After years as a print magazine Bokson reinvented itself this year as Mowno, a great online magazine. Bonus interview & playlist with track-by-track comments below:

What are you up to at the moment?
I’m on a train heading out of Paris for a weekend of partying. No super fast train, this is a crappy old one just crawling along and stopping in every village. I’m going to have to drink this away.

Please could you introduce Mowno?
Mowno is the brand new version of Bokson, a webzine that came into existence six or seven years ago and which started off as a fanzine at the end of the nineties.
It’s a much more ambitious website, which still offers a daily coverage of rock, electronic music and hip hop news. The editorial team has grown, our ideas and passion remain intact. We’re still on the way towards new musical horizons, and meeting up with musicians. Mowno is an advisor for music, art and ideas. We are also in the process of developing show projects with a concert venue in Paris, and much more…

The press industry seems to be taking the same direction as the music industry: more and more on the net and less and less physical. Was it a hard decision to make to go on the net?
No, that wasn’t hard, simply because we got involved with the web very soon, just before the written press started being affected by it. Before that we were photocopying our fanzines, stapling them together on the kitchen table. We would sell them through French and Quebecois record dealers, then collect the proceeds before we could bring out the next issue
With the internet, everything got lighter, and the content is immediately available to the whole world. It felt really natural for us to go through the net, seeing as we had been working in close collaboration with a website company. Members close to Mowno are internet and new technologies specialists, and are for that matter still helping us today. Much thank to them…

How has the relationship between you and the music industry evolved?
Very naturally. We began tiny, got ourselves known by bands, labels and press agencies, then one thing lead to the next. Today, I think I can safely say that we have become a serious website, with whom the people in the music world enjoy working with. Perhaps that’s because we strive to make no compromises, while being meticulous when it comes to form.

How do you see the future of the press industry?
On the web. I don’t see how traditional press can compete with the web’s reactivity. Traditional press has for that matter turned towards new technologies, numerous blogs have emerged and become unavoidable, some websites have gone back to paper… nowadays anything goes, everyone is searching, copying, finding inspiration… sure signs that things are on their way and are not about to stop. The future of the press dwells in its capacity to find innovative solutions, new tools, and to work hand in hand with the new technologies’ people. I believe it’s going to need to secure the loyalty of an audience qualified in precise fields, as well as being able to offer/ sell services to them. We all know that the model based on advertisement revenue isn’t enough. On our side, we’re not looking to follow a business plan’s guidelines, but to see our audience grow while remaining cutting edge and pertinent. We see ourselves as a hybrid structure, communicative, innovative and curious.

What are your main influences (press, web and music)?
I began rummaging through indy rock ever since discovering Fugazi. Everything stemmed from various encounters, when friends put the very first Anticon albums between my hands. Electronic music came later, whan I was a record dealer. Regarding the press and fanzines, I brought myself up on Rage and Kerosene. Today, the French press stops at Noise, as far as I’m concerned. For this reason I usually turn to the web, towards sites such as Pitchfork, Stereogum, Okayplayer, Computer Love, Today and Tomorrow, Vvork… and I’m forgetting many. My Netvibes is full of them…

What do your readers expect from you in 2009?
Good raw sounds for real music fiends (“du bon son brut pour les truands”, I Am). On a more serious note, I don’t know, one would have to ask them. We always give it our best shot, trying to be as impartial as possible so that they want to come and see us again. Our main goal is always to reveal new artists. If every visit to the site ends like that, it’s mission accomplished.

As a journalist, how do you use & see the web today? How important is it for you and how do you see it evolving in the coming years?
The web is my daily source of information. I’m totally hooked. I’d prefer my water was cut off rather than internet. Nevertheless, the web comes with a major problem: the quality of information, and verification of the sources. Journalism is going to evolve somewhat, from now on everyone has an opinion, and everyone can picture themselves as a journalist after just having copy/ pasted three bits of articles, but obviously that’s not what it’s about. The web is another source, and for us it will never replace work in the field: meeting up with the artists… going digging through their guts.

