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 Q:
First of all, describe your sound in three
words.
A: Bass. Dance. Dark.
Q: So tell us
how you became involved in the breakbeat
sound?
A: It was through the garage explosion
in 1997/8, I started producing mainly drum
'n' bass, I was never into the nu skool
sound, I always thought it was a bit soulless,
too 'techy', and I thought there was something
missing at the 130 (bpm) tempo. You had
garage, you had nu skool, I thought there
could be something in the middle there incorporating
more drum 'n' bass, more soul like the garage
has and that's how I got into it, through
frustration of not liking any of the tunes
out there. I linked Up with Dee Kline and
all that lot and we're now a pretty tight
unit for that sound.
Q: You've just
finished your album for Rat Records; can
you tell us more about it?
A: A lot of people, when they call it an
album it gets a bit misinterpreted, when
you listen to a lot of artist albums they
tend to draw a bigger scope, Mellow things,
dark things, jump up things & experimental
things. With me it was like I did 9 dance
floor tunes, played them all to Dee Kline
and we thought it would have taken like
6 months to put them out as singles, so
we thought 'bollocks, just put them out
as an album' I call it more of a compilation
as it is 9 a-sides, strictly dance floor
business."
Q: Your sound
is very drum 'n' bass/ hardcore influenced,
how big a part of your life have these scenes
been?
A: 100 percent, that's where it all started
and you can hear it in the tunes.
Q: You used to
be a raver?
A: No, I was too young for that. I don't
think you had to be out raving to be influenced,
I was just listening to tapes
Q: I think it
was just all about mad sounds & ideas…
A: Yeah, even though I was 11, I
used to be obsessed with all that stuff
and just wanted to learn how they done it
so I just bought myself some bits
and that's how it all started.
 Q:
Do you see the nu breaks [aka breakbeat
garage, breakstep] sound a natural progression
of the nu skool sound or a genre in it's
own right?
A: I'd like to think it's a genre in its
own right, I don't like it at the moment
that there is too much crossover at the
moment, its sitting in garage, like the
Zinc stuff and it'ss sitting in the nu skool
breaks market, but I think that there needs
to be a scene in its own right to get away
from garage and nu skool because that's
what drum 'n' bass did, when it was hardcore
it split up and went hardstep, it went intelligent,
just to get its own name. Until the scene
gets its own name, it's gonna keep being
picked at by different markets, which is
cool because you sell more records, but
you need an identity.
Q: So are you
a big fan of garage scene then?
A: Erm, no.
Q: How do you
feel being associated with them?
A: It's cool, I don't mind, at the end
of the day I don't force my music on people,
they are buying it so it's all good.
Q: Where does
the nu breaks sound come from?
A: Listening to garage and not liking it!
Doing something that we liked.
Q: What led you
to starting up your own label Pulse Records?
A: Funny enough it was my brother Julian
- we where making tunes but going to someone
else's studio and paying him silly money.
We just made some tunes and some of our
mates used to DJ in the local garage clubs,
they liked it, cut it and everyone really
liked it. We thought 'what the hell' and
started up our own label, that was about
three years ago now.
Q: Would you recommend
this route to other up and coming producers?
A: Not now, it's too flooded, there's too
many labels out there. I'd say the best
advise to anyone is to make your tunes and
try and get in with an established label
and then you can make your name and then
you can afford to break away and start up
your own label that will have almost guaranteed
success. It's like Freq Nasty, he smashed
it on Botchit & Scarper and then went
on from there.
Q: I have noticed
the nu breaks sound has come up against
a lot of very mixed reactions from the scene
heads of the nu skool sound, what are your
opinions on this? Are they worried a new
scene is emerging that will still their
thunder?
A: It's all politics, you see a lot of
people & they will remain nameless who
are heavily into their nnu skool breaks
and feel like they've been in it so long
that they can't handle that there are people
like ourselves that have been doing it for
a shorter time and are doing it as well
as them. Personally I think there should
be less bitchiness. But saying that, a lot
of people like Tayo and Stanton Warriors
are bang up for it andthey have supported
it since day one, so as long as people like
that are into it, it can't go wrong.
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