Acquiring a love for the breakbeat through jazz and funk records, Break took to the drums at a young age, learning piano along the way and taking to the turntables at the age of fourteen. A talented musician with a wide range of influences, Break looks to push the barriers in whatever he’s doing. Crisp breaks, heavy bass and strong melody are stable marks of his productions making him a firm favourite with a variety of the scenes top DJs.

As well as now working closely with Fierce and with singer Kyo in the studio, Break’s busy DJ schedule sees him play in Australia over the next two weekends, with every set being crammed full of killer fresh dubs blended seamlessly with underground classics. Safire caught up with Break on the phone a few nights ago… check it.

Hey man, how you doing? What you up to today?

Just chilling at my place man, little bit of a studio one today with Dan (fierce)…

How long have you been writing music for, and what led you to writing drum and bass at a professional level?

It’s been almost about 8 years since I’ve been making music, I got into making drum and bass right in the beginning… I always kinda did all sorts off stuff, so I didn’t really made that choice to just write drum and bass, I think it was because I was DJing as well and I started to buy more and more drum and bass tunes than other music I was into, so I think that led me to producing more of that stuff I guess.

Were you involved in any other types of musical projects before you began writing drum and bass?

Umm, not really… I played in a few bands at school, I used to play the drums but nothing serious really, pretty much just playing about when your kids sort of thing.

What are the influences toward the way you write your music?

A lot of stuff like DJ Shadow and ninja tune, all that kinda stuff. I was listening to that a lot when I got into making music, so it influenced a lot my non drum and bass stuff, I guess it also influenced my drum and bass as well. I like that sort of style. When I was growing up there was loads of good drum and bass around so I guess I pretty much grew up listening to that, it was my major influence really.

Is there any plans of a Break LP soon?

Definitely, I’m hoping to make it this year. I doubt it will come out this year, that was my aim anyway, to try and get that going this year so after the summer I’m going try and get in the studio and get it done once we’ve finished the projects that we’re working on at the moment such as a DNAudio album which we’re working on at the moment, that should be out early next year and the also next Quarantine album later this year.

You seem to be rolling out a lot of tunes pretty fast these days…

Yeah, I think I’ve always kinda worked quite fast, because I get quite bored easily… If I’m stuck on a tune for more than a week or two, I get a bit fed up with hearing it over and over again. I just try to get it done as quick as possible and do it when the vibes right because sometimes you’ll come back in and it was never as good as that first day maybe…

Is there any upcoming artists that we should know about?

I’d probably have to mention Survival, he’s not up and coming so much…he’s someone I’ve been working with a lot and he’s a good friend of mine. He is releasing on a lot of labels now and his sound is very much up my street and. He’s been producing for longer than me, and he’s a really good engineer. Also, Lomax from Bristol, I actually haven’t met him yet…but yeah, I’ve been playing some of his stuff and his got a big sound as well

I’ve actually just recently finished a tune with Minscape from Hungary… What do u think of some of the mindscape stuff?

I’ve been liking it yeah, there’s a few good tracks I’ve been playing a bit, I’ve just been doing a remix of one of the tracks he did with Jade and Hydro called Black Lotus. It’s going to be an album sampler for the Mindscape LP on Citrus, so yeah mindscape’s definitely on the vibe as well man. There’s probably loads more but u have to think about it for a bit I guess. There’s loads of names going around now with a lot of new people that are popping up which is exciting and I think it’s really good.

What labels are you working with now, and what are your latest releases?

I’ve been working with Quarantine a lot, which is Fierce’s label; we’ve just recently had a Quarantine album. As I mentioned earlier, there’s going to be another Quarantine album out later this year, which is called Zenith with a lot of the same sort of artists that were on the first one really.

Beside that there’s a Metalheadz 12” and hopefully there should be a commercial suicide E.P. Also at some stage I hope to have some more symmetry releases, which is my own label, I want to get the 3rd release all lined up for that.

What kind of platforms are u you using to write music, MAC/PC, LOGIC/CUBASE?

It’s a PC, and because of that I’m on logic 5. Only version 5 is available on the PC, as most people know Apple bought logic a few years back

What are the most important pieces of software in your production process?

I’d probably say the EXS24, which is the sampler in logic. Most sounds that I put in the tune, I usually put in through that. You can pretty much change the sounds in any way with just that sampler. So that’s probably the main thing I use

How would you compare that to Kontakt?

Yeah I’ve got that as well, and that is pretty good too, its just I don’t know it as well as the other one and its kinda just from habit I always go for the exs24, but yeah Kontakt’s got some other features like the time stretch stuff which is pretty cool, I use it occasionally but just for special or difficult sounds

What’s your suggestion to any up and coming producers?

Umm.. Simplicity is always a good key, like you don’t need to throw too many things in to make it better. As long as got a few really good elements that you need really.

I guess the thing that someone told me, was to kind of listen to other people that your into and almost try and emulate what they’ve done… once you’ve almost sort of achieved what u like about there thing, then take it off on your path but still with similar kinda vibe.

*It’s pretty funny that you say that man, as I’ve sort of done that with a fair few of your tunes… *

Hehe, that’s wicked that it’s sort of coming round like that hey!

How do you feel about the impact that you’ve had on drum and bass over the last few years?

I’ve always really just tried to make what I’m into and not too just follow on any sort of trends that are popular, y’know with things like jump up and stuff. I’ve tried to sort of stick away from certain fashions and always tried to stick to what I’m into and then try to improve that as best as I can really…

What can we expect to hear at your live performances?

Well I think were going be pretty much back 2 back on most of the sets, we both quite enjoy it at the moment coz were playing a lot of the same sorta stuff. Playing with fierce is wicked, it seems much more exciting, ya know its kinda of a different journey when I’m playing back to back.

In terms of the tunes, its going be a lot of the new Quarantine album called Zenith which is due to be released later this year, were just kinda working on that at the moment and we’ve got a lot of the tracks to play out over there so that’s going to be a core part of the set.

Current Top 3?
Lomax- Innocent X
Teebee & Calyx- Telepathy
Break- Submerged (Teebee & Calyx Remix)

Break and Fierce Tour Dates:
June 01 – Brisbane @ Shamrock Hotel
June 02 – Melbourne @ Gershwin Room, The espy
June 03 – Perth @ The Deen Hotel
June 08 – Canberra @ Toast,
June 09 – Sydney @ Hermann’s Bar
June 10 – Adelaide @ secret venue – announced Sat 9th June