Prodigy guitarist Gizz Butt leads an interesting double life.

To most rock fans, he's known as the touring guitarist of the ground-breaking, English,

electronica act Prodigy, with whom he also contributed the guitar tracks for their latest

album, the platinum-selling The Fat of the Land.

Yet Butt, 29, also is the frontman for Janus Stark, a melodic-pop trio named after an

obscure comic-book character from the early 1970s.

Stark recently released their debut album, Great Adventure Cigar, which consists

of more than a dozen songs that stand in stark contrast to Prodigy's electronic-punk

assault.

"It was time for a change, both physically and mentally," Butt said of his decision to start

putting more time into his own project.

The more mainstream-styled songwriting also is a change for Butt and his bandmates,

who originally formed as the Brit-punk outfit English Dogs. Butt, bassist Shop and

drummer Pinch (all of whom would not reveal their birth names) have been together for

years under the name English Dogs and only recently decided to revise the band and its

musical focus.

"With ... English Dogs, we wrote about changing the world and how bad pollution is," Butt

said. "But when we came back off the tour, the wars were still going on, and the pollution

was even worse. So we decided to write about things we can change. The amount of

songwriting material available from looking at the world in reality is endless."

The gangly, spike-haired frontman said the change in philosophy wasn't the only

metamorphosis for the trio. Their previous screech of punk-driven noise has suddenly

been restrained by the poppy melodies of Janus Stark. While English Dogs fans might

not appreciate the switch, Butt said that change is important in a time when popular

genres are constantly evolving.

"My punk was the 'early thing,' that's what I liked," Butt explained. "After that, punk sort-of

lost track and there didn't seem to be as much irony in the scene as there used to be.

And the fans stopped buying records. And if they don't buy records, how could they grow

from where they were?

"If they say that we're selling out, then how can I be selling out if I'm enjoying it? If people

think that we're full of s---, how can it feel so right?"

In contrast to Prodigy's trip-hop, electronic-flavored tracks, such as

href="http://media.addict.com/atn-bin/get-

music/Prodigy/Smack_My_Bitch_Up.ram">"Smack My Bitch Up" (RealAudio

excerpt), Great Adventure Cigar is comprised of 14 melodic songs, such as "Every

Little Thing Counts," "Clique" and "White Man," which are etched with Beatles pop,

speed metal and punk.

The biggest difference in the musical change, Butt said, has been getting used to

performing more slowly. Drummer Pinch agreed.

"It's a lot of pressure to simplify what we'd done with the English Dogs," he said. "I felt

quite anxious and angry about it at the time, because it was sort-of destroying what I was

all about: fast, hard, intricate stuff. It's much harder to play slower and make it

interesting."

Butt said the mutation of Janus Stark's sound was a natural development of their many

years of playing music. After 10-15 years, a lot of different styles and genres are rubbing

off on him and his bandmates, he added.

"We didn't sit around like in some board-meeting and decide to change our direction and

become more fashionable or commercial. Because firstly, we're not. And secondly, that

would be a silly thing to do. If you did that, then every time you failed, you would just

change your attitude and sooner or later, you would be a jazz band."

While being a touring member of Prodigy has given him the opportunity to experience

being fashionable and commercial, Butt said it also has made him even more eager to

play with Janus Stark.

In fact, even after so much touring last year, he became anxious to get back with Stark

and hit the road. Rather than working with the synthesizers and samplers that make up

much of Prodigy's sound, Janus Stark collaborate on developing a song from scratch

that is fully developed via three musicians, Butt said.

"The good thing with Janus Stark is being active in songwriting and also getting onstage

and actually having the three of us creating the main sound. With ... Prodigy, the sound is

created more with synthesizers and samplers, and I play the guitar parts over the top of it.

There's something special about being active with the actual recording and writing of

material you perform live. We were all part of it."

For Shop and Pinch, Butt's status as a member of Prodigy hasn't altered their overall

chemistry.

"It's always strange being around Gizz, because he's always got his a-- out," Pinch said,

laughing.

"Gizz is really good at separating the two [groups]," Shop said. "I think if he walked on the

stage with the attitude that he was walking onstage with Prodigy, then it might feel a little

bit weird. But when we go onstage, we go up as a three-piece band. None of us can

hide."