This man might be most famous for bringing intelligent words to supposedly unintelligent house music. However, one can't shake off the impression, that Maxi Jazz is so much more than the added number of what he does and is: rapper, DJ, Buddhist, ex-pirate radio host, poet... With a widespread music background, a whole lot in his mind he'd like to share, and an undeniable charismatic appearance, he is a true artist of all music, a commentator of life, a mediator of his own believes. Meet Maxi Jazz.

Now that the album is done, is it more of a relieve that it's done, or more of a burden, that now you have to tour again, you have to do the whole promotion thing and can't race that much anymore?

Yes, it's a relieve when it's done. It's hard work. Writing for me is not something that comes easily. I think that's an ego thing, frankly. Because what tends to happen is: you start to write and for 48 hours all that you write it shit. It's like you first gotta empty your head before you can empty your heart. And you look at the words you wrote, and your like 'I couldn't even show these words to my mom'. And it will be two three days later, maybe a week later, and suddenly bam, when you are peeling your potatoes, this line will come to you, you will write it down. And as you write it down, there's the next one following it and it all just falls out of you. It's almost like you are reading it with your mind, where it's coming from. Generally, when I write, I try to paint a picture in my head and I write what I see.
But it is a difficult process. And so it's always a pleasure when it's done. And when you can say 'yes, I enjoy listening to it, I'm proud of what I did'....good. It's not often that you make a record and you still really like it weeks after you've made it, and after loads of people have asked you about it, it's time to get feed up with the thing.
And to answer the other part of the question: it's not so much of a burden. It's more like a monster that eats your life. It's like you give birth to this child, and it grows to be like four times bigger than you and every day it eats a bit more of you. You don't have the time to do anything but being Faithless. Which isn't no bad thing (smile).
This is my first love and passion: music. And the reason why I am a musician and not a racing driver, is because your ability to communicate with other people is severely limited as a racing driver. You can communicate with loads of people who love racing. That's it. There are more people that like music than there are that like motor racing. That's for absolutely certain. I love the feeling of creating new music and having people enjoy and listen to it and get something from it, right there in front of your face is just the best feeling.
But that said, I have never been on the podium yet. So I don't know how that feels. And if that feels better, trust me, Faithless will be no longer (laugh!).

You shouldn't have said that. Faithless fans that read this will try to sabotage your cars from now on. It will be like 'oh no, he's on pole position'...(laugh).

'Shit!' (laugh). That is totally a joke....!!

Do you have found a process or a place, where it is 'easier' to create something?

My house is the easiest place for me to create something, I think. When I used to live in Brixton, particularly, I usually sat here, where the telly was, and when I was writing I sat myself in the other corner. And I tend to do that now in my new flat: this is the corner I usually sit in, and when I wrote, I go over there. It just gives me a different perspective on my room.
And yes, that is the best place for me to write. I have written in hotel rooms, I wrote a great song in an airport once. It's difficult for me to write on the road. I can do it, but...

But you wouldn't show it to your mom (smile).

Naw...(smile). I think you need a bit of space. If you want to write something that is really meaningful to you, then you have to have a place that is quiet. There isn't really one like that on the tour bus, except your bunker, and there it shakes you around, and it will be like 'fuck this, where is the beer'?

Do you let other people have an influence on your lyrics? Maybe suggest lines.

Yeah, I don't mind. There are times when we will write a lyric and maybe I will be in the studio reciting it, and I've done it and it sounds good, and Bliss will be going 'Maxi, I'm not sure about that line about chopping up liver. It's a bit graphic' - 'Okay, I will change it'. I will move it around and will search something that says exactly the same.
What is very important for us is to fit the music and the words together. I mean, there are a lot of songs where the words are great and the music is shit. Or the music just doesn't work with the lyrics, like the music is really happy and the theme is really dark. And there is a way you can do make it work, where you can make the happiest sounds sinister. But some records don't do that.
So yeah, I will let other people influence my lyrics, yeah, because it's a good idea. And in a lot of cases, people will give you a suggestion that is good. Like we did "Tarantula" in the studio, and Bliss was like 'maybe you can change this line and that line' and I was really glad that she did, because I wanted that the tarantula to represent the demon or the devil, that exists within everybody. And because of the changes we made, right at the last minute, it became even more apparent what I was talking about. We were very please. I think Bliss asked me to change two lines and things just fell into place.

