Champion Breaks – Exclusive Interview + Free Track

Today we feature the winner of our fairly recent collaborative remix competition (with Top Drawer Digital), Champion Breaks. He has steadily been building his name up with some heavy hitting acid breaks remixes and originals and banging DJ sets. His remix stood out from all the other entries with production skills way above the rest, slamming breaks and his unique acid lines he has become so well known for.

I caught up with Pete to find out a little more about him and his music. Read through to the end of the interview for an exclusive FREE TRACK and music showcase from his Soundcloud.

Madacp – Acid Chant B/W Champion Breaks Remix is out now. You can purchase HERE.

1. Congratulations on winning the remix competition. Thanks for taking the time to answer our questions, for those that don’t know, who are you, what do you do and what style(s) of music do you play?

Thanks Mike. I am very honoured to be doing this. And likewise, my sincere thanks to Lucas (TDD), Elliot (Madcap), and to all at Free Breaks Blog. And I have to mention Elliot again, for making the track available for remixing in the first place. It is just sublime! A “producer’s” track, if you know what I mean.

As for me, my name is Pete (or “Bad Boy” to my friends J) – and I play Acid Techno, Hard Tek, and Hardcore (Old Skool).

From a production viewpoint, it is currently Acid Breaks (see my remix of Madcap’s “Acid Chant” for a flavor) and good old London Techno and Break Tek (breaks infused 303 Gabber). You can hear current DJ mixes of my own production and original tunes on https://soundcloud.com/champion-breaks

2. Tell us a bit about what you’re working on now, any releases on the horizon?

In terms of releases, I think this Top Draw Digital release, and the forthcoming track on Vinyl Junkie’s We’re Not Dead album is just unbelievable! Of course I also have to mention the Kut Off guys for being open minded and supportive from day one.

In terms of work, well, I have been quite busy for the past 2 years, “cooking” up the Acid Breaks sound in my studio, and it has been hard, but fun and rewarding! I released 24 fully mastered WAV tracks via Soundcloud and my website (www.championbreaks.com) in March 2013, and I am encouraged with the reception and feedback I have received so far. What it has meant, of course is that I have started looking into the future on how I can develop the sound further…and I have some ideas that I am currently experimenting with – and I hope to get feedback for these prototype tracks through your blog very soon!

3. What other artists have you been feeling recently and who has inspired you to become a producer?

Well, as far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a producer (in my best Henry Hill mobster voice J). In terms of inspiration, it has to be my initial exposure to the TB303 or Acid sound. So, I’m afraid, the blame squarely lies with Hardfloor’s “TB Resuscitation” LP for everything people have had to put up with from my studio J.

In terms of DJing, it HAS to be DJ Hype all the way. I remember watching him in parties and just analysing every single aspect of him J I used to watch every single move of his hands, and even his lop-sided grin. I used to idolise him. I remember spending hours with my Wood Allen (Airport 89) record and my dodgy cross fader (for those that know the record for what it contains!). I even used to have this scarf with “DJ HYPE” in big letters, which someone knitted for me way back in 1992. I loved it, even though no one else had a clue what it even meant!

4. What have been your musical highlights so far??

Well, personally, speaking, I haven’t had any highlights yet (I dream big J)…and I am still working towards them. But setting up, and running a vinyl label in London from 2002 (Getafix Records), releasing my tunes and remixes on some top Techno Labels, including a Carl Cox CD Compilation, and playing out in parties in London and Europe was a proper eye opener!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Hv1caYyPqY

5. What’s your production setup?

The best advice I got from an acid techno pioneer with a massive studio and a professional mastering suite was to get a nice pair of studio monitors, as this is what stands between sonic perfection and mud soup! I have a basic MIDI school boy setup in my studio…What I do have is access to some other proper studio heads…the guys who get turned on reading Sound on Sound! I usually beg them to help me out when I need it!

