With the official release of their fifth studio album "The Coming Storm", the Freestylers announce their return to the forefront of the industry. After the boys dropped the single of the album's title track, it was clear that they had more up their sleeve. Now the original grandmasters of Breakbeat are back with a vengeance, bringing to the world their brand new 13-track, artist album titled "The Coming Storm", featuring collaborations with Synikall, Stereo:Type, Wizard, Sirreal, Laura Steel, Irwin Sparks, Fast Eddie and many others.
After a 15-year career, the Freestylers have covered a full 360 degrees in the bass music genre, having played all the biggest festivals and most talked about nightclubs around the world, even the quintessentially British music show, Top of The Pops. With their first four artist albums "We Rock Hard", "Pressure Point", “Raw as F**k” and “Adventures in Freestyle” notched tightly to their belt, the duo was voted Best Band by Music Magazine, toured with Lenny Kravitz on his American Woman tour, rocked a crowd of 30,000 at the Glastonbury Festival 1999, performed at MTV’s Times Square Millennium Party, and played Big Day Out 2005. It is clear that these guys have had one big adventure so far.
Through early tracks like “B-Boy Stance”, “Ruffneck” and “Warning”, their music progressed to seminal tunes like “Punks”, “Boom Blast”, “Fasten Your Seat-Belts”, “Painkiller” and more recently “Cracks”, “Frozen”, recorded with Joshua Steele a.k.a. Flux Pavillion and “Over You”, which featured Ami Carmine. In addition to their status as underground heroes, they have gained commercial success with their huge global hit “Push Up” and have had their music featured in TV and film, including the hugely successful comedy film Zoolander.
And now, after two years in the studio, it’s fair to say Matt Cantor and Aston Harvey are about to launch a veritable assault on the music scene with their new album “The Coming Storm”. Opening with the Illaman and Serocee backed "Ignite", the Freestylers move to the radio friendly "Yours To Waste" with Irwin Sparks. Followed by the speedgarage-esque "Falling", featuring Laura Steel, we proceed with the title track, taking the fusion of dub and jungle to another level - being a collaboration with Stereo:Type and featuring the moody and melodic vocals of Takura (of Flashing Lights/Chase and Status fame). It truly stands for the Freestylers sound for the new era. Not shying away from hip-hop with "Who Got Da Buzz" featuring Synikall, the Freestylers continue to unfold a myriad of styles including the acid house cut titled "The Sound", featuring hip house legend Fast Eddie, and many more straight-up dance floor smashes.
With their fifth studio album "The Coming Storm", The Freestylers showcase their ever-eclectic style and renegade approach to production, focusing on everything in the bass music spectrum and with the new addition to their production team, Chris Bishop from Stereo:Type, they’ve ramped up their sound into overdrive. Whether they’re performing as a live band, sound system or DJ set, you know they are gonna rock hard. Prepare yourself for the coming storm!
This is the second time that I have had the chance to interview The Freestylers, and I must say it’s such a huge pleasure to have them back because their answers offer great insights and behind the scenes access on the production process of the album. What is more, their answers are real food for thought regarding the whole situation in the music industry at this moment. Read on; at the end you will feel that the coming storm is just around the corner, so better pump up the volume and turn up the bass.
Interview was written and conducted by Dimitri Kechagias, Music Journalist, Radio/DJ
Dimitri: Your brand new album ‘The Coming Storm’ is released within an era that bass music is on the rise and it seems that is very popular. Can you tell us the reasons why you believe bass music seems to be so successful at the moment?
Freestylers: People love Bass without realising it. It’s always been popular - I just think more people have caught on to it.
Dimitri: Also EDM music is taking over the USA market. Do you see this development as good thing for the European artists, and do you aspire to become more successful in USA?
Freestylers: Would be great to be big in the USA, but it’s a hard nut to crack. I think the term EDM is more related to the Pop Dance Music culture that has taken the US by storm. It used to be Hip Hop, but now Dance music has taken over.
Dimitri: Is there a particular country where the Freestylers are more successful, and you have the majority of your fan base?
Freestylers: I guess Australia has been very good to us over the years, but also Hungary, Spain, Belgium, Holland, Russia, USA and Canada too.
Dimitri: How long did it take you to produce The Coming Storm? Did you produce it full-time or whenever you had an inspiration?
Freestylers: It took about 14 months to make, and yes we worked on it full-time. It wasn’t like 12 hour intense days for that period as sometimes we’d be on tour. We only make music in the studio, we’re not really into making music on the road. Need to have a break from it and come with a fresh approach.
