Bob Geldof may not like them, but it's a fact: Mondays aren’t that bad really. And who better to prove it than Mike Monday, whose co-owned label Playtime and new album 'Smorgasbord' are both causing quite a stir. The record's fresh approach to electronic music embodies the passion and enthusiasm of its author, not to mention his healthy sense of humour.

And all that comes with a dash of humility, as we discuss the reaction to the new record. "It's been amazing. Recording it really showed me the difference between doing remixes and writing an album, it was really scary. I'm really pleased though that people have understood it. I'm not reinventing the wheel or doing anything particularly experimental, but in my humble opinion I didn't think it was possible to get so many genres next to each other. It's really energised me, enough to do the next one. It doesn't matter in terms of tempo, genre or style what you put next to each other - it's more a thing of tension and release, and when I realised that it was like the scales fell from my eyes. I've started the next one already!"

His exploits haven't gone unnoticed the other side of the pond. "I'm off to San Francisco shortly, to headline an OM Records party. It's a San Francisco music conference, and on the Saturday night they're doing their big event. They said, "We really want to start using you for some of our international gigs," which is fantastic. I think it's because they've got the deep house thing covered; now they want to diversify. They want to push me as an artist which is weird, as I've never done anything for them before. There's five rooms on the night, and there I am at the top of the fucking bill!"

Monday discerns America to be "just waking up to the "new" electronic sound. It's what I love about dance music at the moment – when we had the album launch for 'Smorgasbord' a lot of my friends said "what the fuck are you playing?" but I think the only way you can understand this music is to experience it in a club. I think we've got that amazing thing back, with dance music as the most forward thinking and experimental pop music. In the early 2000s it got really formulaic and boring, and no-one understood it. Now it's the guitar music that’s more boring, you’ve heard it all before."

He's more prepared for the boom this time round. "The last time it happened I didn't really know my craft, but this time I feel more able to take advantage of it." Compare that to four years ago. "I said to Tom Mangan at the time, "are we on a sinking ship?", and it was more out of hope than special insight that I thought, "if we can cling on to the cliff then we can get it back." Now we've got a great situation with people being able to download music for not very much money, so you've got people in the Eastern European countries who can listen. Mind you, I'd hate to be someone new right now."

Monday talks excitedly about not wanting to miss out on the new talent, saying "now that I’m in a position where I'm better known it's possible to look out for others. I think that's really important." He speaks of the constant need for new blood in dance music. "I listen to as much stuff that comes my way as I can, and the weekly radio show I do on Push FM helps." It also has a positive spin-off for the label. "The good thing about Playtime is that you get to meet the people you like, and become mates. It seems to have really taken off this summer, and I think that's because we were one of the first to go for the electronic sound that's in house music at the moment. I definitely want a future with radio, pushing the new blood. In order to avoid the rut it's really important for us to keep doing that, and I'm encouraging everyone to send me tracks." It's an approach that John Peel would concur with, and as Mike points out - "he went for the really weird stuff. But today's experimental is tomorrow's pop - just listen to the new Justin Timberlake album."

Monday studied music to degree level at Oxford, making the National Youth Orchestra as a bassoonist, but he quickly bailed out, soon working with Andy Cocup as Beat Foundation. Part of a mid 90s penchant for epic house, the duo attracted the attention of Sasha and Digweed. They had an album deal with Virgin, but the project was abandoned as Cocup moved on to form Groove Armada. "In the long run for me that was the best thing that could have happened," says Mike. "If I'm honest Andy was probably the driving force, and while it was a difficult time I've become something like a Phoenix rising from the ashes. This time though it's just me, I don't have an engineer or anything - that way I have full control over the music." The Beat Foundation days gave Mike his new stage name. "As Andy started doing more stuff with Groove Armada, he was never in the studio, so I always had to save the work we'd been doing and would use filenames like "Georgia_Mike_Thursday" or something, so inevitably we got around to Mike_Monday, and then I was like "hey, that's a great name, like a good porn alias or something.""

Humour is important in Monday's world, and is a natural part of his musical personality. When I ask if dance music could do with more humour his response is emphatic. "Oh absolutely. I think there are certain people doing it, people like Claude Von Stroke and Justin Martin, but I like to think that with Playtime we're very serious about being stupid. And when I say serious I mean committed, it doesn't mean you’re straight faced about the whole thing. In DJ sets there are times when you want to be humourous and light hearted, and times when you want to be dark and scary. It's about expressing different emotions."

Mike has always had a solid reputation as a remixer. "I remember doing a mix of U2's 'City Of Blinding Lights' with Stretch as Paradise Soul, that was quite an intense experience. We got all the parts on a 250GB hard drive. You've got all these bits with Bono and The Edge and Bono's reading him the lyrics just before he sings them, so it was like eavesdropping on the whole recording process. U2 had a yes or no over the remix, and it was the longest few weeks I can remember. Eventually it was a yes - which was good, as I'd almost spent the money!"

A busy close of year takes Mike on the road again, a five week stint in Australia. "I'm going there for five weeks, to see the in-laws and do an 11 date tour - so I can earn money and have a holiday. Before I leave I've got to sort out a lot of "back end" stuff, a few projects which aren’t necessarily under the name Mike Monday. I'm saying no to all remixes at the moment, and just recently turned down Moby which was difficult. I think it was the right thing to do though, as I really didn’t have the time!"

MIKE MONDAY’S NEW ALBUM ‘SMORGASBOARD’ IS AVAILABLE NOW. CATCH HIM ON THE 4TH FRIDAY OF EVERY MONTH AT PLAYTIME @ THE EGG, LONDON