With a hell of a debut record under his belt, San Francisco resident Dominique Leone has been living hectic times since last November, when Norwegian man-of-the-moment Hans-Peter Lindstrøm finally celebrated him joining the Feedelity posse with the heavily spotlighted “Dominique Leone EP”. Its cornerstone was a 12-minute epic jumble coined “Clairevoyage – A Medley By The 16th Rebels Of Mung”, a magnificent piece that counted on the studio support of Hans-Peter, as well as on the Mungolian Jetset’s impressively larger-than-you-thought gang. “Conversational” – another staggering “Dominique Leone EP” delicacy – ended up being licensed for Lindstrøm’s “Late Night Tales” installment for Azuli Records – and released among songs by aces such as Carly Simon, Dusty Springfield and Sly & The Family Stone.

Holding a music degree from Texas Tech University, the Pitchfork contributor and hat collector Dominique is healthily and continuously feeding on sources such as Todd Rundgren, Beach Boys, Harry Nilsson and Abba to engage in preparing his “minimalist prog disco pop” premier album, due in March on Strømland. Meanwhile, he travels US for live solo presentations, eventually joining forces with fellow multi-instrumentalist MaryClare Brzytwa as a duet.

Given signs of how intensively the nerdy-beardy clairevoyaging laws are taking-over, Boogie Central urged to unveil the Leone world of wonders and caught up with the fast-rising Texan-born to find out what else is in pipeline for his 2008 run.

How did you hook up with Lindstrøm, Nyhus and Sævik?
I’d originally contacted Lindstrøm about doing a remix for me, and sent him some tracks. To my surprise and good luck, he really liked them, and wanted to release them on Feedelity. Originally, we were going to release a Lindstrøm remix, but he wasn’t happy with the first stuff he came up with. At the same time, I was writing him about a fantastic remix Mungolian Jetset had done for Ost & Kjex, and just wanting him to hear it — and it turned out he knew the guys in Mungolian Jetset! So, long story short, Lindstrøm & Mungolian Jetset collaborated on the “Clairevoyage” track, and Dominique was really happy.

How did Jamine Tonto, Katzenjammer, Patricia Brown, Izzy Pizzy, Xerox Juanipa Fabrizzi, Tore Brevik, Slough and Bob Chords come into the “Clairevoyage” game?
Well, that’s all the Mungolian Jetset horde — for national security reasons, I wasn’t allowed at those sessions.

How did the idea of putting out a track made by such an army come up?
If you’ve heard any of the Mungolian Jetset remixes, you know they’re not afraid to max out the number of elements that go into a track. I had first heard them on a remix they did for Kreeps (”All I Wanna Do is Break Some Hearts”), and was immediately into this notion of turning tracks into extended disco-exotica symphonies. I think it should take an army to do what they do, but in actuality, it’s just a lot of good ideas from people with serious muso backgrounds and a wide knowledge of lots of different kinds of music.

Who came first – Dominique the musician or the music journalist? How much do these activities converge and diverge nowadays?
Musician was definitely first. I majored in music in college, and was at one point going to play in the symphony, or make a living as a gigging trumpet player or teacher. My dad was also a musician, and in truth, I can’t really remember a time when I wasn’t either making or playing music. However, my mom is a copywriter, so I think I’ve always had that inside me as well. Several years back, I found myself living in a pretty dead area, without many creative outlets, but I knew it could be fun to write about music — lucky me, there was the Internet, so I found ample opportunity to do that. These days, I don’t have as much time to write about music because performing and recording take up almost all the creative energy I have — which is a good thing, because they’re really the only things I love to do. But I’m glad I got to write as much as I did, and occasionally I still contribute things if I feel really strongly about particular music or artists. Or if they pay me thousands of dollars. I’m happy to be paid thousands of dollars.

What can we expect from your Strømland upcoming album?
The CD is due in March, and is self-titled. I did all the tracks myself, but Strømland is a project of HP Lindstrøm and Joakim Haughland of the Smalltown Supersound label. The music on the album is my songs, some of which are featured on the current EP (like “Duyen” and “Claire”), but most of which aren’t. Hmm, I guess I’d just describe the music as a kind of pop…? or minimalist prog disco abba beach boys noize pop anyway.

Does Birds and Rockets still take care of your career? Who do we have to talk to in order to book you?
Haha, talk to me! B&R was a label run by Jess Halverson, and they were originally going to release my debut record. Things didn’t work out with that, but it was definitely the beginning of my foray into releasing music. There’s a lot to learn about doing this (and I still learn stuff all the time), so even in situations where things don’t happen, I’m glad I have the experiences.

How do you feel with the “oh, I thought you were female!” kind of comment?
As long as they end with, “…so now I feel weird about signing this million dollar check ‘I LUV U’”, I feel just fine.

What happens in a Dominique Leone show?
Hmm, what happens…this week in NYC what happens is that I play keyboard and laptop and sing. Typically what happens is that play I with a band — me + flute/vox + percussion + other keyboard + sometimes other percussion. I really like bands like Boredoms and the Philip Glass ensemble (at least during the 70s), where very basic elements of rhythm and harmony are used to build up pretty elaborate arrangements, but also full of power, intensity, and that’s what I want to do live with my music.

How does your performance with MaryClare Brzytwa differ from your solo one?
I met MaryClare in Oakland, CA, and when we play music together. It’s generally me playing with my usual setup, plus her playing flute and singing. She studied with Fred Frith at Mills College, and has a lot of experience as an improvising musician, but also is a great singer and piano player, so I love being able to work with her on my music. We also have a project called Paul & Diane, wherein we make very glossy, ultra-produced synth-pop and power ballad tracks — hopefully we can put these out sometime in the next year or so.

Does her name have something to do with you Claire-voyaging?
ha, no — “Claire” was a track I wrote before I met MC.

Prog-fusion-disco top 5
Magma – “The Last Seven Minutes”
Can – “I Want More”
Benoit Widemann – “Baleze”
Weidorje – “Elohims Voyage”
Electric Light Orchestra / Olivia Newton John – “Xanadu”