Anyone who’s been into breaks or drum and bass over the past 15 years can’t have failed to have come across the mighty Aquasky. Track after track has been championed by a hugely diverse mix of DJs and music fans across the world. With a massive return to the dancefloor bangers they are so well known for on their latest album, Raise The Devil, we caught up with Brent for the low-down on all things Aquasky.

1. Aquasky have been producing since the mid nineties pushing all forms of broken beat music, with seven albums under your belt how do you keep things so damn fresh?

This will be our seventh album as Aquasky, but we also did another album back in 2001 as Tenth Parker which was a disco / latin house album for Mr Bongo. So as a trio we have done eight, and thats not including all the mix albums we have done. How do we keep things fresh, well I suppose we are kinda lucky that we are pretty out of the way from most ‘scenes’ due to living in Bournemouth and I just don’t have the patience these days in trying to keep up with all the new sub-genres and what’s hot and what’s not! We have a unique sound in that we don’t generally sound like others. We don’t need to sound like others as there are three of us and if we can’t get a vibe going between the three of us, then it’s a bit of a lost cause … so to look further afield for further inspiration feels like cheating! Saying that, we did create Raise The Devil as a kinda autobiography if you like of what we have been a part of over the years. We drew upon our Beat The System, Stayfresh, Teamplayers and Bodyshock albums for this one… but as Afrika Bambaatta said in Hip Hop History back in 84: “Who control the present, control the past, who control the past, controls the future, FUNK!!!”

2. After feeling the breaks scene was lacking in creativity and focusing more on your Black Noise alias, what is it exactly that’s got you making breaks again and flying the Aquasky flag once more?

For me, the moment was when I heard Pyramid’s Trouble tune. I thought “sshhitttt… at last, some breakbeat with a set of proper bollocks”. For Aquasky it’s all about screaming beats and manic basslines. That’s it really and around 2007 that was no longer of interest to anyone really who liked breaks. We wanted to unleash the fury and the ‘bassline’ music scene gave us the chance to continue making the noise we like to make. So Black Noise took us away on a journey and it paid off. We were never going to get a gold selling single making breaks. We tried for over 10 years and it never came!

I think the 140 vibe has really given a lot of the rawer breaks guys another lease of life and there aint nothing between 138 and 140 which is what we started to make breaks tunes at in 2000. We can now go back to mashing up the genres like we could do back in 2000 and before then in 1990. Ten-year cycles baby!

3. Your forthcoming Raise The Devil album sees the breaks flowing but also drum and bass, drumstep and dubstep. Are you big fans of these scenes or is this just you guys pushing your own boundaries?

Well, we certainly pushed the boundaries of dnb for many years, so that aint nothing new to us! It was nice to make some dnb again and flip it with a drumstep tune as well, as you can really go deep on the edits and bassline switch ups with drumstep. That’s a great genre to mess about with! Dubstep, we must have been the slowest people in the world to get into that. It wasn’t till I heard the likes of Engine Earz and Chasing Shadows that dubstep made sense to me … proper militant, angry noise … nut nut basslines… oh yeah, that’s what we love. Messing with people’s heads! And yes, we always push our own boundaries. We have to with a collective 60+ year history in dance music. Not many of us from the early 90s still banging it out and still inna club dancing like a proper spaz!

4. You have a huge line up of diverse collaborators on the album. Is this something you try to make happen or do they just kind of fall into place?

We wanted to bring in some old friends onto this album as we were drawing inspirations from our old work. Mr. Thing was on the Orange Dust album back in 1997. He came over with the Scratch Perverts the day they first named themselves that. Ragga Twins, well, no need to explain that one. Acafool … he is such a talent and it was excellent to get back in contact with him again. Tenor Fly is someone I have wanted to work with for a while so he came to the studio with the Ragga Twins. It’s the first time those guys have done a tune together since ’83 I think! 25/30 years, so we had to make something work to unite them! Lee Mortimer is always great to collab with and we have done some nutty Black Noise tunes with him so we thought we would see if he could handle the 140 vibe. He could! Engine Earz was a pleasure. Another forward thinker on the geo-political agenda and also a deep thinker and a broad reader with a positive attitude, so we were drawn to him. His remix of Bassment Jaxx was what really switched me onto dubstep back in 2008/2009. Bex Riley you all know from Whats Down Low by Baitercell Schumacher. Diane Charlemagne, the queen of drum and bass. Pyramid, the reason we got back into breaks … each guest is on the album for a reason, a personal reason … and I could list each reason if ya really wanted a long interview!