And I guess in exchange you have an influence on the music.

I think so yes. Don't think that it's necessarily a coincidence, well it's no coincidence at all, that each successive album gets funkier and more soulful as we go along. Obviously we are gonna write songs for me. I'm on the bus with 'La, most days of most weeks, and I got my tapes in there thumping, and they know perfectly what I'm into and what I like. And all of that will incorporated into the mix that is Faithless. There are so many different talents that contribute to Faithless, so you don't get bored listening to your own records, like it's someone else's records, so it's really good.

You have a very widespread background musically, would you be able to limit yourself to one kind only or do you need all of it?

I need all of it. I'm a Gemini, I get bored super quick. And in Faithless, we are not all the same. We are not all into Jazz. So you don't already know that the next album is going to be a Jazz album. But as we are into different stuff, you got no idea what the album is going to be like. And before I was in Faithless, I was in five different bands, all at the same time. Like, I had my own band, which was a hip hop jazz kind of collective, and another four five other things. And they were all as different as they could be. So I could stretch in all kinds of different things, it was brilliant.
But Faithless takes that role now, not quite in such an extreme way, but each track that we play doesn't sound like the one we played before. So it's difficult for you to lose interest. If we had only done house, the band wouldn't have lasted. I would have done the album and fucked off. Because I wouldn't have possible be able to go on tour and just jump around to house music all night. First of all, I would have to get stupid fit (laugh). And second it would be boring. There would be no need to have a band.
I'm not going on stage anymore without musicians.

Performing really seems to be fun for you.

Yes it is. For me it's the essence of music. You know, recorded music is great and there are some people that are amazing at recording music and you get real feelings and emotions from it. It's incredible to think that a minidisc can contain emotion. But this is a pale comparison to the actual experience of having it come down live in front of you. When I go to a gig and the gig is brilliant, then I'm on a cloud for days.
There's a Buddhist sort of concept, that there are only ten live states that exist anywhere in the universe and we share them all. This means, that you can't feel sad, without being sad. And you can't feel anger without being angry. So if you feel amazing.....it must be that you are. What is happening is that if someone comes into the room that is really happy, it brightens you up too. He stimulates you. Or Faithless on stage, being at their creative peak, right in front of you, it stimulates your creativity and creativity feels nice. But people don't think they are creative. They don't think they have genius. From the Buddhist perspective, if one person ever, ever, at any time throughout creation, manifested any signs of genius, means that everybody's got it. But if you don't believe you have it, you ain't ever gonna use it. If you don't seriously believe your biceps work, you won't use your arm. Everybody has genius, that's what the Buddha says.
The difference between you and me is, that you think that you are a common mortal and I know I'm a Buddha. That's the difference, d'you know what I mean? Cause and effect means that if you know you are a Buddha, your life is connected to life itself. So the causes you make are huge, because you are a Buddha. And so the effects that you get in your life are huge. If you think that you are a common mortal, you will think that you ain't have much power, and that you ain't making big causes, and so no big effects.
So to me, that's one of the principals why I'm still doing Faithless. Because there is that song to sing. And it's such a big and powerful song, and if even one person hears it, and improves their life, and then tells other people...
That's why I spent sixteen odd years and the last twelve virtually every day, working on music, or working on trying to sell the stuff that I was working on, and not getting no where. And I changed it all around, by applying the principals to Buddhism. Buddhism in a lot of ways elucidates all of the principals that exist in your life. You think to yourself 'oh shit', I learned all this Buddhism principals, I'm not even going to bother to tell people, why don't you become a Buddhist, instead I tell 'em about the principles and they can do their own thing. I'm an entertainer, I'm not a Chendi Vicar, as I have been described. So I put it in code, or sometimes I wont and it will be there, but as far as I'm concerned, those people that get it, great, and those that hate being preached at, buy somebody else's records (smile). I'm not going to just talk a lot of shit, vacuous, meaningless crap, in order to sell records to more people. I mean, we didn't think this stuff is going to sell. And the fact that it has is shocking and it leads me to believe that it's valuable. So I'ma keep doing it.

