“It was surreal. I only heard the first half of my name because everyone started cheering. I had to ask my mate to make sure. Before I could get the words out all my mates had jumped on my back so I got the drift pretty quickly.”
Dopamine, aka 30-year-old Sydneysider Matt Goddard, is still reeling from his momentous victory at the annual Breakspoll Awards in London. His bass-tastic TCR debut, ‘Hold You’, trumped the likes of the Freestylers and Pendulum, Deekline and Wizard, Stanton Warriors and Vandal for Best Single and has inevitably changed the course of his career forever. Recently arrived back in Australia and gearing up for some homecoming shows, Matt took time out from his dirty laundry and duty-free alcohol to talk to ITM about the biggest month of his life.
What does a win like this mean for you and your career?
It means a lot. It’s already boosted record sales and I’ve been offered loads of remixes and international gigs in the space of a few short weeks. I was speaking to The Breakfastaz who won breakthrough producers last year and they reckon it followed them for a long time and firmly placed them up the top of the pro circuit.
You played a back-to-back set with Klaus Hill [fellow Sydney DJ and owner of Dopamine’s home, Title Fight records] on the night. How did that go?
It was awesome. It’s the first time we’ve played together but we both agreed it won’t be our last. We work really well together because he’s happy for me to be the man and tell him what to do.
How delicious was it to drop ‘Hold You’ that night?
Well… I kind of stuffed up a bit there. We opened with ‘Hold You’ and I’m not used to the CDJs being right next to each other which is how they had them set up. So while the intro was playing, I started getting the next track in time and accidentally hit the cue button on the other CDJ which stopped the track. I had to start it again from the beginning after it was just about to drop. I was embarrassed but everyone just cheered like I’d done it on purpose!
Any other celebrity encounters?
Too many to mention but a few people who I actually got to hang out with were Rennie Pilgrem, Freq Nasty, BLIM, Vlad, Lee and Steve from Diverted, CTRL Z, The Autobots, Paul Era and General Midi. The breaks scene is quite small and almost everyone is really friendly and genuine.
What was the nicest compliment you got on the night?
The Plump DJs told me they thought ‘Hold You’ was perfect from beginning to end. It doesn’t get much better than that. Loads of people gave me a pat on the back for beating ‘Fasten Your Seatbelt!’ Haha, that’s a tune that has divided the breaks community but the majority of people I met at Breakspoll didn’t seem to be fans of it.
Is it true that ladies love a winner? Did you score heaps of hotties to go home with that night?
I didn’t go home with Klaus no matter how much he begged.
Your victory and Nick Thayer & Bass Kleph’s for Best Remix [with their reinvention of Drumattic Twins’ ‘Feelin’ Kinda Strange’] seems to have been the crowning moment for a steadily rising Aussie breaks scene. Is it turning heads now over in the UK?
In a big way! The UK is really taking a big interest in the producers over here. Title Fight is quickly turning into one of the major breaks labels and our sales are going from strength to strength. Plus we have people like Anthony (Hook ‘n’ Sling) who is really making an impact over there. His name is a buzzword in London right now. There’s another newcomer named General Electrik who is going to make serious waves soon too.
Did you find time for any collaborations over there?
I stayed with Lee and Steve from Diverted when I first arrived, absolutely top blokes. We got along really well and I especially got along with Steve’s single malt whisky collection. They have this really cool studio set-up where they have a live room with drums, synths, mixer and mics, and a control room with the computer, turntables and studio monitors. Lee works in a Uni music dept and has access to quite a few vintage synths so we brought one home and sampled the hell out of it for an entire afternoon and based our track around that. It was a different way of working for all of us but we knocked the track out in a couple of days. It’s called Dopamine vs. Diverted – ‘Only One’ and it’s coming out on Diverted Traffic with a remix by BLIM on the flip.
You must be looking forward to your homecoming gig in Sydney – make us jealous about all the new tracks and exclusives you’ll be packing.
The Chinese Laundry might be small compared to some of London’s clubs but it’s perfect to me. I love playing there as much as I love going to see people play there. There’s nothing like playing to your home crowd and the Laundry Mingers Crew are a crazy bunch! I’ve got loads of new stuff, most of which I haven’t even had a chance to listen to. I collected something like twenty CDs and five records at Breakspoll alone.
Are you planning to do any more releases for TCR or are you Title Fight’s own now?
Rennie is concentrating on his own stuff now, which is fine by me. He gave me a big step up into the industry and I can never thank him enough for that but Title Fight is the label I’m behind now. Klaus is doing great things and we have a healthy respect for each other.
Would you ever consider moving to London for your music? It’s worked well for the likes of Friendly and Pendulum - what about yourself?
I have considered it. The main reason I would move there would be to get close to Europe where a large amount of the gigs are. I’m happy in Australia though and I’ve got this far from my studio in Sydney so for now I’ll stay put.
Congratulations to Dopamine for winning Best Single at the Breakspoll Awards, you can catch him tonight at Break Inn at Chinese Laundry in Sydney with the Breakfastaz where he’ll be playing a special 3 hour welcome home set. Keep your eye to local guides for futher dates around the country.
