As part of our November newsletter NSB Radio's Danny Reject caught up with undoubtedly some of the South-West's freshest young talent, The Freerange DJs.........
FREERANGE, NOT BATTERY
It's not everyday one of the NSB faithful scoops an award at a major dance music event and gets signed to one of Breakbeats most respected record labels. Well the Freerange DJs have, and not without reason! Anyone that tunes into NSB Radio will already be aware of their show, 'The Full English Breaks Fest' every first and third Saturday of the month from 9am UK time, but it seem much bigger things are on the horizon for these three lads from the west country of England. We caught up with them to discuss tunes, parties, incest, body searches and sick dogs...
NSB: For anyone not familiar with the Freerange DJs, who are you and how did you get together? FR: Our civilian names are Seb, Ave & Olly. We all live in the Truro area of Cornwall. It's a pretty close knit scene, so we were all aware of each other way before we got together even though we were playing at very different nights. In 2007 Olly started The Freerange Party Society which is basically a crew of seven Cornish DJ's who are all making waves in their represented genres. Breaks, Electro, D&B, Hip Hop and Dubstep all incorporated. We all started playing together a lot more which exposed us all to each others tastes, after a while our sounds just started blending and the Freerange DJs were born.
NSB: Sounds like you've thrown some good parties in your time, are there any that stand out?FR: We'd say the Leeroy Thornhill party we threw at the Sandsifter in 2008 was probably our most memorable event so far. The Sandsifter is a club situated right on an isolated beach. It's a really nicely fitted place and they have on-site camping right next to the beach. The sun was booming, tickets sold out early so we could relax, the vibe was amazing & Leeroy smashed the place to pieces. After the club shut the party carried on in the car park/camp-site until about 2pm the next day. To be fair it all got a bit out of hand in the end but it was wicked fun! We also throw party's in the barns attached to the house where we air our NSB show from called BROMAD. Its a pretty special spot because its about 5 mins walk from Truro city centre but you can make as much noise and be as outrageous as you like.
NSB: What's up next for the Freerange Party Society? FR: The free party scene is pretty much dead in Cornwall these days. BROMAD is one of the last remaining pockets of the Cornish "rave" scene. It's hard to say what's next for us in terms of promotion. It's been a very hard year for everyone promoting in Cornwall with the shit weather and recession, next year I think we'll concentrate on doing a lot more cheaper smaller events in our area and of course LONG LIVE BROMAD!!!
The credit crunch has hit club land just as hard as everywhere else and it seems a lot of UK promoters are going back to the DIY ethic that made clubbing so much fun to begin with. It's in these environments that acts like Freerange come into there own. DJs that have not only turn up to play, but to party as well. And that attitude should be applauded and taken notice of in equal measures.
NSB: In your biography it mentions that you like to cause general 'Cornish' misbehaviour when you're out and about. Is there a particular kind of misbehaviour in the west country that the rest of us are missing out on? FR: 'Cornish' misbehaviour is the same as normal misbehaviour except its OK to have sex with your immediate family and most farmyard animals hahaha! Na, we just like to enjoy any event we go to as much as the public in attendance. You can pretty much guarantee that at the end of any party if there's someone still trying to keep the vibe alive then it's us.... A tag we are sure we'll regret in the future.
NSB: Sounds like you've got some pretty good stories to tell, any you'd like to share? FR: A story that we will always remember was at the Waveform festival last year. We won a competition to play there, the festival site was a good five hours drive from Cornwall. That gave us a good five hours head start of getting smashed in the car before we even got to the festival. When we finally arrived the site it was a mud bath, a complete washout! We played a four hours set as none of the other acts could get to the main stage because of all the mud. Afterwards we decided to break out of the festival and find somewhere to sit on the hill that was not too muddy. We had to get through two barriers to do this. We all got under the first fence but our mate was too smashed to climb over the second one even though it was little over waist height. The security turned up, saw the state of our mate and decided to search everyone. Halfway through being searched our friend was so smashed he said to the security guards "I'm really sorry, I need to lie down while you search me". The security guards literally had to pick his pockets while he was KO'd on the floor, It was one of the funniest things we have ever seen. For the first time in history we actually got kicked back into a festival.
