Words by Pictures by Gemma Wilson

Justin Owen was born in London (UK) but moved out to Australia when he was 6 years old. He grew up in Sydney but returned to London in 1995, giving up the good life of sun, surf and drinking orange smoothies on Bondi Beach in the hope of becoming a pioneer in breakbeat music.

Things haven't been easy for Justin. An unsuccessful release in 1996 broke his enthusiasm, almost resulting in a plane ticket home, but he stuck with it. By 1997, his third release as Databass sent ripples across an emerging pattern of UK breakbeat producers and DJs. Freakaboom is now literally tearing up underground clubs everywhere, but there was never a chance of failure. Check out this interview by London breakbeat magazine MOFO and discover a man with colossal determination.

Justin: "I've always loved a breakbeat, even the original beats 'n' breaks, hip-hop and funk. I went through the rave thing in the early '90s, but soon lost enthusiasm for that scene. Then all my friends started going to house nights. I kind of went along for the social. The DJs were spinning house tunes that often had a breakbeat in the middle. I wished a DJ could play just the breakbeats from these tunes. I loved the noises and sounds within house music but didn't want the 4/4 beat. Then I discovered West Coast breakbeat. A lot was coming out of San Francisco. Stuff from Twitch, Bassex, City Of Angels, artists like Omar Santana and The Electroliners.

"Then I saw a DJ play called Phil Smart. He later became part of Thunk Recordings. Phil Smart was dropping funky house with the odd breakbeat track in the mix. Djing between San Francisco & Sydney, he brought over West Coast breakbeat. Then I saw DJ Dan who is one half of the Electroliners. That was the first complete breakbeat set I ever heard a DJ play and it blew me away. I thought, "Yeah, people are doing it. It can be done!"

"I had also been playing in bands up until then, punk and hardcore. I played loud rackety guitar but was sick of being in bands. Having to rely on 4 other people to make music. So I bought some kit - a Roland sampler, Mac, Roland drum machine - and started to teach myself how to program.

Once I had learned to use the machines, I wrote some tracks, then decided "OK, let's make a demo and send it out to a few labels in Sydney." What you've got to remember: this was before big beat! The Prodigy & Chemical Brothers had just reached our shores. The CDs I was buying were imported through one guy who was really knowledgeable about music. There was no breakbeat scene in Sydney, but we did have a very healthy dance music culture brought over by English travellers. They started setting up turntables in pubs. So we got it quite realistically, not off MTV which shows down there in Sydney.

"Anyway, whoever heard my demo didn't get it. 'It's not house, where's the 4/4 beat? Not interested!' So I thought, 'That's, it I'm going to London to try out my luck!'

"I had been touring round Europe with my punk band. At the end of the tour I left the band and came straight to London, arriving in November 1995 with my guitar, backpack and DAT tape, thinking 'Give it a couple of months and I'll have a deal. Set up an office then go back to Sydney and run my label over the Internet... no worries.' By the end of February 1996 I was broke, depressed and miserable. London was cold, London was wet and London was horrible. This was going to be hard, but there were a few people who heard my demo and gave me some encouragement. Adam Freeland & Damien Harris from Skint both said 'Your stuff is good, keep at it you'll get there'.

"Things were getting desperate! It had all gone pear-shaped and I was going home. Then I got a pressing & distribution deal through a company called Mo's Music Machine in Walthamstow. A P&D deal is great if the distribution company can be trusted. The artist doesn't have to outlay any money, but of course the company can press 2000 records but tell the artist only 500 were pressed. Plus lie about the sales. Fortunately most of the dodgy distributors have gone, ten years ago I would have been ripped off for sure.

"Mo's was a foot in the door. They had distributed the first two Boombox releases and worked with TCR so, to their credit, they were one of the first breakbeat distributors in London. That made me feel more comfortable with the deal.

"I needed a name for my label so Freakaboom was born. Mo's distributed my first 2 singles. My guise was Moonbreaker. Both tracks were really bad. I hate to even think back on it. You see I never actually intended to release my demo. I thought I would get a deal with a record label that would say 'Your tracks are good, now go into a studio, re-record your stuff and do it properly.'

"My style was heavily influenced by West Coast breakbeat, much more on the electro vibe. My first single sold 1500 copies, a great start but when the second single came out, all the music mags were running cover stories on big beat. My release just didn't fit into that category, no one wanted to know, it just ruined everything. So I only sold 600. That really killed my momentum, it just died.

"Again, I was at that point where the ticket home was really tempting, but I stayed. So I had to get a job. It took me a year to get my shit together and save up enough money to bring my home studio over from Sydney. So I started going out, discovering London and checking out the breakbeat nights. I found Friction!

"The first Friction I went to was at Gossips. That was great because I could hear the music on a big system, vital to my development as an artist. Plus, now I could buy records, check out artists and get some inspiration. I became absorbed in the music. The year out from making breaks was a big leaning curve. By the time I had got my gear over to London and started writing again my perspective and approach had completely changed. I had been influenced by the UK sound!

"Mid-1997 I put out Freakaboom's third release as the Databass EP with a Hedrock Valley Beats remix. Now I was back in the game and feeling very confident with this release. I had set myself a standard. The big beat explosion was over. The dance mags were relating more to my music and opening up to new styles. Most of the major music magazines, to their credit, now have very clued-up people doing the reviews, they know their stuff. Plus, they have stopped bandwagon-jumping and trying to create subgenres. A ploy on their behalf to make themselves appear more credible."

MOFO: "Dutch trance, disco-hop, what was all that about?"

Justin: "Well yeah exactly. If two producers like to call their music a particular style that's fine, but when a major magazine says this is an entirety just to sell a few extra mags and get a flashy photo shoot on the cover, that just makes for bad journalism!"