Ned & Droon

Ned & Droon Interview

-Ned is one of the main organizers of the Overkill stage at the Glade Festival and Droon is one of the many Breakcore artists who plays regularly at the festival. Thanks to their words of wisdom, we can finally understand the phenomenon that is known as Breakcore and why the word could just be a marketing tool for the uninitiated.

-What is the Overkill tent and how did you guys get picked for Glade?

N: We used to do smaller parties around Brighton and London and we decided that we wanted to put all the music we loved together under one name, which includes bands and crazy electronic stuff and make a really amazing party.

The Glade originally was a stage at Glastonbury which evolved into its own festival and I was already helping at that time. So they asked if I would be interested to create a separate stage within the Glade Festival. The concept for the name was that there is too much music across all genres at the moment and it feels like overkill. However, if you just choose the best out of each genre, you will be left with the highest quality and best musicians around. That’s what we do; we choose who we think are the best artists and get them to play under one tent. That to us, is Overkill. We’ve been lucky enough to go to Belgium, Berlin, Brighton and London.

- One of the acts you have playing at the Overkill tent is Droon. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself please?

D: I play music and organize parties in Belgium like Breakcore Gives Me Wood and I love touring.

At the moment, the Breakcore scene in Belgum is going really well; we usually have around 1,500 people showing up to our parties. I know Ned because I designed the aesthetics and artwork of the Overkill tent and the logo etc.

- Droon, tell us about your crazy contraption known as the ‘Key-tar’

D: It’s a keyboard shaped like a guitar that allows me to trigger samples, from sound effects, to kicks, snares and thumping basslines. It uses freeware known as Soundplant, designed by Marcel Blum. There is no fader, it just plays and stops and so I keep all my samples at 200 BPM.

- It seems that the Friday night at Overkill is always hosted by the infamous Bangface crew. What’s their relationship to Overkill?

N: They are friends who have the contacts to run really incredible events as they are extremely focused at what they do. They have hosted more than 50 events in London and the vibe they create at these parties is always amazing. It’s always like a mega-rave packed full with loads of energy and their focus is always about having fun whilst listening to great artists.

D: Their line-ups are really versatile and so are their shows. They throw out hundreds of glowsticks into the crowds, loads of inflatable toys and masks and create this really intense atmosphere in a small and crowded space.

- So how does the scene differ between the UK and Belgium?

D: - D: I think that it might be a younger scene in Belgium compared to the UK. We have been running these parties in Belgium for a few years now, starting really underground in squats, but after a while it wasn’t safe anymore to do them in squats. We would have trouble with the police and the squats would be torn down. We eventually got bigger and bigger and venues couldn’t ignore us anymore. We started to host legal parties and be able to support our careers. We wanted to be able to allow artists doing underground and fucked up music a way to support themselves. We haven’t changed our ethos either and we still play the same weird, fucked up music that we played at the squats to 50 people, even though now, we are playing it to 1,500 instead!

- So for those who don’t already know, what is Breakcore?

D: It’s a marketing term. It’s a name for a genre that doesn’t really exist, because every artist has their own style. There might be some similarities like it will probably be fast, pretty loud, chaotic and break influenced. So if you need people who like this music to come to a party, you have to create a catchphrase so that people understand and can predict what music might be at this party. But in reality, these artists are open-minded, listen to all genres of music, but the best artists know how to mash-up all these genres of music and create rave of the 21st Century.

- What’s the history of this “subculture” called Breakcore in the UK?

N: I guess it started with the fast-paced old-school 1990’s Jungle scene mixed with Ragga. If you mixed it up with other genres and made it faster and faster, then you have what I think is called Breakcore.

- Would Breakcore exist without the internet?

 D: No way! Breakcore is the bastard-child of the internet and technology and illegal software. Many artists use mp3 samples of pop tunes and other songs and they mostly have been downloaded illegally. There are no rules,. I have stolen so many samples that I don’t even remember where half of them came from.

N: Yeah, I have heard a Breakcore song that was a sample of a sample of another sample!

Ned (Overkill): www.myspace.com/nedoverkill

Droon: www.droon.org

Written By Selph