DC Breaks
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DC Breaks

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Both well-established names in the world of DJing individually, together their musical output as production outfit DC Breaks is an unrelentingly fierce mix of slamming fast-tempo beats and ruthless basslines, combined with a melodicism and attention to detail that balances out perfectly. We managed to catch one half of the team, Chris Page, for a little chat about their upcoming string of gigs down under.

Their story begins with an introduction to each other by mutual friend, a drummer who Page had lived with during his first year at Edinburgh University. Both were beginning to venture into the world of production,Havers already having a few releases to his name and Page beginning to venture into production from DJing. Meeting each other seemed a fateful alignment of coincidences:soon enough, they’d decided to start collaborating on their own tunes, and thus, DC Breaks was born.

Many DJs attempt the crossover from mixing to production, with varied results. The crossover between the two is one the boys navigate with ease – “I think having an understanding of what works on the dance floor definitely helps knowing what to write,” Page says.“But being able to turn those ideas into actual tracks isn’t so easy! With production there’s an endless amount of techniques to get togrips with – beat programming, sound design, arrangement, mixing, mastering.It’s a never ending learning curve and you just have to throw yourself into it, put the hours in and be persistent.”

The persistence has paid off. With releases on labels such as Frequency and Viper Recordings, and having just signed an exclusive deal with Ram Recordings, it seems fair to say the two have garnered immense amounts of support from the D&B world. Not to mention radio play from DJs such as Annie Nightingale, Pete Tong, Zane Lowe and Andy C. In a scene known for its insularity at the best of times, it must be particularly rewarding to have support from such a wide range of well-known players in dance music, and Page is enthusiastic about the response to their work. “It feels awesome! Of course we’re stoked to have such influential people like that supporting our music, and getting crossover appeal is great too. I think generally there’s a lot more acceptance of bass music in the wider media now and a lot more tracks getting into the mainstream charts. We just want to make music that we like and hopefully it will appeal to lots of people both in the scene and outside drum and bass as well.”

Whispers of a debut album in the works have been heard for months – and it looks like plansare finally coming together. “We’re aiming for a release around Easter next year – hopefully!” says Page. “We started about a year ago now so it will have been about eighteen months in the making.its about three quarters of the way there now, and our next single will be out on Ram in September, we’re just trying to finalize which of the tracks we have ready should be on it.”

Exciting. In the meantime, both are psyched to return to Australia for a DJ tour across the country, including a show at The Espy next month. It’s not foreign territory to them – Page recalls renting a van from our very own city and taking it all the way up to Perth, alongside previous tours with DC Breaks and his partner Havers’ adventures here with side project VENT. “Every country we go to people always have different tastes, so it’ll be interesting to see what kind of tunes people are feeling down under,” Page says. So, what to expect, I ask? “Punters can expect fast mixing, lots of tunes from across the DnB spectrum and beyond – and plenty of bass!”

Sounds good to us!

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