Novadance.com: So, Paolo, in the past month youﾒve been as far afield as Honolulu and Moscow, and now youﾒre off to Melodicaﾅyou must be wrecked!?

Paolo Mojo: That week youﾒre talking about began in New York on Monday morning, where I was playing the previous Saturday. Then I flew to Phoenix Arizona, on to Honolulu, back to Los Angeles, back to London, on to Moscow, then Rostov and several other locations in Russia before dying in bed on Sunday night! Thatﾒs a typical week actually; well, maybe a bit hectic. The travel gets a bit much, but at least Iﾒm doing something I love! But Iﾒm really looking forward to coming back to Dublin.

The one thing we've noticed in the last few months though is the number of releases and remixes that seem to be coming out bearing your name. How do you find time to work on these while travelling?

Those tracks havenﾒt all been written recently, for example the ﾑDizzy Synthsﾒ Can Costa remix thatﾒs just out now [on Babylon Records] was written a year ago. ﾑMotor Stringsﾒ [now available on Sensei], one of my own tunes, dates back to January 2004. For some reason all these older tracks that were signed to various labels are only now getting released; I donﾒt have much control of that processﾅ

Do you think it might be because thereﾒs been a trend towards that sort of melodic house recently?

I donﾒt know, but I do try and make all my productions have a decent melody..its all about making people dance after all. But at the same time I like to keep the bottom end nice and dirty, more befitting my style.

Was ﾑMotor Stringsﾒ inspired by Detroit, or even written there?

It was written in Tooting Bec actually! I didnﾒt really know what to call it, and it had this offbeat part that came in about four minutes in that reminded me of an old record I heard somewhere- something in it felt Detroity, so I just called it Motor Strings, cos it had lots of strings in it!

On the other side of the coin, thereﾒs ﾑ1983ﾒ [soon to be released on Pryda], which has a definite New Order or Italo Disco vibe to it..

ﾑ1983ﾒ was written at the beginning of last summer- it had to go through a lot of sample clearance and label rights issues. I just seem to have really bad luck with all of my tracks, they take absolutely fucking forever to come out for one reason or another! ﾑ1983ﾒ is probably the worst example of this, but itﾒll hopefully be out early in the New Year.

Itﾒs being released on Eric Prydz, labelﾅbut its not even remotely like ﾑCall on Meﾒ. Which is a good thing I suppose..?

Eric is an absolute studio genius; he knows exactly what to put together to make a stomping dance track. ﾑCall on Meﾒ just represents what he does for the pop industry. If you listen to any of the stuff heﾒs been releasing as Cirez D or Pryda, theyﾒre all absolute killer dancefloor tracks. I was honoured to remix his tune ﾑAftermathﾒ, which should be out soon on Pryda as well.

You and Cass finally got to release ﾑHereticﾒ this summer [released in June on Sabotage], how long did that project take since its inception?

We first started thinking about it early in 2004. Cass had other obligations that summer with his house and family; sometimes projects get shelved for a bit, but thatﾒs not to say you lose interest. It was always something we intended to definitely do, and the start of 2005 seemed like the most convenient time for both of us. Around Feb/March we really devoted time to getting it done. Iﾒm really happy with the way its stood up, I got the chance to listen to the cd for the first time only a couple of weeks ago, and it still stands up well. It was a real labour of love for the two of us, it was really nice and satisfying to see our little baby hit the shelves.

And youﾒve got your own mix cd coming out soon, Balance 009?

Its due out in the spring, its my next big project over Christmas. Itﾒs going to be my first double disc, which means Iﾒve got twice as much space to piss people off. About four years ago, the last double cd I got to work on on my own was the Music is Freedom cd; the one that really kickstarted my career. It feels nice to have the chance to do something like that again. The other nice thing about Balance is theyﾒve got some really good DJs to do mixes, Holdenﾒs one is great, Fortierﾒs is good as well, Desyn (Masiello) is a bit of a tosser, but what can you doﾅ

Do you think the Balance series is kind of picking up where Global Underground left off?

I guess the DJs on the Balance roster are doing nowadays what a few years ago would have fallen into the Global Underground Nubreed category. Theyﾒve moved away from that area, theyﾒre specialising more on artists and solo DJ projects, like Steve Lawlerﾒs Lights Out, or Sashaﾒs Fundacion series.

Howﾒs your own label coming along?

Slowly. The music is there, but itﾒs taking a while to set up as itﾒs going to be completely digital. It was going to be called Bump, but last week I received word that there was already a German house label with the same name. Iﾒve had to have a bit of a rethink about it; weﾒre not going to release vinyl at all. The signs are clear that itﾒs a dying format, and any new label really has to rethink the most effective way to get the music out there. Iﾒve got about four tracks ready to go that Iﾒve been working on over the summer; basically Iﾒm going to use my own label to force my rubbish on the general public!

What gigs have you really enjoyed playing this year, apart from Melodica of course?

I really enjoyed Colours in Glasgow; going back to back with Sasha was very special for me. And it was all impromptu. Heﾒs a bit of a living legend really, wherever you go, heﾒll pull a massive crowd, so the opportunity to do something off the cuff like that was fantastic. I like being on tour, its great to be in that kind of mentality of living out of a bag; you see a different place every couple of days. Iﾒm at the point in my life where Iﾒve few responsibilities back home, so the chance to see as many places as possible is just amazing. I have a different mindset when Iﾒm on the road; when I get homw I have to take that cap off and put on a producer cap- Iﾒm always looking for new ways to help me produce while on the road. But it can be very hard to switch mentalities.

Is it a question of not having enough time, or just a mindset you cant break out of?

A bit of both. Iﾒm obviously working on re-edits all the time; virtually every track I play is edited in some way, but to check into a hotel and sit in my room and compose music is actually very difficult.

This time at Melodica, what can we expect musically?

Yeah, itﾒll be the same old shite, record for record- Iﾒve bought no new tunes since New Years so Iﾒm just going to be playing exactly the same set! Iﾒll just basically be taking the money and running, leaving a mix cd on and flailing my arms about a bit. Being a general pain in the arse, basically.. If you cant treat your fans with disrespect, whats the point?