Temporarily abandoning his X Rhythms files, Tony Cummings spoke to Andrew Moxon of THE MOX FILES.

The Mox Files

Tony: Who or what are The Mox Files?

Andrew: The Mox Files is my creative front. I'm committed to revealing the truth, beauty and power of the Gospel message of Jesus Christ for salvation. The Mox Files are a collection of songs that began building themselves up on the hard drive and it seemed natural to call them The Mox Files. I originally intended to call the album 'Awakening The Dawn' but didn't really feel comfortable going under my name as an artist. So the combination of The Mox Files and choosing 'Alien' as the title track seemed to work and was cheesy enough to have enough kitsch. It's a play on my name. Friends call me "The Mox" and of course there is that reference to that really anointed TV show... I'm really trying to subliminally suck in the secular audience who seem to be into all things weird and wonderful and give them a nice surprise when they open the CD.

These songs started coming about a year after I got saved. I had been around music for years and couldn't seem to get it together. It would seem that God wanted me well rooted in his Kingdom before things started to come together. So I went and got trained at the School Of Creative Ministries at Kensington Temple, doing the worship course and Ministry Diploma at the IBIOL there too. I also got locked into local church life, cell group, etc.

I grew up in Scotland and have since lived the majority of my life in Surrey and London. I've also lived abroad in Los Angeles, Vienna and Paris.

Tony: How did you become a Christian?

Andrew: It's true, we are chosen, as Paul writes in Ephesians 1:4. One night in Chicago in about -20*C, Jesus decided enough was enough and it was time for me to bow the knee. I'd had it coming for a long while, at one point I was even having these dreams about this hot, red place, it was awful. The song "Barrabas" really describes this scenario where God just waits for us to come home to him. My life was, to say the least, not exactly healthy and once witnessed to about the victory Jesus won on the cross over the Devil the penny dropped very loudly and within about 24 hours of hearing the Gospel I was in church bawling my eyes out for about three hours. I was at the altar even before the service began. The next thing I knew there were about eight men praying and weeping over me...It was wild. (I was with my girlfriend and she got saved too.)

Tony: The Cross Rhythms team have been tying themselves in knots trying to pigeonhole your music. How would you describe it?

Andrew: First of all Jesus died so that we would not be bound up but free and I think that this applies here too... Ha ha ha! This album is just a bunch of songs that I sing about my love and gratitude and expression that this freedom brings. One good way to describe my music is "jammy". And by this I mean that I'm very lucky that I can bang away at a chord sequence long enough for an angel to come along and nudge my fingers into position or drop a lyric into my head when I'm watching telly or doing the dishes and then somehow manages to remind me to put them together. These songs though are all written on an acoustic guitar and could have been recorded in all manner of styles. It just worked out that I got to together with The Psalmist and he is genius with break beat and the nord and so the album sounds the way it does. Playing live with the boys (The Clay Rivers Band) - we are a straight four-piece and this works well too. I love the Hammond, grand piano, strings and choral stuff too and had originally intended going down that road. The spacey theme with "Alien" and the nord sounds really all work well though and I would like to think that we have captured a little bit of what our praises sound like as they go up to Heaven. Maybe that's why there's so much use of the delay effect on the vocals. This album is not so much a sit back in your armchair gooey worship album though; it's more about breakthrough, standing and warfare at times. My musical influences vary wildly from hip hop to country, Bowie to Delirious?, world and dance. I was well into the ECM jazz stuff at one time. I like it all, classic rock, classical, as well as all the good contemporary Christian music that's around

Tony: I understand there is a video coming out any day. Tell me about that.

Andrew: "The Man Who Made The World" will be on a screen near you soon! It's a mixture of Elstree and panto with me, Jesus, the Holy Spirit and God driving round London in an old convertible before jetting off into outer space. Well hammed up, it was directed by Peter Hutchinson of the SCM, edited by Jesus himself (well the character who plays Jesus, Matt Reburn) and was filmed by the Guildford amateur video club who all did a fantastic job. As I drive round town various thing go wrong and in turn Jesus, the Holy Spirit and God tell me not to worry about it, then we do this funny dance...

Tony: For independent British Christian music artists it's a very tough road. Why are you travelling it?

Andrew: Well Tony, this is a tough question. On the one hand there is no better job in the world but unless you're called to do it I really wouldn't want to wish it upon anybody. I believe I am called to do this and this is why God put me on the planet, so I'm going to go for it and really have a good crack at it. Tough and hard don't come into it when there's nothing else to do. Although I would love to leave the weirdness of it all sometimes whatever you do in life is tough and hard or strange at times. But I'm so deep in love with this incredible paint box called creation and it's such a privilege to throw all these colours around.

As far as being a new independent artist is concerned this is something I have to trust God with, he's got me this far and surely will bring to completion what he's started in a Magnuss Magnusson "I've started so I'll finish" sort of way. Whatever door God opens cannot be closed is a good saying, so I'm trusting him to lead the way. At the end of the day there are a lot of people out there who need Jesus and our country and this world needs Jesus badly. So basically it's all about putting the Great Commission into practice one way or another and if it works out that I can do my bit using music or other artistic media and this is God's will, well this will be fantastic. In order to keep the motivation going I'm going to have to keep focused on Jesus and his heart for the lost rather than all the complexities of the industry. I'll let him carry the burden as I've got no chance at all on my own. It would be nice to get a crown to throw at him.