NSB: Earlier this year you scooped up the award for 'Outstanding Contribution To South West Breakbeat' at the Southwest Drum & Bass and Breakbeat Awards. Congratulations! How did you feel when you found out you'd won? FR: Winning that award was amazing. We think we were very lucky to get it when we were up against some of the longer standing SW Breakbeat promoters such as Biff from Beatz & Bobz, Bossa & The Simian Sounds boys. I think the key to our success was definitely our link to the D&B scene. Olly & Seb both come from D&B backgrounds which means we play a lot of guest slots at D&B nights, our support in those areas has always been wicked. Our Freerange Party Society resident D&B boys picked up Best SW DJ, Best SW Night & Best SW MC too, It was a huge night for Freerange. Being presented the award by our old mate Will Streetwise was the icing on the cake!
NSB: The awards night looked awesome, how was it? FR: Awesome! Definitely the biggest party in the SW this year. Eden is such a unique venue and having a line up featuring Krafty Kuts, Andy C, Grooverider, Jungle Drummer & FU and Rennie Pilgrem dragged every raver in the SW there. There is a great video of it on youtube you should check out, it captures the vibe of the night perfectly.
And capture the vibe it certainly does! Not only that it gives you a unique incite into the whole SW scene and why that part of the UK demands an event like it. Check it out for yourself here...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUKrQWrFkOQ
NSB: It looks like you've got a healthy scene going on down there that the rest of us could learn from. What's your secret? FR: Speaking for Cornwall we think we are lucky because we are basically a tourism county. Years ago the council were pouring money into all our heritage sites but I guess they realised that most tourists don't give a shit about our tin mines. Now the council is really receptive of our nightlife & sporting potential so there is lots of opportunities to throw parties and the festival scene is going from strength to strength. Cornwall is becoming a cool place for people to travel to for a weekend. The fact that Cornish people generally love to get smashed and rave their asses off probably helps as well.
NSB: You've been taken under the wing of the legendary Ben & Lex and their APE Music. How did that come about? FR: We first bumped into Ben & Lex in 2007 at the SW D&B awards. Naturally as up and coming Breakbeat DJ's in the SW we always tried to cross their paths were possible and make our self known to them. Beatz & Bobz and Ben & Lex dominate the SW Breakbeat scene. We do another internet radio show on a local station and Benny used to do the show before us so we were in contact every week, Ave would always be banging out his new tunes on the show and a few of them started making their way into Ben & Lex's record bags. At a Beatz & Bobz night in Exeter Lexy asked about signing a couple of them to Ape. We are over the moon. Even though we have tunes signed to some other labels such as Future Perfect and Badbwoy Bass we definitely consider Ape to be our home.
NSB: Your first release with them is 'Your Mind Your Passion'. With remixes from Quadrat Beat and the Wrongstars, this is a heavy package. Are you happy with how it turned out and what reaction have you got so far? FR: We could not have asked for a better response really, the Quadrat Beat remix hit no. 17 in the beatport breaks charts, the Wrongstars remix hit No. 40 & got featured by Jay Cunning on Kiss FM and our original mix hit No. 90 in the Beatport Electro charts and got a play on Annie Nightingales Radio One show. Not bad for the newbies!
Not bad at all, but when you hear the three tunes on offer it's not hard to understand why. The original is a WARRRP happy electro tinged monster, that fans of Jack Beats and DJ Fixx will love in equal measures. The Wrongstars take things in a more heads down techy direction and twist the shit out of it, while the consistently amazing Quadrat Beats turns in an uplifting no nonsense Breakbeat take on proceedings that proves there's a lot more to come from this scene yet.
