King Of Woolworths is the alias of Jon Brooks, a solo artist who comprises everything from primitive electronics, hip-hop and library music to create some of the finest downbeat exotica. Brooks is also about to release his new album this month in the form of the excellent 'Rediffusion', his third and most ambitious project to date. Previously, KOW has worked alongside the likes of Dot Allison and Emma Pollock, although his latest creation remains instrumental.

For more information about the King and the lovely Lo Recordings label, please check out their site - Lo Recordings.

Hi Jon, how are you?

Pretty chipper, actually.

You are about to release your latest album 'Rediffusion'...how does it feel to be on your third long-player and did you ever think you'd make it this far?

It feels good - sometimes I'm surprised that I've managed to do a third album, simply because I do quite a lot of other things, musically. I like to keep busy.

The new album is excellent, definitely your most cohesive and rewarding to date. What inspired you through the recording?

Thankyou. All kinds of things inspired me through the recording process - one of the most prominent factors was a holiday in rural France, last year. Simple things like that are the most powerful inspirations - I was making quiet notes of track titles and ideas while I was there, things I would work on when I got home. I also recorded quite a lot of sound over there; although I didn't use any of it directly on Rediffusion, it was inspiring to listen to all this material and get ideas and feelings from it.

Do you feel it's your best work to date?

Yes, I think so. If I didn't think it was, I wouldn't have allowed it to have been given a release. Things have to progress. It's certainly a step in the right direction.

'L'Illustration Musicale' had a few collaborations with singers including Dot Allison, but why did you chose to remain instrumental on 'Rediffusion'?

Doing some vocal tracks on the last LP was an experiment in itself, mainly to see if I could take singers out of their usual context and place them in new environments, to gauge their responses. It was also an idea my old record company liked, because vocals help to sell music. The new LP happened quite organically as an instrumental album; I didn't have any pressure at all from the new label to write for vocalists - I think they just wanted to sit back and watch the LP grow, without interference.

Looking back on your earlier material, do you think you've come on a long way as a producer?

I'd like to think so. The production side, the recording and engineering process is equally as important to me as being the composer.

How did your musical career begin?

My dad was a jazz session guitarist, an incredibly talented man. As such, we had musical instruments and records lying around everywhere, so it didn't take me long to pick up on things and just get interested in them - it just happened. By the age of 5 I was playing drums quite well and by the time I started school, my teachers noticed that I had an obsession with music, enough to write a chapter about it in my first school report, I remember. I was picking up any musical instrument I could lay my hands on and trying to get a tune or rhythm from it. It went on from there.

Have you achieved everything you wished to musically or is there a lot more we can expect from the future? If you haven't so far, what would be the pinnacle of your career?

I'm always hungry to find new ways of approaching sound and composition - that's the essence of continuing to be creative. I'm constantly thinking of sounds and arrangements I'd like to try and create and how I might approach that, given the limitations of my surroundings and means. When that creativity becomes surpassed and you run out of experiments to try, maybe that's when you lose it.

I once read a review around the release of your debut single which described you as the new Aphex Twin, how do you feel about that, is it the most stupid comparison you've ever heard?

Maybe someone wrote that just on the impression of that first single. Richard James is an excellent experimental artist, although I think my music's very different to his. It's a lazy comparison. I'd rather be billed as the new Jean-Jacques Perrey, but I don't read reviews anyway.

Be honest, did you get Emma Pollock (of The Delgados) to sing on 'Nuada' to try and score a chart hit? It was a classic pop single...

It wasn't a stab at a chart hit, as it was never released as a single. Having said that, I would have found it very amusing (and surreal) if it had made the top 40.

Your fave Britney song and why?

I like that one she did with Jean-Jacques Perrey.

Library music is an obvious huge influence on your music, if you'd never it how do you think your music would of turned out and what would it sound like now?

Library music has been a part of me since being at school, watching science programmes and public information films, among many other examples. It's hard to think of life without it, let alone what my music would have sounded like. There was no escaping it as I was growing up - companies like 'Rediffusion' would pipe library music into supermarkets as you walked round looking for groceries.

Can you recommend any "starter" records or producers to begin with, for people who want to hear a bit of library music?

Just about everyone has heard library music, even if they don't think about it. I still get surprised looks from people when I tell them that the BBC snooker theme is a library piece, or if I play them the full version of the "Grandstand" theme tune, which goes off half-way into a very funky guitar solo bearing no resemblence to the bit you always hear on the telly. That's just the tip of the iceberg of library music, but it always raises a smile. Keith Mansfield wrote a lot of those BBC sports theme pieces, including Grandstand. He's probably the first library composer I took notice of. Also, Alan Hawkshaw whose library piece was picked up for Grange Hill - just about everyone knows that tune.

Thanks for your time Jon!

No problem!