When Maxime Morin put the finishing touches on the follow up to Chill Em All – the highly acclaimed 2004 debut album under his stage moniker DJ Champion – he knew just what to do.

He deleted the songs and started anew.

“I wasn’t happy with it because it was just the following step after Chill Em All. The music was in the same path as that album,” said Morin, 40, by phone from his Montreal home last week, one day before leaving on a tour that will see him play the Pyramid on Saturday, Nov. 14.

“I wasn’t going anywhere else, I wasn’t rediscovering myself, I wasn’t interrogating myself about who I am. I like to put myself at risk so that I can rediscover myself.”

What followed was a year of seclusion for Morin.

He built a complete studio at home, cut most ties to the social sphere surrounding him and engaged in rather unorthodox songwriting methods.

“The first experiment of the album was trying to write a song with shitty guitar tones. I tried crafting a beautiful song out of really crappy tones,” Morin explained.

Known for his high-energy live shows based mostly on improvisation, Morin steered away from his previous electro-dance soundscape and channelled the riff-driven sounds he was creating on stage.

“I wanted to go more rock with this album. The other one was more DJ oriented and it wasn’t intended for an all ages audience. The live act was always more rock than the album,” Morin said.

The result is Resistance – a collection of 11 homegrown, punchy dance tunes, laced with Morin’s guitar work and fronted by the vocals of fellow Montreal musician Pilou.

Although Morin has released over 10 albums in his obscure-techno career spanning back all the way to 1984, he knows the challenges associated with getting the music heard.

“It only takes one song. That’s the breaker,” Morin said. “You always have to work hard. There is no easy way up. But is the way up the goal? No. The journey is the goal.”

With Resistance, Morin feels he has significantly enriched his journey.

But not everyone enjoyed the ride.

“One day I came home and I looked on my door and I saw black stripes on the bottom of it,” Morin said. “Then I realized that was the neighbour because she doesn’t knock. She kicks the door when she’s not happy. That’s my neighbours footprint on my door!”

Published in Volume 64, Number 11 of The Uniter (November 12, 2009)