6. What are your best/worst DJ experiences?

OK – the worst first: Well, I was about to come on at 6AM in this techno squat party (behind Liverpool Street about 12 years ago). A French Hard Tekno DJ called Jef Amadeus was on his last tune (tune: Crusty Mills SH101, by Lawrie Immersion on a label called Prolekult!) and all the boys were standing around giving him the big ups. I opened my record box and found that I had brought the wrong bag…it was the one with my old skool rave tunes! There was another DJ called Jerome Hill (he plays for Kool FM London now) who grinned and said, “let’s see if you will brave the crowds and drop these tunes”. My third tune was “Don’t Go” by Awesome 3 – the rig owner said, “No..please, please go” and I was marched off the rig while the other DJs clapped J

The best? Well, they say the best ones are the ones you don’t remember afterwards. But I suppose I can remember in ‘97 or ‘98 when my two pals and me went to Newton (the owner of 4 Aces in Dalston) and blagged one Saturday of each month to put on a party at 4 Aces!!! We had never done any events on such a scale. I remember after the first night was over, us sat in Newton’s tiny office on the top of 4 Aces, getting a severe bollocking for not doing any promotions, and basically being chancers! We then printed some paper flyers and took them around to free parties and record shops. And then turned up for our nights with a strong strobe light and our tunes. We would just bang out tune after tune…and one of us would shine the strobe from the stand into people’s faces! Eventually the place filled up nicely J. It was a great experience in my life…one massive strobe light, a fat rig, and us boys…we just couldn’t believe it. Afterwards, we would go to the London Fields pub (Pub In the Park in Hackney) and just wind down with a few jars, grinning from ear to ear!

7. What got you into electronic music? What made you choose your current style and sound?

Hmm…I think the honest answer can’t be printed here. But let’s just say rock music won’t let me have those “adventures of the mind” that I have with electronic music! The right kind of electronic music for me has to have tension. Mellow but aggressive…hard…but smooth…deep but ‘avin it…that kind of thing. And I strive to have those opposing feelings in my tracks, but I am sure everyone else just says, “Pah! This is the same old screaming screechy 303s as he always does”…but if you listen to it in the right state of mind (figure it out yourselves J) you’ll see that it has many layers and levels.

8. What do you get up to outside of music?

I always knew which side of the rig I wanted to be on (clue: not where the punters are!) I then realized that I am my happiest when I am hypnotizing myself with my own music. And then, I realized that I had no time for people who did not want to be in that same state of mind…so the result: I am a pretty reclusive, anti-social person, but not by choice!

9. What do you think it means to be a “successful” producer?

Well, in today’s terms, in order to be successful, you have to knock out your “Black Swan” – that magical track that will propel an unknown person to stardom (YAWN!). Otherwise I think successful production is really about “creating your sound”, developing it, and making sure that you keep going. There is no promised land. It is hard graft. It is many lonely, stressful, frustrating hours in the studio while others go out and have fun, while you chase that elusive sound that is playing in your head…but you just cannot replicate it using the synths and kit in front of you!

10. What can we expect from you for the rest of 2013 and beyond?

Well, anything that can be expected of me or other (non-commercial) artists at this stage is clearly in the hands of party promoters and sound system rigs. Why? In order to get our tracks out there, we need to prove that our music is “danceable and party friendly”. This means that there need to be parties where people can come and be introduced to the sound. That is the ONLY time people will honestly engage with the sound on that visceral level! Laptops and headphones just won’t do it man!

It is only then that people will search out, recommend, and start BUYING some of our tracks. Currently, top quality tracks are “charting” in the Top 10 in online record shops and then you get the sales figures and it’s just abysmal! In some ways, you could say it’s a bit like saying “Wow he must be loaded…he keeps winning in Monopoly man”!

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Check out a fine selection of Champion Breaks DJ mixes and tracks below and download your exclusive FREE DOWNLOAD.

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Champion Breaks – Exclusive Interview + Free Track