and/or


TIPS
You have no items in your basket


HOME | NEWS | TOURS | SUBSCRIBE | ENCYCLOPEDIA | NEW RELEASES | LINKS | CONTACT US | FAQ | PRIVACY POLICY
NUBREED
Nubreed ImageOn this page:

*Nubreed interview
*Nubreed Discography (available on Whammo)
*Nubreed Australian Tour dates


NUBREED - THE WHAMMO INTERVIEW - APRIL 8, 2004

The emergence of a strong Breakbeat scene in Australia was a defining moment for the country's electronic community. It was the first time locals separated themselves from copycat, reactionary musical trends, based on movements in the UK and Europe. Having established Breaks DJs among the 'who's who' of Australian club culture, the next step was to develop a thriving market for Australian producers of the genre. With crews like Melbourne's Zero Tolerance fulfilling that need, all that was required was the emergence of a Breaks act that could not only produce awesome compositions, but also rock a live set and present their music as a true performance. Enter Nubreed, a posse of hip-hop-obsessed sound connoisseurs who saw the new Breaks sound as a perfect medium for their ideas. It didn't take long for the act to attract attention for their energetic performances. The success of their Sleeping With The Enemy EP confirmed what many had hoped; that this Melbourne act could become the first truly live breaks 'band' to successfully create organic tunes that could fill a club and populate dance floors. Overseas releases have confirmed that the band can deliver and now, with the release of their first LP, The Original, Nubreed are set to take the next step and continue their international profile as one of the globe's most exciting live Breaks crews. I recently caught up with Mykel for a chat about The Original and Nubreed's plans to take their music to the world...

