Hitting Australian shores for the first time this week, UK breakbeat duo NAPT are all about creating a unique sound. And they’re responsible for shaping the sound they call ‘N-Funk’ – one that can only be understood by hearing it. With the breaks scene going “through a metamorphosis” according to the pair, the two are riding on the high end of it, continuously creating tracks that push the boundaries between breaks and electro. Their first release, a remix of Jon Cutler’s It’s Yours, made its way to the hit UK singles charts and sicne then, they’ve gone onto claim the ‘Breakthrough DJ’ award at Breakspoll as well as scoring a nomination for ‘Best Producer’. And now, the two are doing anything but slowing down.
Having only recently finished putting together a four-part EP featuring the likes of MJ Cole, Miss Trouble and Ken Mac to name but a few, the guys are already back in the studio doing it all over again and receiving widespread support that ranges from The Freestylers to Kissy Sellout. With so much action and an international tour ahead, they took a moment to chat with ITM ahead of their arrival in Australia this weekend.
Tell us the story behind NAPT, how did it evolve?
Both of us went to school together from the age of 11 and were friends throughout, however it wasn’t until we left that we started producing together. We both loved a lot of the same kind of music and were heavily into dance music so we decided right after school to start working together. We did a lot of different types of productions and had a couple of house releases out (our remix for Jon Cutler’s It’s Yours got to #27 in the UK national singles chart). After this we decided to move into the world of breaks and began to brew our N-Funk sound, and have never looked back.
How did your name originate?
Answers on a postcard…!
Tell us a bit about your sound that is ‘N-Funk’, can you describe it?
We have been lucky enough to get plays from DJ’s in a lot of different scenes from the harder end of breaks like the Breakfastaz and Freestylers to people like Elite Force, Miles Dyson, grime ambassador Cameo and Kissy Sellout. Everyone was telling us that our sound was very distinct, even though we were putting out pretty varied releases in terms of content. Then one day someone said “you guys have just got this weird funk thing going on…..it’s like N-Funk”. We laughed but it kinda rang true so we adopted it as our slogan. It just means an open invitation to enjoy our colourful sound, an inclusive description of an upfront bouncy yet musical vibe.
Would you say that your music has changed much over the past few years, and which direction is it headed in?
Yeah I mean you grow of course as an artist and learn new things all the time. Your tastes change as well, but we’ve always tried to keep it quite musical in a way, capture a vibe on plastic so to speak and keep it relatively drum heavy/funky. We’re really into having more musical colour in tracks so we try and spend time to come up with memorable riffs and melodies. Ultimately these are the things people remember when they hear music, and these elements are really important extra tools for getting some feeling and vibe into music. All too often it’s easy just to make faceless electronic tracks that aren’t necessarily wrong or bad, but they are just no different so we try and steer away from that. We put a lot of time and care into the tracks we make and put all our different influences and the kind of things we want to hear in tracks together into the N-Funk melting pot.
Which artists have influenced you the most throughout your life, in the breaks scene and in general?
Tomek: The first CD I stole from mum was James Brown, so I had an innate love of that sound. I’m a soul fan so loads of that stuff from that era or thereabouts, Willie Hutch, Stevie, Lenny Williams, Jerry Butler, Donny Hathaway, The Salsoul stuff, the classic Philly producers Huff and Gamble, Harold Melvin, the O’Jays. I’m a massive Hall and Oats fan too and wait, yeh, Steely Dan. I grew up on a lot of Rock and blues too so I was really into guitar stuff from Stevie Ray Vaughn to Rage Against the Machine.
I like a lot of modern minimal composers like Steve Reich and Micheal Nyman and Phillip Glass too. In terms of electronic history, I fell in love with what used to be called ‘Jungle Techno’ (now I’m showing my age, still calling it that) in the early nineties and then more DnB stuff like Photek, Dillinja and Ed Rush that whole No-U-Turn sound around ‘97. At the same time I was getting loads of tapes of US house people like Masters At Work, DJ Disciple, 95 North, Todd Edwards, Kerri Chandler so I really got into that. The first Daft Punk album was a massive thing for me as was the early Basement Jaxx releases. Then as 2-step began to form I got massively into artists like Steve Gurley (one of the founders of the dubstep sound surely) and Dem2 and the futuristic soulful sound of MJ Cole. At the moment I’m listening to a lot of RnB and gyrating in a creepy manner.