5. If you could collaborate with any one, living or dead, who would be your ideal MC/vocalist/studio partner?

Prodigy would be quite cool. Mellie Mel on the vocal tip! 4Hero on some rave ting … The late great Eazy E would of been nice. Goretex from Non Phixion would be sick and also Matt Maddox … we nearly had him on Raise The Devil but couldn’t find the right tune to work.

6. After not hearing much from Aquasky for a while, we had the wicked single Feel The Sound/Take Me There and then the 16 track album will be dropping real soon. How long has it all taken to come together?

We started a few ideas back in January for the album but didn’t go full speed until March / April. We were hoping for it to come out before the summer but as is always the way, other things cropped up including our Loopmasters sample packs on our sub label Monster Sounds.

7. Do you have any plans for the Passenger and 777 labels?

Nothing planned for 777 I have to say. Just not enough music out there that would warrant us to unleash that badboy again. Passenger will still work its magic. The label is 15 years old next year so it would be a great shame for it to vanish. We have artists like 601, Kelevra, Bill Posters Deckscar as well as ourselves and of course Black Noise. So plenty of good stuff to release. There are other breaks guys making 140 that I would like to get involved and then there are friends from back in the 138 days that would be awesome to tap up. I have been trying to persuade The Breakfastaz for the past three months, that would be sick and there was one guy who was killa back in the day and just vanished by the name of Jason Distortionz … he made some amazing music … check him out if you haven’t heard of him.

8. I see you have been working with Loopmasters on a new range of sample packs, Monster Sounds. How did this come about and can we be expecting some ruff beats, breaks and bass Aquasky samples any time soon?

Well our relationship with Loopmasters started back in 2007 when we did the first artist series pack for them. Thankfully it was a success and made all parties some money and Loopmasters rolled out the concept and many other artists have enjoyed that series since. Matt at Loopmasters is a fan of what we do and we are also a fan of what he does. He is a great bloke, awesome businessman and also well up for the madness we come up with. So when he asked if we would like to run a sub-label through Loopmasters we jumped at the chance. We aren’t precious about our sounds, we like to share them, we like to let others have fun with them … it’s no biggy. Some artists don’t like the whole idea of samplepacks but I think that’s more a fact that they haven’t got enough ideas to warrant sharing without harming their own output. We have ideas coming out of us 24/7. It’s an infliction! Anyway, we did a Black Noise samplepack back in March and there will be another of those Warehouse packs from us next year. There is also to be an Aquasky samplepack coming out after the album, around December time. That will give ya 140 breaks tunes a little extra NRG so go cop it!

9. Can you let our readers know which producers you are really feeling at the moment. Any newcomers that you’ve got tipped for big things?

BillPosters Deckscar are pretty sick. 601 have the right ideas and the right sounds … we like them. Pyramid of course … Lee Mortimer and Black Noise always bring the shine. Looking forward to the Engine Earz album when it drops. Redneck has made some cool dubstep and Tomb Crew … those guys are pretty demented.

10. And finally, where did that Masterblaster fella go? I always thought he was the best one

He was taking the piss in all honesty. Used to turn up to the studio in the middle of the afternoon, all drunk and stoned. Looking at porn when he should of been mixing down tunes. It was a shame as he was like our enforcer and he took care of us when we first left dnb and made breaks. We had hoped he would of sorted himself out by now but we do see him now and again … usually eating metal or drinking oil. It’s embarrassing for us as much as for himself but what can you do? I think he was upset because he never won a Breakspoll Award. lol!

If you haven’t heard this album yet then get downloading the promo mix featuring loads of the tracks from it.  We previously featured it here: Aquasky – Raise The Devil

So big thanks to Aquasky for the interview. Make sure you get yourself a copy of Raise The Devil here. The album really is a testament to Aquasky’s long career in the industry and features some amazing talent and most of all a stack of filthy tunes!

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Article source: http://www.thisisbreaks.com/xn/detail/2930408:BlogPost:65330