What’s your favorite: digital and physical format and why?
Physical, without a doubt. For me, records are my only capital. I actually very frequently buy records of which the promo version has already been sent to me. It takes up a lot of room, but it’s beautiful and I find it cool to leave a varied record collection behind for my kids. They think it’s music for old farts when they’re in their teens, but they always end up appreciating it when they grow up… the mp3 is practical, it’s easy to carry around, but it really has a lousy sound and everything can disappear in one hard drive crash. No pasaran…

Best thing that happened to you recently?
My daughter’s birth at the end of last year.

Best venue?
Maroquinerie for small gigs, Bataclan for big ones.

Best gig (2009 and ever)?
I don’t really have any memories of concerts this year, although there have been some. Before that, Jurassic 5 at the Bataclan (maybe 2008), before they quit, Band Of Horses at the Maroquinerie in February 2008, and two days of gigs in Poitiers and Nantes following Fugazi on their Red Medecine tour.

Best place to live?
It’s a little cliché but I admit I’ve rarely felt as good as in San Fransisco. I’m definitively an urban kind of person.

Last album you enjoyed listening to? Worst album of the year (so far)?
« At The Cut » by Vic Chesnutt is one of the best i’ve listened to in recent times. I don’t give bad albums enough of my time to remember them, but the last one is probably Dizzee Rascal’s.

Best TV show (current and ever)?
Any one at the end of the evening. TV helps me get to sleep.

Last book you enjoyed reading?
My new camera’s instructions booklet.

Fave night drink and morning beverage?
Beer and coffee.

Playlist track-by-track comments:

Marvin – Discose
No doubt one of the best French bands these days. A crazy energy lead by a drummer that’ll take your breath away. And unbeatable at arm wrestling, but that’s just for the record…

Rodriguez – Sugar Man
This guy’s story is unbelievable. He’s a music survivor. Now for sure he’ll be singing until his last breath.

Battles – Atlas
This tune is starting to get old, but it still sounds like it’s out of this world. Battles is something else, and this track reflects that in every way.

Vic Chesnutt – Chinaberry Tree
Accompanied as he is now, Vic Chesnutt gives birth here to one of the most beautiful and touching tracks of his discography. A little tenderness in this world of jolly brutes.

Edit – Artsy Remix
Too much of a perfectionist for some, furiously efficient for others, Edit figures among the best electro/ hip hop producers around. Fine tuned to precision.

Thom Yorke – Eraser (Xxx change remix)
Thom Yorke, easy… except the lightness of this remix will untie the knot in your stomach while you’re on your way to work. It also works on the way back, for the aperitif.

Mos Def, Jim Jones & The Black Keyes – Hoochie Coo
First extract from one of the most exciting projects of the end of this year. Those who enjoy The Black Keys’ burning riffs as well as the cream of American hip hop should expect a real slap in the face.

Sholi – Tourniquet
The kind of American indy rock band that has slowly but surely digested all of its influences to have come out of it better than ever. As brilliant as it is unexpected.

Shellac – The End Of The Radio
Since there is no Fugazi on Fairtilizer, let’s fall back on Shellac, another cornerstone of the American independent rock scene. Take it away, and everything collapses…

The Heavy – Sixteen
Who other than this British band could give as good a tribute to black music? One of our last encounters, since Mowno has just published a video interview recorded in this band’s hotel room, forties’ erotic tapestries and all.

Electric Electric – Hydraviolet
One of Marvin’s main opponents in the Frenchy sensation race. Electric Electric is to French rock what the traditional sausage is to Strasbourg. No vocals, the music speaks for itself.

Beastie Boys – Too Many Rappers
It’s not every day that the Beastie Boys indulge in featuring. This track foreshadows a new album which won’t fail to show the younger hip hop generation what time it is.

Band Of Horses – Is There A Ghost
High class pop. Here at Mowno, we don’t recall a live act that shook us as hard as the Band Of Horses’ at the Maroquinerie in February of 2008.

Antipop Consortium – Apparently
This guys stop, find each other and come back again even better than in the past. “Fluorescent Black” has been available since September 28th and has wreaked more havoc than the H1N1 influenza.

El P – How To Serve A Man
Forget it, you’ll be hard pressed to find anyone more gifted on the independent American hip hop scene. This guy has enough talent to permanently one lap ahead. Everyone else is -still- running.

(Drive In) Static Motion – You Said
A brand new discovery on the French scene: an electro-dub producer meets a rock singer and guitarist, for an outcome full of tension, melancholy, and sensitivity. Too rare to not mention.

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