Dimitri: Have you done any upgrades to your studio in order to produce this album and get a fresh and updated sound? How often do you need to update the software/hardware in your studio, and how much does it cost you every year to keep your production set updated?
Freestylers: We upgraded about 2 years ago so everything is still quite new. As far as plug-ins, we always try and get the latest gadget, but it’s normally something that’s shared amongst other producers so we get them for free
Dimitri: In order to complete this album you had to work with many incredible artists. Is it possible to tell us how this process is done? Did you produced it by sending sound files back and forth via internet, or have you actually met them in the flesh and worked together in the studio?
Freestylers: We’ve always stuck to the same method when working with other singers/rappers. We make a backing track to start with and that tells us the direction we want to go in. We’re signed to Sony Music Publishing so they have a huge roster of artists on their books. We’d tell the A&R guy what we’re looking for and he’ll suggest some ideas. Some we just find through recommendations, SirReal and Val M we’ve been working with for a long time. Most of the vocals were not written and recorded in our studio so we’d either chat on the phone or email ideas across. Sometimes it can be quite tedious recording vocals, so I guess this is the lazy way of creating songs. Haha
Dimitri: Which track from the album was produced very quickly and which one was a real pain to finish it?
Freestylers: Falling and Who got Da Buzz were put together pretty quickly. Give Me Life took the longest to get the right balance on everything
Dimitri: Did you actually manage to include all the tracks that you had produced in the album, or are there some tracks on your hard drive that actually did not meet the final selection?
Freestylers: There’s always a few spare.
Dimitri: Is there a certain motto that binds all the tracks together? I mean a central idea that connects the tracks together and makes the listening experience more coherent from the first track ‘till the last?
Freestylers: Not really. Just wanted to make an interesting sounding album that explores all our musical influences.
Dimitri: It would be awesome to give us a short comment about each track on the album. This can be about production, co-operation, back stage stories etc
Freestylers:
01. The Freestylers featuring Illaman and Serocee – Ignite
This is a hybrid of Trap, Dubstep and UK Grime. Thought it would be great to do a fusion of all 3 elements. We made the backing and Chris said he would give it to Illaman, who then hooked up with Serocee to record the vocals.
02. The Freestylers featuring Irwin Sparkes - Yours To Waste
Met Irwin through my publishers. He’d already had a couple of No.1 hits with his band the Hoosiers. He heard the backing and sent some melodies over. Basically he’d hummed the whole song without lyrics, but it still sounded great. So then he went away and finished it off
03. The Freestylers featuring Laura Steel – Falling
It’s a slower Liquid Drum and Bass vibe with some killer sparse vocals. It was inspired by Nero’s remix of MJ Cole’s Sincere. Sounds really big as it’s quite empty leaving lots of space for the Drums and Bass to really come through
04. The Freestylers & Stereo:Type featuring Takura - The Coming Storm
Wanted to do a Dub Ragga, Breaks mash-up that we’re known for. The track originally had a sample on it but we took it off when Takura came up with goods on this one. It’s the only Dubstep sounding track on the album too, but I guess Dubstep comes from Dub Raggae inspired by artist such as Scientist and King Tubby.
05. The Freestylers featuring Synikall - Who Got Da Buzz
Found this killer Bassline and when looped up sounded like old school Cyprus Hill. Then added all the noises. Synikall was introduced to us by MC Alaska who performed on our track Bounce To This. He originally even rapped on it, but it sounded too American as he’s from Atlanta. He sent it to Synikall, and as soon as we heard it we knew it was big. Had the killer hook and great verses. Our man the Mix Doctor X then came in and added his famous scratching to add more of that Hip Hop flavour that we feel is missing today in rap.
06. The Freestylers featuring Laura Steel - Give Me Life
This came about from a DJ mix that Matt used to do using the instrumental of one track and putting an acapella over the top. That was the starting point but then idea developed into something more complex. Laura heard the backing and wrote a song that we loved to compliment the vibe of what we were doing, whilst referencing the original ideas that inspired the beginnings of the track.
07. The Freestylers featuring Andrea Martin - You And What Army
Started playing around with some disco stabs and a beat. Then added some live Bass. I was trying to make it sound like Justice meets some funk and soul. My publisher sent it to some writers in the USA who just so happen to work with Andrea Martin, and just loved the track straight away.
