast on the album Gwotet was born of an encounter between Murray and Kiavué when the American and the Guadeloupean met at the "Banlieue Bleue" festival staged in the Paris suburbs almost a decade ago" The 'Gwotet' album produced one of the 2004's best 12's with Pharoah Sanders guesting; much respect for that.
Review of Laurent Garnier's "The Cloud Making Machine".