NSB: You've also got a remix of Vandalism's 'She's Got It' out on Vicious, how did that come about?FR: Vandalism played a set at another night in Truro a few months back. When the promoter was dropping them back to the airport he was playing one of Ave's tunes in the car. They enquired about it, looked us up the next day and sent over the parts for a remix, the rest is history.
The FR DJs mix of 'She's Got It' is definitely one for the Breaks jocks out there that aren't afraid to mix things up with some more House orientated beats. The track comes alive on a big sound system with its wicked sonic's and wobbling bass, and the boys have made good use of the original vocal sample that will keep the girlie's on the dance floor.
NSB: You describe your style as 'fidgety broken beats and driving sub-heavy wonk', does that mean you don't consider yourself as Breakbeat artists? FR: Not at all, we definitely consider ourselves to be Breakbeat artists although we don't like to limit ourselves to just Breaks. We are all lovers of music as a whole which is why we try to include all sorts of sounds that fit into our sets. If it has the right vibe then it should be played no matter what genre it is.
NSB: Amen to that! So, what's your opinion of the current Breaks scene, and dance music in general?FR: After experiencing the drop in Breakbeats popularity along with everyone else, for the first time in a long time we believe it is on its way back up. We think it is an exciting time to be involved in the Breakbeat scene. Judging from the nights we are involved in we'd say that other genres like D&B and Hard Dance are now starting to flatten out but the Breakbeat and Dubstep nights are getting busier. There is a wealth of talent and amazing music in Breakbeat waiting to be discovered by the mainstream, with enough enthusiasm from everyone and the right exposure there's no reason that it wont be seeing just as much attention as any other genre in the future.
NSB: What artists are currently floating your boat in Breaks and Dance music? FR: Quadrat Beat, Enough Weapons, Far Too Loud, Ben & Lex, Plump DJs, Evil Nine, Freeland and Beat Assassins. Outside of breakbeat Calvertron, Audio Jack, Jack Beats, Bass Weazal, Will Baily, Echodub, Rusko, Rektchordz and The Wurzals.
NSB: What are your all time, never fail, floor filling tunes that you could never take out your record box? FR: Aaren San "Ozlow Nyzz" (Blende Rmx) or AC Slater "Jack Got Jacked" (Jack beats rmx). Our most played tune this summer would have to be our fourthcoming Ape release "Back To The Old Jack" is guaranteed a dancefloor smashing every time!
NSB: You've had some pretty memorable moment as a collective so far, what's your favourite and where do you see yourself going in the future? FR: Probably winning the award at the Eden project. Everyone we know was there for that and it meant the world to us. We think that was an experience that would be tough to beat. Were hoping for a lot more of that in 2010, maybe pinching Ben & Lex's "Best DJs" title would be good hahaha!
NSB: So, what's up next for you guys? FR: We have just been signed to an American agency called AS Sounds. They are organising a series of dates for us in the US for 2010 including a few festivals which we are really excited about. We are really looking forward to the release of "Back To The Old Jack" and working more with Ben & Lex and Ape Music. And of course we hope to be hitting the UK festival scene harder than ever, continuing our work with CGI events & SW1.
NSB: Shameless plug time! Why should the world check out the Freerange DJs? FR: We are all poor Cornish boys so please buy our music to save us from poverty, every little helps. Ave also has a sick dog that needs a new leg but he cant afford the bus to the vets.
There you have it! Straight from the horses mouth! If it good enough for the local council, its good enough for us. Sod the tin mines! The South West has a lot more to offer in the way of the parties, the tunes and the all round 'Cornish' misbehaviour. And with the Freerange DJs at the eye of the storm, the rest of the world could be just about the find out why...
For more information on the Freerange DJs check out their myspace page...
http://www.myspace.com/freerangeincInterview by Danny Reject for NSB Radio
November 2009
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