08. The Freestylers featuring Valerie M - Is It Possible
Found this amazing moody bell loop and everything fed off that. Whatever we added to the track just made it more and more epic; sounds like it could be from a James Bond Soundtrack. Valerie then wrote this beautiful moving song drawing from her experience of being in a crappy relationship. The song was actually written a while ago, but it’s stood the test of time which shows it was great to start with
09. The Freestylers & Wizard featuring Sirreal - U Betta Stand Up
This is SirReal at his best, making another Mosh Pit anthem. We made this track with Wizard which was originally based on a sampled vocal.
10. The Freestylers featuring Fast Eddie - The Sound
Acid House was massive inspiration when we were growing up and to get Fast Eddie who was the king of Hip House scene back in the day was a right touch. Wanted to make something authentic sounding, but with a modern twist Aciiiiiieeedd House stylee.
11. The Freestylers featuring Irwin Sparkes - All For Nothing
My favourite track of the Album as it’s so different to everything we’ve ever made. I found this slow, trashy heavy Break from a Black Sabbath record and everything seemed to fall into place. It turned in to this epic moody monster once Irwin wrote his song.
12. The Freestylers featuring Them&Us – Memories
We worked with Ami on a previous track called ‘Over You’ and wanted to do some more. She’s now part of a group with her partner Killa Kella the Beatboxer. It’s a mash up of ravey beats and stabs which then switches to half time breaks and heavy bass all gelled together with Ami’s sweet vocals.
13. The Freestylers featuring Maikal X - Fall From Grace
This was inspired by a funk group called Fifth Dimension, although it’s totally far removed from the original. The track finishes the Album perfectly. I would say most of the Album evokes drama in the musicality and this was the final piece to the puzzle. Maikal X is a big Raggae artist in Holland, and this was hooked by the record label. His song was just perfect for the music that sounds like the aftermath of an apocalypse.
Dimitri: Do you have someone special that you trust that you play every single track to first, in order to get an outsiders opinion. How much do you value their opinion?
Freestylers: Yes, a best mate of mine Rob whom I’ve known since the age of 13 as we went to same school. He say’s he’s our no 1 fan as well. Haha
Dimitri: Do you actually read the reviews of your productions in the press (print/digital). How much do those reviews influence your motivation and maybe future productions. Have you ever read a review that made you really angry?
Freestylers: I read everything and it’s so true that you might get a hundred great reviews and one shity one, but that’s the one that stands out. I guess part of making music is being criticised.
Dimitri: Your tracks are released with an incredible bundle of remixes. Do you have any input to decide the remixers, or do you trust the label to do it for you?
Freestylers: Yes we always like to choose who’s going to remix some our music, but it’s discussed with Label before hand.
Dimitri: The music videos that you have released so far are just ace with an eclectic/artistic touch. Are you actively involved in the production process of the videos and how important is it to produce music videos for the singles?
Freestylers: Most of the times you get sent a treatment of ideas for the video by the director. We don’t like plain boring videos. Always look for something quirky and not obvious. Making videos are a very odd thing though, as they are sold on a description and vision. If music was sold to a record label in the same way it would be quite interesting, as you’d be describing the music without actually hearing it. Making videos are the same, except you’re describing without seeing it before hand. A great Video can however make a song, and vice versa. It’s all part of trying to make your music stand out
Dimitri: Are you going to embark on a tour to promote the album? What exactly will the promoter get when he books you for a gig? Who is responsible for your bookings?
Freestylers: Our manager is our agent as well at the moment, so we can blame him for everything. Yes we’re planning on touring with DJ sets, Soundsystem Show’s which is us DJ’ing with MC SirReal and Val M and also the full Live Band.
Dimitri: Let’s finish off with something more political. The British Prime Minister David Cameron asked the UK music industry what help his Government can give. What help do you believe Mr Cameron can give to the music industry?
Freestylers: Please ban the Voice, X Factor and Wannabe Pop Stars on BGT. Let future stars be found in a more be natural way, like how it used to be. None of this week in week out Television Karaoke. It’s just a quick fix and has no sustained growth. It would be good if he could promote our new Album by playing it to the world leaders when they’re round for Tea at Chequers, and telling them you need some more Bass in your lives!!
Big thanks to The Freestylers for those top answers.
Big thanks to Hugo de Graaf, A&R at Black Hole Recordings for his support in organising this interview
Big thanks to Jeroen Polak at Black Hole offices for his help
Big thanks to Mark at Black Hole for the fantastic music
Big thanks to Paul at 1mix radio for proofing and publishing this interview
You can check this interview on 1mix radio web site as well, click here
Additional info:
Specially dedicated item on Black Hole recordings page, click here