Whammo: I spoke to you a couple of years ago and the band had already received a lot of attention for your live show. I think you'd just released your first single.
Mykel: I think that was Welcome. That was part of an EP called Sleeping With The Enemy. We'd done that strictly independently with the help of Stomp. We got it out there, hoping to spur some attention to help us get the album happening. It took a little while to get the deal up and the offer came when Mob (Records) - or actually Tayo - came down to see us live. By that stage we'd had a few different releases out overseas, so through that and Tayo coming to see us live, it spurred the intention to get us signed over there on Mob. We did want to start working on an album and concentrating on it but it took quite a few months to actually get the deal. So that first EP was out and then I think it's (laughs) 2 or 3 years later?
Whammo: I guess it's a lot easier to create than send to the masses.
Mykel: Yeah, time was just flying and now we've come to this point and it still feels like we're doing out first shows. It still has that freshness about it.
Whammo: That fresh feel will be handy for the future when you start to work on long tours.
Mykel: And the big deals as well. We've been pretty lucky. We haven't been locked into any big labels so it's been fairly non-committal while still building a healthy profile. Coming to the next album, we'd be looking to get a bigger budget so that we can see the fruition of some of the ideas we've been working on, but I guess the next step is to see how the first one is going to go.
Whammo: As far as a community is concerned, you've always had a good crew to hang out with: Zero Tolerance artists and producers.
Mykel: Yeah, from hip-hop, like Nuff Said - Jason's had a few releases through Obese in Melbourne - all the way through to Zero Tolerance; guys like Phil K and Gab Oliver. All these guys initially helped us to get our head around what we wanted to listen to and get into. It was just one of those poignant epiphanies where we were looking for something different. We knew there was a form of Breakbeat out there in the dance community but we didn't know how far the rabbit hole went. We found the more intelligent sounds - the more progressive stuff - from people like Phil K and Andy Page, who were actually making it; creating the sound while guys back in the UK were trying to do the same thing. It worked well for us because we had so may backgrounds and influences. Breaks is one of those genres of music where you can throw a lot of things in there: some classical, hip-hop - you could even get cock-rock in there (laughs) - and you can still make it work because it's all about the beat; it's all about the break.
Whammo: You're presented as boundary-breakers but while I think that is true for sounds, I'd still consider you to be primarily a breaks unit.
Mykel: We've always seen Breaks as a launching pad, but - essentially - our histories go back before Breaks and we were always in bands, looking for an avenue for a release. That's what Breaks was for us. At the same time, we really want to expand on going down-tempo but keeping the whole electronic influence. The biggest lesson that we've learned while doing this album, is that we've got a sound and for any muso or band, when you discover that familiarity, you can try and elaborate on that and see how far you can push it. For the next album, there will be a lot of variance; it won't strictly be a breaks album. Our philosophy is 'all styles, all kinds' and our thing is 'the style of no style'. We essentially see ourselves as a band. It's a journey. We're evolving and hopefully our audience will evolve with us.
Whammo: I hope you make some bangin’ drum & bass tunes because I'm a bit disappointed in the Aussie drum & bass scene.
Mykel: Oh, I don't know. You've got Pendulum out there. They're rockin’. Then there's Concord Dawn...
Whammo: But I'm talkin' about Aussie stuff. New Zealand kicks Aussie butt when it comes to drum & bass.
Mykel: Yeah, New Zealand s**ts on us. But that's a fine example of what's going on. Between us (Australia and New Zealand), we're seen as the so-called backwater countries that no one takes much notice of. Now they are, especially New Zealand. Everyone always knew there were mad gigs to go to but now they know how many great producers there are. That's what's generally happening now. Everyone's coming out of the woodwork with solid stuff and the guys overseas have to sit up and notice.
Whammo: When I interviewed you last time, my intention was to chat to all the Zero Tolerance artists and producers. I think I chatted with Gab (Oliver) but when I requested an interview with Andy (Page) they said he was in the UK working with Sasha. Then I realised that what people were saying was true: the Zero Tolerance acts were finding homes in some of the most exclusive record boxes around and many of the world's top DJs were keeping an eye on this label in Melbourne. It must be great to have those guys as guests on the album.
Mykel: It's true. These guys were pioneering a lot of sounds back in those days and are getting a lot of recognition for it. It took a long time for the international crew to get their heads around it and realise that Andy was there for a lot of the Rabbitweed stuff and Sasha was working with BT. These things were going on, unbeknownst to a lot of the Australian media. It's major credo and it's one of the things that's really helped us to get noticed. Anyone can go overseas and blag about us, saying 'oh, you should see these guys Nubreed' but when it's a Phil K or an Andy Page or Anthony Pappa, it's really coming from the source.
Whammo: Your hip-hop roots are still recognised on the album with Koolism coming in to help out.
Mykel: For sure. It's something that we never want to leave. It's the elements and the elemental form of Breakbeat that we adopt into breaks now. We came from Atari ST 40s back in the day, working with Cubase, going record hunting, finding beats, going to different fairs. That's all we ever did: collect loops. We started our own libraries through that and when the transition started and audio started coming into play, we thought 'f**k, let's get all our old sample libraries together and have a look at them again'. Music never dies. You can look at something old and see it a different way; put a different spin on it.
Whammo: I'd be assuming that you guys would be looking to head overseas.
Mykel: We're off to Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta, so we've got some of Asia hooked up, which is cool. Europe and America are two really big ones because when you get over there you want to make sure you can take advantage. It's not very often that you'll be able to do it. You don't want to get over there, do 6 gigs and come home. You want to make sure, when you get over there, that you play the right gigs with the right people. It looks like it's going to happen but what we're going to try to do is hook up America with that as well. We actually got a call from a dude in Russia who wants us to do gigs over there. I don't know how the hell he heard of us in Russia, but somehow he got our number.
Whammo: The good thing about Nubreed is that you hear the music, like it, then go to the live gig and see a real show, whereas many other electronic acts live are just a case of pressing the space bar on the computer.
Mykel: Laptop symphony, yeah.
Whammo: You guys seem to be developing the emerging philosophy among dance acts where you not only have to be able to please the club crowd, but also please the pub crowd.
Mykel: We don't actually do anything intentionally. For our first few performances, we got up there and said 'what are we doing?'. But we were just being ourselves. A lot of the crowd would just stand there and watch, so we used to forget about them and just try to have a good time. After a while people started to catch on. They used to say 'hey, it looks like you guys are having a good time up there' and we'd say 'yeah, we f**king are!'
Whammo: I think that's the strength of Australian live electronic acts.
Mykel: Well, for one, they enjoy what they do and they like to share that with the community. That's what Aussie punters like to watch and that's what the bands like to give. From guys like Resin Dogs to Soma Rasa to Koolism; they've all got different flavours but they always try to make it extra special.

