After the pleasant listening of the great compilation “The Other Side“, which derives the point of situation and the state of art reached by his imprint Symmetry Recordings by means of a bunch of fine dnb tunes and some proper masterpieces such as Eastcolors’ “Watch Out”, Xtrah remix of Break’s “Something New”, Mikal’s “Frozen”, Prolix’s “Third Act”, the impressive collaborative track with Silent Witness – “The Hills Have Ears” – and Octane DLR – “Power Down”, we had a chat with Charlie Bierman, better known as Break, Bristol-based drum’n’bass producer and dj as well as the musical mind behind the curtains of Symmetry. Many dnb lovers normally associates his name to a contagious declension of dnb, based on twisted bass lines and hauling rhythmical punches, a proper author mark which lets him sign some impressive tunes on important labels such as Ram, Metalheadz, Shogun, Exit, Critical, Soul:R, Quarantine, DNAudio, Subtitles and Digital Soundboy and have full schedules for djing on notorious drum’n’bass stages. His last album “Resistance”, released on Symmetry in 2010, is still living matter for listeners and it’s a good body of evidence to check Break’s remarkable versatility with dnb sound. Check it out!
Chain D.L.K.: Hi there. How are you?
Break: Good thanks, how are you?
Chain D.L.K.: Quite fine, thanks. Even if in my opinion, you don’t really need introduction to more faithful dnb followers, could you introduce yourself?
Break: Hi I’m Break. I’ve produced DnB and various other music for 14 years. I Dj DnB most weekends, and own Symmetry Recordings.
Chain D.L.K.: Would you say dnb enhanced your life? What did it change in the ordinary activities?
Break: Being able to travel and Dj Dnb round the world enhanced my life a lot, but a lot of it was the activities around it and meeting the people round the world with a similar passion that is great.
Chain D.L.K.: What’s the worst compliment you received after a dj set?
Break: “Don’t you have any RnB ?” (aggressively) …. Not that I hate on Rnb, but its not a cheesy hip hop club, you paid to come in here ?
Chain D.L.K.: You enjoyed a lot of different notorious clubs. Have you ever felt the need to adequate your set on the basis of different halls? How?
Break: For me in the Uk a lot of clubs have put sound quality in the back seat, so often there’s no low bass and a lot of harshness, and sadly you know that a bunch of tunes wont be playable because the bass is too low for that system. When its right, you feel you can play just how you want and its always a better set for the crowd and yourself, so hats off to the guys who still make that happen.
Chain D.L.K.: Is there any specific rite you follow before a set?
Break: Not really, just frustrating slow clock watching, and flicking through tunes.
Chain D.L.K.: Your production skills are really remarkable. What are your main sources for inspiration?
Break: A lot of non Dnb, dub, funk, classical, that’s always what drew me to jungle originally, was the wide varieties of influences people drew from. Hearing production and musical manoeuvres from other music and trying to use that in DnB is what its all about for me.
Chain D.L.K.:I’ve just listened your last selection “The Other Side” on your own imprint Symmetry. Is it a sort of declaration of intent for forthcoming releases?
Break: In some ways. I was keen to feature other artists on the label, and we will be releasing singles and Eps from various artist in 2013. It was a cool way to get a bunch of artists on one project who all make tracks with a similar flavour that really suit the label.
Chain D.L.K.: What about Symmetry? What’s the idea behind it when you founded it and how’s changed?
Break: It’s the same goals as ever really, just to release good music, and show a side of Dnb that a lot of people don’t realise even exists.
Chain D.L.K.: Nowadays dnb has so many different styles…Is there any particular style you feel as too different from your way of feeling and dnb “precepts”?
Break: Not really, I think Dnb should be diverse and experimental, and if everyone made the same stuff it would be pretty boring. Hopefully everyone loves what they’re making, but clearly certain tracks are created solely to make money, and that trend can definitely get tiresome.
Chain D.L.K.: Is there any dj or producer you’d like to collaborate with?
Break: Loads, to a few that always crop up are, Dj Shadow, Sir George Martin, Dillinja, Tom Moulton, Dj Premier, Massive Attack and Konflict.
Chain D.L.K.: Some words about “old” and new artists belonging to Symmetry roster…
Break: No one really belongs, as in we don’t own artists like a lot of other labels do right now, and don’t intend to. I’m always looking for new music to release, but always love to maintain a relationship with established collaborators. Any one who singes a track can play at a Symmetry night and release their music, but I don’t often think locking people down in 5 album deals and controlling their output for the labels agenda really cultivates quality or originality.
Chain D.L.K.: What do you think about the possibility of spreading some cultural meme? Do you think it must just entartain or not?
Break: I’m fully up for that, if you’ve got a good message or sound to spread, or is a meme just a “bandwagon” or a pradox?. If I was fully fussed about entertaining
a crowd, I’d put 30 seconds of kick drum build ups on every breakdown, and it sadly would work.
That was kind of the experiment with “Kicked to Death” on the album.
Chain D.L.K.: What’s the most raving dream or nightmare you experienced while listening to your own music?
Break: Often just weird stoned space time travelling zoning out. Usually just that no ones gonna like it so why bother, or that’s its the best track ever made, and then the next morning you realise its probably somewhere in the middle.
Chain D.L.K.: What’s your favorite source for samples?
Break: I always get great stuff from Vinyl or Cds from charity shops. Often you get a sample no one else will have and give some money to Charity rather that Itunes. If you can still find a record shop, there are guys who can point you right in the direction of the kind of samples you’re after and make suggestions you’d never try.
Nice one, Cheers.
visit Symmetry Recordings on the web at: www.symmetryrecordings.co.uk
we need new album