The guitar has been very good to Bob Mould. Though he made his name as the alt-rock king of the 6- and 12-string, Mould surprised fans in 2002 when he returned from a four-year hiatus with a pair of electronica albums, his patented guitar sound was buried deep in the mix. While last year's Body of Song was somewhat of a return to form, Mould was redirecting his newfound penchant for dance music into Blowoff, a project that pairs the singer/songwriter with famed producer/house DJ Richard Morel, whose 2002 solo debut, Queen of the Highway, left quite an impression on Mould.

"I met Rich and we just hit it off right away," Mould remembers. "When I ended up in D.C. four years ago, we started to hang out, and decided to start writing music together. And over the last three years, we did a lot of writing, and just messing around with sounds. So this is the result of three years of procrastinating," he concludes, laughing.

Blowoff began life as a small, intimate DJ set-"Literally, I went to Kinko's and made up flyers on business cards and would hand them out to people that I'd want to invite to my party," Mould recalls-first in a monthly set at Washington, D.C.'s Velvet Lounge and, as word spread and demand increased, a weekly set in the basement of the 9:30 Club.

From their humble beginnings, Blowoff gigs grew into must-see events in the DC club scene, appealing especially to what Mould refers to as "the disenfranchised gay community." "From the beginning," he explains, "it was friends and people who we wanted to party with: it's predominantly gay, predominantly men, predominantly in the 25 to 50 age range. Having said that, we get a lot of gals that come to it, a lot of straight people. I think it's a tough call because we've always seen it as a music thing, first and foremost. [The audience] is a lot of people who love indie rock and love house music, but didn't like the gay club scene as much, or maybe didn't feel as comfortable in it. And we gave them a place where rock was OK.

"One of the reasons it's been so successful," Mould theorizes, "is because Rich and I have a vision of what we want it to be, and we've actually made it that. We did exactly what we wanted to do: We took the idea to people that we thought would be approachable and would enjoy it and would feel like they could be a part of it, and that's what happened. We made something out of scratch. We didn't try to create an event that catered to a specific audience."

Fairly or not, Mould has been categorized in the past as a control freak. His first band, the 1980s punk trio Hüsker Dü, famously imploded over a power struggle between Mould and the band's other songwriter, drummer Grant Hart. Later, Mould's power-pop threesome Sugar would perform a handful of songs by bassist David Barbe, but there was little doubt that Mould was running the show. Which makes it all the more surprising that, for the first time since Hüsker Dü's debut Land Speed Record 25 years ago, Mould and his collaborator share all songwriting credits. "There's no singular vision driving this thing," Mould explains. "It's a unique situation. Working with Rich, it's been a lot of fun because we both have things that we specialize in, and I think we just have very complementary approaches to songwriting."

The best example of the reciprocal nature of Blowoff is "Hormone Love," the first single from the self-titled debut album. The song splits the difference between the two musicians' skills perfectly, as Morel's dispassionate vocals and skittering drumbeat rides Mould's trademark: a punchy, Sugar-y guitar riff. How was the song chosen as the first single? "Because it's the best song," Mould jokes. "Always good to go with the best foot forward. I think that one's a really good example of what happens when we both put our minds to making a song good."

Both rock fans and house heads will find plenty to like on Blowoff's debut, from the driving guitars on "Here and Now" to the Daft Punk-style dance-funk of "Saturday Night All the Time." Even though Mould and Morel approach the music from different directions, Blowoff never once feels disjointed, likely because of the deepness of the collaboration: Both writers' fingerprints are all over every song, and fans from either side may find themselves surprised by how much they like the songs from the other camp.

Rock music still has a place in Mould's heart, with another solo album and a live DVD of his recent full-band tour planned for the coming months. Between Blowoff and his solo material, Mould has found a way to scratch all of his musical itches. "As I get older, my forms of expression get broader," Mould concludes. "I'm just really lucky to have something like this in my life right now, and I think Rich feels the same way. For both of us, it's a real gift to have a night once a month in D.C.-or more often now that we're going to start touring with this thing-that we can get people who like music together, get a room full of cute guys, and have a party. That's about as fun as it gets."

Continue to the next page to read our complete interview with Bob Mould