Carl Cox, Second Sign Interview

It's 1:45am in London and Carl Cox has been fielding phone calls from all corners of the globe for hours. It's been a long day. He's tired. Thoughts of his comfy bed no doubt ebb and flow through his mind... then I call. He answers with a simple 'hello' and he starts talking... and I try to keep up!

I am immediately struck by the immense magnitude of enthusiasm that flows down the phone wires, beams through the stratosphere, bounces off a satellite, enters a local telco computer system and finally emanates from a small speaker next to my ear. It's late at night but it's plainly clear this man loves his music, loves this album and loves sharing it with the world. It's great to see and this is what sets Carl Cox apart: his energy stems from a true "love of the game". Indeed, many would say he owns the dance music game.

AE: You must be crazy busy at the moment with media commitments for the launch of Second Sign. This is no doubt a different type of "busy" than you have previously had to deal with as a DJ. How do you find dealing with the media as a music producer-

CC: You know that's a good question. It is actually something I enjoy a lot. I have been in the scene for so many years now but I still feel on top of my game. I am still really enjoying my music and I feel that by answering questions and using the media I am able convey this love I have of music to all the people out there.

I am making music now and some of the music on Second Sign is pretty revolutionary and I want people to know what my music is all about at the moment. With this album I really wanted to bring in and use as many of the musical influences that have played a part in my life as I could.

AE: Well, that is a good lead in actually; you are quoted as saying that from your three albums so far, you are most happy with this one. That may be so but when you are creating an album there are invariably tracks that you just can't squeeze into the final pressing. Were there any tracks that you really wanted on the album which just didn't make it-

CC: Oh certainly. There are just never enough minutes in an album. We had to leave off a number of untitled tracks that we'll hold over for another time. There was one track that I would have loved to have seen on the album that has a sort of African trance feel... kind of Renegade meets Roni Size. A little hard to imagine. In the end we decided to push it off as the album already has plenty of revolutionary stuff and we didn't want to distract people. On the whole, I am really happy with Second Sign, and I think it really shows where I am at. It's the very best of what I have done so far.

AE: Norman Cook [Fatboy Slim] is listed as an album contributor - any chance you two finally got around to finishing "Master Bass" after all these years-

CC: [laughs] Yeah, you know, it took some doing as we are both just so busy but yeah, we did. It is called "That's The Bass" now and we actually did two versions of it. There is one on Second Sign and we will probably release the other version as a single or later down the track.

Norman and I were working on the track off and on for ages. We usually only got three or four hours at a time then we just spent two whole days and got it finished. We are both really happy with it.

AE: Good to hear that it finally got out of your head. You must have heaps of tracks like that; tracks that you have in your head but just never have a chance to get down.

CC: Oh very true. I have tracks in my head and sometimes I just know they are going to be classics and I just grab whatever I can and record them. You know, I hum them into a dictaphone or recorder or tap the beat to someone. Or, these days I use my phone and use the recorder in that.. but then the batteries go flat and I can't record it and the track is lost forever! The other problem is when I hear a really great sample and I start toying around with it and then someone uses it and< Tags

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