story by Spencer Lokken

Saying that the musical style of Adam Dorn, a.k.a. Mocean Worker, is all across the board would be an understatement of epic proportions. Son of legendary producer Joel Dorn, Adam has the spectacular and rare ability of creating a sound that appeals to the ears of the young, old, and everyone in between. With the help of modern day technology, what you will be exposed to are elements of jazz, electronic music, and funk, all perfectly molded into one highly pleasurable sonic experience.

After three LPs of solid, yet less genre-defying work, his most recent full-length release, Enter the MoWo, is an album in its truest form. Perfectly programmed from start to finish, you'll be taken on a roller coaster ride from the dance floor to the bedroom without the slightest interruption of flow. With a guest artist roster that would make just about anyone jealous, Adam puts his keen ear for quality musicianship on display for all to see, while at the same time maintaining his own personal goals for what he'd truly like Mocean Worker to sound like.

Chicago Innerview had the chance to speak with funny man and class act Adam Dorn about his DIY mentality, getting the chance to work with some of his idols, and his good fortune on finally being able to release music that's been inside of him for so long.

DORN'S INNER VIEW "The goal was to make a record that you would like and maybe your mom would like. I'm not looking to be Mr. Hipster electronica boy. I really just wanted to make some music that everyone could like."

Chicago Innerview: It's been a few years since we've heard from you and I think your fans are pretty stoked about the direction you took with this record. Tell me about what you wanted to accomplish going into it. With your roots, you must be pretty excited about the end result.

Adam Dorn: The last record that I made was sort of tongue in cheek. It wasn't really serious. It was sort of a break beat and house record, but I made it as a bit of an inside joke. At the time it came out everybody was listening to French house, breaks and big beat. It was kind of vapid what was going on so I had made that record thinking I would release Enter the Mowo within, like, eight months. That totally didn't go down. Enter the Mowo was based on how I grew up and what I grew up listening to. It's way more intellectual than the last record.

Chicago Innerview: Tell me about working with the guest artists you chose. That must have been quite surreal for you.

Adam Dorn: I loved it because a lot of it had to do with the fact that technology recording is so advanced now. I can make a track, send it to someone, and I don't even really have to be with them. That wasn't the case for a lot of this record, but for example on 'Shamma Lamma Ding Dong', Franck Gauthier, the flute player, lives in the south of France. I literally sent him a CD, he listened to it, put it in his computer, played to it, and sent me back like 40 minutes worth of flute stuff and told me to do whatever I wanted with it. That was amazing. On that level you have this ability to share ideas with someone on the other side of the planet and there are really no barriers. Your Fed Ex guy becomes your A&R guy. In terms of actually being in the studio and recording, it was great because it really felt like a real record was being made. Everyone that came in had the same feeling. They're all jazz musicians, but they're not used to playing stuff that sounds like this. I think it was a lot of fun for everyone. The goal was to make a record that you would like and maybe your mom would like. I'm not looking to be Mr. Hipster electronica boy. I really just wanted to make some music that everyone could like.

Chicago Innerview: Record store clerks probably have a fit determining what bin to put this record in, but being stylistically so diverse, it's refreshing for us listeners to have the opportunity to digest such clever combinations of sounds. Tell me about the obvious importance you see in keeping your music fresh.

Adam Dorn: I want to enjoy my records as much as any fan. Each album has to be a little different. If you were an author and you just kept writing the same story, you'd be so bored. There's a balance between branding yourself and getting known as a certain kind of artist and doing the same thing.

Chicago Innerview: I think one of the reasons your music is so enjoyable to listen to is that you get ideas from a plethora of different artists from different time periods. I read somewhere that when you were first starting out you were equally as familiar with not only jazz and electronic music, but classical as well.

Adam Dorn: I think my tastes are all over the place because I have such horrible attention problems. I'll literally be into something for a week and then just forget that I loved it. I write sort of the same way. I'll write a bunch and just save it and forget that it's there. It's kind of the same way with my influences. I'll listen to My Morning Jacket all day but then I'll write something at night that has nothing to do with them. That's kind of what I'm into. I'll listen to 'Fair Warning' by Van Halen and then write a ballad.

Chicago Innerview: The video for new jam 'Chick a Boom Boom Boom' on your Web site (www.moceanworker.com) is absolutely hysterical. Tell me about doing these types of things yourself.

Adam Dorn: That video was directed by a guy named Alex Moulton. He directed a video for Tiga of a version of 'Hot in Herre', Nelly's song. That was nominated for an MTV Video Award for best video under 25,000 bucks. He's a kick ass director and really cool. I met him through my manager and I told him I just wanted to make a fun song, something that people will want to watch this idiot be a fool and also be like, 'this song is kind of catchy'. It's tough in this world to try and break a song. Something like 15,000 people have watched that video in the last six weeks. I love it because it shows me that it's funny and that people enjoy it. That's the goal.

Mocean Worker :: Sonotheque :: February 4.