Ashley: When I was young I was always surrounded by music, both my parents trained as concert pianists and there wasn’t one moment went by without someone practicing! I was pretty much surrounded by classical and experimental jazz piano for the first 6 years of my life and then I discovered cassettes, radio and tape recorders which opened up my musical world a lot! By the time the nineties came I was really getting into dance music and other classic music like Stevie Wonder, Tower Of Power, Earth Wind and Fire, The Police, Herbie Hancock, Dave Brubeck etc.
I was really into the first Prodigy album, Leftield’s first album which I still think is a masterpiece along with Daft Punk’s first album and Goldie’s album, all of which made distinct impressions on me and I think the dance scene as a whole. Towards the end of the nineties I started to record tonnes of Radio 1 Essential Mixes and pirate garage shows which I would listen to whenever out and about. Recently, in dance I think Miles Dyson is really pushing the envelope and I’m liking Boys Noize, D.I.M, our label mates Far Too Loud, Justice, Mr Oizo
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Do you have a particular method of producing your tracks?
Well it can vary but usually we’ll start with the bassline as that’s probably inherently the most important thing. Then work out a couple of parts to go on top to get the head nodding and get it sounding like it could be a little section. Then we’ll usually work on the first drop, just to see if you can get a little vibe going and imagine it working for the people listening. After that the fun bit of writing the little extra bits, getting some different sections together and seeing what works where. We’re into journey tunes so we spend a bit of time thinking about putting different kinds of stuff into tracks and packing them out a little. I know a lot of producers have a slightly more cynical approach and are all about keeping it “lowest common denominator”, but in our opinion if people are going to pay good money to buy the music we want them to feel like they are getting a product that has had some time and love into it, and is ultimately saying something.
How do you think the breaks scene has changed in recent times, and where do you think it’s heading?
The breaks scene is going through a bit of a metamorphosis at the moment. It was riding really high a few years ago, but then didn’t quite deliver as it maybe should have done. I think now are really exciting times with people in and out of the breaks scene thinking freely about the music they produce, and not necessarily trying to adhere to “what should be”. People like Miles Dyson, Far Too Loud, Justice pushing things forward in their own ways.
How important was winning ‘Breakthrough DJ’ at Breakspoll in 2006, and again being nominated for ‘Best Producer’ in 2008 for NAPT?
Breakspoll is a great publicity tool for breakbeat and it’s a big celebration of the scene, so winning an award and being nominated for best producer is obviously great for your profile. Since it’s voted for by the public it’s a really good feeling to know that your music is actually getting out there to the people and they are responding to it. We worked really hard last year, released 12 tracks. Each release did progressively better and by the end of 2007 they were going to the top of sales charts in stores like Beatport, Juno, Trackitdown etc. We work hard with our label Funkatech to sell what we do and maintain our output and profile and Breakspoll certainly plays a part in that.
Now that your 4-part EP Contrast is complete, are you planning on heading back to the studio soon to record something similar?
Yeah we are putting out the first part of a new 4-part series next month, a double-A side EP entitled Gotta Have More Cowbell/Heart Of Stone which is coming out on Funkatech records. We’ve got quite a few tracks written at the moment that we are really excited about and we are also getting on with an album, but that won’t be ready for a bit. We’ve got quite a few remixes coming out too, the next ones being for Ils’ Breakspoll award winning album on Botchit and for Slyde on Fingerlickin’.
Are any collaborations with other artists on the cards?
The next thing up is a collaboration with the Breakspoll-winning Plaza De Funk which will be coming out on the second part of our next series. We’ve promised to collaborate with virtually everyone as you do when you’ve had a few drinks at a show so we’ll have to see what comes into fruition! Usually it’s just a case of aligning your diaries which in this day and age can be pretty tough. But hopefully there are some really good ones in the pipeline so watch this space.
April will see your first time in Australia. Is there anything you’re particularly excited about?
OZ has this really great rep back in the UK, the parties and the weather are great, people are friendly and so on so we’re really looking forward to coming. We’ve got loads of new stuff to play so we’re really looking forward to the gigs. We’ve been hammering it in the studio for a while so it’s really great to get out there and play and travel for a long period of time. We’re gonna be in OZ for a fair bit so we’re taking some of our studio with us to write in the sun! If you see some guys looking sunburnt and bleary eyed in a coffee shop next to a laptop with strange sounds coming out of it then it’s probably us…!
Discover the strange and wonderful world of ‘N-Funk’ at the following shows…
4th Apr – Perth, Destination @ Ambar
5th Apr – Sydney, Destination @ The Cross
18th Apr – Brisbane, Breaks & Enter @ GPO
deviant dan says...
also playing in melbourne on the 19th april @ Brown Alley :)