After a successful tour last year, The Rogue Element has once again hit our shores for a spell of dates for the Destination? crew. A multiple Breakspoll award winner, this year he’s planning the release of his second studio album, the followup to his mighty debut Rogue Rock nominated for Breakspoll’s ‘Best Album’ following its release in late 2005. And while The Rogue Element made a name for himself as one of the most cutting-edge producers working in the breaks scene, true to his name he won’t be tied down by any genre.

If you’ve been privy to a recent performance, you’ll know that a wide variety of sounds have begun creeping into his sets. “The last thing you want to be thinking about too hard when doing anything… is genre specifics” he told ITM. “I’ve always liked the idea of appealing to more that one genre with different releases, so we’ll see how successful I am with that.” Tech funk, anybody? With his Australian tour in full flight, ITM speaks to The Rogue Element.

Where did the name Rogue Element come from?

I honestly can’t remember specifically – I do remember mentioning the name to Tom Real down the pub when it first came up about 7 years ago now, and he took the piss out of it! I am pretty sure I read it in a book or magazine somewhere, and just thought it sounded cool.

How did it feel to win ‘Best Breakthrough Producer’ at Breakspoll? And after that, how did if feel to continue on to win Best Producer and Best Remix only a few years later?

Obviously winning awards is great, because it’s affirmation that you are doing something right – and on the actual occasions themselves I was over the moon. But I try and take all that kind of stuff with a pinch of salt because at the end of the day it is impossible to ratify any artistic medium in terms of ‘best’ or ‘worst’, as the whole thing is so subjective. You can identify who is the fastest 100metre sprinter in the world, or swimmer, because success in those terms is defined within just one parameter. But when it comes to music it doesn’t make sense to do so. However, it is definitely a great feeling to know your work is connecting with people to that kind of extent.

It says on your bio that you’ve taken time off from producing… Why have you taken time off from production recently?

I just wasn’t really in the right head space to be making music – I had done quite a lot over the past three years and I think I was just a bit uninspired and didn’t really know which direction to take… Until I realised that the problem was that I was actually thinking about which direction to take instead of just letting go and getting on with writing. I also started finding the whole balancing act of DJing twice a weekend and writing/engineering my own stuff during the week quite hard, as if you have had a heavy weekend of long flights and late nights it is not the easiest thing to strap your head back on and knuckle down first thing Monday…

How will you top your last album?

I don’t really see it as a question of ‘topping’ anything – just trying to write something of the highest quality I can achieve, which reflects where I am at creatively right now. I think if you get into that frame of mind of ‘topping’ what went before it becomes a problem within the creative process – kind of what happened to me during the aforementioned break from producing….

You’ve said previously that you wanted to move more into non-breaks areas with your music – have you on the new album?

Yes definitely, as I said the last thing you want to be thinking about too hard when doing anything, particularly an album, is genre specifics. Best to just get down to it and see what comes out. I think it’s a good idea to make sure there’s three or four club bangers on there but again there’s no reason to limit those to one sphere of influence – I’ve always liked the idea of appealing to more that one genre with different releases, so we’ll see how successful I am with that…

There’s been a big move away from the traditional breaks sounds – people seem to be enticed by the more commercial electro sounds (tech funk for example). Have you been tempted to move in that direction? And do you think breaks have “has their day” as some publications have claimed

I wouldn’t describe the tech funk sound as particularly ‘commercial’ to be honest – it is 4/4 and therefore a bit more accessible, but to me ‘commercial’ is stuff like Hed Kandi and Ministry of Sound that are aimed at people that have a different relationship with the music to underground music fans, which is fair enough if that’s your bag. As I said before, I think that if you consciously say to yourself, “I am going to move in this direction,” you are going to find yourself struggling because you are basing what you write on what is currently popular, and by the time your record comes out something else will be the flavour of the month; not to mention the fact that it’s actually not a very fulfilling creative approach. I think the age of a DJ/producer exclusively inhabiting a certain genre is coming to an end, and unfortunately breakbeat seems to have borne the brunt of that phenomenon because it is a very characteristic sound with a limited international fanbase compared to say DnB.

I think you’ve identified a major problem that breaks has by using the term ‘traditional breaks sounds’. When it first came along there were no ‘traditional’ breakbeat sounds – people put whatever they wanted into the mix. Now, though, I kind of feel that whether a tune is considered a ‘breakbeat’ record is down to whether it fits into a narrow set of predetermined parameters which are becoming dated, or whether the artist in question is an established breakbeat artist – the genre has become slightly self-referential, which is why it is going through a bit of a dip at the moment. I don’t think it has had it’s day – once you have been in this game for a few years you realise that everything is swings and roundabouts, and even now I can hear a lot of influences from late 1990s bigbeat, for example in a lot of the Herve/Sinden type stuff – so I’m sure it’s just a matter of time before it comes back around.

You used to drum for DnB groups and are friends with Raiden – have you ever been tempted to produce DnB?

No. Obviously there’s a lot to respect about DnB, the production standards are really high for example and all of the artists I have met have been great. But I came from a house background into what I do and it’s never really been for me. A big personal factor is the general atmosphere of the parties in the UK which can be very testosterone-driven and unpleasant, which kind of curtailed my participation in the whole scene pretty early on.

Which DJs/producers/bands do you get inspired by?

Miles Dyson is a top-notch producer who isn’t putting a foot wrong for me at the moment. I like a lot of the Boy 8-Bit/Fake Blood kind of stuff that is coming out. Also, in the world of breakbeat, it has to be said that the Plump DJs new album is head and shoulders above most other stuff – it’s not really the sort of thing I am playing these days but it is inspiring in its quality. Bandwise, there is a bunch of (annoyingly) young rascals called Late of the Pier who are being produced by Erol Alkan – their stuff is really exciting. Other than that I find a lot of bands I hear, especially in the UK, are basically sounding like bands I have heard before, without trying to conceal their influences. Which is all originality effectively is.

What TV/film scores have you worked on?

The film stuff I do is bread and butter, mostly – it pays the bills but the music is wallpaper in them really, very twee and corny. Mostly wildlife and travel shows, stuff like that… I would be very surprised if anyone over here would have seen them (mercifully).

Are you aware there is another Rogue Element formed by Jerome Ramsey & Brendan Pollard? (I found their website when looking for yours)

Yes – but I don’t bother them and they reciprocate! I found out about them years ago but concluded that it wasn’t the sort of thing people would get confused over… Also although it is pedantic there’s the prefix of ‘The’ in my name so technically they are different names.

Catch The Rogue Element at the following remaining shows around the country…

27th June – Mixed Messages: Candy Bar, Melbourne
28th June – Halo, Hobart
3rd July – Brisbane Breakbeat Collective @ Uber, Brisbane
5th July – Chinese Laundry, Sydney
6th July – Stupid Sundays @ The Cott, Perth