ORIGINAL, THE
NU BREEDNU BREED
Add to basket. Normally ships within 10 days $27.95 (US $17.28) (UK £9.66)
cd

There was already a justifiable amount of hype when Nubreed emerged as a live electronic act a few years ago. Their fascination with beats started with hip-hop and electro before the Melbourne trio developed under the watchful eyes of the Zero Tolerance crew. As the younger generation of that extended family, Nubreed are set to continue the tradition, blending genres to produce a sound as dancefloor oriented as House, as ethereal as Trance, as wobbly as Acid and as solid as Breakbeat. The vocal element provided by Mykel gives the band an extra mainstream appeal and songs like Jaded are custom-built for radio. Fantasy imagery on the cover art suggests a cinematic approach and if Nubreed are 100% capable in any area of production, it must be arrangement, building songs into soundscapes, then shattering the escapism with relentless 2/4 rhythms that will surely fill dancefloors overseas where the band are expected to impact on the UK scene with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer. Being a hater when it comes to House music, it's hard for me to judge the vocal element, but I certainly fell hook, line and sinker for more grinding and abrasive sojourns like Future Proof, which was a rhythmic highlight. Koolism chime in with a guest spot on Yes You, but despite being refreshing, it doesn't achieve much more than providing a break from the remainder of the tracklisting, which relentlessly flows, presented like a live set. Over all - in terms of dance music - The Original is a very commercial offering that is set to skip the underground in favour of the charts, especially in the UK where breakbeat allows for a more open attitude toward fusion. The Limited Edition also includes a chunky disc of b-sides and remixes, pieced together by one of the luminaries of the Melbourne scene, Phil K, the highlight being a particularly deep version of Space Corroboree.
BUSHPIG
NU BREED, PHIL K, RANSOM
Add to basket. Normally ships within 10 days $19.95 (US $12.34) (UK £6.89)
12 inch vinyl


Nubreed: Australian Tour Dates

May
8......Colonial Hotel, Melbourne VIC
14....Tasmania University Uni Bar, Hobart TAS
21....Moon Bar, Brisbane QLD
22....Nightclub 1936, Cairns QLD
29....The Gaelic Club, Sydney NSW
June
19....Heat Nightclub, Perth WA

EXCLUSIVE FEATURES

1200 Techniques
Alex Lloyd
Bluebottle Kiss
Casanovas
Cassar-Daley, Troy
Cat Empire, The
Church, The
Cog
george
Hayes, Darren
Jebediah
Jet
Kayne Taylor
Lazy Susan
Little Birdy
Living End
Nubreed
Paul Kelly
Plunja
Powderfinger
Secret Life Of Us
Sleepy Jackson
Something For Kate
Speedstar
Spiderbait
WHAMMO 2003 CHARTS!
Whammo Feature Guide

BROWSE BY GENRE

Adult Contemporary
Alternative
Compilations
Country/Blues/Roots
Dance/Electronica
DVD/Video
Female Vocals
Hip Hop/R&B;
Male Vocal
New releases
Popular
Punk
Rock
Soundtracks

GUARANTEE

Pay Types
Whammo ensures secure shopping online. Australian prices are inclusive of GST. Overseas prices are an estimate and may differ slightly from the final price. Whammo does not pass on customer details or email addresses. If you have any concerns please email us at help@whammo.com.au