Breakage interview

I had a chance to talk to the wonderful Breakage at Urban Festival in Iasi. Read the English version of the interview below [originally published in Romanian on Heineken Electro Lab].

Alex: Do you like cats? On your myspace you've got a picture of a cat..
Breakage: Oh yeah, I've got a cat, I've got a cat at home. My cat's called “Cat”, actually. Well, I say it's my cat but it's my mom's cat, I've got a dog called Charles.

Alex: So why is the cat on the myspace page?
Breakage: Because I love that little cat, I love it!

Alex [seeing some tattoos on his hand]: Are those tattoos on your hand with the Led Zeppelin logos?
Breakage: Yeah, they are. They are my favourite band, I grew up on Led Zeppelin, and it's the first tattoo I ever got!

Alex: Tell me about your new album, tell me about "Foundation"
Breakage: The album is called "Foundation", featuring Roots Manuva, Skream, Burial, loads of people - I can't even remember right now.

Alex: The track with Roots Manuva is absolutely unbelievable! How did you get Roots Manuva to work on the track?
Breakage: Just asked him very, very nicely [laughs]

Alex: You've also remixed a song of Flying Lotus's - Testament. How was that experience?
Breakage: Yeah, it's cool, we checked each other - where I used to live in LA, I've met him for a bit and I was like - "Oh big up on the new album, bro', I really like Testament"; and he was like "Would you like to remix it?", I was like "Yeah, sure, whatever!" And it was just that. I mean, he's got a remix for me down the line, and..

Alex: So - where you hanging out in Low End Theory?
Breakage: Not really, I'm not even gonna lie. I don't really go out much unless I'm DJing.

Alex: Well - except for Plastic People every now and then..
Breakage: Yeah, sometimes.. Sometimes I'm down to Plastic People, but it depends how I feel, I have to be in the mood to go out.

Alex: I was honestly very impressed with your set. For some time now, I've lived with the impression that drum'n'bass was done for, but now I see there's still some really good new drum'n'bass flowing our way. Where do you think this music is going to?
Breakage: Jungle, it's going back to jungle - that's what I think.

Alex: Really? Jungle?
Breakage: yeah, you've got many.. you've got drum and bass, you've got minimal, you've got.. I like to say a bit of everything, but I think it's all going back to jungle now, which I'm really excited about - I miss jungle, I miss it very much. For a second I was very close to making jungle on this album, so now I'm very happy.

Alex: How was the crowd tonight?
Breakage: It was great, great, I had a really good time.

Alex: I was a bit surprised they didn't particularly seem to go for dubstep..
Breakage: Yeah, if you go somewhere and play music that people haven't really heard before, you're not gonna get the response that you're used to, but after a while they start to understand it a bit more and, you know, it's a learning experience.

Alex: For how long have you been making music?
Breakage: since I was about 11.

Alex: But you're quite the chameleon, aren't you? You've produced breakbeat, d'n'b..
Breakage: Yeah, I do dubstep.. I do.. all sorts, really, it just depends wether it comes out or not. I haven't got the attention to make just one kind of music.

Alex: That was a bit of a surprise - Breakage producing dubstep, that was something new.
Breakage: I'm from the Croydon area, so.. You have to! It's a law in Croydon that you have to make dubstep :)) No, I'm joking, you don't have to - but where I'm from, really, it's a big achievement for Croydon, and everyone's really young and fresh, I really like that.

Alex: OK, so coming back to freshness.. do you feel there's more innovation right now in dubstep than in drum'n'bass?
Breakage: I think they're about even right now, I think dubstep did motivate a lot of people to think differently, but a lot of people are saying dubstep is sort of becoming formulaic, which is going to happen to any style of music, it can never be avoided - it's like saying "I'm getting old!".. Of course I'm getting old, I'm not getting younger; and the older it gets, it gets like that, until someone sparks it up. The thing is with dubstep - it evolved so much in such a short space of time, and it's on a par with drum'n'bass - just when you think drum'n'bass is stuck, something new comes up and gets everybody excited, and I think that's the same way with dubstep really, I mean somebody comes along, fresh, brings life back into it, reminds people "Oh, this is why I love it".

Alex: OK- so what are your plans for the future?
Breakage: I want to release the album, tour the album, then get to work on another album, that's pretty much it. I don't like to plan too much far ahead, and if I had planned ahead I wouldn't really share it [laughs].