MOFAUX

Mo’s wax

Turning out his own characterful style of bassline house and garage from a one-bedroom flat near Worthing in Sussex, Mo Abdoullahi – aka Mofaux – is a fast-rising presence on the dance music scene, with releases on Southpoint, Four40 and Saucy Records among others. He didn’t actually start off in electronic music, however, as he explains.

“The future is about people trying to push their own sound”

“I started off with drumming and percussion,” remembers Mo. “I did that when I was in primary school, and from there I dabbled in different kinds of bands, heavy bands, round the Brighton and Worthing area. And then I went to Chichester college and did A-level Music and two years of music technology, and that’s where the production side came in, and DJing. I did two years of that, with a friend, Nathan – we DJed dubstep round Brighton and local areas – and I ended up getting into the garage and bass house scene : early Four40 Records releases, Chris Lorenzo, Hybrid Theory and people like that. And then I just kind of spiralled off into what I’m doing now.”

What was it that inspired the shift in musical angle from live bands to electronic? “I can’t think of too much of a specific influence, because I still listen to that music now, I’m still interested in it. Nathan and I were really into dubstep – it’s when it was just coming out, at the Benga and Skream phase, and going into slightly heavier stuff… That’s what got me into it, I suppose. On the production side, there’s just something about the bass sounds.”

Having now been on the scene for the better part of a decade, Mo has seen it change and evolve. What’s his take on the current state of bass house? “It’s sort of in limbo right now,” he says, “because you’ve got certain people right at the top that get steady gigs and big releases – everyone knows who they are, they do the same thing, churning them out. Then you get