“No, I haven’t all of a sudden started playing commercial electro house,” laughs Mark Pember AKA Meat Katie, the DJ/producer responsible for notoriously nasty dancefloor sounds, as well the man behind the increasingly prevalent and influential Lot49 label. He’s referring to his new release for Ministry of Sound under the Sessions banner. In the UK, the series is an avenue for some of the world’s most respected DJs/producers to strut their stuff. Australian audiences however know it as something entirely different altogether: commercial mainroom house, which is obviously a long way from where Meat Katie’s focus lies.

While he might not be thrashing the latest Vandalism single, there’s not a lot he hasn’t thrown into his DJ sets at one point or another. Earlier in his career he was known as one of the most forward-thinking DJ/producers working in breakbeat, the man behind the memorable Bedrock Breaks compilation from 2004. Not too long after that CD’s release he evolved into a leading force behind the highly vaunted ‘tech funk’ sound, an approach that sees him breaking down the boundaries in his sets and throwing in house, techno, electro, minimal, assorted glitchy noise… Anything goes, as long as it works. He was always known as a DJ who liked to sneakily slip a 4/4 beat into a predominantly broken-beat set, but this sort of eclecticism has since become his modus operandi. Not long after he forced this change upon his (somewhat resistant) fans, he was joined by a number of others just as keen to embrace the freedom of the ‘tech funk’ genre – Elite Force, Lee Coombs and more.

“I’m quite eclectic as a DJ and a producer,” he tells ITM. “Everything is more based around, ‘if I like it I do it.’ I’ve never really shied away from what I don’t think I should be doing.” It’s this desire to showcase a range of musical aesthetics that allows him to cherry-pick the finest tunes from across the clubbing spectrum, and use these little gems to tell a pretty interesting story. “I play the bits that make sense to me, and it’s more about making them flow and making them work. Back then, it was frowned upon to introduce electro and techno into breakbeat sets, people were like, what are you doing? We got into breaks to get away from house music,” he laughs. However, it was the fluidity of his approach that gave it credibility. “I know other DJs who might tack on 20 minutes of techno on the end of a fidget house set, and they’ll be like, ‘I play some techno.’ But for me it’s about making them merge throughout the night, rather than playing 20 minutes of breaks, 20 minutes of house. It’s not about that.”

Arguably, it’s more of an achievement for a DJ if they’re able to build an international fanbase using such an approach, instead of being part of any particular ‘scene’ and the built-in groundswell of fans that can often go along with it. “My ultimate goal is to be a DJ in my own right that does whatever I want, and people turn up to my shows and buy my records because they like my taste, rather than going to hear you play two hours of breaks or house or something. It’s a bit of a battle of wills, because you’re never going to please everyone and you edge forward with one element of what you’re about, and everyone thinks that’s what you’re about completely.”

So of course, the conversation eventually turns to the breakbeat scene. Several years down the track he still needs to explain to fans that he doesn’t just play breaks. You’d imagine this would have begun to grate on him by now. “Arguably breaks has lost a little bit of the edge that it had from maybe a few years ago,” Meat Katie says. He’s a touch apprehensive in getting involved in the debate, as his frank words have gotten him in trouble in the past, but he then goes ahead and throws his hat into the ring anyway. “There’s still some good music coming through the breaks scene, but a lot of it is starting to sound generic. I think the problem is that a lot of new people have come into breakbeat, and they wanna sound like another breakbeat producer. So you have all these up-and-coming kids and they wanna sound like Freq Nasty, Rennie Pilgrim, Stanton Warriors, whatever it may be. All of a sudden breaks are starting to sound like breaks.”

This may sound like a misnomer, but Meat Katie insists that when breaks was at its peak, it was the norm to bring influences from all manner of different places, be it tribal, techno, house, funk, Latin or whatever. “Breakbeat at the time was a very exciting place to find music, because everything was so mashed up and diverse. The problem is now you get all these tracks and they just sound like each other. Therefore, breaks have become a little bit… boring.” That last word is delivered with plenty of apprehension, wary of the sledging he’ll inevitable receive from the dreaded ‘breakbeat police’, the self-appointed scene enforcers who are on a stern lookout for anything resembling a 4/4 beat. “There are a lot of people still shouting about how great breakbeat is, and how other DJs shouldn’t be moving on, and shouldn’t be incorporating other elements. The fact of the matter is, they’re not actually that good at it. That’s why they’re shouting quite loud – to get attention. I think it’s a good thing that people are looking outside of the genre for some kind of inspiration.”

With that said, Meat Katie emphasises there’s still plenty of room in his sets for a broken beat or two. “I do my best to incorporate as much good breakbeat as I possibly can. I still like the sound, I still support the sound, and I will play as much as makes sense for me,” he says fimly. But it comes with a disclaimer. “For a long time I’ve tried to say, I like it, but don’t expect too much. I’m not die hard.”

Regardless of how much breakbeat he will or won’t play on his Australian tour which begins this weekend, he promises he’ll be bringing his A-game. Because he’s scared of the consequences of delivering anything less. “The Aussies are quite passionate about their music, but it works both ways. You can get slated if you don’t really deliver,” he laughs. “What I find is, DJs travel out there from the UK and they get a bit trashed before they play, because they’re excited about touring in Australia. And they get slammed. Because the standard of DJs is so high, and the production is really world standard, you can’t just turn up there without seriously thinking it through. I worry a lot about playing in Australia,” Meat Katie laughs again.

Keep your fingers crossed he’ll play some breaks.

Meat Katie will be playing the following dates across Australia…

Fri 15th Aug – Perth, Ambar
Sat 16th Aug – Sydney, The Club Club at Chinese Laundry
Fri 22nd Aug – Melbourne, Miss Libertine
Sat 30th Aug – Brisbane, Phunk You