Kick It Recordings: Exclusive Interview

When they recently dropped their new EP "Bass-Star-Dos", BSD took over the Beatport Breaks charts in a whole new way. Weeks later, they still have no less then 10 tracks from the album still in the Top 100. After ten years of crafting their sound, these guys have really come a long way and are at the forefront of the Broken Beat sound in 2010. We were able to catch up with the masked marauders of music and they were kind enough to answer The Kick It 12, Q&A below.

The Kick It 12 - BSD Edition

1. – At what age did you first find yourself gravitating towards electronic music and who were some of the artists outside of Electronic music that influenced that?
BSD : We started listening to electronic music in the late 80's, we were 16 and 21. We got through it via some indie bands that let themselves be remixed by electronic artists. That was the time when we also listened to Fluke, Meat Beat Manifesto, Lionrock, Renegade Soundwave, Orbital, Underworld, FSOL, …

The bands we're most influenced about out of the electronica could be people like Swans, The Cult, The Charlatans, Stone Roses, Joy División/New Order, Public Enemy, The Beastie Boys, Prince, Dead Can Dance, etc... Though, as a matter of fact, all these bands have been somehow remixed in a dance style.

We have been mainly listening to electronic music, where the real interesting things are happening, since the invasion of the synths in the early 80's.

2. – What was your very first Album? How about CD?
BSD : Until now we hadn't released a whole album of our own. We had collaborated in French Hip-Hop compilations, but little more. Before BSD our main work had been engineering/production for other artists.

“Malditos Bass-Star-Dos!” was created almost a year ago, after seeing that our first singles were succeeding. We were working on tracks until we gathered more than 30 and then started the selection to get the 18 that finally made into the release. We wanted to offer some Breaks variety, because we missed other Breaks styles in the scene. We kinda made it like a tribute. Apart from a wink we've done to Tsunami One & BT’s classic "Hip-Hop Phenomenon", a NuSkool Breaks masterpiece.

3. – How did you first get involved with the Electronic music culture and what was the first event that you attended?
BSD : Our engineering and production works started being published in 1997. Those weren't songs of our own, but from other artists. Our first live performances as DJs were the same year. We played our Big Beat and Trip-Hop records, and our first Breaks and Elektro records. As BSD we've never performed in our country. Firstable, because where we live, people aren't very interested in the kind of music we make, and secondly, because we've had always problems in coming to an economic agreement. That's why our first live appearance was at "Breakspoll Spain 2009", but that was crap. We played music just after some DJs that emptied the dancefloor, for they were playing a music that didn't catch the interest of the people there. We started with 50 people and ended the night with 400 or so. So, when things became hot, was the turn for the next DJ. You see, that was crap. Thank goodness we've been having lots of great moments after that.

5. - Who have you been most proud to play alongside?
BSD : My partner in crime.

6. - Where would you most like to play that you have not yet?
BSD : We're very attracted to USA and Asia. We've never played around there and it's got to be very exciting. A good adventure. We are in conversations these days with an US agency which is interested in us and we may get a deal, we'll know it by next year.

7. - What is your favorite tune you have released?
BSD : Tough question. How can you choose only one son when you have lots, adding that we are 2 and with tastes on their own. Mmmmh, ok, we'll give you 2, one for each of us: You Must Find Strength and Elektro-Life (You and Me).

8. - Who is your favorite EDM artist? How about outside of EDM?
BSD : We're not following electronic bands, but songs or styles. Just think that we come from the 12" culture with its extended versions and remixes. In our lives we have bought very few albums from specific artists.

Out of the dance music, these days we're enjoying bands like Editors, Arcade Fire, Union Of Knives, and similar people. But always selected songs, not albums.

9. - Who are some artists you would like to collaborate with in the future?
BSD : That is something we've never thought about. We're much more interested in making songs to singers we like and try to get them out of their style and get them totally involved into electronic music. That would be very exciting. Imagine Lisa Gerrard (Dead Can Dance) giving her vocals to an Elektro-Breaks track. Yeah! It would be spectacular.

10. - What is your preferred software for producing? Hardware?
BSD : Reason, Fruity Loops, VSTs, ...we use lots of different stuff with no preferences. As for the hardware, we're totally in love with our Virus synth.

11. - What life lessons has the music industry taught you?
BSD : Three, mainly…

1) There's a lot of people that think they know all about the Industry, but they don't even have a fucking clue. More than support you, what they do is try not to let you do well. And some of them even steal from you.

2) As soon as you get more and more popular, you get surrounded by people that didn't give you a damn until then, or even tried to damage your reputation or didn't pay attention when you tried to reach them when you weren't popular..

3) The lack of scruples of so many people...they enjoy your music, use it, earn money with it, and nevertheless, they wouldn't have bought one of our songs ever. There's a lot of fuckers on the loose in this planet!!

As you can see, we're not very positive, but this is what we've been finding on our way over the years. Fortunately, there are also wonderful people in the music industry, without them we'd have quit making music a long time ago.

12. – What does the future hold for BSD?
BSD: The idea is to keep on showing what we're capable of producing in and soon beyond Breaks. What we don't know is what will become of all this. But there we’ll be to see it and so will you.

BSD

BSD : Elektro-Life (You and Me) - Malditos Bass-Star-Dos! (the album) BSDD007 by BASS-STAR-DOS

BSD : You Must Find Strength - Malditos Bass-Star-Dos! (the album) BSDD007 by BASS-STAR-DOS