We managed to interview the headliner of the #WELOVEDNB festival, DC Breaks. A little about the project, the new album and drum and bass culture in general.
Is this your first time in Russia? What are your impressions of the country, the city and our party?
Chris Page: Yes, this is my first time in Russia, and I’m very happy to play here. Wonderful people, excellent sound, and I liked the club itself as well. I bloody love Russia and want to come back again!
We’re very happy that you enjoyed everything. I wanted to ask about the name of the DC Breaks project. There is the DC trademark and the Breaks style of music. How did this combination come about?
Chris Page: DC stands for “Dan & Chris.” Chris is me, and Dan is currently playing in Melbourne. And it all sounded cool together. We came up with the name in 2003. “Breaks” is the foundation of our work—that is, the broken old-school rhythm that we still use to this day.
So you created DC Breaks in 2003. How did you and Dan meet?
Chris Page: I met him in Edinburgh; we studied at the same university. And, as it turned out, we were both releasing on the same label. We liked each other’s music and decided to work together. The first release came out in 2004. So, we’ve known each other for 10 years already.
That’s a good date, almost an anniversary! Do you think drum and bass has changed a lot since then? What was relevant back then, and what is relevant now?
Chris Page: I think drum and bass has changed quite a lot: many different varieties have appeared. And the style itself is gaining momentum: wonderful parties are taking place in almost every city in the world. When we started, there were far fewer of them. Our approach has also changed a lot—we started making higher-quality music and don’t stop at what we’ve achieved. It’s great because we love drum and bass and are actively developing it!
We all know that you’re writing a new album. Tell us what to expect from it. And is this your first album?
Chris Page: Yes, this is our first album, and we’ve been working on it for almost seven years. We selected tracks, built our DC Breaks sound and kept refining things all the time. The album will be released on RAM Records in September, and with this record we want to define our priorities in terms of drum and bass sound. Yes, it turned out to be a strange album because there will be lots and lots of tracks in different styles, but they will all be by DC Breaks. We’re very excited!
We’re all eagerly awaiting the release, and we’re firmly convinced that the album will be full of pleasant surprises :). Tell us, where do you get inspiration for new tracks? There are two of you in the project, and you both write music—how do you manage to reach agreements?
Chris Page: We work in a very strange way, since we don’t even live in the same city. I live in Bristol, and Dan lives in London. We start recording our sketches—just a melody, a beat, bass—then send the ideas to each other and start working on them. Sometimes we like what we’ve made, and sometimes we don’t. And so we keep working until we’re both happy with the result; otherwise, nobody will like the track. We work this way for a couple of weeks, then arrange to meet in the studio and finish the tracks. Since there are two of us, we can approach the material more objectively. Though sometimes it’s harder to work together, because our opinions differ and we have to find compromises. But in the end, we arrive at an excellent sound.
Do you have any other projects?
Chris Page: I write only drum and bass, while Dan also works with electronic music and pop music. Besides our project, he writes a lot for other artists, in any genre and in large quantities. I like powerful beats and a rich bass most of all, while Dan mainly writes melodies, does arrangements and works on vocals. In the end, it becomes a kind of mash-up.
That’s a good division of labor within the project. And one final question: please share the recipe for success from DC Breaks.
Chris Page: I can only talk about my own experience. I started like everyone else: learning to mix tracks and write music. The main thing is to make the music you like and believe in what you’re doing. Also, you have to work a lot—a lot—and love the process itself. We spend many hours traveling, playing sets and in the studio, and it’s bloody hard work. Imagine how strange it is to spend hours alone in a small room, creating loud music. Then you go to a club, where a thousand people are waiting for you, and you play that music for them. If you really want this, you have to work hard, and you will achieve success!
Source: GUNSTA (drum and bass label and promo group), VKontakte.