What can you tell us about Nichiren Daishonin Buddhism?

We have a problem with our Buddhist order at the moment: Nichiren Daishonin is the founder of our Buddhist movement. Nichiren Shoshu means orthodox, I would have previously said that I'm an Nichiren Shoshu Buddhist. However, the Nichiren Shoshu, that is the priesthood in Japan, have at their head a highly corrupt and wicked man, I think. He has taken on the mantle of the living Buddha, for himself, and we must all bow down and worship him. Which is complete shit, as everybody knows. And everybody knows priest aren't to be trusted at all. So we've stopped using the title Nichiren Shoshu and we just use the founders name, so it's Nichiren Daishonin's Buddhism.
The idea behind it is quite easy: prior to Nichiren Daishonin, it was commonly excepted around the world, that in order to become a Buddha, or in order to obtain Buddhahood, one had to, lifetime after lifetime after lifetime, practice various hostia, go to monasteries, renounce the secular world, stop eating meat and that sort of stuff. And then when you are good enough for long enough, eventually Buddhahood is bestowed upon you from above. This is not the truth. Nichiren Daishonin became awaken to the fact, that everybody has Buddhahood within them. From the moment they are born, to the moment they die. And when they are reborn, they are reborn with it, it's an eternal characteristic of all living things. Not just human beings. The reason why human beings is special, is human beings, apparently, are the only species of creature that can actually manifest that Buddhahood. This Buddhism does not require you to stop eating meat, or stop shagging, or stop driving fast cars or any of those things that you enjoy doing. Because you are a Buddha already as you are, all you have to do is get up and out, and what will happen is, all your human characteristics, become even more human if you like. You can become bigger and better. As bigger and good as you can possible be. You are in rhythm and I can't put it any better than that. It's just in rhythm in this amazing of life.
You know, you wonder about the huge amount of amazing coincidences that happen every single fucking day. Until you get to a point that you go and say 'this can't be a coincidence'. Cause and effect: you make the right causes, you get the right effects. You are in rhythm with universe. And from my perspective, and Rollo and Bliss would probably disagree, but I personally believe, that an old, I think Chinese, proverb sums up the reason for our success: 'the universe rewards those that take risks on its behalf'.
Now as a Buddhist and a rapper, I am trying to get across certain principals, like: your external environment is only ever gonna be a mirror of your internal environment. If you want your life to change, change in yourself first and everything changes, as if by magic, around you. I didn't know that before. So I was banging on doors in the outside and nothing would change, but as soon as I changed my ideas, poof, I didn't even have to go out, the phone rang: 'Maxi would you'? Of course I would, you know. It was so simple. So I decided that I was trying to do that. And a week later I met Rollo. It was like the universe was 'you wanna tell the world about me? Here, make this going, with him you will do it'. And bam, we made this record and we thought 'shit, we will not sell more then five, ten thousand records globally. Bam. One point two million records sold, after something like two years. 'What'? And we make another record and bam, that one goes off as well. 'So what is happening here'.
But you know, that's cause and effect. I made the cause of wanting to tell as many people as I could about the brilliance that I found out about. So I did. And even though we do get slagged off, quite rigorously sometimes at home, for preaching at people and 'dancers don't wanna hear this shit'. But they must do, mustn't they? And that seems like the world wants to know.